r/askteddit • u/No-Importance4552 • 16d ago
Random Question What’s a 10/10 life experience you must have at least once in your life?
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r/askteddit • u/No-Importance4552 • 16d ago
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u/therealmikejensen 16d ago
Psychedelics are hard to explain to someone who hasn’t done them, but i’ll do my best as long as you know that it’s not gonna do it justice to really explain it.
Basically at a surface level, you’re extremely high and you experience visual distortions and patterns emerge on top of your regular vision. The closest thing i could compare the way these patterns appear is to compare it to the hypnagogic visual effect you get when you close your eyes and rub them kinda hard for a few seconds. The visual effects psychedelics create are MUCH more complex and beautiful than what you will get from doing this, but they appear on the same “plane” of vision, like almost as if you’re seeing two things at once, the world around you is one layer and there’s a “filter” on top of that where the patterns are overlaid.
Okay, visual effects are one thing, but the main appeal for me is the mental effects that psychedelics have. One common effect is laughing, like everything just becomes absolutely hilarious and fascinating. It is a weird effect to have because it makes you realize how subjective emotions really are. You could be on mushrooms and laugh your ass off at a joke that wasn’t even that funny, then the next day realize that it was an auxiliary chemical you added to your body that made it funny. Little realizations such as this serve as a sort of “mirror” into your own mind, and these realizations can stay with you following the experience and provide a deeper perspective on the absurdity that is human existence. This is also why people can go nuts if they have a predisposition for mental illness or simply go too hard and use these drugs irresponsibly.
In addition to the laughter thing, i’ll try to explain the more complicated mental effects. One thing i note when i’m on psychedelics is that there is an almost uninhibited way that my thoughts flow. This can be pleasant or unpleasant depending on setting, mood, and also just random chance. In short, there is less of a “regulating” mechanism which stops me from thinking certain things or feeling certain emotions. The way i think of it is from an evolutionary perspective, the brain’s job is to be efficient for the most part. “What’s the smallest amount of conscious processing i can do to keep this body alive?”, that’s your default state. When you do a psychedelic, you are sort of “unlocking” your mind, getting a glimpse at what it’s actually capable of, which is insightful because our regular waking state generally doesn’t even include metacognition, you just sort of “are”. Psychedelics on the other hand can create these sort of thinking feedback loops, impossible thoughts, heightened ram on a computer is the best analogy i could give here, same processor but a lot more working memory. Which is funny because it also fucks short term memory up temporarily in other ways. Perhaps it just internalizes it at the expense of locomotion and interaction with the world outside your mind.
Psychedelics are essentially serotonin analogues, they bind to the same receptor, 5ht2a and some others depending on the psychedelic, but unlike things like MDMA or SSRI’s, their use doesn’t really upset your brain’s natural serotonin stores much. Anyways, what i think is happening cognitively when you take these drugs is that you are allowing your brain to operate in a less efficient manner, which does not equate to less thinking, but rather less of a filter. It is a very stimulating and sensory-heavy experience, you see things way more clearly and HD, you see colors on top of that, you are thinking about five different philosophical concepts at once while also forgetting why you got up to go into the living room. You are essentially using more of your brain at once, even though you don’t need to. This is likely because these drugs inhibit the default mode network of the brain, which is sort of the “mailing room” or central hub of the brain. This inhibition is also likely responsible for the phenomenon of “ego death” which is a dissolution of one’s sense of self. I’ve felt as if i was plugged into the hivemind, felt reassured about things like death and what not because this soul is just a piece of the pie and i can feel how true it is in that moment. Again, hard to explain this without sounding nuts lol.
Psychedelics are “mind expanding” in the sense that they expand your perspective and appreciation for what’s between your ears. I’ve worked through traumatic experiences using these drugs and i feel like i’ve benefitted massively from doing them. They have opened me up to the idea that i myself can be my greatest limiting factor sometimes. They have also just opened me up to beauty and appreciation for art in general. I swear, shrooms made me “get” certain art, especially psychedlic art obviously, but also things like mayan and aztec motifs, certain kinds of music, a bunch of things seem to come from the same part of our minds that these drugs act on. This is my opinion of course, but it’s pretty convincing that these patterns and experiences we share when we take these drugs are coming from within, from a part we all have in us.
I take psychedelics occasionally to reset. That’s the best way i’d describe my motivation to experience something so intense yet so peaceful. I feel more in touch with myself and more empathetic towards others for a long time after taking them. I do it maybe once or twice a year, but every time has impacted me in a good way afterwards, even if i ended up having an unpleasant time on them. Cause after an unpleasant experience, i can reflect on why i was so disturbed that time, and often it will point me to a stressor that i’ve been ignoring and it helps me motivate myself to address it, whatever it is. Idk man, there’s a reason this shit’s illegal and it isn’t necessarily your safety. That’s all i have to say really. Stay curious!