I’ve never understood how they make people see things. Same thing with ayahuasca. Obviously, there’s some sort of chemical reaction within our brain like with any drug, but what about these makes us see things that aren’t there? Also, how does our brain create so many realistic images in front of us without them being real?
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Renowned author Michael Pollan put together an incredible docuseries that’s on Netflix right now called “How to Change Your Mind” that goes way into depth on how the brain chemistry actually works with drugs like these. I would highly recommend it.
The shortest answer is that basically all activities in the brain are chemical or electrical triggers, many of which our brains have evolved to interpret as input from the outside world. If a chemical disrupts that activity, it disrupts our perception of the outside world. It’s not entirely different conceptually from the way that alcohol disrupts how your brain interprets physical input, making you think you’re off balance when you’re not.
Psychedelics affect how the brain processes visual stimuli, which results in changes to visual perception. There are also a lot of changes to other psychological processes, that can i.pact how you perceive or think about those visual changes. There’s a lot going on there, and much of it is poorly understood because of (US) federal regulations that severely limit research due to how the drug is classified.
Everything you “see” is a result of biochemical or electrical signals from your sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth/tongue, skin, etc.) to your brain; your brain just interprets those signals. If you had a complete enough understanding of how that signaling worked, you could conceivably create a “false” image/sound/taste/feeling, because your brain just sees the signals corresponding to that image/sound/taste/feeling and interprets that as being real.
Ayahuesca, mushrooms, LSD, and other hallucinogens have a similar effect. By messing with the sensory signals of the brain, they cause your brain to see/smell/hear/feel things that aren’t physically present.
Imagine if you lived in a sealed box and everything you knew about the world came via email from a few different “trusted” sources. If someone where to hack those email accounts or otherwise insert fake information in those emails, you might get a skewed sense of what was actually happening outside.
In 99.999% of cases, you dont see things that arent there with mushrooms and lsd. Walls may look like theyre waving or “melting”, faces may appear distorted, but you are not going to see little elves jumping out of your toaster and dancing on your poptarts. Movies and television make these drugs out to be something they are not. DMT, a tryptamine many times more powerful than mushrooms, may produce these kinds of hallucinations, but typically not a normal or even high dose of mushrooms and lsd.
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Only tried shrooms. But the only changes in my visual perception have been things slightly vibrating. I’ve never seen things that aren’t there. Is that really a common thing?
A lot modern research suggests that you don’t see “extra,” things, but that parts of the brain that filter out things actually become *less* active, meaning what someone sees on psychedelics (LSD, shrooms, DMT/ayahuasca, mescaline, etc.) is really just a less processed view of the world.
Mushrooms and LSD are both substances that can alter a person’s perception and mood. They do this by interacting with the brain and disrupting the normal functioning of nerve cells.
Mushrooms contain a chemical called psilocybin, which is converted into psilocin in the body. Psilocin acts on the brain to produce changes in perception, mood, and consciousness. It is thought to work by activating certain receptors in the brain, particularly those for the neurotransmitter serotonin. This can cause changes in the way that the brain processes information and can result in hallucinations and altered states of consciousness.
LSD, on the other hand, is a synthetic chemical that is similar in structure to serotonin. When it is ingested, it acts on the brain to produce changes in perception and mood. Like psilocin, it is thought to work by activating certain receptors in the brain, particularly those for serotonin. This can cause changes in the way that the brain processes information and can result in hallucinations and altered states of consciousness.
In both cases, the effects of these substances can be unpredictable and can vary greatly from person to person. It is important to use caution when taking any substance that can alter perception and mood!
We don’t know enough of how the brain works to explain the exact mechanism in detail. We run up against the “hard problem of consciousness.” That’s the famous unsolved problem in neurology and philosophy of explaining why any physical state of brain matter corresponds to a subjective experience. That is to say, no one knows why it feels like something to be a brain but it doesn’t feel like anything to be a rock, so we’re not prepared to explain why it feels different to be a brain with LSD in it in it than to be a brain without.
That being said, there’s a specific serotonin receptor protein (the 5-HT2A receptor) that a lot of hallucinogenic drugs activate. 5-HT2A activating drugs typically feel more similar to each other than to hallucinogenic drugs that interact with brains differently. And researchers have designed new hallucinogenic drugs of this type by analyzing the 5-HT2A receptor protein to design something that will activate it. And medications that interfere with 5-HT2A receptors can stop drug trips early. So it seems very likely that this particular protein is important in how these drugs work.
No one really knows. I remember reading that even drugs that are approved for brain issues such as mental illness are just a best guess. The makers don’t fully understand why they work, they simply seem to work consistently enough to get fda approval.
It’s going to be a scary time in human history if anyone actually figures out how the brain really works.
A lot of advances will be made but the potential for abuse will be high
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