
Form Constant - benbreen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_constant
======
motohagiography
Auras that precede migraine headaches do resemble these, and also apparently
resemble the patterns people see when they use hallucinogenic drugs. This
narrative around things being revealed on drugs seems less plausible than your
ability to cohere sensory data is impaired by poisoning, and the remaining
signal/information is reduced to crude geometric patterns that resemble
interference patterns because when you mess with sampling rates between two
eyes/hemispheres, you get artifacts that resemble geometric forms.

Constructing stories around the experience is how we reconcile it after the
fact. I can't explain the DMT elves, but these forms could have an explanation
as simple as poisonous mushrooms impairing the rate at which your brain
samples sensory data and attempts to normalize and cohere it.

Merely watching videos of these patterns doesn't change self perception, so
drugs probably do a lot of other stuff, but revealing the underlying structure
of the universe seems less likely than these being equivalent of a guitar
effects pedal on a signal.

~~~
0x8BADF00D
It can be explained as your visual cortex and optic nerve are vestigial
components to help you navigate in 3 dimensions. Nobody said that’s how
reality is or how it ought to be. Your monkey brain just presents it as such.

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infinity0
See also
[https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Geometry](https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Geometry)

> A level 8A experience can be described as the feeling of being exposed to a
> seemingly infinite mass of geometry comprised entirely of innately
> comprehensible representations which are perceived to simultaneously convey
> every internally stored concept, memory, process, and neurological structure
> stored within the mind. [..]

That is some dope Original Research right there, lol

~~~
codezero
I wish I knew why I saw this stuff when I wasn't even high though :)

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jschwartzi
I see a scintillating checkerboard pattern when I'm getting a migraine. It
actually replaces most of my vision, then slowly fades until the pain starts.
So if I start getting one I have about 10 minutes to get home before I'm blind
enough to be unable to drive safely, and another 20 before I need to lay down
in a dark room.

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1-6
I don't know if this is purely coincidental but folks doing ML are using
something similar to make machine vision better at identifying.
[https://distill.pub/2019/activation-
atlas/](https://distill.pub/2019/activation-atlas/)

------
codezero
I see what seem like fractal patterns if I so much as rub my eyes. Always
wondered what it was.

~~~
vokep
That very likely is just the blood vessels in your eyes. I discovered them
when looking at an LED light at an angle, certain angles will highlight them
in your vision.

I thought I might be tripping actually when I saw that, I had just taken a
psychedelic but there is no way enough time had passed for it to take effect.

~~~
codezero
I’ve considered this, though it seems odd that blood vessels would cause me to
see huge repeating geometric patterns, but I dunno, so as good a guess as
anything.

