On Being Stoned
Changes in visual experience while intoxicated on marijuana are of particular interest. A very characteristic effect of marijuana intoxication is increased perceptual organization ("meaningfulness"):
"I can see patterns, forms, figures, meaningful designs in visual material that does not have any particular form when I'm straight, that is just a meaningless series of shapes or lines when I 'm straight"
"Things seen are seen more sharply in that their edges, contours stand out more sharply against the background"
The contrary effect. "My vision tends to be somewhat blurry; if I try to examine something visually, I can't focus as sharply as when straight"
Visual blurriness is reported somewhat more frequently by women than by men.
Color is important and perceptual changes are common:
"I see new colors or more subtle shades of color than when I'm straight."
Sensuality, Aliveness
Another common phenomenon is "There is a sensual quality to vision, as if I were 'touching' the objects or people I am looking at" which occurs at higher levels of intoxication.
This effect is also reported most frequently among the Heavy users. "Everything I look at seems to vibrate or pulse, as if it had a life of its own"
VISUAL IMAGERY AND HALLUCINATION
A very characteristic phenomenon is enhanced visual imagery:
"If I try to visualize something, form a visual image, I see it in my mind's eye more intensely, more sharply than when straight"
"I have more imagery than usual while reading; images of the scenes I'm reading about just pop up vividly"
A related phenomenon, "When thinking about things while stoned, there are visual images that just automatically go along with thinking," a very common effect, which occurs at Moderate levels of intoxication.
Auras
Two frequent phenomena stand midway between perceptual alteration of real phenomena and hallucination:
"I see fringes of colored light around objects (not people), what people have called the 'aura'" and "I see fringes of colored light around people (not objects), what people have called the 'aura'."
Many users (57 percent, 59 percent, respectively) did not rate the level of intoxication for this, but for those who did, it was generally rated in the highest ranges.
Seeing an aura around objects is somewhat more common in the Younger group than in the Older group, more common in Heavy users of marijuana than in Moderate.
Pure visual hallucination is an infrequent phenomenon. It is reported more frequently in the Younger Group.
LEVELS OF INTOXICATION FOR VISUAL PHENOMENA
At the lowest levels, vision may sharpen up, patterns may appear, and colors may be affected. Further up, visual imagery is enhanced, and vision may become more central with depth magnified
Between Strongly and Very Strongly intoxicated, a sensual quality is frequently added to vision, and the external visual world may become unstable, with blurring and jiggling in depth.
As one goes higher, vision may pulse, faces may change, auras may appear around objects, and at the highest level the maximal alteration of the visual world may occur with hallucinations and auras around people.
In general, more drug experience goes with sensuality and unusual visual experiences, and with more intoxication required for the possibly undesirable effects of blurriness and pulsing of vision.
SUMMARY
In general, the specific changes in visual perception brought about by marijuana intoxication may be seen as particular manifestations of a general change in what we might call the visual pattern-making process. It is common to assume that we passively "see" what is out there, that the qualities of the visual world are inherent in the physical properties of objects and space.
Modern psychological investigations have made it clear that seeing is a very active and complex process in which we construct the visual world from the flux of visual sensations reaching us. That is, patterns, forms, objects, recognizable people, etc. exist in our minds as a construction from visual data. We are so used to doing this automatically that it seems as if the visual world were given.
Marijuana intoxication seems to raise the level a fair amount, more so with increasing levels of intoxication. Thus patterns form from ambiguous material, contours are sharpened, central visual phenomena are enhanced at the expense of peripheral phenomena, depth is magnified and more subtle shades of color are perceived. With eyes closed, visual imagery is enhanced.
Many users seem to be aware of this combined advantage-disadvantage of marijuana intoxication and to compensate for it by requiring more data than usual before making a judgment or carrying out a consequent action.
Others naively accept everything seen while intoxicated as true.
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