The Third Wave is a for-profit organisation active in the psychedelic wellness space.
They have recently published a comprehensive article on their website looking at the latest research into the cause of psychedelic visual experiences.

These visuals include forms such as:

• Tunnels and funnels
• Spirals
• Lattices
• Cobwebs
  

They also include dream-like manifestations and meetings with so-called “entities”.

You can read the full article here: The Science Behind Psychedelic Visuals.

There are already published studies looking at the similarities (and differences) between psychedelic and NDE encounters. As well as the potential therapeutic benefits of both experiences in end-of-life care.

I thought I would take a look at some information presented in the Third Wave article and superimpose it over some frequently reported near-death visual phenomenons.

It is understood that many of the classic visual effects caused by psychedelics are mediated by their actions at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptors. Multiple studies have confirmed this by blocking the receptor sites with drugs (such as ketanserin) before taking psychedelics, preventing any psychedelic effects.

The tunnel.

Researchers believe that psychedelic visuals are generated in the primary visual cortex (known as area V1) of the brain.

This visual cortex is described as a “lattice of interconnected hypercolumns” that are “used to process edges, contours, textures, and surfaces”.

But to the way the retina maps onto this V1 area of the brain, it has been proposed that stimulation of the visual cortex could produce an experience of seeing or moving through a tunnel.

NDEs do report visuals of tunnels but usually do not see complex geometric or fractal shapes such as lattices, honeycombs, or cobwebs.

Heaven, entities (and other realities).

Researchers have also proposed that psychedelic drugs act on higher-functioning areas of the brain such as the default mode network (DMN) and the central executive network (CEN), interfering with their usual executive control over lower-level regions such as the hippocampus and visual cortex. This is known as the “relaxed beliefs under psychedelics” or the REBUS model.

This collapse of top-down control may account for the dream-like visions, geometric hallucinations and entity encounters frequently reported in psychedelic experiences.

Psychedelic states often include encounters with entities described as gnomes, dwarves, elves, angels, and aliens.

One anthropologist has proposed that these beings result from our innate tendency to anthropomorphise (attribute human characteristics), to detect agency and to infer mental states of ‘others’ among chaotic or ambiguous mental stimuli.

NDEs include reports of an accurate life review, of visiting beautiful (often naturalistic) landscapes, and of meeting deceased family members or other human-like beings.
NDEs do not typically report meeting insect-like, elf-like or machine entities, or of meeting known people who are still living.

NDEs also describe initial clear, realistic and accurate visuals of the surrounding area (typically as viewed from above).

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Photo by: Jr Korpa