I'd like to bring this topic back up, but with a question. Why is HPPD a bad thing? Why is it that when you are able to unlock psychedelic experiences without a drug it is labeled as a disorder and struck with fear? I don't get it... Wouldn't HPPD be a good thing? Sorry, maybe I am just not understanding what it is, but if HPPD is psychedelic like experiences that persist after the use of the drug itself then we probably ALL get that. In fact, you probably got it BEFORE you did the psychedelics but you just weren't aware of it. Now that you are aware of it, and you have this instilled fear of drugs your first and more profound reaction is to think something is broken! Where, in fact, something is fixed. I guess it's how you look at it. I see psychedelic like things all the time while sober, if I close my eyes and listen to music I can see all sorts of shapes and geometry that I assume was always there, but only after the realizations I came to during dmt sessions did I realize it was there, and now I can see it even while not tripping. Is that a bad thing? Did I fuck up my head? NO! Would a doctor say I did permanent brain damage to myself? Probably so. You know what I think about external judgments on internal things? Nothing.

You have a choice, a single choice. Choose to believe you fried your brain and live in a reality of fear and conformity or choose to believe you unlocked a part of your brain that was always there and live in a reality of love and understanding.

I just found out I've been "suffering" from hppd for nearly 15 years.is it a bad thing? Not at all. I tend to agree with Deatth&Decay on this one, my sensory input has been merely unlocked. I can see what's always been there.

I've had these visions also. It usually involves sleep (or a lack thereof). When I'm waking up or going to sleep is usually when it happens. I recently had one about a week or two ago... I woke up and above my closet door there was what looked like a "DNA double helix". It was pulsating and intertwining in and out, it was also changing colors... this lasted for around 3-4 seconds and it was slightly fuzzy but it was DEFINITELY there.

I also have flashes, or flashbacks of trips, or what feels like the beginning of a trip but it then turns into nothing. Don't know what it is but I'm not worried at all... and it doesn't happen that frequent anyway. I just chalk it up as an overactive mind, sleep deprivation, and the "dream world" spilling over into reality for a few seconds.

no one said it was a bad thing but the D in HPPD stands for disorder (Hallucinogen Percisting Perceptual Disorder), so if you don't like it call it something else. But isn't a rose by any other name still just a rose? Either you have it or you don't and you like it or you don't. I don't think 'disorder' is necessarily a negative term. It just means in this sense that you did something to alter your brain chemistry so now it behaves differently so its not in the regular "order" that it used to be before you did psychedelic drugs. For me its more of just an annoyance because I can't see as well in the dark because all the staticy visuals make things hard to decipher. I don't get anything from it because its only a fractured fraction of the actual psychedelic experience and not the experience itself. Everyone sees things when they close their eyes, its just a matter of degree that's all. Who knows though maybe I can learn to use it to gain jedi powers and harness the force .

I've also had the "brow" sensations that a few responses on this thread mention, while on and while off substances. As of late they've been rather more frequent, and I've been on a comparatively long break from any regular use of anything, my usual usage being high quantities of bud.

While I have also heard the relation of this to the third-eye chakra, I was hoping that I'd be able to find some sort of physiological explanation that would parallel this, such as a concentration of certain neuro-transmitters in certain areas of the brain.

And as far as the OP's vision of a hand behind a sort of membrane before sleep, it almost sounds like the dmt misses the user, and is trying to reach through the "bubble" that is usually described in breakthroughs? Just thought I'd add that. But I honestly wish I could get those types of visions while sober, I remember as a kid I could induce sorts of visions by applying light pressure on my eyes, and sort of makes shapes and forms out of colorful neon-waves with enough concentration. It's funny how I'm now at the age of 24 trying to reclaim the power of imagination I had as a child..

its a visual phenomenon to an Artist

it no doubt can keep one from concentrating on reality and the moment , it seems thought and this visual phenomenon is related , no thoughts = no hppd = observing reality correctly , once this visual phenomenon is observed by the psychonaut in his everyday reality he should look straight at this visual phenomenon in great detail and with concentration and it shall naturally vanish before his eyes ,

look through the glass
look through hppd
look through correctly to observe reality


....... the cure
merry christmas ppl ,

i take a lot of acid.
see weird stuff every now and then. i wouldnt worry about it too much unless it is causing you harm or seriously concerning you.

lay off the drugs if you dont like it i guess?
weed can exacerbate HPPD afaik