Chapter 02: The Value of Psychedelic Information

A text called Psychedelic Information Theory raises the question, “What is Psychedelic Information, and why should we care?” Generally, psychedelic information is any information created in the mind of the subject during a psychedelic experience. Psychedelic information is generated spontaneously in reaction to the psychedelic catalyst; typically the subject has little or no control over the information generated in a psychedelic experience. Psychedelic information is almost always previously unknown to the subject and may appear to originate from an external source or materialize out of thin air. Psychedelic information typically takes the form of visual, audio, and sensory hallucination, but can also be abstract or gestalt like an emotional epiphany. Finally, psychedelic information applies to any art or concept that originates from or evokes psychedelic experience.

This text focuses primarily on the physiological process underlying the spontaneous generation of psychedelic information, and how that information influences both personal and cultural identity. The fact that psychedelic information makes its way into popular culture is proof that humans find psychedelic information valuable, but it is still ambiguous if psychedelics add any real value to culture. Research has shown that spiders are affected by psychedelics,1 as are rats,2 cats,3 monkeys,4 and so on. However, there is little evidence that information other than noise is generated during psychedelic episodes in animals; the experience does not mean anything beyond a specific derangement of the senses. In contrast, the human adaptation to translate subjective experience into meaningful narrative is uniquely exploited by psychedelics. Psychedelics target perception, memory, and the complex emotions attached to symbols and concepts; the core functions humans rely on to formulate belief. Because of this exploit, the result of the psychedelic catalyst in humans is the spontaneous generation of meaningful information which is imprinted into memory.

Any perceptual system can have a psychedelic experience,5 but it takes abstract thinking and the interconnection between symbols, concepts, and emotions to make psychedelic information meaningful. Thus, the psychedelic experience does not create information in all systems of consciousness; the psychedelic experience only generates meaningful information in systems of consciousness with the capacity for abstract reasoning via symbolic logic and emotional attachment. Presumably any conscious system which emulates the functions of human abstract reasoning will also similarly generate meaningful information during a psychedelic experience.

The Value of Information

Within the set of information valuable to humans there are domains of descending importance. First there is information valuable to all organisms (biological information), then there is information valuable to all humans (species information), then there is information valuable only to a specific local group of humans (cultural information), and then there is information valuable only to a single human (personal information). All biological information and the most important bits of species information are genetic and are preserved through natural selection. Within the domain of human species importance there is also technological information (such as fire, tools, language, music, agriculture, science, etc.) which are culturally agnostic and serve the needs of the entire species equally. Technological information of species-level importance is equated with high value and will be adopted by all cultures over a short period. Species-level information has high durability and changes very slowly over time.

Cultural information falls in the category of language-based memes and regional or tribal traditions. Cultural information may be shared across cultures or may be restricted to a specific region or subculture. Cultural information is considered to be of medium value, low durability, and changes rapidly over time as the memes and traditions of culture change. Religion and artwork are examples of cultural information that typically only have value to their culture of origin, but occasionally ascend to species-level importance. Finally there is personal information, which is valuable only to a single individual. Personal information changes rapidly, is subject to experience and whim, and is only useful over the lifetime of the organism. Personal information has very low durability and low overall value.

The Value of Psychedelic Information

Psychedelic information is generated within the domain of the personal; yet many people who take psychedelics perceive the information as having species-level importance. There are a few reasons for this phenomena. The first, and easiest, is that psychedelics create states of mania and delusions of grandeur in which the subject feels that he or she is the most brilliant person on the planet, or that they are receiving supernatural prophecy. Secondly, the subject may experience archetypal visions or sensations of transcendence that are perceived to be of high religious or mystical importance. Thirdly, the subject may experience a deconstruction of consciousness associated with animal consciousness, reptilian consciousness, plant consciousness, the Gaian mind, genetic-level intelligence, or deep species memory; information perceived to be of value to all humans or all living creatures. Because psychedelics produce all of these experiences they are routinely perceived as having species-level importance.

Psychedelics are obviously useful in the domain of the personal; shamanism and psychedelic therapy rely on the information function of psychedelics to diagnose and heal. In the cultural domain psychedelics can be employed in ritual to build strong religious or tribal groups; they can be used in healing or sorcery; or they can be a catalyst for innovation and creative expression. Beyond this their value is ambiguous. There are some debates to be made in this area, such as pointing out that Francis Crick envisioned the spiral structure of DNA after he ingested LSD,6 or that LSD helped Kary Mullis think up the PCR process that earned him a Nobel Prize in genetics.7,8 To counter these arguments, both Crick and Mullis had been studying molecular biology for years trying to crack those very problems; LSD cannot take credit for anything more than helping Crick and Mullis organize their thoughts in a new way. We can point to great discoveries as examples of psychedelic information, but only a tiny fraction of all psychedelic information can claim this level of importance. Worse than this, erroneous psychedelic information claiming species-level importance has negative cultural value and dilutes the overall information marketplace, making psychedelic information almost statistically worthless.9

Probability dictates that most psychedelic information will have little or moderate value, and that the rare piece of psychedelic information will have extreme negative or positive value. It also follows that the more times a subject takes psychedelics the more likely it is they will generate information of high positive or negative value. Similarly, the more often a subject takes psychedelics the more likely they are to latch onto and subsequently reinforce information of high perceived value, either positive or negative. In this case the psychedelic becomes an information imprinting tool. In psychedelic imprinting the information is always subjectively perceived to be of high value, even if it is of low or even negative cultural value.10

Negative and Positive Information Value

It is easy to demonstrate that psychedelic information has value; cultures that use psychedelics as sacraments place high value on the information they receive; people will trade hard-earned cash for a psychedelic experience. But because the quality of psychedelic information has such a wide range it is easy to perceive psychedelics as having no value or, in the argument of prohibition, negative value. Psychedelic information with negative value can be described as that which is delusional, paranoid, false, or subverts the health of the individual or culture. Negative psychedelic experiences, or bummers, are a commonly reported element of psychedelic experimentation, but this does not necessarily make bummers negative. Some users claim that negative experiences have value because they provide emotional insight; others report that negative psychedelic experiences cause permanent psychological damage, which is extremely negative. In rare cases people act out and harm themselves or commit suicide on psychedelics. Obviously these are extreme examples of negative value, and these extreme examples are usually linked to mixing drugs, drug binging, or overdosing. There is an optimal dose range for any psychedelic substance; reports of negative effects increase once the optimal dose range is surpassed.11

Conversely, there is a range of psychedelic experience that is just as extreme but positive in value; the spiritual or therapeutic or entheogenic experience that adds value to the user and their culture. Having an extremely positive psychedelic experience does not happen by accident; there is nuance involved in selecting the proper dose, finding the right setting, and so on. By contrast, having a negative psychedelic experience is almost always an accident due to improper dose or setting. Therefore, the positive value of a psychedelic experience can be predicted and controlled up to a certain dose range, but beyond that the potential positive value drops and potential negative value increases.

Shamanism, which for the purposes of this text is defined as the practice of using psychedelics in ritual, employs specialized techniques to guide psychedelic information along desired pathways. Influencing and imprinting psychedelic information along positive pathways is perceived as spiritual, enlightening, and therapeutic; influencing or imprinting psychedelic information along negative pathways is perceived as mind control, black magic, or sorcery. Although the value of psychedelic information generated in any single episode is ambiguous, the practice of shamanism is a durable technology with species-wide application. Thus, shamanism is a technological subset of psychedelic information with high value to the entire species, even though the practice of shamanism can be employed to both positive or negative effect.

Notes and References

1. Christiansen A, Baum R, Witt P, “Changes In Spider Webs Brought About By Mescaline, Psilocybin And An Increase In Body Weight”. JPET April 1962 vol.136 no.1 31-37.

2. Butters, Nelson, “The effect of LSD-25 on spatial and stimulus perseverative tendencies in rats”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 8, Number 6 / November, 1966

3. Trulson M, Howell G, “Ontogeny of the behavioral effects of lysergic acid diethylamide in cats”. Developmental Psychobiology Volume 17 Issue 4, Pages 329 - 346

4. Jarvik M, Chorover S, “Impairment by lysergic acid diethylamide of accuracy in performance of a delayed alternation test in monkeys”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 1, Number 3 / May, 1960.

5. See Chapter 04, "What is Consciousness?".

6. Rees, Alun, “Nobel Prize genius Crick was high on LSD when he discovered the secret of life”. Mail on Sunday, 8 August 2004.

7. Mullis, Kary, “Dancing Naked in the Mind Field”. Vintage, NY, 2000.

8. Rabinow, Paul, “Making PCR: a story of biotechnology”. University of Chicago Press, 1996.

9. The psychedelic community produces a new guru every decade or so, and the cultural contributions of these gurus trends from pseudo-scientific to outright fantastical. It is often difficult to tell if the contributions of psychedelic celebrities outweigh the more nonsensical memes they propagate.

10. Psychedelic imprinting can take many forms, and in some cases negative information can be imprinted into identity. Brainwashing is the act of imprinting another person against their will, which is viewed as negative. Self-brainwashing is the act of imprinting yourself with negative information either by choice or error. In self-brainwashing negative information typically assumes explicit paranoid or messianic themes. Extreme cases of psychedelic self-brainwashing will mimic elements of psychosis and persistent delusional disorder. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”.

11. Hasler F, Grimberg U, Benz M, Huber T, Vollenweider F, “Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-effect study”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 172, Number 2 / March, 2004.

Chapter 03: Psychedelic Information Theory

Like dreams, psychedelics are catalysts for generating information in the human imagination. There are many theories about the origin of this information: the subconscious; repressed emotions; the collective unconscious; genetic memory; spirit entities; alien transmission; junk data from neural excitation; and so on. Regardless of the origin it is widely accepted that psychedelics do generate information, and not merely junk data of questionable value. Psychedelics excel at producing salient information which can have a profound impact on the beliefs and identity of the subject.

The information generated by psychedelics is usually personal, but it can become transpersonal as psychedelic insights are shared with friends and the public. The rate of psychedelic information flow can be measured by the amount of explicit influence psychedelics have over any given culture, and the rate of flow is different for every culture. Some cultures repress anything resembling psychedelic information while others make it central to their spirituality.1 Since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, psychedelic information flow has erupted into Western culture at an unprecedented rate. This rate of modern psychedelic information flow has had its ups and downs, but overall has remained relatively constant even in the face of global prohibition.2  

The pathway of psychedelic information flow is simple and universally the same: 1) ingestion; 2) internal transmission; 3) internal integration; 4) cultural transmission; 5) cultural integration. Most psychedelic research focuses solely on internal transmission, the second stage of the psychedelic information process which is commonly called the trip. While the trip is certainly interesting it is still only one part of the larger overall process by which psychedelics influence both the individual and culture. Each part of this information process has its own patterns and predictable stages, and different portions of this text will attempt to illuminate one or more of these stages in the service of providing an overall understanding of how psychedelics impact culture. Below is a capsule summary of each stage in the psychedelic information process.

Ingestion

While it is difficult to define why people choose to take psychedelics, each society has its own rules which dictate who is allowed to ingest a psychedelic drug and in what context. In traditional settings ingestion is a spiritual exercise used to gain supernatural wisdom, and dosage is controlled ritually by the shaman. In modern Western culture the traditional rules have broken down and psychedelic ingestion has become complex and somewhat haphazard. In a modern context most people are introduced to psychedelics in mundane recreational circumstances, motivated by hedonism, curiosity, boredom, peer pressure, or rebellion. Sometimes an innate hunger for the mysterious drives ingestion. Typically the psychedelic user is seeking something, however vague that notion.

Internal Transmission

Internal transmission is where the psychedelic interacts with the neural network and new information is generated. Information in the psychedelic state is generated spontaneously within visual and audio hallucination; ideas which pop into the subject’s imagination; novel juxtapositions of previous concepts;  and removed perspectives that allow for new holistic analysis. This information can be literal or figurative; it can be abstract; it can come in words or phrases; it can be spoken or sung; it can be visual; it can emerge as epiphanies or brilliant ideas; it can be a recalled memory; it can be delivered by spirit entities in strange languages; and so on. The information density in a psychedelic session is layered, saturated, and colorfully detailed. Much of the information in a psychedelic hallucination may be accurately described as kaleidoscopic noise, but within this noise comes a wealth of salient content.4 

In physical terms psychedelics create new information via spontaneous activation and organization of sensory and perceptual networks. Psychedelic information is experienced via direct neural firing and is transferred to memory via the creation and strengthening of synaptic connections in the neural network.5 Psychedelic information generation takes energy, and the information processing capacities of the human brain are finite, and thus there is an upper limit to the amount of information that can be generated within a single psychedelic session before the brain begins to down-regulate in an attempt to return to baseline.6

Internal Integration

For many reasons there is loss of fidelity in the transmission of hallucinatory information from imagination into memory. Like a dream, memories of the psychedelic session must be compressed into manageable snippets that stand out within the larger wash of information. Although psychedelic hallucinations fade quickly they can have lasting emotional impact. How each person deals with the content of each experience is unique to their world view. Some people may choose to ignore content derived from the psychedelic experience; others may cherish anything they can remember and will scrutinize each vision in pursuit of higher metaphysical truth. During this process the information generated during the psychedelic trip is encoded into personal memory by forging and testing new synaptic pathways.

During post-psychedelic integration the subject may begin to re-assess and modify personal beliefs and behaviors. Cryptic and intense visions may be recalled over and over, or the subject may dwell obsessively on novel feelings experienced during their trip. The subject will typically review their psychedelic trip and create a lasting narrative of the journey, including what they experienced and what they learned. Integration is where the subject decides what happened in the experience. The content of the hallucination is not as important as the process by which the subject takes that content and shapes it into lasting memories, beliefs, and behaviors; this is the process of encoding psychedelic information into synaptic networks. Content generation without behavioral integration is essentially meaningless, so the true testament of psychedelic power is not the ability to produce visions, but the ability to imprint new information and transform belief.

Cultural Transmission

Psychedelic visions do not stay in the head; if they did there would be no psychedelic art, no psychedelic music, no psychedelic spirituality, and no psychedelic revolution. Psychedelics activate a process in which the realm of the psychological spills out into the realm of the physical. It is clear from 20th century history that psychedelics can fuel artistic expression, social experimentation, religious movements, and political activism. There is no other class of drugs which can claim to have such powerful cultural sway.7 If psychedelics only produced hallucinations there would still be legitimate cause for fascination, but psychedelics also influence cultural movements, which makes them a global religious and political force to be reckoned with.

The ritual bonding of social groups though cultural transmission of psychedelic information is a subject that has been overlooked in almost all psychedelic research. Not only do psychedelics produce change at the individual level, they also produce changes at the group or tribal level, and thus they influence change in the social structures and goals of human culture. The spread of psychedelic information can be subtle or explicit, starting with the creation of art influenced by the psychedelic experience and culminating in the indoctrination of others into the psychedelic tribe through ritual sharing of the sacrament. Once a subject has been indoctrinated they too will spontaneously generate psychedelic information and begin sharing that information with others. This information process cascades from person to person until the cultural transmission of psychedelic memes reaches a tipping point and becomes openly adopted and even celebrated by the cultural mainstream.

Cultural Integration

By conservative estimates perhaps 10-15% of the population has ever tried a hallucinogen.8 Despite such low levels of exposure the archetypes of psychedelic experience are well integrated into modern culture. Psychedelic subcultures (urban tribes) are active in every city on the planet. Annual psychedelic festivals, raves, and massives draw tens of thousands of people together from all continents.9 Psychedelic influences appear constantly in modern fashion, music, visual arts, film, television, consumer products, marketing, packaging, advertising, videogames, and so on. Despite years of prohibition the promise of psychedelic spirituality and psychedelic therapy is still fresh in the public imagination.10 The global cultural integration of psychedelic information may not be  complete, but it is measurably on its way.

It has only been 50 years since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, and the speed with which psychedelics have influenced global culture is impressive. Over the decades the use of psychedelics has jumped generations, and each new generation rediscovers and repurposes the psychedelic ritual for its own needs. There are religious and political forces actively seeking to control or stop the use of psychedelics, but if current trends continue the complete cultural integration of psychedelic information seems inevitable. There may soon come a time when the global majority is in the psychedelic tribe, with the uninitiated minority self-excluded from the ritual. When psychedelic indoctrination reaches a majority of any population then that culture can be described as being saturated with psychedelic information. A culture that has become saturated with psychedelic information will naturally recognize psychedelic ritual as a legitimate rite of passage or spiritual practice.11

Psychedelic Information Process

The psychedelic information process is an observable phenomenon that has influenced cultures throughout history and is now affecting modern global culture. At the center of this information process is the pharmacological action of a small number of molecules hitting a tiny subset of neural receptors for a relatively short duration of time. The ongoing information process generated by this small pharmacological interaction goes far beyond the normal range of what we expect drugs to accomplish. Because psychedelics defy pharmacological rationality they are misunderstood, feared, and revered as spiritual in origin. This misunderstanding drives the psychedelic information process into divergent streams of theory and mythology, creating the tapestry of psychedelic propaganda, confusion, and disinformation we have today.

