Psychedelic visuals in context
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry September 13, 2024 Link Ray Swanson 2 citations
Psychedelic drugs produce well-known but poorly understood visual effects. This chapter connects psychedelic visual phenomenology to everyday visual perception. Three types of open-eye visuals—common changes in external visual appearances under psychedelics—are described, and the authors argue they arise from hypersensitivity to contextual cues. Evidence and analysis support the idea that psychedelics selectively affect contextual modulation processes at multiple levels of visual perception. The chapter then explains how these visual effects might relate to therapeutic benefits and explores practical implications for psychedelic therapy, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy.