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External hallucination

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Pictured above is an accurate representation of the experience of shadow people. This is a common and almost universal example of a low level external hallucination.

External hallucinations can be described as the experience of perceiving imagined visual concepts and occurrences which display themselves seamlessly into the external environment as if they were actually happening. They can be broken down into 4 basic levels:

  1. Erratic hallucinations - The lowest level of external hallucination generally consists of movement within the peripheral vision, and/or ill-defined, fleeting hallucinations which disappear once a person double takes.
  2. Vaguely defined hallucinations - At this level the hallucinations are visible within one's direct line of sight but are not fully defined in their appearance. This means that although visible, they do not look completely detailed and are often blurry or semi-translucent with little if any colour.
  3. Partially defined hallucinations - At this level the hallucinations increase into a high enough amount of detail and vividness to extend beyond transparent, colourless or blurry manifestations. However, they still remain unconvincing and do not quite live up to the detail of completely realistic and convincing hallucinations.
  4. Fully defined hallucinations - As the vividness and intensity increases, the content eventually becomes comprised of completely realistic hallucinations which do not necessarily disappear once a person double takes. These are generally considered by those who have experienced them to be capable of a completely convincing and photo-realistic appearance.

There are certain factors that directly alter both the likelihood of external hallucinations manifesting themselves and the level of detail which they are rendered in. The more unfamiliar with the external environment one is, the more this effect will be likely to manifest itself. Cluttered areas also tend to produce more external hallucinations. As far as lighting goes, either a dark or dim room is optimum. Darkness produces much more hallucinations but the light present in a dim room will result in less (though more detailed) hallucinations.

The content within this component can be further broken down into four distinct subcomponents which are described and documented below.

Autonomous entities

Namaste (Trifoliata Mystica) by Luke Brown - This artwork serves as an accurate example of a generic geometry-based autonomous entity seen during a psychedelic experience.

An autonomous entity is defined as the experience of perceived contact with beings which appear to be sentient and autonomous in their behaviour.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] These entities can manifest within both external and internal hallucinations.[7]

Autonomous entities will frequently act as the inhabitants of a perceived independent reality.[6] Although many entities seem largely unaware of a person’s presence they are often precognizant of a person's appearance into their realm and usually choose to interact with them in various ways.

The behaviour of a typical entity can vary wildly and seems to depend heavily on one's current emotional state. For example, while many entities will act as loving beings, teachers, or healers in certain contexts they are equally capable of acting as indifferent, uncaring or even as malicious tormentors.[3][8]

Entities can take any form but subconscious archetypes are present and commonly include:[3][8]

Humans, shadow people, bodiless super intelligent humanoids, aliens, elves, animals, giant spheres, insectoids, beings of light, anthropomorphic beings, plants, conscious inanimate objects, fictional characters, cartoons, robotic machines, gods, demigods, goddesses, bio-mechanical intelligences, hooded figures, demons, indescribable monstrosities, spirits, angels, shamans, ghosts, souls, ancestors, fantastical or mythological beasts, glitch creatures and more.

This experience is often accompanied by other coinciding effects such as geometry,[4] internal hallucinations and delusions. It is most commonly induced under the influence of heavy dosages of hallucinogenic compounds, such as psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. However, it can also occur under the influence of stimulant psychosis, sleep deprivation, and during dreams.

Debate over the existence of autonomous entities

The question of whether these autonomous entities are real or not has often been subject of discussion.

Assuming that our consciousness is formed by a complex and specific arrangement of neural networks, they can be said to be a consequence of the emergent properties of our brain. These perceived entities could be generated by transient changes in brain connectivity induced by certain substances.

For example, an increase in functional connectivity between or inside certain areas of the brain could cause a higher likelihood of the formation of various separated complex structures, which in some cases could be complex enough to be perceived as self-conscious or even have (or give the illusion to have) a higher intelligence than the perceiver.

This would mean that these entities, even though most of the times perceived as separated from our Self, are complex structures emerged by changes in our neural pathways. In a certain way they would be as real as we define ourselves to be (as a "conscious" being), because both our consciousness and the entities are formed by specific complex structures inside the brain. The same argument could be used in many other cases with other kinds of hallucinations and could even lead to the questioning of the definition of reality itself.

Another common hypothesis is that these entities already exist inside our subconscious and/or unconscious and are perceived by the conscious part of the brain due to an abnormal change in connectivity. The presence of certain entities within the unconscious has been widely discussed even in classic psychological literature. For example some of the archetypes hypothesized by Carl Gustav Jung were described as self-conscious entities.