The divergence of psychedelic information and existence of competing schools of psychedelic ideology demonstrates there is no one objective and true psychedelic ideology; any ideology can be influenced and amplified by the psychedelic information process. The psychedelic information process is neutral and ideology non-specific; it applies equally to learning, creativity, mind-control, brainwashing, mysticism, sorcery, and healing. The psychedelic process and psychedelic archetypes can be co-opted by any religious or political group for personal power gain, and psychedelics can be used as weapons as easily as they can be used as medicines or sacraments.12 The only constant between all divergent schools of psychedelic ideology is the physical process that stimulates the flow of novel information through human neural networks. The study of this information process is known as Psychedelic Information Theory.  

Notes and References

1. Psychedelic information flow within any culture is a function of religion and politics. Traditional shamanic cultures value psychedelic information as a ritual form of bonding, healing, and discovery, and encourage psychedelic information flow. Industrialized cultures with centralized beliefs view psychedelic information as subversive and anti-authoritarian, and repress psychedelic experimentation out of fear of losing centralized control.

2. A close scrutiny of late 20th century history indicates that there was a small decline in psychedelic interest in the late 1970s and 1980s, followed by a global resurgence of underground psychedelic interest in the 1990s, and a complete return to psychedelic research at the turn of the 21st century. Prohibition may slow the flow of psychedelic information, but it does not stop it.

4. The content of psychedelic hallucinations has been described vividly in many places. See “Tripping” by Charles Hayes, or the Erowid.org Experience Vaults for hundreds of fascinating first person accounts.

5. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”.

6. Gresch PJ, Smith RL, Barrett RJ, Sanders-Bush E., “Behavioral tolerance to lysergic acid diethylamide is associated with reduced serotonin-2A receptor signaling in rat cortex”. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005 Sep;30(9):1693-702.

7. Since psychoactive drugs shape politics and warfare around the world, the claim that psychedelics are more influential on culture and cultural movements than other drugs can be easily disputed. However, psychedelics are unique in their ability to quickly catalyze tribal subcultures bent on spontaneous altruism, populist activism, and free radicalism.

8. HHS/SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, “Ecstasy, Other Club Drugs, & Other Hallucinogens”. Internet Reference, 2008.

9. Modern psychedelic festivals can be traced to the “Be-ins” and “Acid Tests” of San Francisco in the late 1960s, made famous by Tom Wolfe's “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”. These festivals evolved into Woodstock, the Grateful Dead circuit, the Rainbow Family, Rave culture, Burning Man, the Boom Festival, the Love Parade, and other gatherings around the world dedicated to psychedelic music, art, and culture. Attendance at the largest of these annual festivals is regularly in the tens to hundreds of thousands of people.

10. The 2006 psilocybin and mysticism study by Roland Griffiths brought new enthusiasm to mixing psychedelic spirituality with clinical therapy.

11. It is easy to claim that traditional tribal societies are saturated with psychedelic information, but modern society is not far behind. Western media is filled with psychedelic imagery and fascinated by altered states. In the United States, ayahuasca and peyote are already recognized as legitimate religious sacraments within specific churches, and psychedelic drug experimentation is a common rite of passage among university students.

12. Groups linked to the weaponized use of psychedelics include the Manson Family, the SLA, Aum Shinrikyo, the CIA, and the United States Department of Defense.

Figure 4.  Feedback circuits in visual perception pathways. Sensory signal in human consciousness projects up and around the brain like a wave as consciousness arises in distinct stages. Sensation begins with the sensory organs and feeds into the thalamus (through the LGN for visual pathways), which filters and routes sensation into higher areas of the cortex. Recognition happens quickly and instinctively in the thalamus and medial temporal lobe, focusing attention on salient information. Memory identifies incoming signal moving upward in the cortex, passing data through parallel layers of spatial and object recognition along dorsal and ventral pathways. Multisensory perception finally converges in the pre-frontal cortex as a parsed reconstruction of reality is presented for informing real-time behaviors.

Chapter 04: What is Consciousness?

Since this text is about the manipulation of consciousness it is beneficial to have working definition for this term. Consciousness is defined here as a dynamical information processing system with specific functions and emergent operating properties, all of which are necessary to maintain system stability.1 The minimum specific functions for any conscious system are: 1) perception 2) recognition 3) memory 4) recall, and 5) behavior. The minimum specific operating properties for any conscious system are: 1) modular coherence 2) linear stability 3) feedback control 4) adaptability, and 5) self-awareness. When all of these functions and operating properties are working in tandem you get something resembling human consciousness.2 When one or more of the five essential functions is degraded then consciousness slides into semi-conscious, subconscious, or unconscious modes. When one or more of the five operating properties is degraded then consciousness becomes unstable and loses fidelity. A description of the functions and operating properties of consciousness follows.

Five Basic Functions of Consciousness

All conscious systems rely on five basic functions to interact with the environment in real time.

Perception

A conscious system must receive input, this input is called perception. For humans, perceptual input is received as sense data moving towards the brain from the peripheral nervous system. Sensation does not become actual perception until it is routed up through the thalamus and into higher cortical areas for processing. Humans also perceive internal thoughts and feelings, their own external behaviors, and small pieces of their dreams. Perception is linear, it feeds back on itself through behavior and recall, and its primary function is to observe changes in environment over time. Errors in human perception are sometimes called hallucination.

Recognition

Data from perception is parsed and matched against known salient patterns; this process is called recognition. Human recognition is driven by hormonal reaction to salient patterns; patterns which have high emotional resonance. Human recognition utilizes fast nonlinear analysis over slow semantic analysis. Fast recognition has high utility but low fidelity, meaning it works quickly but must be double-checked by linear memory for accuracy. Recognition is contextual, multisensory, associative, and its function is to find salient data in incoming perception. Nonlinear recognition errors include false identification, misrepresentation, and déjà vu.

Memory

All salient patterns are stored in memory. Patterns stored in memory are matched against incoming data for recognition; they are also matched against possible solutions for recall. In humans memory is imprinted by emotional resonance, reinforced through linear repetition, and potentiated though nonlinear contextual association. Human memory has many layers; semantic, eidetic, associative, and potentially holographic. Multi-layered human memory involves long-term potentiation and lossy compression, but this compression also includes indexing redundancy to serve fast recall and recognition of salient data.

Recall

Recall uses associative patterns stored in memory to make informed decisions based on logic. Unlike recognition, which is spontaneous and intuitive, recall uses negative feedback to inhibit detrimental solutions and positive feedback to stimulate advantageous solutions. Recall is cyclical and associative, meaning it can use both negative and positive feedback to cycle through and evaluate many hypothetical scenarios before resting on a final decision.3 The main function of recall is to analyze patterns stored in memory to inform intelligent decisions and behaviors in real time.

Behavior

A conscious system performs behaviors based on input. Human behavior takes the form of both internal and external actions. Internal behaviors, such as thinking thoughts and feeling emotions, transform memory and recall into logical decisions; external behaviors translate internal decisions into outward actions. Human behavior is linear and serial; behaviors are performed in sequence one at a time, typically with thoughts and emotions preceding and informing the intent of action. Both internal and external behaviors feed back into perception, closing the loop on the perceptual feedback process.

Operating Properties of Consciousness

When all of the functions of consciousness are up and running the system begins to take on certain familiar operating properties. These basic properties are what we would expect from any conscious system, and any conscious system that loses these properties will also become unstable and lose fidelity of perception and memory.

Modular Coherence

In order to perform like a seamless, integrated system, consciousness must have some means of synchronizing performance between modular sub-functions. Functional cooperation between different areas of the brain is measured in terms of coupled neural oscillators, neural spike synchrony, and coherence of network oscillations.4 Waking consciousness oscillates within the alpha and beta ranges; high frequency gamma coherence is associated with the fast binding of cortical networks necessary for perception and consciousness.5 Modular coherence is the first operating property of a conscious system; precise timing between all areas is necessary for multisensory integration. Without coherence the modular sub-functions of consciousness lose interoperability and destabilize.

Linear Stability

Consciousness can perform many different functions, but it only performs one function at a time. The functional range of consciousness is linear and moves predictably from state to state with the passage of time. Consciousness transitions seamlessly from one behavior to the next. Consciousness retains state data and reacts logically to environmental change. In conscious systems the perception of the passage of time remains constant. The ability to remain focused on the environment and perform sequenced, goal-oriented behaviors in real-time is an operational baseline for all conscious systems.

Feedback Control

Conscious systems must be able to monitor and control their own stability and perform behaviors to modulate system input and output. All conscious systems must have some form of feedback control to retain object focus, retain state data, refine behaviors, perform state transitions, and maintain linear stability. Without feedback control, a dynamical information processing system is prone to output exuberance, memory overload, and error. 6

Adaptability

A conscious system must be able to store patterns, predict outcomes, learn new behaviors, and react to external variable change. Adaptability and the ability to learn from experience is an epiphenomena or spontaneous operating property of a functionally stable consciousness. Intelligent systems that do not exhibit adaptability only mimic some of the functions and properties of consciousness without actually achieving full consciousness.

Self-Awareness

A conscious system must be aware of itself and be able to recognize other conscious systems. Self-awareness is an epiphenomena of the functions and properties of consciousness maintaining linear stability through time. Self-awareness and the ability to recognize and interact with other conscious systems may be the truest and most objective test of any stable consciousness.

Modular Consciousness

The most dramatic way to demonstrate the fragility of consciousness is to lose it. We sleep every night, and sleeping is a very limited form of consciousness where most of the functions and properties disappear. When we sleep we cannot hold state information from one moment to the next, thus we lose contextual data and self-awareness. In dreams we have perceptions and perform behaviors, but they are not linear nor do we have much control over them. In deep sleep all functions of consciousness go offline and almost entirely shut down. When we wake up these functions slowly return and then re-stabilize into an alert waking mode. Consciousness turns itself off; consciousness turns itself back on.

Sleeping and dreaming demonstrate that the basic functions of consciousness are modular and interdependent; they can operate individually as well as in specialized groupings. The modular functions of consciousness can be switched off and on in any order without affecting the long-term stability of the fully operational system. The modularity of consciousness becomes evident in cases of brain trauma or mental illnesses where the subject loses some functions of consciousness but retains others.7 When consciousness is stable we cannot tell it is modular; it runs as a seamless whole or an integrated system. When consciousness destabilizes the modular units uncouple and reveal themselves to be sub-personal pieces of a larger identity process. The loss of multisensory perception and the splintering of consciousness into multiple independent processes can accurately be described as an altered state of consciousness.

Psychedelic Consciousness

If consciousness is modular and the modular functions can interoperate in multiple configurations, it is reasonable to assume there are multiple configurations of sub- and meta- consciousness that are rarely explored. The linear states of consciousness we experience daily are controlled by a top-down homeostatic regulator,8 but when we short-circuit this regulator we find that modular sub-functions of consciousness can be destabilized, uncoupled, and accessed in novel ways. All forms of mysticism rely on radical destabilization of homeostasis.9 EEG studies of subjects with hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) have shown that when the visual cortex loses coherence with other areas of the brain and coherence among local visual networks increases, spontaneous hallucinations are produced.10 Sensory deprivation for as little as fifteen minutes is all that is necessary to uncouple the visual cortex and have it start producing coherent self-sustaining hallucinations.11 This can be described as sleep onset visualization, similar to daydreaming or lucid dreaming, and is sometimes called the prisoner’s cinema because extended periods of solitary confinement also produce this effect, as does macular degeneration of the retina. This demonstrates that when modular functions of the brain are uncoupled from top-down coherence they do not always disappear, they may also spontaneously organize into more locally coherent configurations. This uncoupled and locally coherent activity can produce wandering or non-linear sensation in lower brain areas which floats up to conscious awareness as linear perception. This is a neat formal definition for states of dreaming, creative visualization, and hallucination.

Psychedelic Information Theory posits that the uncoupled sub-functions of modular consciousness, acting either alone or in novel peer groupings, are responsible for the subjective altered states classified as hallucinogenic, dissociative, and psychedelic. All hallucinogens must first destabilize top-down coherence of consciousness to produce novel states of spontaneous organization between the modular sub-units; this is how all hallucination begins. Dissociatives disrupt top-down coherence by blocking the excitatory pathways that allow the modular units to communicate. Psychedelics have a more subtle effect on top-down coherence; they periodically interrupt or excite the modulatory frequency of multisensory frame binding, causing perception to destabilize into energetic nonlinear configurations.12 By destabilizing the top-down control of consciousness, psychedelics allow the modular sub-functions to wander and/or interact with coupled peers in dedicated subsystems; similar to the dedicated circuit created between perception and memory when dreaming.

Destabilizing or splintering consciousness into novel configurations is the essence of psychedelic exploration. When consciousness bifurcates or splits, subjective perception instantly becomes more chaotic and complex. Splintered consciousness may actually appear to be in two places at once, stuck in a superposition between waking and dreaming, finding stability in two simultaneous perceptual states, also know as multi-stability a multi-stable state. Novel configurations of splintered or multi-stable consciousness can be described as nonlinear, complex, meta, transpersonal, depersonalized, faceted, holistic, higher-dimensional, expanded, mystical, subconscious, semi-consciousness, and so on. Splintering, re-configuring, and rebuilding the modular sub-units of identity are techniques that may be applied in brainwashing or metaprogramming,13 but also fall under the rubric of mysticism and shamanism. By subverting and re-organizing the modular functions of linear consciousness, psychedelics expand the functional range of consciousness to include many novel states of multi-stable complexity. These complex perceptual states, also known as expanded states of consciousness, are the origin of hallucination and the source of all the psychedelic information that has influenced human mythology, religion, art, science, and culture.

Notes and References

1. There is a popular school of thought which posits that consciousness precedes physicality, and that for there to be atoms and molecules and galaxies there must first be consciousness. This is a very broad definition of consciousness which should be saved for more metaphysical discussions.

2. The functions and operating properties of consciousness described here are a simplification of the functions of the human brain, but they are an ample enough description for modeling human consciousness in any environment.

3. This definition of deliberative recall is simplified and based on principles of deductive and inductive reasoning. This definition compresses a much larger discussion on the various types of neural logic and does not account for human emotional irrationality, but it is the minimum definition needed to model the output of human reasoning.

4. The so-called “binding problem” of multisensory perception is approached from a variety of directions, but current theories rely on measuring the strength, frequency, synchrony, and resonance of spike waves propagating through neural assemblies. There are many ways to estimate the relative cooperation between separated brain areas based on their wave properties. Coherence is a term used to indicate strong signal cooperation between separated areas. Areas that are high in coherence may act like coupled oscillators in a feedback circuit, or they may take the form of parallel circuits engaged in a synchronized but distributed processing task.

5. Meador KJ, et al., “Gamma coherence and conscious perception”. Neurology 2002;59:847-854.

6. WikiPedia.org, “Control Theory”. Internet Reference, 2010.

7. The most compelling examples of mental illnesses which destabilize consciousness are Alzheimer's disease, which affects memory, and schizophrenia, which affects coherence and linear stability. These two examples compress a much larger discussion of how the degradation or loss of specific functions and operating properties of consciousness lead to specific pathologies.

8. Top-down modulation of waking consciousness is a function of aminergic modulation in the forebrain – serotonin and dopamine focusing and maintaining attention – but total homeostatic regulation of brain and body is generally considered to be a function of the hypothalamus. From WikiPedia: “The hypothalamus co-ordinates many hormonal and behavioral circadian rhythms, complex patterns of neuroendocrine outputs, complex homeostatic mechanisms, and many important behaviors.”

9. Fasting, chanting, meditation, trance-dancing, isolation tanks, mind machines, and other non-drug visionary practices are rituals designed to destabilize homeostasis through deprivation and hypnotic repetition. Psychedelic drugs achieve more dramatic results by directly interrupting neuromodulatory pathways at the receptor site.

10. Abraham HD, Duffy FH, “EEG coherence in post-LSD visual hallucinations”. Psychiatry Res. 2001 Oct 1;107(3):151-63.

11. Mason OJ, Brady F, “The psychotomimetic effects of short-term sensory deprivation”. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2009 Oct;197(10):783-5.

