How Psychedelics May Restore Color Vision Temporarily | Changa Institute USA

Have you ever questioned yourself why the colors look brighter and livelier when you are on a psychedelic trip? Or do your mush-dilated pupils and your eyes tell you you are looking at the world first?

It is not only your imagination but according to recent research findings, psychedelics have the potential to improve color vision, or at least temporarily repair it. Consider how it could feel to leave the grayscale world and enter the world full of vibrant, moving colors. That is what a few users say they experience when they use psilocybin or LSD that the world is saturated to the highest point.

But how does this work? Is it an illusion of the mind or the real science? Now, we are going to explore the role of psychedelics and the so-called famous wide-mushroom pupils in helping people perceive color in a new light.

The Reason Why Colors Are Brighter On Psychedelics

When you saw your pupils in the mirror and you realized that your eyes were on mushrooms, that is how your body accommodates an overload of sensations.

Whenever psilocybin (the active ingredient of the magic mushrooms) enters your system, it attaches to serotonin 5-HT2A receptors that are located in the brain and are the ones that regulate mood, cognition, and perception. This rapid burst of serotonin activity has the potential of increasing the processing capacity of the brain in terms of light and color.

Put simply: psychedelics can increase your ability to see finer details in color contrast in your brain, thereby making you perceive differences in colors that you would otherwise have overlooked.

That is why the comment of the users is explicit: The green of the trees was impossible deep, or the sky was not blue, it was electric.

The Science of Mushroom Pupils

Now, we can discuss the giving away of a psychedelic experience, the eyes. Heard of a person with his eyes shining on mushrooms with big pupils? It is one of the most prominent indications of the use of psilocybin or LSD.

So, what's really happening?

When you are on mushrooms, your nerves trigger the fight or flight mode raising the levels of adrenaline. This causes the dilation of your pupils and this permits more light to reach your eyes.

The result? Increased visual acuity, brighter, sharper, and brighter.

Others theorize that this may temporarily accelerate the visual processing of individuals of slight deficiencies of color, in effect expanding the color palette.

Researchers of psychedelic eye responses at Changa Institute observe that dilation is not only about the amount of light received, but it also indicates more profound activity in the nervous system that is related to perception and consciousness.

Would Psychedelics Really Help Color Vision?

Some anecdotal reports might be hard to believe, however, psychedelics are claimed to temporarily improve or rehabilitate some of the color perception.

In some instances, users with partial forms of colorblindness said they were able to see colors they had never seen before when tripping on psilocybin or LSD.

How could this happen? It is theorized today that psychedelics re-boot visual processing by enhancing cross-talk between brain areas. Your visual cortex processes and processes color information normally in a controlled manner. These filters are relaxed under psychedelics to produce a flood of new sensory experience.

This may imply that individuals who are deficient in color vision temporarily circumvent their neural constraints.

Although it requires further studies, the idea is intriguing: could mushroom pupils lead to a more rich and vivid world of visuals, at least, only a couple of hours?

 Looking Through the Psychedelic Eye: A Deeper Metaphor

On top of the biology, an additional spiritual layer is applied to this conversation.

The psychedelic eye has always been a symbol of enlightenment, the facet of seeing through the veil, seeing what lies right in front of us.

When individuals refer to the fact that they see more colors, they are actually referring to how they perceive a change in consciousness, rather than a change in the color. It all seems to be livelier with you being livelier, present, conscious and connected.

Facilitators frequently observe at Changa Institute that participants refer to their psychedelic experiences as seeing life in color again; particularly those who have experienced depression or trauma. The tonal gloominess is raised, metaphorically and physically.

Then perhaps these experiences are not as much about color restoration on a physical level but it is rather about returning to the vividness of life.

 Scientific Research Results Behind Visual Enhancement

Neuroscience today is finally beginning to see what shamans and psychonauts have long known, that psychedelics can have a significant visual effect.

In a 2020 study in Nature, psilocybin was found to activate the regions of the brain associated with the sensory processing and reduce the activity of the visual filtering network. Basically, your brain ceases to constrain you about what to visualize, therefore, colors, patterns and textures seem to glisten in unusual manner.

Even functional MRI scans revealed the stimulated communication between the prefrontal areas of attention and meaning-making with the visual cortex.

That is why your pupils on mushrooms are not the only thing that swells, you are also swelling in your consciousness.

 The Shrooms Eyes Experience

Have you ever heard the words, shrooms eyes? It is applied to define the appearance - and the sensation of being in a psychedelic state.

Shroom's eyes are physically defined as big, wide-open pupils and some glow, or a gaze of wonder, curiosity or even of awe. But the world is being looked through pure fascination, as it were, energetically.

It is full of richness and life. The textures are vibrating, shadows are breathing, and colors are emotional.

You know, it is said, their mushroom pupils open at such times, and are porches, sometimes windows, between the outer world and the inner universe.

And when they get out of the experience, most of them say that they have a clearer view of the world than previously, like the trip opened up their eyes and made their emotional prism focus sharper.

The Visual System of the Brain

The area of the brain that includes sight is the occipital lobe so we need to examine the connection between pupils.on.shrooms and this part of the brain.

As the activation of psilocybin through the serotonin receptors triggers this part of the brain, the typical predictive filters of the brain are relaxed. Your brain usually gives you an idea of what you are supposed to see with reference to the experience. Psychedelics interrupt that prediction system letting raw and unfiltered visual data deluge in.

And that's why you may see colors that were not there before - your brain is getting light and contrasting to full intensity finally.

Suppose you switch off the auto-correct feature of your visual system. You then have a glance at not what your brain anticipates but what is there.

 Psychedelics, Curing and Sensing.

Most depression patients refer to their world as grey or colourless. Interestingly, a color can be seen to have come back to the participants after psychedelic therapy, both literally and emotionally.

Is this connected to the effect of psychedelic eyes on psilocybin? Possibly. Psychedelics have the potential to enhance not only visual, but also emotional vitality by raising the levels of serotonin and dopamine.

At Changa Institute the researchers are in the process of studying the effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy on mood and sensory processing. The initial discoveries indicate that as your mind is being cured, the reality, including color, is more saturated and pleasurable.

A New Lens on Reality

Therefore, are psychedelics supposed to make you see better? This is a question of the definition of seeing.

When you are speaking of literal color restoration, the effect is short-lived as fast as your mushroom pupils come to their senses when the trip is over.

But when you are asking whether it can enrich your vision of life, people, and emotions, then yes, psychedelics will be able to do so.

They assist you to relax, look at details, and get back to wonder again, a sight that transcends color.

As one of the facilitators of Changa Institute puts it very beautifully:

Psychedelics do not simply open their eyes. They teach you how to see."

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why do students swell on mushrooms?

Owing to the fact that psilocybin stimulates the sympathetic nervous system that dilates it. This enables the entry of light, which increases perception and causes the pupils on mushrooms to be easily observed.

Are psychedelics effective in color blindness?

Temporarily, not permanently, but they are capable of temporarily enriching color sensitivity and contrast, and thus making colors look richer and deeper.

What are mushroom pupils?

Mushroom pupils are the name given to enlarged eyes following the intake of psilocybin, a typical physical symptom of observable sensory processing.

Psychedelics and color blindness: Can the former assist those with color blindness?

Anecdotal reports indicate that there are mild improvements on trips, but there is no clinical evidence of permanent restoration.

What's a psychedelic eye?

The symbol of a psychedelic eye presents the idea of a broader perception and insight, a vision of a world in different perspectives, both physically and spiritually.