Hi,

I'm a new member here but I've been lurking on and off for the past few months here and on other sites. I am relatively new to psychedelics. I've had about 50 experiences with a diverse set of them and, these experiences have certainly changed aspects of how I perceive reality to the point where I no longer think that psychedelic insights are a fruitful topic of discussion.

But I would be interested in some discussion on the more pedestrian things that happen when you take a psychedelic. Here are things I've noticed for myself:

Improved sense of sound

This effect is most noticeable when I take Ayahuasca in any noticeable amount. Every sound around me is magnified. I hear as "part of the environment" what would normally take all of my concentration to pay attention to. Some sounds, I cannot even hear from the other room no matter how hard I concentrate, but when I take Ayahuasca I can hear them from other room and if I actually go into the room in a normal state they are there.

Improved field of vision

The effect is most pronounced and long-lasting with LSD but I also experience it with Ayahuasca, DOB and LSA. Of course, my field of vision is always what it is, but the difference is that when it's improved, I can look you in the face as you speak and the movements that your hands make at waist-level still register in my conscious awareness. I am also more aware of moving objects on the outskirts of my vision.

Improved color contrast

I can really see the redness on the skin of drunk people. All the little cracks on the brick wall stand out to me. Variation in light intensity becomes apparent and I readily notice things like how every room in a building at night is slightly differently lighted. Only happens on LSD and shrooms.

Better sense of body and touch

If I'm in the shower, I can feel every little stream of water poking my back. I can feel that it is not a uniform temperature stream but that some of them are hotter and some of them are colder and I actually find that somewhat bothersome. At some point during every trip, it becomes apparent to me how poor my posture normally is and I immediately stand straighter. It's like I just instantly got years of training in the Alexander technique. I also have much better muscle control. As an example, I purify my Aya so I never have to purge, but I do it anyway simply by kind of focusing.

Improved hand-eye co-ordination

I find it much easier to catch objects. I wonder what makes me so inept at it normally. I become comparatively beastly at most video games, especially shooters. I am better at estimating distance/speed and I get a much better sense of whether I can cross a street before a car makes it to the intersection or not. This also happens with all of the psychedelics.

Shivering

This is exclusively with Ayahuasca. I shiver a lot during parts of my Aya trips. It's almost uncontrollable and it doesn't seem to have much to do with the temperature of my surroundings or with the amount taken.

Cramps

Exclusively with LSD. I never fail to have a foot cramp during my afterglow. It's never too bad, especially with the increased muscle control which I use to relax the my foot. It's strange, but it happens.

Pupil dilation

Herp derp... right? Well, it mostly follows a typical pattern of pupils becoming large as saucers with every psychedelic. Except Ayahuasca. For some reason, with Ayahuasca they remain the same or even slightly constrict. Never do they dilate for any part of the trip.


So yeah, this is what I've come up with so far. I'd be interested in finding out if everyone else has these same experiences. If there are other consistent, but somewhat mundane aspects of psychedelics that somebody has bothered to note.

I find this to be completely opposite in my case

I get that enhanced body awareness from weed. If I close my eyes, I can almost visualize something like a map of my body. Also, I can move energy waves up and down the spine much more easily.

For DMT, I'd include the sense of entire body vibrating (without it actually happening).

The changes/enhancements of the sensory modalities mentioned by the OP are, IMO, some of the most concrete and reproducible features of the psychedelic experience, which I find far from mundane.Its these aspects which will lead (and are leading) to advancements in understanding brain function as these are less tricky to evaluate/learn from than the psychological aspects.At least at the present time.

Yes I agree. My uncle was on acid years ago and he was waiting on a train, then he realised the train was just leaving so he started sprinting to catch his train running along the platform then just at the last minute he had to jump out of the way and fell of the platform down the embankment, the train wasn't leaving it was just arriving, nearly killed himself lol

I'll sometimes take 100-200ug of acid while tattooing (always with full disclosure to my clients of course). At this dose I don't lose my work ethic. There is some subtle time dilation- I feel more of a sense of temporal space around my project, if that makes any sense. The urgency goes away. I'll visualize the finished piece, then experience the sequence taken to arrive there. My overview of the whole piece is much clearer, with better consideration of the large scale concerns of the composition. Immersion into the mental structure of the project is more complete than usual.