12. See Chapter 06, “Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action”.

13. Metaprogramming is the term John Lilly chose in the text, “Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer”. Splintering is a term used in brainwashing to describe the process of breaking the subject’s identity into multiple pieces through stress exercises, making them vulnerable to imprinting and manipulation.

Chapter 05: Limits of Human Perception

Any discussion of psychedelic hallucination is a discussion of the spontaneous emergence of information in human perception. Human perception is limited by the capacity of sense organs; the speed and architecture of the neural network; and the number of distinct perceptions the brain can analyze at any one time. Despite functional limitations, human consciousness is seamless, meaning that each perception and behavior flows smoothly from one to the next. When consciousness is stable, perception and behavior is seamlessly integrated; when consciousness destabilizes, perception and behavior lose cohesion until we are no longer in control of our thoughts and actions. Destabilization of consciousness can happen all at once, in the case of being knocked unconscious, but more often it happens incrementally, as in going to sleep.

Psychedelics are unique in that they can both enhance and degrade perceptual limitations by orders of degrees; psychedelics can obscure and distort perceptual data, or they can enhance resolution and generate expanded states of consciousness. These contrasting results may be dose dependent, but it is also possible that psychedelics simultaneously produce perceptual degradation and enhancement. Psychedelic hallucinations are often described as being beyond the limits of human imagination, a trait which is offered as de-facto evidence of expanded consciousness or supernatural dominion. Since the boundaries of the human imagination can be modeled with some close degree of accuracy, any substantial discussion about the nature of psychedelic hallucination must therefore start with some basic assumptions about the limitations of human perception, and thus the functional limitations of expanded consciousness.

The Visual Spectrum

The human visual spectrum has evolved to work best in a small window of sunlight penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere, comprising the white-light band seen in a rainbow; roughly the 400-790 THz (terahertz) energy range which oscillates on the order of hundreds of trillions of cycles per second. The smallest wavelength of visible light is violet, which is only 380 nm (nanometers) wide and travels with the highest frequency. Red, by contrast, is 750 nm long on the other end of the visible spectrum, and at twice the length it travels at half the frequency.1 Unlike some organisms, the human eye does not see into ultraviolet or infrared rages, nor does it see microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, gamma rays, or anything that falls out of the visual spectrum. This also applies to night vision and dark-adapted vision. The dark-adapted eye utilizes the rod cells as opposed to the cone cells of daylight vision; rod cells are more photosensitive and more numerous, but they lack the color sensitivity and detail resolution of daylight rendering.2

Subjects on psychedelics often report increased luminosity and saturation of colors, as well as halos or auras of light surrounding objects; this implies an increase in color saturation and photosensitivity likely related to dilated pupils associated with 5-HT_2A agonism. In closed-eye or low-light environments subjects report vividly saturated geometric matrices rendered in swirling palettes of fluorescent purple and neon green.3 All of these reports fall within the expected range of an overly saturated visible color spectrum, with the dark-adapted eye finding more sensitivity in the shorter-wavelength, higher-frequency, violet to green ranges.

There is speculation that psychedelic hallucination is the result of tuning the brain to receive cosmic radiation at a wider bandwidth than normal; bands associated with electromagnetic, metaphysical, morphogenetic, Akashic, or geomagnetic fields. This so-called spectral argument posits that instead of producing consciousness, the human brain acts as a radio receiver for consciousness, and psychedelics allow the user to tune the brain to new perceptual frequencies, possibly higher dimensional in nature. This metaphor may make intuitive sense, but no research exists to confirm any spectral advantage to psychedelics other than increased photosensitivity and some visual acuity at low doses.4,5,6 Subjective reports indicate that psychedelics may increase auditory or synesthetic sensitivity to electromagnetic background noise, and the perception of energy fields or auras emanating from living organisms is reported often enough to warrant further scientific scrutiny, but these claims have not been tested rigorously enough to be conclusive.7 The spectral argument is further weakened by the observation that if the human eye can be tuned to see a novel frequency range, a mechanical spectrum analyzer should also be able to pick up information on that same frequency. To date no hidden psychedelic spiritual energy fields have been detected by even the most sensitive spectral scanning devices. 

Figure 5. Troxler’s fading illusion demonstrates temporal decay of peripheral filling. Stare at the dot in center of image and hold eyes perfectly still for a count of 20. The border around the dot will being to fade. Blinking or moving the eyes will bring the fading areas back. From WikiPedia.

Visual Frame Aliasing

Seamless perception relies on rapid frame updating to render external changes in real time. Humans can render changes in reality at roughly 13-15 frames per second (fps, or Hz), which means that human reality fully refreshes roughly once every 77 milliseconds (ms), and open-eye saturation of peripheral filling fully fades at around 10-20 seconds (Fig. 5). Human frame perception is exploited by animation and film, which updates at 24 fps, and television, which updates near 30 fps. Computer monitors and high-definition televisions refresh at 60 Hz or higher, and at this rate human perception of motion is entirely seamless.8 The rate of human frame perception corresponds roughly to the alert beta range of waking human consciousness (12-30 Hz) seen in EEG readings.9 Any event which happens faster than 1/60th of a second (16.6 ms) falls between perceptual frames and is considered to be subliminal or imperceptible to human consciousness.10 Seamless frame rendering is also called temporal aliasing, and can be subverted by a variety of common phenomena, including stroboscopic lights which break motions into jerky snapshots, and wagon-wheel illusions where rotating spokes appear to stop or spin backwards.11,12,13

In addition to retaining visual information, perceptual frames hold the totality of multi sensory rendering. Smooth frame aliasing preserves semantic state information from one moment to the next, and retains fidelity of information held in working memory. There is evidence that the brain can track multiple object layers for each frame;14 possibly corresponding to the number of distinct items we can sustain in working memory, which is about seven.15 Frame rendering is a distributed cortical task modulated by the aminergic system. High aminergic modulation of the frontal lobe is a good indicator of external frame alertness. Any drug which interrupts the precise timing of the aminergic modulatory system will also disrupt the seamless nature of temporal frame aliasing in the same way that a strobe light disrupts the motion of a spinning wheel. Temporal aliasing hallucinations include frame stacking, frame delay, frame freezing, frame reverse, frame echo, and infinite frame regression; all of which are considered to be uniquely psychedelic.16 The sensation of hallucinogenic frame stacking indicates that psychedelics may create a temporary frame decay buffer that allows for simultaneous multi-frame analysis and increased complexity of visual comprehension. Subverting or enhancing the limits of visual frame aliasing is an indication of expanded consciousness.

Figure 6. The peripheral drift illusion (PDI) is easily seen when this image is in the visual periphery. Research suggests the illusion is based on temporal differences in tracking luminance along four degrees of gradation. The four-step gradient processing produces a temporally mismatched contrast signal that fools the peripheral motion system. WikiPedia, Faubert & Herbert, 1998.

Visual Frame Resolution

Human visual resolution is limited by a number of factors. The first limitation is the density and distribution of retina in the eye; 130 million photoreceptors feeding into 1.2 million optic projections, with a spatial compression ratio of roughly 100 to 1. Photoreceptors in the eye are distributed in rings with color-sensitive cones clustering towards the center and contrast-sensitive rods filling the periphery.17 Despite the large number of photoreceptors the field of vision is incomplete. Including the blind spot where the retina attaches to the optic nerve, as much as 20% of peripheral vision contains gaps that must be filled with progressive rendering. Incoming rings of visual data must be smoothed into lines and shades in the visual cortex; a process that can produce artifacts of the spatial network when destabilized.18 The smoothed visual image is then passed forward in two divergent projections for spatial and object analysis, and the finished image reaches multi-modal convergence in the PFC (Fig. 4).19 This is a fair bit of signal juggling for any processor to handle at 15 frames per second.

Even though human vision employs elaborate compression and reconstruction techniques, the human eye can detect visual detail at resolutions into the micrometer range. From a meter’s distance the human eye cannot detect detail under 100 micrometers in length, making print resolutions of 300 dots-per-inch (DPI) entirely seamless. Some estimates put the detail of human visual resolution at 14 million pixels per the entire visual field; or by the 3D topographical field-rendering limit of 10 billion triangles per second, or 760 million triangles per frame.8 Human detail resolution is only reliable near the center of vision; many optical illusions exploit perceptual filling functions of the periphery (Figs. 5 & 6).20,21,22 Given the mechanical shortcomings of peripheral rendering, these estimates should be taken as visual saturation points as opposed to functional capacities.

The rendering of visual information may be the most complex and energy-intensive task of the human brain. Seamless visual perception requires precise neural firing. When perception destabilizes the visual field falls apart; the most commonly reported form of visual destabilization is diplopia or double-vision. Since visual rendering is so rich and complex, it is potentially the easiest part of the brain to destabilize. In other words, visual rendering is so elaborate and time-dependent it can be easily fooled by hallucination and illusion.

Dreaming, Imagination, Psychosis, Hallucination

While the information resolution of imagination and dreams is difficult to measure, it is widely agreed that dream perception is less resolved in detail than waking perception. Dreams are incomplete; contextual state data is not retained from frame to frame; and thus the durability of dream data falls apart under close scrutiny. Sometimes dreams can be vivid to the point of being indistinguishable from reality, containing people and places and narratives that retain state information over many different sequences, but more often dreams are fleeting and half remembered, lasting only a few seconds before fading.

Visual rendering of human imagination is more durable than dreams, but is also very low in resolution. Humans can imagine objects, people, and places in their minds, but human visual imagination is not typically photorealistic. Human memory is more semantic than eidetic, meaning that waking thoughts are mostly verbal, emotional, and only minimally visual. Most humans can imagine basic shapes, outlines, and sensual concepts; a smaller percentage can imagine topographical maps and rotate 3D objects in their mind. Visualizing a simple object like a cube or a pyramid is a cognitive task that requires full concentration; and even at peak visualization the internalized form rarely rises beyond a blurry silhouette. The exception to this limitation is dreaming or daydreaming, when eidetic or photographic snapshots bubble up into consciousness almost fully-formed. The emergence of dreamlike eidetic information into waking consciousness is usually a spontaneous reflex; few people have full control over photorealistic rendering of imagination and memory.23,24

Having fully-formed visions spontaneously erupting into consciousness is sometimes called overactive imagination, daydreaming, vivid memory recall, eidetic memory, photographic memory, emergent ideation, hallucination, or psychosis. Each of these modes of internal visualization is characterized by a different intensity and duration of imaginary detail; the more intense and durable the phantom detail, the less it looks like imagination and the more it begins to look like psychosis. Mediating transitions between external alertness and internal visualization is a baseline for perceptual stability; confusing the two would be problematic. The function of internal visualization is activated by the medial temporal lobe and modulated by neurotransmitter acetylcholine; psychedelics presumably activate this function spontaneously by interrupting aminergic alertness of the forebrain.25 If psychedelic hallucinations capitalize on the brain’s capacity to produce vivid dreamlike images, we would expect the detail of a psychedelic frame to match the information profile of a dream frame; low information resolution, fleeting and erratic state data, low formal durability from frame to frame. This means that contextual information such as identity, location, and purpose would also morph and transition many times over the period of a few seconds.

If the quality of a hallucinogenic frame matches the formal quality of a dream frame, one could expect psychedelic visions to be of lower resolution than normal vision; but subjective reports indicate that multiple layers of dreaming and waking consciousness can overlap in a single frame, creating a complex overlay of both real and imagined perceptions. Being unable to separate imagination from reality is the clinical definition of psychosis, but also implies an increase in potential frame information density, which implies expanded consciousness.

Figure 7. Mandalas and calendars representing universal harmony and knowledge. Top row: a Kalachakra time-wheel mandala; a Mesoamerican calendar. Bottom row: a mandala of the enlightened Buddha; a mandala of the Wheel of Life (Bhavacakra, or samsara). Nonlinear art embeds holographic information – such as an entire cosmology – into a single image.

The Limits of Expanded Consciousness

If the human imagination is infinite, and if psychedelics can expand the capacity of human imagination, then psychedelics can paradoxically make the infinite even more infinite. This makes sense if you accept that infinity is a linear concept which starts at zero and goes in one direction forever; but if infinity is bent into a series of repeating loops and spirals then it begins to look more like a fractal than a line, and thus more psychedelic. Human perception is linear, but humans live in a nonlinear system. One of the basic limitations of human consciousness in the inability to think exponentially; even with mathematics to assist us, envisioning and predicting exponentially complex systems is a vast conceptual hurdle. Psychedelics destabilize linear perceptions of space and time to produce fractal states of frame layering, bifurcation, and infinite frame recursion. This allows perception to become exponential, to exist in multiple states at once, much like a quantum computer that processes multiple simultaneous probabilities. If normal human imagination is bound within the limits of linear infinity, psychedelic perception is expanded to the limits of exponential or fractal infinity. Psychedelic perception presents a progressive nonlinear bifurcation of recursive self-similar information corresponding to both internal and external perceptual space. The psychedelic layering, bifurcating, and regression of internal and external perceptions creates a timeless, transpersonal perspective of a fractal rendering of time and space.26

The perception of seeing all time and space unfolding as a single unified function is a theme that has been reproduced in Eastern mandalas and Mesoamerican calendars for thousands of years, where a central figure sits in the center of concentric interlocking rings of reality (Fig. 7). In Sanskrit this great wheel of time is called Kalachakra (time wheel), and Kalachakra yoga emphasizes the interlocking self-similarity of body cycles and celestial cycles.27 The description of Kalachakra overlaps with Mesoamerican cyclical calendars and spiritual themes, expressed by Maria Sabina, the Oaxacan healer who first shared the magic mushroom known as Teonanacatl with R. Gordon Wasson. Sabina said, “The more you go inside the world of Teonanacatl… you see our past and our future, which are there together as a thing already achieved, already happened… I knew and saw God: an immense clock that ticks, the spheres that go slowly around, and inside the stars, the earth, the entire universe, the day, the night… He who knows to the end the secret of Teonanacatl can even see that infinite clockwork.”28 This is undoubtedly a reference to Kalachakra, the great wheel of time.

Witnessing the timeless infinity of Kalachakra can be compared to Western models of Gnosticism and Hermeticism (“As Above, So Below”) where the pinnacle of mystical achievement is channeling the infinite wisdom of the universal spirit;29 or early Deist notions of a God as a great Clockmaker who set the universe in motion and let it run without intervention.30 According to Maria Sabina’s report, the subjective experience of the infinite clockwork is an end secret of psychedelic vision; this is where you arrive if you follow the process of fractal information regression to the beginning and end of all time. The thought of experiencing Kalachakra as expressed by Maria Sabina stretches the boundaries of believability, but the subjective reports of a timeless, infinite psychedelic space where the size of the universe is revealed and everything in the past and the future has already occurred is common enough to conclude that this experience is not only possible, but that it might be the end-point of expanded human consciousness. 31

Notes and References

1. WikiPedia.org, “Visible spectrum”. Internet Reference, 2010.

2. Miller RE II, Col (RET), “The Eye and Night Vision”. USAF Special Report, “Night Vision Manual for the Flight Surgeon”, 1992.  

3. Accounts of colors seen in tryptamine hallucinations from subjective reports.

4. Hill RM, Fischer R, “Interpretation of visual space under drug-induced ergotropic and trophotropic arousal”. Agents Actions, 1971 Nov;2(3):122-30.

5. Fischer R, et al., “Psilocybin-induced contraction of nearby visual space”. Agents Actions, 1970 Aug;1(4):190-7.

6. Fischer R, “Effects of psychodysleptic drug psilocybin on visual perception. Changes in brightness preference”. Experientia, 1969 Feb 15;25(2):166-9.

7. Accounts of seeing auras taken from subjective reports. Casual tests to confirm spectral claims have been inconclusive.

8. Michael F. Deering, “Limits of Human Vision”. Sun Microsystems, 1998.

9. WikiPedia.org, “Electroencephalography”. Internet Reference, 2010.

10. WikiPedia.org, “Subliminal stimuli”. Internet Reference, 2010.

11. VanRullen R, et al., “The Continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion and the ‘When’ Pathway of the Right Parietal Lobe: A Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study”. PLoS ONE 3(8): August 6, 2008.

12. WikiPedia.org, “Wagon wheel effect”. Internet Reference, 2010.

13. Bach M, “Wagon-wheel effect”. From Michael’s Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. Internet Reference, 2010.

14. VanRullen, Rufin, “The continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion is object-based”. Vision Research Volume 46, Issue 24, November 2006, Pages 4091-4095.

