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HPPD: A Form of Selective Attention?
LSD, Mushrooms & Cannabis
Citation:   CidKID. "HPPD: A Form of Selective Attention?: An Experience with LSD, Mushrooms & Cannabis (exp42335)". Erowid.org. Jul 25, 2008. erowid.org/exp/42335

 
DOSE:
  repeated smoked Cannabis (plant material)
    repeated oral Mushrooms (plant material)
    repeated oral LSD (blotter / tab)
BODY WEIGHT: 145 lb
12 days since my last Dose ;]


Alright, for starters, past history. Been smoking weed 7 years, 6 nearly everyday. First mushroom trip was when I was 15. Increased my usage from every 3 months to monthly over the course of the next 4 years. Naturally, this usage waned, sometimes tripping back to back weekends, sometimes going months without shrooms. First LSD experience, I was 17, and it was the strongest I have ever tried, hands down. Two tabs, I was experiencing synasthesia 6 hours later. In comparison, the acid I tried 3 years later was much weaker, requiring about 6 hits to achieve a similar effect.

As far as HPPD, I haven't been able to qualify for that technically because I have been smoking marijuana daily for years, and continue to do so. [drug toxicity clause lol]
As for permanent perceptual alterations, what do you expect when you have spent as many cumulative hours tripping as someone like myself. I've done mushrooms more than 100 times, and something like 30 'doses' [threshold-to-mild] of LSD.

First off, I began to experience vision similar to mushrooms in dark rooms, or when the lights are shut off from previously bright rooms. This doesn't occur all the time, usually most noticeable when I am stoned and thinking about it. I also began experiencing a stronger appreciation for visual textures, as well as auditory. This could hardly be considered a negative effect.

This was the extent of my 'HPPD', but then I began a period of heavy LSD use with interesting effects. Now, I definitely abused LSD. My schedule of use was something like 1/1, 1/18, 2/7, 3/5, 3/26, 4/4. My dosage escalated from 2 doses to 4, to 7, then to 6. Mind you, I define a dose as enough to experience geometric wall patterns. 2 doses should be enuf to rearrange a picture of someone's face into strange, cartoonish shit, just as a frame of reference.

I have been experiencing what I would describe as self-induced flashbacks, but it's only been about 12 days since I last dosed. Interesting fact, I always smoke dope when I trip, and pot definitely permits me a freebie or two after tripping if I want a little psychedelic effects. Dark rooms still possess a strange, buzzy geometric fuzz. Problem is, I believe I been experiencing that on weed since I was a youngun, so count that out. On an interesting note, I think the LSD had made me more attentive to marijuana's effect on my surroundings, because I have been noticing a kind of afterimage effect when I enter dark buildings or rooms after being outside in bright light.

The biggest uncontrolled flashbacks that I experience are always self induced, often tied to anxiety and social situations. They often occur after I begin thinking about LSD, and when I am in environments where I have tripped really hard before. My bedroom ceiling has rippled similar to mushrooms and LSD at least a week after using LSD. Mind you, I was laying on my back, stoned on pot and imagining rippling ceilings and such. Afterimages are the most common psychedelic effect I notice daily. However, I don't typically see radical forms, and afterimages are not subject to the same suggestibility of form as they are while I am under the influence of LSD. I have experienced the most disturbing HPPD like symptoms at my computer monitor, where I have spent most of my time on acid, no question.

Now, the most interesting part. I began inducing flashbacks after my 5th acid trip. My ability to do this has increased with my use, and my practice, naturally. However, most of my visuals are controlled, not subject to whim like lsd. Only on few occasions, going to bed or waking up have I closed my eyes and let the afterimages dance around on their own. They appear to be like threshold visuals, sometimes animated, but never particularly surreal. For example, I have NEVER seen anything in my own induced visions that matches the height of my most intense acid trip. Not even close.

I believe the use of psychedelics causes new forms of learning in your brain, somewhat associated with a kind of trance state. In all my psychedelic use, it is only through focusing my mind I have been able to experience the kind of things you can't write home about, heheh. In order to intensify psychedelic experiences, I become attentive. There is something fundamental about the trance state that I must emphasize. I believe that once experienced under psychedelics, various aspects of the state can be reexperienced, much like a memory. Christ, it doesn't take drugs to create memories that create images that haunt you the rest of your life. I've never been witness to an atrocity, but the impact they have on survivors are tremendous. The fundamental thing is that it is the outlook individuals possess after the fact that is the most important. I believe some forms of HPPD are linked to many kinds of self-generated psychological concepts involving some very critical philosophical and spiritual issues concerning reality. In short, I believe LSD use causes selective attentive processes to change.

Most manifestations of HPPD I experience are self induced, save the occasional halos around lights. Even then, I have been thinking about LSD almost every day or so for the past few months, so no surprises that I'm highly suggestible. This is the nature of LSD, after all. Also, I emphasize 'induced'. Even at my highest acid dose, I could eliminate or induce hallucinations more or less at my whim. As far as anxiety and LSD, I believe they are somehow subconsciously linked in some weird schemata containing perceived morality and authority, but I'm into Freud, lol.

On the down side, I have been noticing when I stumble in speech, using the wrong verb tense or something. But, I have been extremely attentive to it, consciously. So it is hard to tell if I am just paying attention to verbal slips, or if they are actually increasing in intensity. I've done some moderate ecstasy use, so that could account for it. Usually though, I feel like I am trying to spit out my thoughts faster than I can say them. Sometimes, I feel incredibly flustered by my ability to communicate complex thoughts using language, due to my inability to express the depth or meaning of
what I am saying fast enough, something I have experienced on lsd before.

To cut this ramble short, LSD does effect my perceptions permanently, no question. Personally, I enjoy it. It's symbolic of much tripper shit, and keeps me reminded of everything magical, glorious and hellish on this world. That said, I'm slowing the fuck down on the LSD because I am probably begging for a Freudian mindfuck of a trip.

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 42335
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 25, 2008Views: 9,627
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LSD (2), Mushrooms (39), Cannabis (1) : HPPD / Lasting Visuals (40), Retrospective / Summary (11), Not Applicable (38)

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