Seeing strange new worlds

DAVID HAMBLING examines the key role of vision in how our brains construct a sense of reality

The nature of reality might be beyond our scope, but the question of how we understand what is real is right in FT’s wheelhouse. High strangeness experiences, visionary apparitions and other dreamlike events blurring the edges of reality are frequent flyers in the world of unexplained phenomena. Now some bold researchers are starting to explore this field. These experiences have something in common with hallucinations and some types of drug trip. Certain substances, notably DMT, the active ingredient in the popular South American psychedelic ayahuasca, are remarkably consistent in the way they transport the user to a novel visual world of vivid colour and weird geometries. The strange beings users encounter have been recorded so many times they are now known as “DMT elves.” Neuroscientist Zeus Tipado of Maastricht University…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 453

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