Because of the influence of ‘set and setting’, not everyone’s psychedelic experience is the same. Various aspects of ‘set’ (e.g. beliefs, expectations, mood, personality, intention, level of restfulness) and ‘setting’ (e.g. culture, environment, music, people present) interact with the drug and the dose to produce a particular kind of experience. This includes the visual qualities…
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In my last post on hagioptasia, I touched on how this tendency to project an aura of specialness onto things manifests itself in dreams. It is hagioptasia that makes dream scenarios, on the one hand, carry an atmosphere of magic and sentimentalism, but it also, on the other hand, makes them somewhat painful. Assuming one…
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Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is a rare condition that can develop after psychedelic use. HPPD involves persisting visual changes that cause emotional distress and/or impairment to functioning. It is not clear precisely how prevalent the condition is, although its prevalence is considered low. In one study, 4.2% of participants said they experienced continued visual…
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Hagioptasia is a term coined by musician Daniel Laidler, which he says represents “a fundamental human perceptual tendency to experience an illusory sense of extraordinary ‘specialness’ in various aspects of life.” These aspects of life include music, religious and sacred objects, art, status and glamour, and nostalgia. I wrote about expressions of hagioptasia in emo…
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One of the characteristics of the psychedelic mystical experience is the noetic quality: the feeling of profound insight (this is the focus of Chapter 2 in my book Altered Perspectives). This type of insight is felt to be authoritative, that is, an incontrovertible revelation. However, insights that carry an authoritative truth can occur in non-mystical…
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