Elsevier

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume 60, April 2018, Pages 127-132
Consciousness and Cognition

Synesthetic hallucinations induced by psychedelic drugs in a congenitally blind man

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.02.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Few studies have examined psychedelic drug use in the congenitally blind.

  • This is the first phenomenology of hallucinogenic use in congenital blindness.

  • Psychedelics can induce synthetic synesthesia, aphasia and distort time perception.

  • Novel sensory experiences arise in psychedelic drug use in congenital blindness.

Abstract

This case report offers rare insights into crossmodal responses to psychedelic drug use in a congenitally blind (CB) individual as a form of synthetic synesthesia. BP's personal experience provides us with a unique report on the psychological and sensory alterations induced by hallucinogenic drugs, including an account of the absence of visual hallucinations, and a compelling look at the relationship between LSD induced synesthesia and crossmodal correspondences. The hallucinatory experiences reported by BP are of particular interest in light of the observation that rates of psychosis within the CB population are extremely low. The phenomenology of the induced hallucinations suggests that experiences acquired through other means, might not give rise to “visual” experiences in the phenomenological sense, but instead gives rise to novel experiences in the other functioning senses.

Section snippets

Background

Hallucinations induced by psychedelic drugs often cause synesthesia-like experiences (Luke & Terhune, 2013), in which a sensorial stimulus in one modality will consistently and involuntarily produce a second concurrent experience in a different one (Ward, 2013). Acquired synesthesia (Proulx, 2010, Proulx and Stoerig, 2006) or that attributed to drug ingestion, convolve sensory experience from multiple modalities and elicit phenomenon that are not experienced solely in the ‘mind’s eye’, but

Case report

BP gave informed, oral and written consent for the interview and publication of the results, with the research approved by the departmental ethics committee for the study of multisensory cognition in the visually impaired. BP was born in 1948, two months premature. Due to an over-saturation of oxygen at birth, he suffered from premature retinopathy causing him permanent, congenital blindness. From a young age, he listened to popular composers of the time and attempted to imitate their melodies

Discussion

This case study is, to our knowledge, the first qualitative account of the phenomenological experience of LSD use in a CB subject, and implies that psychedelic drugs may induce temporary acquired-synesthesia, sensory aphasia and distortion of time perception in this population. BP's personal experience allows us to comment on three main points. Firstly, the absence of visual hallucinations; second, the quality and intensity of the experience, and finally, the relationship between LSD induced

Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by an EPSRC grant (EP/J017205/1) to MJP. We thank members of the Crossmodal Cognition Lab for conversations about this case study.

References (56)

  • J. Ward et al.

    Visual experiences in the blind induced by an auditory sensory substitution device

    Consciousness and Cognition

    (2010)
  • A. Amedi et al.

    The occipital cortex in the blind: Lessons about plasticity and vision

    Current Directions in Psychological Science

    (2005)
  • K.C. Armel et al.

    Acquired synesthesia in retinitis pigmentosa

    Neurocase

    (1999)
  • P. Afra et al.

    Acquired auditory-visual synesthesia: A window to early cross-modal sensory interactions

    Psychology Research Behavioral Management

    (2009)
  • M. Auvray et al.

    Learning to perceive with a visuo-auditory substitution system: Localization and object recognition with The Voice

    Perception

    (2007)
  • M. Auvray et al.

    Perception with compensatory devices: From sensory substitution to sensorimotor extension

    Cognitive Science

    (2009)
  • P. Bach-y-Rita

    Sensory plasticity

    Acta Neurologica Scandinavica

    (1967)
  • G. Beeli et al.

    Synaesthesia: When coloured sounds taste sweet

    Nature

    (2005)
  • R.L. Carhart-Harris et al.

    The paradoxical psychological effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)

    Psychological Medicine

    (2016)
  • J. Delay et al.

    Les synesthésies dans l’intoxication Mescalinique

    L’Encephale

    (1951)
  • E. Fotiou

    Working with “la medicina”: Elements of healing in contemporary ayahuasca rituals

    Anthropology of Consciousness

    (2012)
  • J.M.D. Giannini

    Chemical Abuse Centers Inc, Austintown, Canton and Columbus Ohio

    American Family Physician

    (2000)
  • R. Griffiths et al.

    Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later

    Journal of Psychopharmacology

    (2008)
  • R. Griffiths et al.

    Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance

    Psychopharmacology

    (2006)
  • L. Grinspoon et al.

    Psychedelic reflections

    (1983)
  • A.M. Hartman et al.

    Effect of mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin on color perception

    Psychopharmacologia

    (1963)
  • A. Hoffer et al.

    The Hallucinogens

    (1967)
  • A. Hoffman

    LSD: My Problem Child

    (1983)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text