How do psychedelics cause kaleidoscopic visuals?

Because, to put it crudely, those kaleidoscopic patterns are implicitly encoded in the structure and functional architecture of our visual cortex. Psychedelic drugs uniformly activate (part of) our visual cortex; which makes those paterns manifest... read more

If you consider the structure and functional connectivity of the primary visual cortex and model the sort of action classic psychedelics (such as mescaline, psilocin and LSD) produce on it (5-HT2A serotonin receptor agonist), you end up with an activity similar to the one which would be observed while watching kaleidoscopic visuals. So, we see kaleidoscopic visuals. read more

other visuals are more in the order of motif interlacing and color pattern interlacing - which is light synaesthesia. More extensive synaesthesia ( which involves extended signal crossover - non faded persistence of sensory attention). read more

So remember, do not limit your perception to the components described above, because there is more to the psychedelic experience than words can ever say. CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS 3 PART ARTICLE: The cognitive components of a psychedelic experience. read more