These two hypothesis do not appear to be in conflict with each other, since the presence of innate entities within the psyche and the momentary or permanent formation of others do not exclude each other.

Personality types

There are several distinct personality types of autonomous entity which one may potentially encounter. They are often perceived to represent a particular subsection of a person’s own consciousness and can be identified primarily through their personality, but also their appearance. These individual types are broken down into three separate categories below:

  • Representations of general concepts - This personality type can be described as a seemingly sentient representation of any known concept. This will usually adopt an appropriate personality and set of mannerisms to fit the chosen concept with an impressive degree of detail. For example, the specific concept could include other people that the person has met throughout their life, specific fictional characters or symbolic representations of concepts such as abstract ideas, emotions, or key parts of one's own personality.
    • Representations of the self - This personality type can be described as a copy of one's own personality. It can take any visible form but when conversed with it clearly adopts an identical vocabulary and set of mannerisms to one's own consciousness.
    • Representations of the subconscious - This personality type can be described as an entity which may take any visible form, but is also subjectively perceived to be an autonomous controller behind the continuous generation of the details of the person’s current hallucinations. They may also be felt to simultaneously control or manage one's current perspective, personality, and internally stored model of reality. When interacted with, this category of entity can often possess abilities which allow them to directly alter and manipulate one's current experiences. They commonly want to teach or guide the person and will operate under the assumption that they know what is best for them. However, it cannot be known whether this hallucination is genuinely a representation of the subconscious or is merely an approximation which behaves in a convincing manner.

Communication styles

Autonomous entities can communicate with a person via a combination of spoken word, “telepathy”, conceptual thoughts, mathematics, and geometry-based visual linguistics which generally consists of morphing colored structures of different textures that are innately understandable as representations of specific concepts. They will often convey insights regarding overcoming personal issues within a person’s life and will occasionally help clarify philosophical or spiritual ideas. However, more often than not entities are very likely to speak in a cryptic or nonsensical manner which seems to have no clear meaning behind it.

It is important to note that autonomous entities can never convey novel information to the person experiencing them. For example, they cannot provide insights about the external world which a person did not already know on some level. Instead, they can only provide alternative perspectives and help build upon existing ideas. This is presumably because autonomous entities do not have access to any knowledge which is not already contained within one's conscious or subconscious memories. May contain imprints of genetic memories, access to lifetimes that seem parallel or events that mirror one's connectivity moving past the default mode.

When communicated with through spoken word, the level of coherency in which these entities can communicate with is highly variable but can be broken down into four distinct levels. These are described and listed below:

  1. Silence - At the lowest level, the effect can be described as a complete unresponsiveness from the entity and a lack of speech despite their presence within the hallucination.
  2. Partially defined incoherent speech - At this level, the effect can be described as linguistic conversational responses and noises which almost sound like words but do not contain any real content or meaning beyond a vague sense of emotional intent.
  3. Fully defined incoherent speech - At this level, the effect can be described as audible linguistic conversational responses and noises which contain fully defined and understandable words, but often lack grammatical structure or an overall sense of general coherency.
  4. Partially defined coherent speech - At this level, the effect can be described as linguistic conversational responses which contain fully defined and understandable words with a partially defined grammatical structure and general coherency. It conveys its point on a level which is frequently coherent, but may not always be fully understandable and will sometimes descend into broken English or even gibberish.
  5. Fully defined coherent speech - At the highest level, the effect can be described as linguistic conversational responses which contain understandable words and fully defined grammatical sentence structures. It has an overall sense of general coherency which conveys its point in a level of detail that is genuinely on par with that of a person’s own intellect.

Image examples

Further information: Psychedelic art


Settings, sceneries, and landscapes

Settings, sceneries, and landscapes are defined as the perceived environment in which the plot of an internal or external hallucination occurs.[9] This effect is capable of manifesting in a seemingly infinite variety of potential places and settings.

When explored, the geography of these settings is capable of organizing itself as static and coherent. However, they may also manifest as a non-linear, nonsensical, and continuously changing layout which does not obey the laws of physics. The chosen locations, appearance, and style of these settings may be entirely new and previously unseen locations; however, there is a large influence towards replicating and combining real-life locations stored within a person's memories. There are some common themes and archetypes within this component which generally include:

Jungles, rainforests, deserts, ice-scapes, cities, natural environments, caves, space habitats, vast structures, civilizations, technological utopias, ancient ruins, machinescapes, historical settings, rooms and other indoor environments, real-life locations, incomprehensible geometric landscapes and more.

