PSYCHEDELICS - Sciencemadness.org

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____________________________________________________ Psychedelics
images. "Sensory translation" refers to the experience of nonverbal,
simple, concrete perceptual equivalents of psychic action.
It comes into operation as a consequence of the altered
cognitive mode brought about by the experimental instructions,
which focus on perceiving instead of thinking. The altered
cognitive mode does not appear to be one of sleep or
drowsiness.
This postulate lends itself well not only to the data quoted
above, but to the analysis of other, more detailed, reports that
suggest a possible re-translation back to the stimuli them-
selves:
A; 63rd session: " .. . when the vase changes shape . . . I
feel this in my body and particularly in my eyes ... there is
an actual kind of physical sensation as though something is
moving there which re-creates the shape of the vase." Here,
this subject may be experiencing the perception of a resyn-
thesis taking place following the de-automatization of the
normal percept; that is, the percept of the vase is being recon-
structed outside of the normal awareness, and the process of
reconstruction is perceived as a physical sensation.
G; 60th session: " . . . shortly I began to sense motion and
shifting of light and dark as this became stronger and stronger.
Now when this happens it's happening not only in my vision
but it's happening or it feels like a physical kind of thing. It's
connected with feelings of attraction, expansion, absorption,
and suddenly my vision pinpointed on a particular place, and
this became the center for a very powerful . . . I was in the
grip of a very powerful sensation, and this became the center."
The perception of motion and shifting light and darkness
may be the perception of the movement of attention among
various psychic contents. "Attraction," "expansion," "absorp-
tion," would thus reflect the dynamics of the efforts to focus
attention—successful focusing is then experienced as being
"in the grip of" a powerful force.
G; 78th session: ". . . that feeling of pulling on the top of
my head, and then this awareness all of a sudden that I
wasn't occupying my body, at least not completely, as I usu-
ally do." Here the pulling may be the splitting of the normal
synthesis of body self and mental self, leading to a feeling of
being "suspended," or levitation.