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In related news: ironically, Psychedelics disrupt normal link between brain’s neuronal activity and blood flow - thus casting some doubt on findings that under psychedelics more of the brain is connected (since fMRI showed elevated blood flow, suggesting higher brain activity).

https://source.washu.edu/2025/12/psychedelics-disrupt-normal...

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As a caveman pondering "Stoned Ape Theory" during the rise of MRI in the 80s, having done light reading of Huxley, McKenna et. al, the claim that vascular variations were so tied to thought patterns in a purely calm and cognitive activity was fascinating. To see the brain of someone as they went through a deck of cards and paused to look at each... astounding! But frustrating also. My first question always was, was the person's hands busy going through the deck and holding up the cards, focusing on them... or were they merely shown the cards sitting still? It seemed the popsci articles often glossed over that information, and any simple "control for coordinated body movement" played second fiddle to the novelty of it all. Then I worked in a club where I was often surrounded by tripping people. I'd fetch them glasses of water and they would always drink. Do you know you can smell them, they smell like fear? The experience has every sweat gland working overtime. When I learned that I greeted this "tripping people MRIs light up indicating enhanced brain connectivity" with a grain of salt. I would not be the least bit surprised if the sweat gland thing also has the brain's vascular system in overdrive.

My favorite explanation for why LSD and similar psychedelics generate the visual patterns they do: mathematics of wrapping polar coordinates of the retina to the rectangular coordinates of the visual processing system:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-math-theory-for-why-people-...

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