15. WikiPedia.org, “Working memory”. Internet Reference, 2010.

16. See Chapter 12, “Erratic Hallucination”.

17. WikiPedia.org, “Retina”. Internet Reference, 2010.

18. Gutkin, Pinto, Ermentrout, “Mathematical Neuroscience: From Neurons to Circuits to Systems”. Journal of Physiology - Paris 97 (2003) 209–219.

19. LeDoux, Joseph, “Synaptic Self”. Viking Penguin, NY, 2002.

20. WikiPedia.org, “Peripheral drift illusion”. Internet Reference, 2008.

21. WikiPedia.org, “Grid illusion”. Internet Reference, 2010.

22. Pinna, Baingio, “Pinna Illusion”. Scholarpedia, 4(2):6656, 2009.

23. The low rendering of human visual imagination is taken from a survey of subjective reports. The quality of internal visualization is enhanced by closing the eyes and falling into a state like meditating or daydreaming.

24. Hobson, J. Allan, “The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness”. MIT Press, 2001.

25. Hobson JA, et al., “The neuropsychology of REM sleep dreaming”. NeuroReport 9:3, pR1-R14, 16 February 1998.

26. A fractal is a nonlinear algorithms that repeats a basic set of instructions to generate complex, self-similar, recurrent patterns from microscopic to macroscopic to cosmic scales.

27. WikiPedia.org, “Kalachakra”. Internet Reference, 2010.

28. Schultes RE, Hofmann A, “Plants of the Gods”. Healing Arts Press, Vermont, 1992.

29. WikiPedia.org, “Hermeticism”. Internet Reference, 2010.

30. WikiPedia.org, “Watchmaker analogy”. Internet Reference, 2010.

Chapter 09: What is Nonlinear Hallucination?

Psychedelic Information Theory invokes nonlinearity to describe the perceptual effects of hallucination, but the term nonlinear has a variety of definitions which are sometimes confusing or unclear. To clarify the nonlinearity of psychedelic hallucination, the following is a description of formal nonlinear dynamics, broader definitions of nonlinear systems, and how each of these definitions may apply to psychedelic perception.

Nonlinear Systems

Nonlinear systems can be defined in terms of the complexity of output in proportion to input, also described in terms of sensitivity to initial conditions. The output of changes in a linear system are simple and can be modeled with a line on a graph. In contrast, the output of a nonlinear system feeds back on itself and becomes chaotic and complex; simple small changes in initial conditions will result in unpredictable and exponentially divergent data sets that cannot be easily predicted. In mathematical terms, the results of a nonlinear system begin to bifurcate, diverge, or split into multiple possible data points the farther out you attempt to resolve them. The results of a nonlinear system cannot be modeled with a linear function because linear functions plot sequential or additive complexity; nonlinear functions plot exponential or geometrically expanding complexity. The mathematical study of nonlinear systems has resulted in chaos theory, complexity theory, and the analysis of self-amplifying recursive systems such as fractals and cellular automata. Renderings of nonlinear systems output are considered to be of high intrinsic beauty, (Fig. 14)1 and the repeating forms and patterns are often perceived as spiritual or mystical because they are isomorphic of chaotic or nonlinear systems in biology, nature, and the cosmos.

Figure 14. “Electric Sheep” fractals selected for an aesthetic voting experiment. Images chosen for intrinsic natural beauty. From Taylor, 2008.1

Nonlinear Consciousness

The physical world is a complex nonlinear system, but human consciousness perceives reality as a single linear sequential narrative that moves predictably forward in time. The linearity of perception is an indication that consciousness is producing stable, predictable output. If perception suddenly diverges into multiple unpredictable outputs for the same linear input, this is an indication that consciousness has destabilized and become nonlinear. A video feedback loop is an good example of a nonlinear perceptual system; each frame captures itself and the receding previous frame, and then itself and two receding frames, and then itself and three receding frames, and then itself and four receding frames, and so on, feeding back on itself at 30 frames per second until complexity recedes into chaos and infinity (Fig. 15). This is the mathematical definition of nonlinear system generating fractal complexity, or chaos, through an iterated map or recursive frame-stacking feedback loop.

Figure 15. A video feedback loop creates a nonlinear system isomorphic of a fractal, where from recedes inward on itself, spiraling towards infinite complexity in under a second. From Hofstadter, 2007. 2

Other examples of nonlinear consciousness may be less classically nonlinear, meaning not generating exponential complexity, but still lacking in linear formalism. For instance, consciousness may perceive itself to be in multiple places at once; it may perceive multiple data sets for the same input; it may see multiple different perspectives of the same scene; it may move sideways or backwards or completely outside of linear time. These would all be considered nonlinear perspectives of consciousness. Dreaming can be associatively nonlinear, which means narrative content moves unpredictably from state to state while retaining some tangential linearity. Psychedelics are famous for being progressively nonlinear, which means incoming sensation saturates perception and begins to stack over itself, generating increasing complexity of sensual intensity through time.

Phenomenology of Nonlinear Perspectives

By definition, a nonlinear system produces results with increasing complexity over time. In a linear perspective a human will parse a literal analysis of each object and then move on to the next object. In a nonlinear perspective the subject produces increasingly complex perceptual results for each object held in focus for the duration of that focus. For instance, a subject staring at a rock in a linear state may notice interesting shapes, textures, or colors; in a nonlinear state that same rock may provoke thoughts and visions of the birth of the universe and the origins of suns and planets and all solid matter leading up to the formation of that very rock. The linear perspective sees literal, formal attributes of the rock in the moment; the nonlinear perspective sees the rock as a temporary clump of energy bound in a cosmic information system receding forwards and backwards to the beginning and end of time. The metaphor of seeing the entire universe in a rock can also be applied to emotional epiphanies, autobiographical insights, passing fantasies, paranoid delusions, and so on. Whatever the focus of nonlinear perception, the object held in focus will be amplified with increasing salient complexity the longer it is held in focus.

The endless complexity of nonlinear perception can cause the subject to fall into perceptual loops which spiral, bifurcate, and recur with the formal qualities of a fractal (Figs. 1, 14). Frame information stacked in nonlinear psychedelic perception iterates on the order of 2 to 16 times a second, depending on drug and dose range, allowing for increasingly complex renderings of nonlinear information to the point of total sensory overload. Because of the quickly bifurcating complexity of nonlinear object analysis, the information produced in a nonlinear state emerges into consciousness much faster than information produced in a linear state. The production of fast, nonlinear data in the psychedelic state is often described as a download; an inconceivably large amount of information that compiles into memory almost instantly. The only way this amount of information can be processed through the brain is via nonlinear analysis; linear attempts to formalize psychedelic nonlinear information into words or pictures typically fall short of capturing the holistic perspective.

Nonlinear Hallucination

There are many colorful examples of nonlinear hallucination. Seeing geometric grids, webs, and spirals are nonlinear artifacts of destabilization of coupled oscillators in optic networks. Subjective reports indicate that DiPT produces unique nonlinear pitch transposition in audio networks, causing subjects to hear sounds modulated down an entire octave or more depending on the pitch and volume of stimulus. Auditory echoes, visual motion trails, and phantom tactile sensations are recursive artifacts of perceptual frame feedback. Perceiving multiple perspectives for the same input is a nonlinear bifurcation of multisensory coherence. Perceiving dream images superimposed over external space is nonlinear destabilization of visual memory recall. Seeing the formal boundaries of solid objects bend and melt into each other is a nonlinear destabilization of contrast and edge detection. Hearing a voice on the television or radio speaking directly to you is a nonlinear destabilization of semantic parsing and sequencing. Skipping time, missing time, or moving sideways or backwards in time is a nonlinear destabilization of temporal frame buffering. The basic tenet of psychedelic hallucination is that hallucinations move progressively from linear to nonlinear complexity depending on dose range and duration of effect; the higher the dose of the hallucinogen, the more disproportionately nonlinear, unpredictable, and complex perception will become in response to stimulus over time.

Notes and References

1. Taylor RP, Sprott JC., “Biophilic fractals and the visual journey of organic screen-savers”. Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2008 Jan;12(1):117-29.

Entopic hallucinations, or phosphenes, are one of the most commonly reported visual effects of psychedelics. Phosphenes are a sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means. Pressure phosphenes can be created by applying pressure to the eyeballs through closed eyelids; flicker phosphenes are created in response to stroboscopic pulses of light; kinetic phosphenes are created in response to physical impact to the head, sometimes referred to as seeing stars. Entopic hallucinations are differentiated from eidetic or photographic hallucinations in that they originate within the neural connections between the eye and cortex (Fig. 16), as opposed to emerging within the cortex or midbrain. There is evidence that entopic phosphene patterns have influenced human cultural and religious archetypes since 10,000 BCE (Fig. 2).1,2,17

Entopic hallucinations fall into predictable geometric patterns and can be measured by formal properties such as form constant, flicker rate, rotation, drift, and decay. Common phosphene forms include web, grid, checkerboard, clover-leaf, honeycomb, spiral, funnel, or more amorphous floating blobs and stars (Fig. 17).3 Phosphene patterns may match recurring patterns in the natural world, such as cells, stars, sand dunes, flowers, clouds, and snakeskin. Evidence suggests that the form constants of phosphenes are directly related to spatial relationships between the ring-like structure of the retinal cells and the grid-like or columnar neural structures of the visual cortex. The spontaneous production of geometric hallucinations is due to excitation and loss of stability in these retinal-cortical feedback coupling pathways. The transition from seamless visual aliasing to spontaneous geometric patterns can be described as a transcritical sensory bifurcation reflecting the spatial organization of the recurrent network.4,5,6

Pulses in the same frequency range as brain waves (theta to gamma) are most effective in producing flicker phosphenes.3 Flicker phosphenes created by stroboscopic lights or mind-machines tend to be more amorphous at low frequencies(1-4hz), tend to fall into web, spiral, or cloverleaf patterns at medium frequencies (4-9hz), and tend to lock into grid, honeycomb, or checkerboard patterns at higher frequencies (9-16hz+). Flicker phosphenes will have slow lateral drift at lower frequencies; a rotational drift at medium frequencies; and will maintain stability or produce fast lateral drift at higher frequencies.7 These phase-related transitions in standing wave shape are also seen in Chladni patterns created in vibrating plates (Fig. 31). Presumably any technology which uses pulsating frequencies to produce phosphenes, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), must also use pulses corresponding to the frequency range of human temporal aliasing to produce substantially stabilized phosphene forms.8

Flicker Phosphenes and Hallucinogenic Interrupt

Taking what we know about the production of geometric hallucinations in response to pulse activity within specific frequency ranges, it is possible to extrapolate that the multisensory interrupt of any hallucinogen must fall into the same range of @5-40hz, which is the general frequency range of human consciousness, to produce phosphenes. According to the Control Interrupt Model of psychedelic action, any drug which produces a multisensory interrupt within the frequency band of waking consciousness will also necessarily produce flicker phosphenes and be considered hallucinogenic. If the multisensory interrupt is too slow or too fast, the drug may still be considered psychedelic, empathogenic, entactogenic, or dissociative, but it will be less likely produce significantly realized geometric flicker hallucinations. This same principle can be applied to audio and tactile sensory binding; any periodic interrupt within the frequency band of human sensory consciousness will necessarily induce field-like hallucinations with stable form constants and properties related directly to the interrupt frequency.

Figure 18. Examples of programmatic cellular automata. Repetition of simple algorithms create complex patterns of archetypal beauty. Levitated.net, 2010.

The evolution of flicker phosphenes can be described formally by the geometrical self-organizing feedback patterns seen in fractals (Figs. 1, 14), cellular automata (Fig. 18), or patterns arising from standing wave interference (Fig. 31). Under the influence of psychedelics, flicker phosphenes grow in intensity, become more elaborate, and become more structurally resolved over time.3 It can be assumed that this is because the modulatory interrupt of a hallucinogen is being applied directly to the sensory binding pathways via pharmacological interaction as opposed to being applied to the retinal or cortical networks via external pulse stimulation. Because the modulatory interrupt of psychedelics is pharmacological, it is more difficult for the subject to fend off or ignore the interrupt to retain multisensory stability; the very pathways that maintain stability are the pathways which are being interrupted. In a very physical way, the modulatory interrupt of the hallucinogen is hijacking the sensory signaling pathways and overriding them with its own modulatory frequency. Because of this, the influence of the hallucinogenic flicker interrupt becomes explicit in sensory rendering; the subject may literally see or feel the pulsating geometric field interference as a fully embedded aspect of their perceptual reality.

Flicker phosphenes are the product of neurochemical saturation and have substantial signal decay. There is evidence that electrically stimulated phosphenes take as long as 10-15 seconds to fully fade once the periodic stimulus is removed.9 Overlapping stereoscopic phosphenes will naturally create decaying interference patterns approaching fractal complexity. It can be assumed there is a saturation of signaling molecules that builds up at the site of synaptic interruption that persists for some period of time following each interrupt. The pulse of each interrupt can be described in terms of saturation attack and decay; the fade of each interrupt can be described in terms of saturation sustain and release (or ADSR envelope).10 Full saturation would mean a complete white-out of sensory information at the interrupt site; zero saturation would mean the interrupt site is cleared of signaling molecules and is presenting a darkened resting state. Saturation at the interrupt site increases and decreases in intensity over the period of each interrupt; this change in chemical saturation over the duration of each interrupt is perceived as a flicker or pulse of sensory intensity.

Because a hallucinogenic interrupt pulses at many cycles per second, and because each pulse can have a saturation decay of many seconds, phosphenes will naturally drift laterally or radially across the visual field as they decay, creating overlapping webs of many arising and fading geometric patterns all visible within a single perceptual frame. This creates the formation of complex standing interference patterns. The web-like interference of multiple arising and decaying geometric grids creates a 3D meshwork that allows complex eidetic shapes to materialize spontaneously within the quickly morphing wire-frame (Fig. 20). Visual saturation is most intense at the interstices of the wire-frame mesh, creating the perception of bright dots or scintillating jewels where patterned lines overlap and intersect into nodes. These saturated pixel groups may correspond to actual hot-spots of neural activity saturating columns of the visual cortex. These hot-spots are produced spontaneously in the wake of stimulus, creating a flood of glutamate wherever shafts of apical dendrites intersect with lateral projections from proximal neural columns.18 Glutamate flooding at dendritic columns of pyramidal neurons is presumably the result of asynchronous glutamate release following 5-HT2A receptor agonism.19

Figure 19. Muscles of the eye. Some subjects on psychedelics report pulses or rhythmic twitching in optic muscles that control focus, specifically the lateral rectus and inferior oblique. These pulses may generate pressure phosphenes related directly to frequency of pulsation.  From Grey’s Anatomy.

It is widely assumed that geometric hallucinations and flicker phosphenes originate between the optic track and cortex, but some subjective reports of psychedelic experimentation also describe a fast pulsation or rhythmic jitter felt in the muscles around the eyes. This sensation is most acute in the outside corner of the visual periphery, specifically along the lateral rectus and the junction where the inferior oblique passes over the inferior rectus (Fig. 19). This optical pulse may be difficult to discern in early parts of a psychedelic session, but becomes more acute and easier to sense as the session wears on. This rapid pulsation may be related to modulatory interrupt and saturation at the cortical columns that control optic muscles, generating a chain reaction in neural transduction felt as a muscle twitch or throb. Periodically interrupting the eye’s finely timed saccades with a muscle twitch or pulsation may be enough to produce phosphenes.

Increasing or decreasing optic pressure naturally produces phosphenes; 5-HT2A agonism decreases ocular pressure. In his experiments with phosphenes in the mid 1800s, Johannes Purkinje applied an aqueous extract of belladonna (scopolamine, atropine) directly to his eye to produce phosphenes. Because the effect was localized, Purkinje proposed that phosphenes may be related to cycloplegia, or partial paralysis of the eye muscles.20 Given these reports, it is reasonable to assume that any interruption of visual motor control, interruption of optic signal transduction, or change in optic pressure will produce phosphenes. Phosphenes generated by changes in ocular pressure or muscle twitch would be considered synesthetic representations of pressure waves rippling from intraocular fluid into receptive nerve juncti0ns.

Entopic vs. Eidetic Hallucination

Geometric hallucinations, or phosphenes, are considered to be entopic, meaning they are a product of excitation and destabilization in spatial coupling between neural assemblies in the retina and visual cortex, and produce geometric patterns similar to wave interference patterns. Entopic hallucinations can be contrasted with eidetic hallucinations, which are more fully formed images that appear from visual memory or imagination. Psychedelic eidetic hallucinations are often more explicitly personal than the abstract geometric forms associated with flicker phosphenes. Over the course of a psychedelic session, hallucinations will start with flicker phosphenes and then increase in complexity from entopic to eidetic content, often containing a seamless mixture of the two. It can be assumed that eidetic hallucinations only begin once serotonergic modulation of the PFC has been sufficiently interrupted to allow cholinergic modulation of internalized mid-brain visualization to come to the fore.11 The transition from entopic to eidetic hallucination is also associated with a transition from the high frequency beta or gamma state to a lower frequency alpha or theta state.

Meditation and auto-hypnotic exercises are targeted to produce states of hypnagogia associated with theta waves and entopic hallucination. Drugs which naturally drive theta waves in the brain are called hypnotics. Some psychedelics are naturally hypnotic, others are hypnotic only in sensory deprivation or under the influence of a theta-band periodic driver.12 The hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca is a mixture of a high-frequency interrupt psychedelic (DMT) and a low-frequency hypnotic diver (the beta-carbolines harmine and harmaline, among others). This synergistic blend of high-beta interrupt and slow-theta attenuators means that ayahuasca should promote both fast beta geometric flicker phosphenes as well as slow eidetic theta dream snippets. This prediction can resolve paradoxical EEG analysis of subjects under the influence of ayahuasca, which sometimes indicates increased power in high frequency beta and gamma coherence,13,14 but in the context of shamanic ritual shows increased power in slow-wave theta activity.15

Eidetic hallucination is considered to be rendered photographically or presented as a 3D virtual model. In psychedelic intoxication, a strange conversion of eidetic and entopic phenomena can occur when an eidetic image or symbol reproduces into a marching grid or kaleidoscopic network of repeating symbols with a juxtaposed eidetic image emerging within the repeating superstructure. For example, a subject may hallucinate a geometric grid of quickly spinning colored triangles, and as those triangles flicker across the visual field they suddenly cohere into a 3D wire-frame mesh of a more fully-realized eidetic snapshot of a human body or face. In addition to triangles, the overlaying grid may be composed of dots, circles, honeycomb, spiders, insects, centipedes, worms, snakes, reptiles, lizards, question marks, swastikas, teeth, piano keys, skulls, flowers, leaves, stars, eyes, billiard balls, dice, playing cards, human faces, alien faces, dancing elves, skeletons, clowns, jesters, writhing bodies, branching trees, cells, bacteria, paisleys, DNA, Japanese kanji, Byzantine tile patterns, Mesoamerican brick patterns, Native American totem patterns, Polynesian tiki patterns, and similar repeating archetypal forms.16 The fast flicker rate and embedded kaleidoscopic nature of this type of compound hallucination often defies formal description or the ability to accurately capture in art or memory. The hallucinogenic perception of a complex embedded symbolic grid or kinetic fractal superstructure is unique to the psychedelic experience; it may be the visual essence of what makes an experience authentically psychedelic.

Notes and References

1. Williams JD, Dowson TA, et al. , “The Signs of All Times: Entoptic Phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic Art”. Current Anthropology, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 201-245.

2. Pettifor E, “Altered States: The Origin of Art in Entoptic Phenomena”. Internet Reference, 1996.

3. Knoll M, Kuglerb J, et al., “Effects of Chemical Stimulation of Electrically-Induced Phosphenes on their Bandwidth, Shape, Number and Intensity”. Sterotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Vol. 23, No. 3, 1963.

4. Bressloff PC, et al., “What Geometric Visual Hallucinations Tell Us about the Visual Cortex”. Neural Computation 14 (2002) 473–491.

5. Gutkin B, Pinto , Ermentrout B, “Mathematical Neuroscience: From Neurons to Circuits to Systems”. Journal of Physiology, Paris 97 (2003) 209–219.

6. Ermentrout B, Cowen J, “A mathematical theory of visual hallucination patterns”. Biological Cybernetics, 34-3 (1979) 137-150.

7. Observations on the correlation between flicker rate and the form constants and properties of phosphenes are based on subjective reports of stroboscopic light pulse machines.

8. Bokkon I, Kirby M, D’Angiulli A, “TMS, phosphenes and visual mental imagery: A mini-review and a theoretical framework”. Symposium on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Neuroimaging in Cognition and Behaviour Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 25 September 2008.

9. Dobelle WH, Mladejovsky HG, “Phosphenes produced by electrical stimulation of human occipital cortex, and their application to the development of a prosthesis for the blind”. J Physiol. 1974 December; 243(2): 553–576.1.

10. See Chapter 06, “The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action”.

11. Hobson, J. Allan, “The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness”. MIT Press, 2001.

12. Subjective reports show that some tryptamines, such a the psilocybin and psilocin found in magic mushrooms, naturally cause drowsiness even in loud sensory environments. Other tryptamines, like LSD, can have paradoxically trance-like or stimulant-like qualities depending on the environmental drivers of set and setting.

13. Riba J, Anderer P, et al., “Topographic pharmaco-EEG mapping of the effects of the South American psychoactive beverage ayahuasca in healthy volunteers”. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2002 June; 53(6): 613–628.

14. Stuckey DE, Lawson R, Luna LE, “EEG gamma coherence and other correlates of subjective reports during ayahuasca experiences”. J Psychoactive Drugs. 2005 Jun;37(2):163-78.

15. Hoffmann, E, “Effects of a Psychedelic, Tropical Tea, Ayahuasca, on the Electroencephalographic (EEG) Activity of the Human Brain during a Shamanistic Ritual”. MAPS Spring (2001) 25-30.

16. Accounts of geometric meshwork or marching rows of repeating archetypal forms are taken from subjective reports of psychedelic intoxication.

17. Nicholson PT, Firnhaber RP, “Autohypnotic Induction of Sleep Rhythms Generates Visions of Light with Form-constant Patterns”. White Paper.

18. Nichols DE, “Hallucinogens”. Pharmacology & Therapeutics Volume 101, Issue 2, February 2004, Pages 131-181.

19. Aghajanian GK, Marek GJ, “Serotonin Induces Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials in Apical Dendrites of Neocortical Pyramidal Cells”. Neuropharmacology Volume 36, Issues 4-5, 5 April 1997, Pages 589-599.

20. Melechi A, “Seeing Stars: The Shifting Geometry of Phosphenes”. Trip Magazine, issue 10, 26-27, 2004.

Chapter 11: Eidetic Hallucination

Psychedelics can produce many types of hallucination, including geometric webs and grids;1 distortions of space and time;2 and photographic images of objects, people, or scenery. Hallucinations with a photographic, animated, or film-like clarity are called eidetic hallucinations, or eidetics for short. Eidetics share many of the formal qualities of dreams, visual memory, and imagination, and may be the most alluring aspect of experimenting with hallucinogens. Eidetic hallucinations rise and fall like dream snippets, rarely holding form for more than a few seconds before fading or shifting into another form. Eidetic objects, scenes, or people that become solid and retain their shape for an extended period of time are called frank or concrete hallucinations. Concrete hallucinations are often solid, immersive, indistinguishable from reality, and share many of the qualities of lucid dreaming, sleepwalking, and dementia.

The most commonly reported eidetic hallucinations seen on psychedelics are of people, faces, skulls, jaguars, snakes, plants, blooming flowers, spirits, aliens, insects, and other similar archetypes. Eidetic hallucinations can sometimes take the form of entire virtual worlds, spirit dimensions, invisible landscapes, and so on. Eidetics often emerge within a pre-existing entopic interference pattern that grows in intensity over time to produce more photographic or 3D rendered objects (Fig. 20).1 Eidetics under the influence of psychedelics are most often reported with eyes closed or while sitting motionless in meditative trance. On high doses of psychedelics eidetic hallucinations may materialize with eyes open on any surface, pattern, or texture that’s gazed at for more than a few seconds.3

Figure 20. Eidetic tryptamine hallucinations, like this alien, typically emerge as snapshots or animations within a larger geometric interference pattern.

Psychedelic eidetics are progressive, which means they begin as non-durable form arising from patterns or noise, and then over a period of seconds drift, smooth, or lock into formal qualities which can be recognized as salient shapes. The process of smoothing or locking onto an eidetic form in a psychedelic hallucination requires some minimal amount of focus and concentration to sustain. The eidetic image may materialize, ooze, or pulse into clarity in response to the subject’s concentration and focus, developing slowly like a Polaroid photo or film-reel fade-in. Losing concentration for an instant can cause the eidetic image to fade or shift into another image. Holding the eyes still will increase intensity of progressive eidetic imagery; blinking or flicking the eyes from side-to-side will wipe the visual memory buffer and cause eidetic images to fade; holding the eyes still again will cause previously held images to spontaneously rematerialize.4

Figure 21. Acetylcholine (ACh) modulates the medial-temporal lobe during memory storage, recall, and dreaming. Eidetic imagery in hallucination is associated with high ACh modulation.

The Hippocampus, ACh, Memory, and Dreaming

The processes of dreaming, memory storage, and memory recall are managed by the hippocampus.5 The hippocampus receives perceptual information from the frontal cortex but is also wired tightly into the emotional limbic system and medial temporal lobe; which is why strong memories always have an emotional component.6 Since the hippocampus is central in the formation, consolidation, and reconsolidation of all salient memory, we can also assume it is also the source of salient eidetic hallucination. The hippocampus is most active while awake and while dreaming. The process of moving from waking to sleeping is associated with a move from high beta or alpha activity down to slower theta and delta ranges. Deep sleep is associated with slow delta waves and low energy activation, while REM sleep and dreaming begin to produce beta activity and energy profiles similar to those seen in waking activity.7

Nocturnal dream activity is a process of memory consolidation.8 In deep sleep and REM the stress chemical cortisol decreases communication between the hippocampus and neocortex,9 and the process of REM and dreaming is stimulated by acetylcholine release.10 Acetylcholine (ACh) is the primary messenger of the brain’s cholinergic system, essential to hippocampal modulation of memory compression and recall (Fig. 21). Sleep-onset, sleeping, and dreaming are associated with an increase in ACh modulation of the brainstem and medial temporal lobe; this occurs along with a proportional decrease in serotonin, norepinephrine, and aminergic activity in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). The interplay between these two systems acts like a tide between waking and sleeping worlds. Drugs which increase aminergic activity, such as antidepressants, should also decrease dreaming.11 Similarly, the prolonged suppression of cholinergic activity and REM sleep due to deprivation or extended amphetamine use creates psychotic episodes which may be defined as bursts of dream activity erupting spontaneously into waking states.

Figure 22. Hobson's AIM model shows patterns of (A)ctivation, (I)nput gating, and (M)odulation in various states of consciousness. Dreams and eidetic hallucination are associated with low aminergic and high cholinergic modulation. 11

To describe the functional interplay between aminergic waking states and cholinergic dreaming states, J. Allen Hobson has proposed a three-dimensional AIM state-space model.11 The interference between aminergic and cholinergic systems can be modeled by plotting the overall activation of the brain (A, high vs. low energy), the input of sensory signal (I, internal vs. external), and the signal modulation (M, aminergic vs. cholinergic). Using this AIM model we can present a snapshot of the waking, dreaming, or hallucinating brain in a graphic context (Fig. 22). A waking brain would be high in activity, input gated externally, with high aminergic modulation. A dreaming brain would also be high in activity, but input gated internally and high cholinergic modulation. Similarly, states of deep sleep, mania, and psychosis can also be described.

According to the AIM model, eidetic hallucination in a psychedelic session will not begin until external serotonergic modulation is sufficiently interrupted to allow internally gated cholinergic activity to rise to the fore of consciousness. Remaining motionless, closing the eyes, or sitting in a quiet darkened environment will stimulate the onset of eidetic hallucinations on psychedelics;12 this is presumably because darkened stillness promotes sleep onset and an increase in internally gated cholinergic activity. The longer a subject under the influence of psychedelics remains motionless, the more photographically rendered the hallucinations will become. When the hallucinating subject rouses from trance and begins to move again, hallucination will lose photographic quality and return back to more generic entopic forms.

The ACh promotion of dreaming and REM has been demonstrated in animal research,10 but only subjectively reported and presumed in humans.22 Subjective reports of combining both the dissociative ketamine and the psychedelic LSD with pre-doses of galantamine and choline (both acetylcholine promoters) indicates that ACh promoters facilitate emotionally intense eidetic hallucinations, sometimes uncomfortable or unpleasant in nature, emerging beyond the subject’s capacity to control.13 This demonstrates that the production of eidetic imagery in response to ACh modulation is a spontaneous and automatic function of memory consolidation that cannot be easily controlled by the will or intent of the subject. The spontaneous production of salient eidetic memory makes psychedelics a useful tool in psychotherapy,14 but the uncontrollable flood of eidetic imagery may not always be pleasant for the subject. States of intense eidetic hallucination may be associated with memory regression, imprinting, reconsolidation, and neuroplasticity.15

Anticholinergics, Concrete Hallucination, REM

Hallucinogens which target ACh receptors are reported to produce very vivid waking dreams and concrete hallucinations. Anticholinergics cause drowsiness, but at high doses also induce a disruptive sleep and a qualitatively unique form of delirium.24 The commonly reported anticholinergic hallucinogens are the tropane deliriants atropine and scopolamine; found in deadly nightshade, belladonna, datura, Jimson weed, and members of the Solanaceae family.16 Muscarine from the Amanita muscaria mushroom also interacts at the muscarine ACh receptors as an agonist. Tobacco also targets ACh receptors, but nicotinic ACh receptors instead of muscarinic receptors.17 All plants and pharmaceuticals which target the cholinergic system are reported to be hallucinogenic at high enough doses. Cholinergic hallucinations are unique in that they may erupt into consciousness fully formed like dreams or fevered delusions.18 In contrast, tryptamine psychedelics have progressive levels of entopic or erratic hallucination before reaching the level of concrete hallucination. Although datura and tobacco are common admixtures of traditional Amazonian ayahuasca preparations, experimentation with plants and drugs that target the cholinergic system at hallucinogenic doses is physically very uncomfortable and potentially lethal.16,21 

Concrete hallucinations are similar to symptoms of dementia in that the subject literally cannot tell delusion from reality. Like a sleepwalker, the subject may think they are at the supermarket when they are actually looking into a closet. Psychedelics may produce this state of disorientation, but it is more commonly associated with dissociatives, deliriants, and pharmaceutical antihistamines or sleep aids. Suppression of REM sleep is associated with psychotic disorders,23 and sleep deprivation for as few as three days can cause spontaneous periods of concrete hallucination and waking delusion.19 Mixing anticholinergics with REM suppression can create highly realized waking lucid dreams and experiences of leaving the body and entering into parallel realities.20 This indicates that periodic ACh REM consolidation of eidetic memory over the course of 24 hours is necessary for maintaining stability of consciousness. Activating eidetic memory consolidation with the use of psychedelics and extended REM trance-induction may be therapeutic for subjects suffering from depression, anxiety, or psychosis due to PTSD, insomnia, and other stress-related sleep disorders. Conversely, using psychedelics as stimulants to avoid sleep may lead to negative plasticity and persistent psychotic disorders.15

Notes and References

1. See Chapter 10, “Entopic Hallucination”.

2. See Chapter 12, “Erratic Hallucination”.

3. Content of eidetic psychedelic hallucinations taken from subjective reports and a survey of psychedelic literature.

4. Accounts of eidetic hallucinations arising progressively and being wiped from visual memory by eye movements taken from subjective reports.

5. LeDoux, Joseph, “Synaptic Self”. Viking Penguin, NY, 2002.

6. LeDoux, Joseph, “The Emotional Brain”. Simon & Schuster, NY, 1996.

7. Munglani R, Jones JG, “Sleep and General Anesthesia as Altered States of Consciousness”. Journal of Psychopharmacology 6:399-409, 1992.

8. Stickgold R, Hobson JA, Fosse R, Fosse M, “Sleep, learning, and dreams: off-line memory reprocessing”. Science. 2001 Nov 2;294(5544):1052-7.

9. Payne JD, Nadel L., “Sleep, dreams, and memory consolidation: the role of the stress hormone cortisol”. Learn Mem. 2004 Nov-Dec;11(6):671-8.

10. Hobson JA, et al., “The neuropsychology of REM sleep dreaming”. NeuroReport: 16 February 1998 - Volume 9 - Issue 3 - p R1-R14.

11. Hobson, J. Allan, “The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness”. MIT Press, 2001.

12. Accounts of psychedelic eidetic images becoming more intense with eyes held still, eye closed, or in a darkened room taken from subjective reports. Saccades, blinking, or any fast movement of the eyes wiping and refreshing visual memory also taken from subjective accounts.

