Psychedelic-information-theory-Shamanism-in-the-age-of-Reason

Chapter 11Eidetic HallucinationPsychedelics can produce many types of hallucination, includinggeometric webs and grids; 1 distortions of space and time; 2 andphotographic images of objects, people, or scenery. Hallucinations witha photographic, animated, or film-like clarity are called eidetichallucinations, or eidetics for short. Eidetics share many of the formalqualities of dreams, visual memory, and imagination, and may be themost seductive aspect of experimenting with hallucinogens. Eidetichallucinations rise and fall like dream snippets, rarely holding form formore than a few seconds before fading or shifting into another form.Eidetic objects, scenes, or people that become solid and retain theirshape for an extended period of time are called frank or concretehallucinations. Concrete hallucinations are often solid, immersive,indistinguishable from reality, and share many of the qualities of luciddreaming, sleepwalking, and dementia.The most commonly reported eidetic hallucinations seen onpsychedelics are of people, faces, animals, plants, flowers, spirits,aliens, insects, and other similar archetypes. Eidetic hallucinations cansometimes take the form of entire virtual worlds, spirit dimensions,invisible landscapes, and so on. Eidetics often emerge within a preexistingentopic interference pattern that grows in intensity over timeto produce more photographic or 3D rendered objects (Fig. 20). 1Eidetics under the influence of psychedelics are most often reportedwith eyes closed or while sitting motionless in meditative trance. Onhigh doses of psychedelics eidetic hallucinations may materialize witheyes open on any surface, pattern, or texture that’s gazed at for morethan a few seconds. 3