It is worth noting that the content, style, and general behaviour of a setting is often largely dependent on the emotional state of the person experiencing it. For example, a person who is emotionally stable and generally happy will usually be more prone to experiencing neutral, interesting, or positive settings. In contrast, however, a person who is emotionally unstable and generally unhappy will usually be more prone to experiencing sinister, fear-inducing, and negative settings.

Settings, sceneries, and landscapes are often accompanied by other coinciding effects such as autonomous entities and delusions. They are most commonly induced under the influence of heavy dosages of hallucinogenic compounds, such as psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. However, they can also occur under the influence of stimulant psychosis and during dreams.

Alterations in perspective

A perspective hallucination is defined as an alteration of the perspective through which a given internal or external hallucination is seen through.[10][11][12][13][14]

This effect is capable of manifesting itself across the four different perspectives described below:

  • 1st person - The most common form of perspective can be described as the normal experience of perceiving a hallucination from the person's everyday self and body.
  • 2nd person - This perspective can be described as the experience of perceiving a hallucination from the viewpoint of an external source of consciousness, such as another person, an animal, or an inanimate object.
  • 3rd person - This perspective can be described as an out-of-body experience[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] where a person's viewpoint is floating above, below, behind, or in front of their physical body.
  • 4th person - The least common form of perspective can be described as the experience of perceiving a hallucination from multiple or even seemingly infinite viewpoints and angles simultaneously.

Perspective hallucinations are often accompanied by other coinciding effects such as delirium, and memory suppression. They are most commonly induced under the influence of heavy dosages of hallucinogenic compounds, such as psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants.

Scenarios and plots

Scenarios and plots are the situations, stories, scenarios, and events which occur within both external and internal hallucinations. These behave in an almost identical fashion to the plots and scenarios that occur during ordinary dream states and often include cognitive delusions that result in one accepting the plot as a real life event. On rare occasions, however, they will be immediately recognized as a mere hallucination and not a real life event.

During this effect, the typical components which comprise standard hallucinatory states (settings, sceneries, and landscapes and autonomous entities) begin behaving and co-operating in a manner which results in the experience of events occurring within the hallucination itself. These are often perceived as linear and coherent plots that occur in a logical sequence by leading into other events through normal cause and effect. However, they are equally likely to present themselves as completely nonsensical and incoherent. For example, they may consist of nonlinear or spontaneous events which are capable of ending, starting, and changing between each other repeatedly in quick succession.

These hallucinated plots can consist of new experiences that are completely unlike the real world, old experiences such as accurate memory replays, or a combination of the two. However, in terms of their precise content, this effect is impossible to define in a comprehensive manner in much the same way that one cannot predict the exact plot of unknown literature and films. They can, however, be summarized as basic occurrences which often entail visiting a setting that contains interactive objects and autonomous entities. It is also worth noting that the possible situations one may find themselves in as a result of this effect can be either positive or negative to experience in a manner which is dependent on both its content and the individual undergoing them.

Hallucinatory plots and scenarios usually feel as if they are being experienced in real-time. For example, when 20 seconds has passed within the hallucination, the same amount of time will usually have passed in the real world. At other points, however, time distortion can occur, resulting in plots and scenarios that can feel as if they last days, weeks, months, years, aeons, or infinitely extended periods.

Scenarios and plots are most commonly induced under the influence of heavy dosages of hallucinogenic compounds, such as psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. However, they can also occur less commonly under the influence of stimulant psychosis, and sleep deprivation.

Variations

  • Lucid vs. Delirious - Hallucinatory states can maintain a consistent level of awareness throughout them regarding the fact that none of these events are really happening and that the current situation is simply a result of drug-induced hallucination. In contrast to this, hallucinations can also become completely believable no matter how nonsensical they may be in exactly the same way that we do not have any problem accepting absurd and non-linear plots within our dreams.
  • Interactive vs. Fixed – Hallucinatory states can either present themselves as completely separate in a manner that is similar to watching a video play out in front of one's field of vision or they can be completely interactive. For example, conversing with autonomous entities or interacting with imagined objects in a fashion similar to lucid dreaming is entirely possible.
  • New experiences vs. Memory replays – In terms of their subject matter, hallucinations can either be entirely new experiences or they can follow themes of normal every day concepts and a replaying of specific memories.
  • Controllable vs. Autonomous – Imagery and hallucinations can be partially to completely controllable. This can be described as the content of their appearance always seeming to perfectly follow and fit the general topic and subject matter of one's current thought stream with varying levels of partial to absolute control. In contrast, autonomous hallucinations are completely spontaneous in their subject matter and entirely uncontrollable.
  • Geometry-based vs. Solid – Hallucinations can be comprised of condensed psychedelic geometry or they can appear as made from realistic materials.

