undefined | Better HN

0 pointssaiya-jin4y ago0 comments

For me the (rather strong) trips from mushrooms showed me how some part of the brain (not sure which one though) is very good at interpolating bits and pieces of reality when there is no longer strong coming in via our senses. Its a blurry picture of reality, but the blur isn't the loss of detail but rather its fractalization (which in the end is the opposite of it).

The harder the trip the less real-world signal and more brains's interpolation. We all have highly unique brains so although the principles are the same (fractals in visual and in mind, strange colors, mixing senses etc.) we all have such a unique take on it.

And since the same brain is just guessing and smoothing input, and the one processing the guesses, its guesses are so 'self-compatible' that it can literally make its own feedback loops (I had it multiple times, when tripping with closed eyes I began wandering further and further away on a very consistent interconnected trip).

Its so strange. I can remember those trips so well, but the 'enhanced' version of it is simply too vast for my normal brain to grok. Just partial projections like 3d into 2d that don't give full picture or don't make much sense.

0 comments

SamoyedFurFluff4y ago

The nature of brains is largely a prediciting machine. Most of our sight is actually predicted, not interpreted, especially anywhere we deem familiar.

LocalH4y ago

Indeed. Not only that, but our brain lies to us with regards to temporal placement of objects. Hence the old thing where when you first look at a ticking clock, the first second feels like it takes longer to lapse, because your brain filled in part of your vision with where it thought the second hand was, because when you shifted your focus towards the second hand, your eyes performed a microsaccade and thus in that precise moment, you were technically blind. This is why I think the effects of psychedelics have such a strong temporal factor.

randomopining4y ago

It def feels like a raw vs jpeg. The straight sensor data vs a compressed and corrected view.

Problem is, you can get caught on certain intricacies of the raw input instead of just taking it all in at once. Taking it all in at once you can see how it's different than what you preconceived, and that your preconception is just one of infinite perceptions of the single moment.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse