Hacker News Reader

Comment by criddell | Hacker News Reader

The visual aspect makes me wonder if the LSD experience in people with aphantasia is substantially different?

I'm 53 now and hope that before I die (which I hope isn't anytime soon) there's a safe and legal way for me to try LSD.

It's a lot more like... abstractions and associations become more malleable. This can inform perception even if you don't visualize, which can parse as visual distortions even in your "actual" vision, but might not. I think probably the biggest difference is going to be whether you experience "closed-eye visuals", which a lot of people report being pretty interesting on adequate doses of psychadelics, but they're far from the only interesting way in which that sort of altered state can manifest

> The visual aspect makes me wonder if the LSD experience in people with aphantasia is substantially different?

I'd love to tell you, but I don't know how people without aphantasia experience LSD. What I do know is that my inner experience is only (mostly) blind; it has fully developed senses of hearing, touch, smell and taste. I get visual distortions, apparently within normal parameters. Thus far in the few experiences I've had with synesthesia, it's never involved my sense of sight.

We phantage, but not to the extent as others.

That said, I must highly recommend not using in attempt to “fix” one’s aphantasia.

Edit: I recommend to stick to shrooms if you can.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com