A more tangible thing is that my tactile part of the experience is amplified; the individual strikes of the needle are more clearly defined, and I can readily sense how each strike of the needle is affected by how tightly my stretching hand is holding the skin as I tighten and relax the stretch. I can still sense this stuff while sober, but at a more mundane level.

hello Guy,
do you think it makes the outcome of the tattoo session better, or does it just feel like it while you are working?

I've had great results from all these sessions. I choose the projects carefully- they tend to be already half finished and healed from a previous session, and are generally of the abstract/free form bent that I specialize in. I do feel that after coming down and looking at the piece it's got an extra little something that I may not have achieved otherwise. Tattooing is second nature to me after 24 years, so I don't feel that I'm risking losing my basic technical abilities. I always get smooth healing from these sessions. I'm very results-oriented, and if I felt I was compromising my outcome by taking L, I just wouldn't do it.

I don't have time to search it now, but there is a recent post from me in the Psychedelic Ink thread in Hyperspace Tavern of a fractal spiral. This was one of my best ever LSD tattoo sessions. I may eventually put together a thread of work that I've done under the influence.

cheers Guy.

i would certainly like to see that thread

I don't know how "mundane" this is considered to be, but it's an aspect of the experience I like: Sometimes the heightened energy in the room from DMT will aid me in some physical actions. I'll give an example.

A couple months ago I finally got around to trying DMT in the bath for the first time. Anyway to cut a long story short, at the end of the experience, when I wanted to stand up, I was expecting it to be such a struggle (as I was feeling a bit weak and tired from the experience), so as I mentally braced myself to arduously hoist myself up, all of a sudden the energy just gathers around me and swiftly lifts me straight up as if a bunch of invisible hands were helping me to my feet. It was just so effortless with the aid of the energy.

A very light threshold dose of mushies and exercise is great, just enough to energize a bit, butterflies in the stomach, a bit of increased visual acuity and a sense of being one with the moment.

SWIM has at various times bicycled, skied and hiked, all with great joy.

It just dawned on me for sure, you have tattooed me twice, back in 93 and 94. And reading this post just answered a question I had for years, "How does he DO this???" I totally get it now

It's really remarkable for you to say that. I straighten my posture a lot during most of my mushroom trips, and I have never seen this come up in a discussion before.

What's most typical for me during a mushroom trip is that my priorities in life immediately become crystal-clear. All the things I might not be handling in the best way I could, or all the bad habits I should leave behind become very apparent. It expands my emotions in such a way that I feel really in touch with what is or should be important in my life, or with the things I have ignored for far too long.

All of these are a constant for me every time I ingest tryptamines. They are easier to notice in the come-up and in the early afterglow of the experience.

The remarkable bit in my case has to do with Essential Tremor. I've suffered from it, thankfully in a mild form, since I was a kid. That means in certain situations, specially under stress, social anxiety episodes or after heavy physical work, I often feel a trembling instability in shoulders, neck and (the most visible symptom) visible hand shaking that seems to amplify itself with attention focused in the tremor, in some sort of annoying visual-neural feedback.

Before I tried any psychedelics, I realized that some substances decreased ET (alcohol) while others increased it (caffeine, THC) but the first time I tried mushrooms the effects were astounding. Within 20 minutes after ingestion, every single trace of tremor disappeared. I was firm like a rock, and in absolute control no matter what I did. At least, as long as the trip level melted reality and made proprioception a joke, of course. But since, every time I take tryptamines my reflexes are quicker and my hand is steady as a neurosurgeons. Also with sub-breakthrough DMT.

id have to say when i have taken ayahuasca..my pupils get HUGE...like bigger than on anything else..as in..my eyes turn black..absolutely no color at all...

lots of my friends remark on it because it creeps them

this happens to me. my iris will be a thin line (similar to the thin black line around the color of the iris) around my pupils. and if i get really really stoned (on lsa or psilocybin etc) the entire white of my eyes turn blood red.

it can actually look quite demonic. can make looking in the mirror even MORE bizarre then it already is

Haha! I can kind of relate to the OP. I was trying to cross a 4 lame street on LSD a few months ago and as overwhelming the traffic seemed when busy, it was also overwhelmingly apparent when the street was empty- it was the like the street turned into a western style ghost town with tumbleweed etc...

I made it across!

Jorkest

I have also seen my pupils fully dilate until there was no colour left in my eyes, its extremely strange... people commented that I looked like a wild bush baby...


Much Peace and Kindness