Ever since I started drinking Syrian Rue tea, or Ayahuasca made from Syrian Rue and Acacia confusa, I have this thing that happens to me when I am closing my eyes at night, in the dark.

This effect is/was most pronounced when the rue brew would be in my system, but it would happen to me even when it wasn't, weeks, even months after I had drunk any. Drinking more brings it back.

What is it? Well, I close my eyes and I see people's faces. Most of them are of people I don't recognize. I'd say about 90% of them are women when I have drunk the brew, and 66% of them are women when I have not drunk the brew. I see their faces usually, but sometimes just their eyes.

One face at a time. One appears in my mind's eye, and then goes away, only to be replaced by another. Sometimes it is in very rapid succession, like one every 10 seconds, but sometimes one stays for a few minutes. This often happens with someone I actually know personally.

Here's the thing: The faces are extremely particular. The nose curvature, eyebrows, eye color, all the features are particular, like I could not have made them up. They've got to be real people, either people I have seen before in passing, or perhaps not. Either way, they all have distinct personality-presences. These aren't some spirits--they are very much human beings. Occasionally one face will come up and I will see that person the next day. That hasn't happened in a while, though.

Does anybody else get this? I must have "met" hundreds upon hundreds of people, just by closing my eyes at night in the darkness.

Interesting.. I can't say I've experienced this myself, but what you describe is also very commonly reported by people undergoing an iboga flood, particularly early on in the experience...a rapid succession of human faces, coming up close to you, all very detailed and realistic, some of whom you know, some of whom you don't. This is interesting as I do think there is some degree of similarity between iboga and the beta-carboline containing plants in terms of headspace. Will be interesting to hear if other people have experienced this post rue (has been quite a while for me now but future sessions are planned).

Yes, Bancopuma, very good point. I thought of this, too, the similarities with Iboga.

Only, for me personally, the main difference in the faces is that, on Rue, they are of other people, and on Iboga, they are of myself. In the same dark space behind my eyelids, on Iboga, I see my own eyes, or my own face, as a child, as a teenager, etc. The many "me"s throughout my life.

It's as if Rue helps me see myself in others, and Iboga helps me see myself as myself.

Look up Charles Bonnet syndrome - not exactly what you're describing, but possibly related.

Could be some kind of highly-specific form of HPPD.

Blessings
~ND

Looked up Charles Bonnet syndrome. Definitely not related.

I think calling it HPPD doesn't clarify anything about it. It's kind of cool, too.

But while we're conjecturing on why it is happening, it might have to do with all the Salvia I've used over the years. Perhaps it's sort of "opened up" my kappa-opioid receptors (a la reverse tolerance), and the combination of that with the harmalas makes it even more Iboga-like. In fact, I would often get distinct "personality-presences" on Salvia, but they would usually manifest in the form of voices (not audible, but felt) rather than visual faces.

I suggested Bonnet's Syndrome because one of the most common types is of hallucinated faces in the absence of external visual stimuli (Oliver Sacks talks about it here). You're obviously not blind, but when you close your eyes, you're decreasing visual input, which seems to trigger these faces, no? I wonder if you went blind, would the faces continue.

Whatever the mechanism by which CB Syndrome occurs may be at work here.

I kind of doubt it's realted to activity at KORs - I've never heard of this kind of thing in saliva users, and as far as I know, the KOR doesn't play any particularly specific role in facial processing. If you had done some kind of global change to KOR function, you'd probably see a wider-spectrum of symptoms.

Blessings
~ND

I had those faces coming up to me on high dose of syrian rue manske harmalas.
It didn't carry on afterwards with me.

A very similar thing used to happen to me as a kid. I describe it here:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...m=701341&#post701341