ganjaman wrote:Hello Nexian
Does anybody know about studies with blind born people taking Lsd or Mushrooms?
Hey Now ganjaman,Do check out the thread
The Traveler linked you up with. While there is a considerable amount of fact, conjecture, intuition and rationalization... contained within it's discussion. It raises some very fascinating points. I plucked a number of the most pertinent thoughts (my favorites), that is, if you'd like the abbreviated version? At the very bottom, I include my personal impressions of an experience I had tripping on LSD with a blind person, in 1979.
Infundibulum wrote:A damage in the visual cortex (either acquired or born-with-it) will probably impair the vision and make it very difficult to see dmt visuals. A damage in the eyes themselves or the optic nerve will most likely not have an adverse effect on dmt visuals.
clouds wrote:Conclusion: They CAN hallucinate.
benzyme wrote:being blind typically means a loss of function in the photoreceptors in the eye, lateral geniculate nucleus, or the optic radiation projections to the visual cortex
but these areas are not the visual cortex.
endlessness wrote:yeah as I mentioned before I took some ayahuasca with a blind guy who had lost his sight as a child... He did have visions and colours that he was completely amazed with.. but would be specially interesting to know how it goes in the cases of those who were born blind.
gibran2 wrote:A person blind from birth due to damage in the visual cortex will not experience visuals while under the influence of DMT or other psychedelics. Likewise, a deaf person will not hear. If the damage was with the sensory organs, then it’s not so simple. They might see or hear, but not know what seeing or hearing is.
Evening Glory wrote:It is very common for blind people, both they who have been blind from birth and they who have not, to experience visual hallucinations. Most see just colors and geometrical patterns, but some report that they see and feel the presence of entities. I don't know how DMT would affect a blind person, I just thought I should throw this in...
x1balba wrote:The shape, texture, size, and other details could be explained to give somewhat of a visual image to the person, but how do you explain colors? Think of trying to explain the difference between a tree and something like the Taj Mahal or the Sistine Chapel. One can be accessed directly, while the other would need quite a bit of information. If the brain has no information whatsoever about imagery, it may be hard to visualize it depending on the amount of detail involved in the image.
benzyme wrote:that has nothing to do with it. the geometric visions from psychedelics perceived at V1 have nothing to do with images projected on the fovea (optic nerve). completely independent
for instance, CEVs can be very elaborate, and aren't quite like everyday surroundings.
the path is from the raphe nuclei back to the visual cortex; that whole area is below and behind the optic radiation, respectively. if V1 is damaged, then yeah, you won't see s#!t
camakazi wrote:Thats not what I'm getting at benz.. I'm not debating wether or not they see the geometric structures as we do, I'm just saying it would be very hard for them to describe without drawing on previous visual input.
I couldn't describe a purple octopoid/plant like creature I seen when tripping if I hadn't seen the colour purple, an octopus or plant beforehand.
JamesLove wrote:Somebody said they saw something on Discovery or whatever about blind people on LSD and they don't see. This did not surprise me.
Infundibulum wrote:Argh, and your nick is corpus callosum! V1 refers to an anatomical region of the V(isual) cortex in the posterior part of the brain. There are other regions named V2, V3, V4 and V5. V1 is the shits when it comes to vision. For more information check visual cortex
RastaNation wrote:Hopefully someone here can make something of this:
I have a friend who has been blind since birth. He is a long time user of spice - I saw this topic and asked him what it's been like...his response, which he would not elaborate on:
"I can see the world. I see what it truly is. I still feel. I see light and I see dark. The colors of people. Their true colors."
I personally don't really know exactly what that means - but maybe someone with more experience does...
Like
RastaNation, I asked a person who had been blind from birth. Not in a clinical way, since I was also dosed on LSD and had a unique connection to his experience. No matter how we might reason this idea through, for one to be able to see through the "mind's eye" of a blind person is impossible. Still, I could really tune in to this fellows frequency of thought and I think I partially SAW through his sightless eyes. Ironically, I was blind to his experience, so we had to find a common ground with words, to bridge the considerable gap. Never an easy task on acid or any other strong psychedelic substance! It was literally a case of the blind leading the blind.
In short, I asked him if he could see colors and patterns when he dosed on acid? He was a thoughtful man and he spoke with a careful phrasing. "I can touch patterns inside of myself when I trip. I don't really know... but I believe I am able to feel colors and they are all different from one another. Just like with sounds and tastes but very different! Some are hot, some are warmer and some are cold. I touch them in my mind. What do colors feel like to you? I think I know now what sight is really like. I have seen them on mescaline too."
I just though I should let the words I vividly recall speak for themselves. Essentially, this one falls into a complex series of specific conditions and we are likely to raise this question for some time to come. I would suggest that this scenario is as unique as the individual blind human being. Their own vision is how they decode the information of this dream we dream, sentient existence. It is interpreted through the language and semantics by which they have arrived to this moment, as is that of the "sighted" person.
The blinded folks do certainly seem to comprehend the idea of darkness and light, in their own subjective terms. Perhaps it is not out of the realm of the possible, that they do in fact see, just in other ways than those whose physical eyes are properly functioning? And I don't mean by means of compensation, rather, by way of
inner vision. Perhaps this is actually an alternate kind of sight? Might we need to broaden the very definition of sight itself? I submit that there is such a type of inner sight and it is universal amongst all beings (even the blind). That being said, each unique soul is one in a million, as is our very own. Just sayin'... :idea:
Peace, love & light There is no self to which I cling, for I am one with everything.