13. Reported accounts of combining doses of both ketamine and LSD with pre-doses of 800mg of galantamine and 500mg choline report the eidetic visuals of these respective experiences as extremely intense, impossible to stop, and impossible to steer in a conscious direction. This experiments were conducted to enhance the capacity to remember the content generated in a psychedelic experience. Instead of aiding in memory imprinting, ACh modulation produced an opposite effect of visual memory flooding, creating a “Full-blown eyelid movie” that were not always pleasant and were impossible to control. Reports taken from personal e-mail correspondence with the test subject.

14. Grof, S, “LSD Psychotherapy”. MAPS, 3rd Edition, 2001.

15. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”.

16. Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB, “Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered”. The Lindesmith Center, 1997.

17. Cooper JR, Bloom FE, Roth RH, “The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology”. Oxford University Press, NY, 7th ed., 1996.

18. Accounts of experimentation with plant and pharmaceutical anticholinergics taken from subjective reports and a survey of literature.

19. Coren, S, “Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency “. Psychiatric Times. Vol. 15 No. 3, 1998.

20. Zoe 7, “Into The Void”. Worldwide Media, 2001.

21. Arnett AM, “Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium) Poisoning”. Clinical Toxicology Review Dec 1995, Vol 18 (No 3).

22. LaBerge SP, “Substances that Enhance Recall and Lucidity During Dreaming”. Patent Application number: 10/604,138; Publication number: US 2004/0266659 A1; Filing date: Jun 27, 2003

23. Cochen V, Arnulf I, Demeret S, et al., “Vivid dreams, hallucinations, psychosis and REM sleep in Guillain-Barré syndrome”. Brain, ISSN 0006-8950. 2005, vol. 128 (11), pp. 2535-2545.

24. Itil TM, “Anticholinergic drug-induced sleep-like EEG pattern in man”. Psychopharmacologia. 1969;14(5):383-93.

Figure 23. Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s “Rotating Snakes” illusion. Stare at the center of any circle and the radial edges of nearby circles will appear to rotate. This image presents an example of the peripheral drift illusion due to contrast ambiguities in the visual field. This illusion exploits contrast expectations created by progressive 4-step gradients along radial tangents. The contrast expectations created by 4-step gradients are time-dependent and wired for motion detection in the periphery. The 4 degrees of color contrast around the periphery requires multiple frames to properly fill, creating a temporal ambiguity to edge aliasing exploited by this illusion. From Kitaoka, 2003.

Chapter 12: Erratic Hallucination

Hallucinations have formal properties that can shed light on their origins. Entopic hallucinations are characterized by geometric forms originating in the retina and optic tract.1 Eidetic hallucinations are characterized by photographic images originating from the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe.2 There is also a third type of hallucination not covered by these other formal categories; erratic hallucinations, or hallucinations originating in the loss of multisensory frame stability. Optical illusions that exploit rendering ambiguities in peripheral vision can be described as erratic hallucination. Tinnitus, or phantom ringing or buzzing in the ears can be described as erratic hallucination. Parasthesia, or phantom tingling sensations due to oxygen loss or nerve trauma can also be described as erratic hallucinations.

Like entopic hallucination, the origin of erratic hallucination is a destabilization of multisensory processing and sensory signal coupling. Erratic hallucinations caused by 5-HT2A agonism include wiggling and drifting of line and shadow; frame stacking and recursive frame cascading; and temporal and spatial disorientation caused by loss of multisensory cohesion. Erratic psychedelic hallucination begins at low doses with simple formal boundary errors, and becomes more acute at higher doses, leading to the total loss of multisensory frame stability. Loss of multisensory frame stability under the influence of psychedelics resembles states of senility and schizophrenia.

Breathing Walls, Melting Textures, Creeping Carpets

Subjects under the influence of hallucinogens report breathing walls, creeping carpets, and melting textures. These effects are all similar in that they represent a loss of stability in sharp line, contrast, and texture detail in visual memory. This can be described as a rendering ambiguity error, and indicates a drifting of contrast information both laterally and radially across the cortex. This drifting in the visual field is most prominent in the periphery where the retinal blind-spots are working with incomplete data to begin with. This orientation ambiguity is exploited in optical-illusions which evoke rotational movement (Figs. 6, 23).

Hallucinations of creeping line, depth, and shadow are caused by a loss of lateral or localized inhibition within cortical circuits.3 The level of disinhibition and drift in the visual field is presumably proportional to the dose of hallucinogen, and this assumption is proved correct by individual reports of hallucinogen use. While at lower doses there may only be a slight wiggling or drifting to the rendering of line and depth, at higher doses the lines and colors between solid forms may appear to bend, swirl, or melt into one another.4 The inability to alias smooth lines or hold sharp contrast between objects is the definition of linear destabilization.

The melting or drifting of textures seen on psychedelics originates in the layers of the visual cortex, but there are other similar inhibitory mechanisms which stabilize sensory cohesion across the entire brain. By applying disinhibition to audio networks, a subject under the influence of psychedelics may hear an echo or murmur rising in the wake of each sound. By applying disinhibition to tactile networks the subject might feel phantom fluid sensations rippling along the skin. These hallucination patterns are distinct in that they arise like a wiggling or fluid ripple in the wake of stimulus, causing a loss of sensory field stability similar to a slow dripping or melting of contrast boundaries.

Frame Destabilization and Frame Stacking

The seamless nature of human perception depends on the fast updating of sensory frame information. Humans update waking frame information at roughly the beta range of consciousness, around 12-30 Hz, which is why animation, film, TV, and computer screens all appear seamless in the 24-60 Hz range. Psychedelics destabilize smooth frame aliasing by interrupting pathways responsible for multisensory binding.5 At low doses hallucinogenic interruption is felt as entopic hallucination, but at higher doses modulatory interruption leads to more extreme frame destabilization. Subjects under the influence of tryptamine hallucinogens report sensory frame lag and slow-motion frames; frame delay or echo; frame flange or recursive looping; frame stacking or frame freezing; frame rewind and fast forward; dropped frames; split or bifurcating frames; frame skipping; and similar non-linear frame effects. These are all examples of extreme erratic hallucination linked to multisensory frame destabilization.

Figure 24. Examples of frame stacking caused by video feedback, which is isomorphic of fractal recursion, visual echo, and psychedelic hallucination. Frames stacked as few 16 layers deep quickly converge towards a vortex, a strange attractor, or a blur of infinite regression.

To account for various types of hallucination related to multisensory frame destabilization the following hallucinogenic Frame Stacking Model has been proposed.6 To create the perception of fluid movement from frame to frame, any frame we perceive must be a composite of at least two frames, one arising and one fading. Each frame is associated with a neural spike train involving some feedback to the thalamus and basal forebrain to fix the frame’s snapshot in working memory. These feedback circuits normally neutralize in about 1/15th of a second, allowing for multisensory frame update of @15 Hz. If hallucinogens interrupt the process of frame neutralization for some small period of time, each frame then begins to fade more slowly until frame data stacks up and feeds back on incoming perception (Fig. 24). As recurrent information from multiple receding frames replicates and stacks onto incoming frames, each perceptual frame splits or bifurcates in complexity. This iterating pattern of recursive complexity is the formal description of a nonlinear system.

Frame stacking is considered to be progressive with hallucinogenic dose and grows from mild to extreme. At low doses you might have four frames stacked in perception instead of two; three fading and one arising. With three fading frames you may begin to see softening of edges or intensification of colors as the saturation of each frame stacks over the next. With eight frames stacked you might see visual artifacts like jitters or trails in the wake of any movement, similar to visual flange or video feedback. While holding the eyes still, an increase in frame overlay makes solid objects crystallize into something very fascinating and precious, like a faceted jewel, creating a quality of temporal depth and luminance to surfaces and textures. An increase in frame overlay also creates enhanced edge smoothing between solid objects, which gives reality a sensation of liquidity or stretchiness like surreal art, graffiti, or a cartoon. As frames regress the perspective of perceptual space may begin to elongate like a fish-eye lens. If a fading frame produces an emotionally salient pattern, the salient layer can then feed back into the arising frame as a progressively animated eidetic loop. When sixteen frames are stacked in perception, the wake of overlapping and receding content causes frame overload, confusion, disorientation, dropped frames, ego loss, bodily transcendence, and missing time. Beyond sixteen stacked frames the information density becomes too large for the human brain to render; ego consciousness is overwhelmed and totally destabilizes into a swirling vortex of timeless transpersonal unity.

The Frame Stacking Model presumes that hallucinogens enable a perceptual frame buffer that allows for sorting and browsing through multiple simultaneous linear frames; or that frame perception might be splintered into a radial kaleidoscope of multi-threaded parallel processing frames. Within the context of frame stacking, psychedelic consciousness may enable the subject to scroll back and forth in time; retrieve multiple simultaneous memories from a single stimulus; and project multiple versions of the self into multiple imaginary future scenarios. If the consciousness of a single person can be momentarily realized within three frames – the arising frame, the fading frame, and a static frame which holds the idealized concept of self – then the persistence of six or more frames could lead to the fabrication of two or more fully realized identities within a single subject. This frame splitting effect may explain how people can have conversations with phantom friends or relatives, or how a shaman might invoke anthropomorphized plant spirits with distinct personalities.

Multisensory Destabilization and Schizophrenia

In large doses, hallucinogens can produce multisensory destabilization; a state where sensations, objects, time, and space become entirely decoupled from each other in consciousness. The sensation of time uncoupling or of space losing it boundaries is difficult to describe as hallucination, but it is clearly hallucination. Loss of sensory or temporal frame cohesion implies multisensory destabilization and erratic hallucination. Externally the subject may be awake and responsive, but internally the brain has lost all state data and is completely disoriented, much like acute senility.7 This state can be simultaneously hysterical or terrifying, which describes the extreme mood shifts associated with transient schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is linked to the inability to retain multisensory frame stability and decreased ability to produce the fast gamma oscillations needed to focus and bind sensory perception.8,9 Multisensory destabilization is also reproduced by the hallucinogenic dissociatives ketamine and dextromethorphan (DXM) by blocking associative NMDA pathways necessary for fast sensory binding.10

Notes and References

1. See Chapter 10, “Entopic Hallucination”.

2. See Chapter 11, “Eidetic Hallucination”.

3. Kass L, Hartline PH, Adolph AR, “Presynaptic uptake blockade hypothesis for LSD action at the lateral inhibitory synapse in Limulus”. The Journal of General Physiology, Vol 82, 245-267.

4. Accounts of tryptamine psychedelics producing hallucinations of melting textures, creeping carpets, and breathing walls taken from a survey of subjective reports. Accounts of hallucinations of objects melting and pouring into one another taken from a survey of high-dose subjective reports.

5. See Chapter 06, “The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action”.

6. The Frame Stacking Model of hallucination was proposed by a Canadian researcher who wishes to remain anonymous, and is presented here as a brief summary of a larger e-mail correspondence. The model is based on first-hand experimentation with LSD and Salvia divinorum, and has also been applied to hallucinations seen on DMT, psilocybin, 2-CB, N₂0, 5-MeO-DMT, Ketamine, DXM, and others.

7. Accounts of psychedelic intoxication matching states of schizophrenia taken from subjective reports and surveys of case studies.

8. Cho RY, Konecky RO, Carter CS, “Impairments in frontal cortical gamma synchrony and cognitive control in schizophrenia”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Dec 26;103(52):19878-83. Epub 2006 Dec 14.

9. Colgin, Laura Lee, et al., “Frequency of gamma oscillations routes flow of information in the hippocampus”. Nature 462, 353-357 (19 November 2009); doi:10.1038/nature08573

10. Bonta IL, “Schizophrenia, dissociative anaesthesia and near-death experience; three events meeting at the NMDA receptor”. Med Hypotheses, 2004;62(1):23-8.

11. Kitaoka A, Ashida H, 2003 “Phenomenal characteristics of the peripheral drift illusion”. Vision (Japan), 15 261-262.

Chapter 13: Psychedelic Neuroplasticity

Neural axons in the human brain are always branching and creating new synaptic connections to facilitate learning and development. Like the toning and bulking of muscle mass, neural connectivity, developmental growth, and plasticity are based partly on genetics and partly on the “use it or lose it” principle; the more you use a neural pathway the more robust and responsive it becomes, the less you use a pathway the weaker it becomes. Training and repetition build faster and more responsive connections; emotional attachments to concepts build more robust connections over time. The more a neuron or assembly of neurons is used in a specific exercise, the faster and more responsive those neurons will become when performing that task. This is how the brain learns new things and integrates new skills. Training, repetition, and reinforcement leads to long term changes in synaptic connectivity; these are the basics of neuroplasticity.1

Neuroplasticity is the physical mechanism which makes shamanism and psychedelic therapy viable. In dreaming, neuroplasticity is stimulated in response to daily routine and anxiety; in hypnosis neuroplasticity is stimulated in response to suggestion and reinforcement; in shamanism neuroplasticity is stimulated in response to dose, set, and setting. The efficacy of psychedelics in both shamanic transformation and clinical therapy relies on their unique ability to decouple the cortex, disassociate ego structures, and stimulate archetypal identity regression and personal transformation. No other class of drugs can claim to have such a radical effect on personality; radical personality change in response to brief psychedelic exposure implies neuroplasticity.

While there is no laboratory research to prove that psychedelics stimulate neuroplasticity, there is evidence that a single psychedelic session can produce long-term changes in personality.2 People who take psychedelics sometimes adopt a new outlook on life, a new manner of dress, a new spirituality, perhaps even a new name to go with their new identity.3 Self-reinvention is an integral part of psychedelic exploration and subculture. The forging of a new identity does not always happen in a single psychedelic session, but psychedelic experimentation can be a catalyst for sudden radical personality transformation. These basic observations make a case for psychedelics as facilitators of long term identity modification and neuroplasticity.  

The Case for Psychedelic Neuroplasticity

Psychedelics can stimulate recall of lost memories and can also generate false memories; lost memory reconsolidation and false memory imprinting implies neuroplasticity. The brain builds tolerance to psychedelics quickly, but psychedelic tolerance can be surpassed by successively ingesting larger and larger doses.4 Successive dosing and increasing levels of tolerance implies stress-based neuroplasticity. In the case of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), the subject retains some of the visual effects of hallucinogens long after the drug should have metabolized;5 persisting reactions to neural stress imply neuroplasticity. Psychedelics have been used to facilitate cult induction and programming;6 indoctrination implies identity-based neuroplasticity. Psychedelics induce peer and mate bonding in tribal subcultures; mate bonding implies identity-based neuroplasticity. Psychedelics can create positive long-term changes in mood and outlook;2 long term outlook changes imply neuroplasticity. Finally, while lying in darkened silence, the psychedelic state resembles a deep dream-like trance; dreaming is known to facilitate memory compression and long-term memory potentiation (LTP).7 Any drug which facilitates extended dream-like states should also facilitate memory compression, LTP, and neuroplasticity.

In programmatic terms, a psychedelic drug can be thought of as a back-door or reboot mechanism that allows the subject to enter a visually driven ego programming and debugging matrix; this state would be similar to hypnosis mixed with an element of lucid dreaming or creative visualization. To stretch the computer metaphor further, in the absence of hypnotic suggestion or shamanic control, the psychedelic debugging matrix will naturally drop into a maintenance mode where anxieties are brought to the fore like a screen-saver programmed to browse through repressed salient patterns arising within chaotic noise.8 All of these programmatic metaphors for psychedelics are accurate, and all imply a spontaneous cataloging, compression, or re-organization of existing synaptic memory via nonlinear eidetic emotional cues; this implies synaptic testing and strengthening in response to pre-existing anxiety, which implies neuroplasticity.

Physiology of Psychedelic Neuroplasticity

Hallucinogens which target the 5-HT2A receptor can influence cellular functioning via the activation of G-proteins and intracellular secondary messengers. The signaling pathways mediated by the 5-HT2A receptor include the activation of PKC and MAPK, protein kinases which energize enzymes to perform complex cellular maintenance. The activation of PKC undoubtedly plays a role in the production and maintenance of long term memory. Evidence shows that inhibiting PKC activation in the cortex for as little as a few hours can cause the rapid erasure of long-term memory associations.11 It is obvious that PKC is a fundamental part of memory formation and retention, and it is reasonable to assume that drugs which stimulate PKC activity may enhance or alter the processes of memory formation, recall, retention, and plasticity.