Psychoactive substances

Compounds within our psychoactive substance index which may cause this effect include:


Experience reports

Anecdotal reports which describe this effect within our experience index include:

... further results

See also


  1. ↑ Hirshfeld-Flores, Alissa (2002). "DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research Into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences". American Journal of Psychiatry. 159 (8): 1448–1449. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.8.1448. ISSN 0002-953X. 
  2. ↑ Luke, D. (1 January 2012). "Psychoactive Substances and Paranormal Phenomena: A Comprehensive Review". International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. 31 (1): 97–156. doi:10.24972/ijts.2012.31.1.97. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Luke, D. (January 2011). "Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology". Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. 75 (1): 26–42. ISSN 0037-9751. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Erowid DMT Vault : Apparent Communication with Discarnate Entities, by Peter Meyer 
  5. ↑ Cott, C., Rock, A. "Phenomenology of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine use: a thematic analysis" (PDF). Journal of Scientific Exploration. 22: 359–370. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Metzner, Ralph (1998). "Hallucinogenic Drugs and Plants in Psychotherapy and Shamanism". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 30 (4): 333–341. doi:10.1080/02791072.1998.10399709. ISSN 0279-1072. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Shanon, B. (1 February 2002). "Ayahuasca visualizations a structural typology". Journal of Consciousness Studies. 9 (2): 3–30. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Strassman, R. (1 December 2000). DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781594779732. 
  9. ↑ Belser, Alexander B.; Agin-Liebes, Gabrielle; Swift, T. Cody; Terrana, Sara; Devenot, Neşe; Friedman, Harris L.; Guss, Jeffrey; Bossis, Anthony; Ross, Stephen (2017). "Patient Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 57 (4): 354–388. doi:10.1177/0022167817706884. ISSN 0022-1678. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dillon, P (2003). "Patterns of use and harms associated with non-medical ketamine use". Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 69 (1): 23–28. doi:10.1016/S0376-8716(02)00243-0. ISSN 0376-8716. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Obreshkova, D., Kandilarov, I., Angelova, V. T., Iliev, Y., Atanasov, P., & Fotev, P. S. (2017). PHARMACO-TOXICOLOGICAL ASPECTS AND ANALYSIS OF PHENYLALKYLAMINE AND INDOLYLALKYLAMINE HALLUCINOGENS (REVIEW). PHARMACIA, 64(1), 41-42. http://bsphs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Angelova.pdf
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Jansen, K.L.R. (1990). "Neuroscience and the Near-Death Experience: Roles for the NMSA-PCP receptor, the sigma receptor and the endopsychosins". Medical Hypotheses. 31 (1): 25–29. doi:10.1016/0306-9877(90)90048-J. ISSN 0306-9877. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Rumpf K, Pedeck J, Teuteberg H. Munchhoff W. Nolte H. Dream-like experiences during brief anaesthesia with ketamine. thiopental and propanidid. p 161 in Ketamine (H Kreuscher. ed.) Springer-Verlag. Berlin, 1969.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Siegel R K. Phencyclidine and ketamine intoxication: a study of recreational users. p 119 in Phencyclidine Abuse: An Appraisal (R C Peterson. R C Stillman. eds.). National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph 21. NIDA. Rockville. Maryland, 1978.
  15. ↑ Wilkins, Leanne K.; Girard, Todd A.; Cheyne, J. Allan (2011). "Ketamine as a primary predictor of out-of-body experiences associated with multiple substance use". Consciousness and Cognition. 20 (3): 943–950. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.01.005. ISSN 1053-8100. 
  16. ↑ Przyby, A. (n.d.). A Philosophical Journey into the Heart of the Psychedelic Dream. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://midwayreview.uchicago.edu/a/8/3/przybyl/przybyl.pdf
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