The process by which PKC mediates memory associations is still unknown, but the primary assumption is that PKC interacts with diglycerides (DAG) at the intracellular membrane to mark energetic signaling areas for receptor formation and synaptic strengthening. The secondary signaling cascade goes like this: The 5-HT2A receptor is stimulated with an agonist, activating phospholipase C (PLC) in the cell membrane, which then chops a phospholipid (PIP2 or PI) at the membrane into an IP3 group and DAG. The DAG stays near the membrane while IP3 activates the release of calcium (Ca2+) from the endoplasmic reticulum, which then activates PKC, which allows PKC to carry energy back to the cell membrane near the DAG site before activating other enzymes and intracellular substrates. PKC performs its job by moving phosphate groups around the cytoplasm and activating cellular enzymes such as adenosine which forms AMP, ADP, and ATP by linking with phosphate groups in chains of up to three at once, allowing metabolic energy to move quickly to other sites throughout the cell. The addition and removal of phosphates to and from proteins is a fundamental part of all organic metabolic processes; 5-HT2A agonists stimulate this phosphorylation process through PLC, IP3, Ca2+, and subsequent PKC activation.

The fact that 5-HT2A agonists stimulate PKC and fundamental metabolic processes indicates a strong case for psychedelic neuroplasticity. It is interesting to note that Salvinorin A, from Salvia divinorum, also activates these same phosphorylation pathways through the G-coupled kappa-Opiod receptor.12 It is also interesting to note that of all the hallucinogenic compounds that occur in nature, psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms) is the only one that comes with its own  phosphate group (which is stripped to make psilocin), and also appears to be the weakest tryptamine agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor.13 While it is tempting to assert that PKC phosporylation is at the root of all hallucinogenesis and psychedelic effect, it has been demonstrated that 5-HT2A mediated PI hydrolosis is not always a good indicator of psychedelic potency.14 Although there are multiple factors responsible for hallucinogenesis, psychedelic stimulation of PKC activity undoubtedly plays a role in perturbing and stimulating persistent memory functions and promoting potential potent neuroplasticity.

Other research indicates that LSD activates cellular mechanisms to promote expression of genes responsible for encoding c-Fos and Arc proteins, particularly in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC).15 c-Fos is essential to cell proliferation, differentiation, and cellular defense, while Arc (activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein) regulates the formation and repair of the scaffolding maintaining neural shape and stability. By activating expression of c-Fos and Arc proteins in PFC neurons, LSD may promote potent neuroplasticity, cell proliferation, cell repair, and synaptic generation in neurons responsible for identity. Presumably any selective 5-HT2A agonist will produce similar results, making hallucinogenic tryptamines primary candidates for cellular signal strengthening and profound identity-based neuroplasticity.

Positive and Negative Plasticity 

Shamanic transformation may stimulate neuroplasticity by helping the subject realize a more transcendent or spiritually integrated vision of themselves. The logic follows that visualization of a transcendent inner self will reinforce positive personality traits and behavioral changes to synchronize with inner idealization. Shamanic identity transformation is not instantaneous, but instead follows an integrative process of synaptic testing and reinforcement over a period of days to weeks. Some psychedelic therapy stimulates neuroplasticity using techniques similar to the ten-step program employed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), where the subject takes a clinical inventory of their life and behaviors and assesses each area where they need forgive, accept, or make changes. In psychedelic therapy the process of uncovering and severing negative pathways is called catharsis; the process of wiring and reinforcing new pathways is called integration. These are examples of positive psychedelic plasticity used to maximize positive social integration. These processes are sometimes slow and require some small amount of mental discipline and behavioral follow-through for success.

There are many examples of negative psychedelic neuroplasticity. Renegade schools of ayahuasca sorcery and witchcraft employ some of the most elaborate and lethal mind-games ever devised, including the constant fear of attack by rival sorcerers through poisons, curses, dream invasion, and magical darts that may induce paralysis, cancer, death, or insanity.9 The traditional shaman’s constant stress of exposure to the effects of black magic mirrors paranoid psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder; this implies negative plasticity. Exposing any subject to extended and repeated psychedelic sessions may force stress-driven plasticity associated with PTSD, torture, isolation, and sensory deprivation. Psychedelics may speed techniques of ego deprogramming and imprinting associated with brainwashing or cult indoctrination;6 this implies mind control and negative neuroplasticity. Psychedelics may produce psychotic breaks where subjects become violent and deranged, or may reinforce delusional, messianic, paranoid, sociopathic, antisocial and megalomaniacal identity traits;10 this also implies negative neuroplasticity. Thus, forging new synaptic pathways to radically alter identity structures is not always a good thing, this process can induce pathology as easily as it can reduce pathology. 

Tribal Imprinting and Viral Neuroplasticity

One of the most interesting aspects of psychedelics is that group psychedelic experimentation can catalyze spontaneous organization of tribal subcultures and grassroots political movements. According to PIT, if you destabilize the top-down regulating influence of culture over a small group of peers, energetic tribal organizations will spontaneously emerge within those groups; this is an extrapolation of control theory and tenets of distributed cognition. Modern history has demonstrated that if you sprinkle LSD or psychedelic mushrooms over a major city, then flower children will blossom and form drum circles and begin to reproduce. But close observation of modern psychedelic subcultures reveals that radical identity reinvention is not a function of spiritual freedom or political subversion, but is more a viral form of tribal bonding and indoctrination. For example, the hippies of 1960s and the ravers of 1990s each preached freedom and individuality, yet each culture had strictly controlled tribal uniforms, politics, musical styles, and rituals, and ostracized outsiders as being squares or un-hip. This indicates that psychedelic tribal organization and identity reinvention is not a linear function of freedom of expression or social liberation, but is instead a nonlinear amplification of the typical motivators of social elitism, the fears of being ostracized, and the reinforcements of tribal acceptance; all of which strongly affect identity-based neuroplasticity. Presumably any tribe, cultural group, religion, cult, or government can employ psychedelic neuroplasticity to similar social organizing effect.

Notes and References

1. LeDoux, Joseph, “Synaptic Self”. Viking Penguin, NY, 2002.

2. Griffiths, R.R., “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance”. Psychopharmacology (2006) 187:268–283.

3. Observations of individuals adopting new names and new identities in response to psychedelic indoctrination come from subjective reports and first-hand observations of psychedelic subcultures.

4. Gresch PJ, Smith RL, Barrett RJ, Sanders-Bush E., “Behavioral tolerance to lysergic acid diethylamide is associated with reduced serotonin-2A receptor signaling in rat cortex.”. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005 Sep;30(9):1693-702.

5. Abraham HD, Duffy FH, “EEG coherence in post-LSD visual hallucinations”. Psychiatry Res. 2001 Oct 1;107(3):151-63.

6. Groups linked to the weaponized use of psychedelics include the Manson Family, the SLA, Aum Shinrikyo, the CIA, and the United States Department of Defense.

7. Hobson, J. Allan, “The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness”. MIT Press, 2001.

8. Accounts of psychedelics producing a screen saver or hypnotic autopilot of unresolved anxieties and salient attractors are taken from subjective reports and surveys of psychedelic literature.

9. Beyer, SV, “Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon”. University of New Mexico Press (October 31, 2009).

10. Reports of psychedelics facilitating symptoms of persistent psychosis taken from subjective reports and a survey of psychedelic overdose case studies.

11. Shema R, Sacktor TC, Dudai Y, “Rapid erasure of long-term memory associations in the cortex by an inhibitor of PKM zeta”. Science. 2007 Aug 17;317(5840):951-3.

12. Bohn LM, “Mitogenic Signaling via Endogenous κ-Opioid Receptors in C6 Glioma Cells: Evidence for the Involvement of Protein Kinase C and the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Cascade”. J Neurochem. 2000 February; 74(2): 564–573.

13. Ray TS, “Psychedelics and the Human Receptorome”. PLoS One. 2010; 5(2): e9019.

14. Nichols DE, “Hallucinogens”. Pharmacology & Therapeutics Volume 101, Issue 2, February 2004, Pages 131-181.

Chapter 14: What is Shamanism?

The origins of shamanism are rooted in spirituality and myth, but the power of shamanism is entirely real. It is the goal of this text to explore rational limits and applications of shamanic power beyond the paradigms of mythology and faith healing. The subtitle of this text is “Shamanism in the Age of Reason,” so it seems fitting to provide a good definition for shamanism. There are many definitions that have something to do with tribal healers, witch doctors, ritual plant magic, and/or dealing with the spirit world; these definitions conjure images of pre-industrial folk medicine steeped in superstition. Relegating shamanism to the bin of folk medicine fails to account for the sophistication of shamanic tradecraft, methodology, or the varying levels of shamanic manipulation. Traditional shamanism may be cloaked in the veil of superstition, but behind the veil is the real science of programming human belief and behavior with a blend of mysticism, ritual, and hallucinogenic drugs.

Instead of focusing on the many societal roles and functions a shaman might fill, PIT takes a broader view and starts with this definition: Shamanism is the craft of evoking spontaneous organization of psychedelic information in a subject or group of subjects to promote plasticity, imprinting, and transformation. Psychedelic information implies holistic or meta level manipulation of memory and identity, and this definition fulfills the functions of therapy, sorcery, mind control, applied psychedelic science, targeted neuroplasticity, behavioral conditioning, and tribal bonding. The technology of evoking and imprinting psychedelic information is inherently neutral; the shaman learns to apply this technology for healing and positive plasticity, the sorcerer succumbs to the temptation to use this technology for black magic and negative plasticity.

Transformational Plasticity and Imprinting

The power of shamanism can be measured by the shamanic ability to transform subjective beliefs and behaviors. A shaman can transform the subject in the literal sense, through diet and chemical manipulation; or in the figurative sense, by altering the subject’s paradigm and perception of reality. Both of these transformations imply targeted neuroplasticity. The extreme diets and psychedelic medicine catalyze spontaneous stress-based reorganization of neural identity structures, and the shamanic mythology creates the semantic frame through which the subject parses the transformational experience. Although psychedelics have been tested in brainwashing and hostile interrogation, the process of psychedelic imprinting usually works best if the subject is ready and willing to receive the transformation.1

Some aspects of psychedelic imprinting are automatic and spontaneously generated like dreams;2 in this case the shaman’s job is to apply the medicine and essentially look important doing nothing. In other instances the subject may have an adverse reaction to the medicine, or become lost in the psychedelic space; in this case the shaman may intervene with a spirit song, a meditative chant, or a rhythmic breathing exercise to guide the subject through the transition. In traditional or loosely organized shamanic ceremonies, the level of intervention and depth of psychedelic imprinting is controlled by ritual, shamanic intent, and group intuition; in clinical psychedelic therapy the depth of psychedelic imprinting is controlled by protocol.

Shamanic Reputation and Expectant Plasticity

If a shaman gains a reputation for being transformative, subjects will seek them out expecting to be transformed. Similarly, a popular shaman may become the target of a rival shaman seeking to curse them or bring them down with magic darts. Both scenarios indicate that the shaman has successfully imprinted his own supernatural abilities to the point of viral plasticity. A shaman does not need psychedelic drugs to accomplish this, any guru with a transformational philosophy and self-promotional streak can achieve this level of influence. The shaman differs from the New Age guru only by having mastery of the plants and the spirit world, which is rudimentary psychopharmacology and ritual transcendence. By offering his or her self as the path to sacred wisdom or healing, or by telling tales of supernatural battles with other sorcerers, the shaman implies that he or she is more powerful than the medicine they employ. Shamanic reputation builds subjective expectations, and in many ways is a very clever set-up and misdirection similar to priming a magic trick or a placebo. If the subject already believes the shaman has supernatural power, the task of transforming them with the medicine is the easy part.

By crafting a supernatural reputation, the shaman starts the process of bending the subject’s beliefs and expectations long before the medicine is applied. In hostile interrogation and indoctrination techniques, this process of bending subjective beliefs is called “softening up” the subject, or priming neuroplasticity to be vulnerable to imprinting. If the subject does not appear to respect the shaman’s supernatural authority, the shaman may become withholding and demand that the subject follow certain strange rules before applying the medicine. Establishing authority, submissiveness, and strictly enforced rules gives the shaman implicit control over the subject, and sets the stage for applying transformation. Even if the subject does not believe the shaman’s mythology, by forcing the subject to follow ritual protocol the shaman establishes the power dynamic necessary for controlling the ceremony and imprinting the subject.

Shamanism, Chaos Magic, and Belief as Toolkit

The shaman’s role will always be intertwined with the spiritual belief of the larger tribe or culture. The mythology is not important, a good shaman can adapt any mythology or belief to transformational ritual. Instead of preaching the mythology, the shaman exploits the mythology as a handle or tool for interfacing with and manipulating the subject’s core identity structures. By adopting a mythology that’s alluring to the patient, the shaman can apply identity transformation within a seamless spiritual context. The process of finding or seeding an emotional handle is a skill that can be learned, but it can also be purely intuitive. The technologies of religion, propaganda, agitprop, and social activism all use negative emotional handles to influence people’s beliefs and behaviors; shamanism employs many of the same techniques with positive emotional handles. The practice of manipulating belief like a tool to produce transformative results has become popularly known as chaos magic.3

The bulk of available literature on shamanism focuses on sprits, spirit mythology, and the ways in which the shaman communes with plant and spirits to gain supernatural insights. The allure and power of a drug that allows the user to talk directly with spirits is obvious, but fascination with spirits and transcendence may also be a handle used by the shaman to manipulate and imprint a willing subject. Western spiritual seekers are quickly enamored with the romanticism of entheogenic spirit communion, this is not something a good shaman would overlook; this is something that can be easily exploited. Whether the subject comes looking for Jesus, God, plant spirits, healing, or transcendence, the spiritual passions of the subject are the most powerful items in the shaman’s entire toolkit.

Shamanic Practice and Seeking Balance

The role of the shaman has always been to apply transformation, typically to restore balance and harmony within tribal units. The shaman works by organizing the flow of energy and information within individuals and tribal structures. The shaman synergizes many layers of transformation in the act of brewing and ingesting psychoactive sacraments, and uses mythology and sacred ritual to facilitate communication, navigate conflict, and fine-tune the overall health of the tribe. Since shamanic transformation can be used for both healing and sorcery, it is logical that the larger tribe will only tolerate such power as long as it is more therapeutic than destructive. Because of this dynamic, a practicing shaman may be inherently distrusted, and will always walk the line between outcast and savior. The romantic character of shamanism relies heavily on this outcast trope. If the shaman fails at the basic tasks of healing and conflict resolution, or abuses shamanic technology to undermine the well-being of the tribe for personal gain, then the shaman loses power and risks being ostracized by the tribe. Thus, the shaman’s power is limited and ultimately defined by the trust placed in him by the larger tribe.

Notes and References

1. Groups linked to the weaponized use of psychedelics include the Manson Family, the SLA, Aum Shinrikyo, the CIA, and the United States Department of Defense.

2. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”.

3. WikiPedia.org, “Chaos Magic”. Internet Reference, 2010.

Chapter 15: An Overview of Physical Shamanism

Physical Shamanism, or Shamanism in the Age of Reason, is differentiated from Spiritual Shamanism in that physical shamanism relies on models of neural oscillators and resonant wave entrainment as opposed to spirit models of channeling, telepathy, or clairvoyance. The Control Interrupt Model presents a description of physical shamanism based on the precision coupling of a multisensory hallucinogenic interrupt to a resonant environmental driver.1 Physical shamanism assumes the human brain in a destabilized state acts as a resonant oscillator, or a nonlinear information processing system; thus shamanism can be defined as the application of resonant drivers to mediate complex phase transitions between multi-stable states of consciousness.10,11 The techniques of physical shamanism are often used in concert with a hallucinogen in order to entrance or hypnotize a subject or group of subjects into a targeted mystical state.

Spirit Voices, Shamanic Songs, and Strange Attractors

When a shaman takes a psychedelic he or she hears the spirit voices and intuitively learns to sing the spirit songs. These songs are taken directly from the shaman’s head as the psychedelic begins to interrupt consciousness. In many ways these sacred songs, or icaros, are attempts to recreate the voice and tone of the pharmacological interaction at various stages of the psychedelic experience. The voice of the shamanic medicine is not human in the typical sense, the psychedelic voice is described more in terms of the repetitive bleeping and blooping of machine code; a biological thrumming; an electronic or alien pulsation; a guttural river of slurping and squelching sounds; the great wheeze of a mystical reed organ; the chirping of crickets; the croaking of frogs; or the fast-clicking communication of an insect intelligence.2,3 All of these colorful metaphors are the same in that they perfectly describe a resonant standing wave in the alpha to gamma range driving amplitude along multisensory perceptual bands. As the hallucinogenic voice grows in strength, the resonance of the standing wave then couples with and drives the amplitude of all internal physiological processes.4

The Control Interrupt Model posits that these spirit voices are the nonlinear artifacts of the hallucinogenic interrupt frequency overlapping into multisensory frame perception with a specific ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) envelope. By modulating standing vocal waves, the shaman can exactly match the periodic frequency of the hallucinogenic interrupt; by changing the shape of the lips, the speed of air through the glottis, and the speed of the tongue flicking towards the back of the throat, the shaman can replicate the slippery shape and feel of the hallucinogen’s interrupt envelope. Resonance is a term applied to oscillators when the shape and frequency of one standing wave harmonizes with and drives the amplitude, or energy, of another standing wave. By using the physical techniques of sound shaping and resonance, the shaman can amplify the hallucinogenic interrupt of any psychedelic and, beyond that, drive standing wave coherence among multiple participants in a shamanic ritual. This process is intuitive if the shaman merely pays close attention to his or her internal physiology as the hallucinogen takes action.

In the nomenclature of chaos theory, when a chaotic system evolves towards a particular state over time, that state is called an attractor, or a strange attractor in fractal systems. According to PIT, nonlinear consciousness is multi-stable, which means it can have many strange attractors pulling it towards many different stable states; or it can become stuck in a superposition or chaotic phase transition between two or more stable attractors. In normal perception, the primary attractor is linear consciousness; when consciousness is dramatically perturbed it will always find a way to return to the linear state after enough time, and consciousness tends to return to the linear state even when momentarily destabilized. In nonlinear consciousness the attractor may be a manic state, a trance state, a disoriented state, a paranoid state, an enlightened state, and so on. As psychedelic consciousness becomes complex and bifurcates, it gradually moves towards one of many multi-stable attractors, eventually locking into a complex stabilized state based on periodic drivers in set and setting. Once a subject under the influence of psychedelics finds an attractor state and locks into it, it becomes difficult to break the stabilizing harmonic pattern to move towards another attractor. Navigating between strange attractors in the destabilized nonlinear state is the primary function of shamanic singing and ritual; without the ability to self-navigate to a specific attractor, the subject may become stuck in a negative attractor, like an anxiety spiral or paranoid feedback loop.

Control Interrupt and Spirit Spaces

Mixing the Control Interrupt Model with traditional shamanic metaphors, it is accurate to say that the spirit world of each hallucinogen is literally erupting or interrupting into normal consciousness by carving out a distinct wave space where spirits can sneak packets of information to the subject in between normal frames. In physical terms, spirit information erupts into consciousness along the attack and decay of each psychedelic interrupt, then attenuates salient recognition and imprints itself into memory according to the receding sustain and release. As the interrupt’s interference pattern overlaps onto multisensory perception, spirit information will appear to overlap onto the fabric of reality; bending towards the subject from a nearby dimension; trickling or gurgling over an invisible spillway; flickering in a stroboscopic film reel; parting through folds in a lattice or screen; becoming visible underneath a silken veil; and so on.6 The subjective view of the spirit world is that it is an “invisible landscape” suddenly made visible to human eyes, and the addition of the hallucinogenic driver allows the veil of perception to be drawn open like shutters. These are all allusions to the boundaries of perceptual space changing as the hallucinogenic interrupt gains power, entrains sensory processing networks, and generates complex interference patterns.

To clarify this process with a metaphor, in the realm of shamanism it may be helpful to think of serotonergic (5-HT) modulation as reality, and the frequency of the hallucinogen as the spirit world. If serotonergic reality is modulated in the beta range at 12-30 Hz, and the hallucinogenic interrupt of tryptamine Y is modulated to 24 Hz, then there will be a predictable 24 Hz frame flicker superimposed over normal perception when you ingest hallucinogen Y. The interrupt frequency of 24 Hz presumes a very fast pulsation, fast enough to produce film-like or fully animated cartoon hallucinations. The 24 Hz spirit interrupt then masks itself onto multisensory pathways and is perceived as an ontologically distinct spirit realm emerging as a phantom but embedded part of physical reality. The physical intensity and tactile sensuality of the hallucinogenic spirit overlay will depend on the speed, shape, and intensity of the molecule’s ADSR interrupt; higher doses of hallucinogen typically means harder attack, longer sustain, elongated release, and more seamless merging between reality and hallucination.

Driving Interrupt Amplitude and ADSR Transitions

As a psychedelic chemical is ingested and metabolized, the frequency and ADSR envelope of the hallucinogenic interrupt will transition over time. This shift in modulatory interrupt can be described as a change in interrupt amplitude over duration of effect; higher amplitude of interrupt means stronger and more realized hallucinations. A shaman will instinctively modulate the tones of his or her chants and songs to match the interrupt frequency and envelope of the hallucinogen as it begins to take effect. This technique accurately describes the oscillating drones, throat singing, slurping, sucking, squelching, whooshing, whistling, guttural ululating, and other vocalizations associated with ayahuasca shamanism.2,3 If a shaman can drive interrupt amplitude through constructive vocal interference he or she should also be able to dampen interrupt amplitude through destructive vocal interference.5 This technique would manifest as the ability to snap a subject out of an intense psychedelic experience with a quick change in phase between vocal waves and hallucinogenic interrupt frequency to decrease and flatten interrupt amplitude.

Techniques of using resonance to drive and shape wave amplitude have been exploited by modern DJs and music producers to engineer hard-attack bass lines associated with acid house and trance music. In the psychedelic musical genre known as Goa Trance, bass lines rip through crowds of thousands of dancers with the resonant wave shape and amplitude of electric saw blades. The intensely amplified resonant pulse drivers of Goa Trance music are, in fact, the current bleeding-edge ritual technology of physical shamanism. Goa Trance originated from India; Goa Trance DJs and producers are revered like gurus or techno-shamen; and fans of Goa Trance travel to global music festivals the way other spiritual adherents make yearly pilgrimages. Goa Trance music is the psychedelic essence of resonant hallucinogenic tryptamine interrupt expressing itself through modern ritual entrainment technology. Using an electrically amplified sound system, a trance DJ can manipulate a tribe of thousands in the same way a traditional shaman manipulates a tribe of dozens (Fig. 25). It is shamanic folk technology now applied on an industrial scale.

Cellular Automata and Fractal Imprinting

It may be difficult to understand how a simple periodic interrupt or modulatory frame pulse can create such dramatic perceptual results, but the hallucinogenic interrupt should be thought of as a linear resonant driver which, over time, generates complex and salient wave interference patterns. This can also be described by a dynamical information processing system generating complexity over time based on a simple repetitive algorithm, such as a fractal or a cellular automata. Fractals or cellular automata are perhaps the best visual metaphors for the spontaneous recursive organization of psychedelic visual hallucinations, and there is a very fractal or cellular element to the psychedelic experience which evolves along the flickering pulsation of the hallucinogen’s interrupt. The endless unfolding of the infinite psychedelic fractal continues until the hallucinogen is metabolized, at which point the hallucinogenic interrupt wears off, fades away, and consciousness unwinds from the recursive spiral and stabilizes back into linear information processing.

Biology is repetitive feedback patterns; consciousness is repetitive feedback patterns; shamanism is the interruption and re-modulation of those repetitive feedback patterns to produce spectacular experiential results. In a very real way, shamanism is the art of shaping the fractal integrity of the individual from the genetic level up through personal memory and tribal identity. The hallucinogenic interrupt allows the shaman to break the subject’s habituated daily routines and place them into a self-referential programming loop that includes all layers of personal and transpersonal identity. The interlocking facets of biological-self and transpersonal-self are made explicit in the flickering spirit space, and by controlling the depth of immersion into this space the shaman can control how much of the subject’s existing identity is exposed, manipulated, and transformed in the process.

The fractal rendering of sub- and meta- consciousness in the shamanic space allows psychedelics to have a profound long-term effect on identity-based neuroplasticity.9 By applying a resonant multisensory driver that acts as a fractal generator for archetypal symbols in imagination, the psychedelic paradigms imprinted into memory appear to be more cosmic, transpersonal, holographic, and durable than sum of linear identity constructs imprinted over the average lifespan. To be clear, the nonlinear iterative nature of psychedelic hallucination exploits archetypal symbol rendering to bypass linear ego and imprint a recursive, holographic view of the transcendent self within a larger emergent cosmic reality. This idealized, holographic representation of the self may be considered more “real” than the actual self, perhaps even experienced as the essential self, genetic self, transpersonal self, or the eternal soul. The ability to produce and manipulate a representation of the idealized transpersonal self makes psychedelics viable in shamanic transformation, clinical therapy, and spiritual awakening.

The holographic image of idealized self does not emerge in a single moment or even in a single psychedelic session; the organization of a psychedelic meta-identity is a process that may take many hours of a single psychedelic session or possibly multiple psychedelic sessions to fully complete. However, once the self-activation of psychedelic metaprogramming and holographic imprinting takes hold, the subject may perceive their transformation to be an evolutionary expression of a hidden genetic instruction set, or a more perfect and cosmically mature version of the self emerging through spiritual cleansing and rebirth.7 There is evidence that a single psychedelic session can enhance self-worth and have lasting beneficial impact on mood and outlook.8 There is also evidence that psychedelics can be used to imprint pathological, antisocial, and delusional identity constructs.9 Holistic identity expression is generally considered to be a positive spiritual technology, but it can also be used to manipulate anxiety and exacerbate pathological behavior. This duality is commonly expressed in the nomenclature of therapy vs. mind control, negative vs. positive neuroplasticity, or shamanism vs. sorcery and witchcraft.

Linear vs. Nonlinear Memory Imprinting

The limits of human memory present some challenges for accurately encoding or describing the information generated in psychedelic states. Waking memory encodes linear, semantic information; dreams encode associative eidetic information; psychedelics encode nonlinear fractal information. There are many factors which limit the ability to accurately remember or recall psychedelic information. The rush of information is too fast; the content of the experience is too ineffable; and the processes of dreaming and eidetic visual hallucination blocks the formation of new semantic memories. In order to remember a dream a subject must wake up and make some mental notes, then go back to sleep to finish the dream; but if the subject does not rouse to some level of lucidity the dream is almost always forgotten. The same can be said for psychedelic hallucination; if the subject is too overwhelmed to make mental notes, the content totally bypasses linear semantic memory. However, if psychedelic hallucination employs the same spontaneous organization of eidetic information used to encode associative long-term memory through dreaming, then psychedelic fractal information may also imprint directly into long-term memory at a subconscious level.

Shamanic Information Compression

The functional limitations of human memory and expression have been problematic for high-dose psychedelic research from the beginning. The best writing, artwork, and video emulating the psychedelic experience must be created after the fact, sometimes painstakingly so. The visual reconstruction of psychedelic memory is a labor intensive process; a single subjective psychedelic frame may take weeks or months to visually render, and will still be lacking in context and complexity from the original experience. This is even more frustrating when you consider that a one line fractal algorithm or cellular automata can generate enough novel artistic complexity to keep the average human fascinated for hours. Linear approaches to capturing the psychedelic aesthetic almost always pale in comparison to their simpler, nonlinear generative counterparts.

The one artistic medium which can be expressed immediately in psychedelic intoxication without disrupting the quality of the shamanic experience is music. A shaman can relate the tone and content of the psychedelic experience in real time by singing, vocalizing, or playing drums (Fig. 26); this is the traditional method for binding psychedelic memory into physical space. The act of singing, drumming, or dancing also drives feedback and amplifies the energy of the psychedelic experience, thus making music the primary medium of psychedelic information compression and transmission.

There is compelling evidence that spontaneous singing and vocalization are forms of nonlinear psychedelic information compression. Glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, is reported as a spiritual side effect of psilocybin. Glossolalia may be considered a form of nonlinear speech, or psychedelic information erupting spontaneously through psycho-verbal synesthesia. When the shaman wants to speak with the spirit voice, that voice comes out more like music or glossolalia than like words and grammar. When a subject on psychedelics listens to music, the music expands from auditory signal into full multisensory synesthesia; every layer of emotional resonance in the song is laid bare for the subject to intimately see and feel. Claiming that psychedelics make music sound better or allow you to “see the music” is easy; this appreciation has fueled global music festivals and DJ circuits for decades. Shamanic music does not need to store visual information because under the influence of psychedelics the music naturally expands into visual perception. A sacred song from a rainforest shaman may not induce a strong reaction in a sober subject, but under the influence of ayahuasca that same song may open a window into the shaman’s spirit world. This phenomena goes beyond the level of mere music appreciation, it demonstrates a cross-cultural technology for real-time encoding and transmission of nonlinear psychedelic information.

By examining the wave properties of ayahuasca icaros, is it possible to construct an experiential rendering of the synesthetic hallucinogenic effects. A shaman may make gurgling or retching noises to amplify modulatory interruption of 5-HT receptors in the gut to drive purgation. A fast rustling or shushing noise, like a snake rattle or wind through tree branches, evokes alpha-range relaxation and mental fluidity, and may also create goose-bumps and a salient sense of supernatural mystery. A droning drum beat or chant drives theta-band trance and hypnagogic states. A whistling or high pitched melody drives beta and gamma coherence, creating sharp multisensory synesthesia of rising eidetic images. A guttural croaking or a resonant bass line amplifies the saturated attack and decay of stacking hallucinogenic frames.

A shaman may employ one or all of these techniques at various stages of ceremony, and may use them repetitively or cyclically, like a winding stem that moves through deeper and deeper layers of hallucinogenic immersion. The shamanic technique of lulling and evoking mystical hallucination can be compared to the frenetic qualities of modern trance music, where the goal is to entrain and sustain a high-energy visual state that unfolds and recourses for extended periods of time. Trance songs are built around arpeggiated looping melodies which grow in complexity over time, culminating in phase transitions, or breakdowns, where stable looping states are shattered into chaos. While trance dancing, these breakdowns are felt as euphoric, like shattering a barrier into a higher state of freedom and bliss, and when the chaos of the breakdown converges back towards a rhythm, it is an even more frenetic level of organized syncopated beats driven and held together by deep resonant bass pulses. The wave analysis of both modern trance music and traditional icaros indicates that these are not merely forms of artistic expression, but are also formal technologies for mediating and navigating various levels of stability in chaotic psychedelic hallucination.

Notes and References

1. See Chapter 06, “The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action”.

2. Beyer, SV, “Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon”. University of New Mexico Press (October 31, 2009).

3. Observations of shamanic rituals and vocalizations taken from first-hand and recorded accounts of shamanic ceremonies.

4. Subjective reports of psychedelic intoxication include references to internal physiological processes achieving a dramatic synchronized efficiency. It is unknown if psychedelics have a globally coherent effect over all physiological processes, but since there are 5-HT receptors distributed throughout the entire body it is certainly within the realm of possibility.

5. WikiPedia.org, “Interference (wave propagation)”. Internet Reference, 2010.

6. Descriptions of entering into the spirit world or receiving information through a lattice, veil, or spiritual overlay taken from subjective reports.

7. Themes of spiritual cleansing and rebirth are common in shamanism and psychedelic mysticism. Modern interpretations of these themes include genetic self-activation or evolutionary manipulation of DNA via psychedelic catalyst. While these descriptions feel authentic, there is no evidence to indicate that psychedelics drive manipulation or programming at a genetic level.

8. Griffiths, R.R., “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance”. Psychopharmacology (2006) 187:268–283.

9. Groups linked to the weaponized use of psychedelics include the Manson Family, the SLA, Aum Shinrikyo, the CIA, and the United States Department of Defense.

10. Yu Jiang, “Trajectory selection in multistable systems using periodic drivings”. Volume 264, Issue 1, 13 December 1999, Pages 22-29.

11. Chizhevsky VN, Corbalan R, “Multistability in a driven nonlinear system controlled by weak subharmonic perturbations”. phycon, vol. 2, pp.396-402, 2003, International Conference on Physics and Control.

12. Charing HG, “Communion with the Infinite: The visual music of the Shipibo people of the Amazon”. SH, Winter 2005.

In traditional Amazonian ayahuasca ceremonies, the shaman may be blessed with an icaro, or a sacred song which is delivered spontaneously into the brain by the spirits. When the shaman sings this sacred song, the ritual participants are quickly ushered into the sacred space along with the shaman. Using the entrainment dynamic it is reasonable to assume to that these icaros are feedback vocalizations tuned to the resonant frequency of the specific trance state occupied by the shaman. The shaman hears the resonant frequencies in his head as hallucinogenic artifacts of the phase transitions happening within his neural oscillators, and when he vocalizes these noises they come out as pitched micro-tones, often layered with vibratos coming from the nose and throat. By layering resonant multi-tones into the sacred song, the shaman increases the amplitude and entrainment power of his neural and vocal oscillators. If the shaman and the ritual participants all sing the same tones together, their oscillators all merge into a constructive interference pattern and drive each other into a higher amplitude of shared energy. This is the physics of neural entrainment and linking group mind.

Figure 29. EEG bands over one second of activity. From WikiPedia.