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Spravato

Hi, I've only become aware of aphantasia for the first time last evening after watching a video in YouTube. I took the VVIQ just minutes ago and the result said I'm aphantasic. This explains so many things for me that I never understood, such as how do people imagine pink elephants.

But on to the real topic. I've been going to Spravato esketamine treatments for a few months now, and every time I am under the effect of the drug, when I close my eyes I am actually able to see images in full color, and in complete vividness. I often make the joke that I need to close my eyes in order to see what my mind is showing me, because if I have my eyes open, I see the treatment room that I'm in and that's the only thing I see. I've never used any psychedelics so don't know if that's something that would happen under their influence.

Is it known if hallucinogens such as esketamine commonly allow a normally aphantasic person to see images with their eyes closed?

Thank you 🙂

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Total Comments (4)
Rob Mark
on June 25, 2024

Welp after spending about 2 or 3 hours in reviewing all 19 pages of previous posts, I read about 5 messages about the topic of hallucinogens, so no answer needed 🙂

Michelle Koenig
on July 18, 2024

This clock analogy reminds me of deep meditation. Can you sit down and go into this state at will?

Weston Dehler
on July 2, 2024

I’ve tried two hallucinogens and failed to visualize.

gregory coghlan
on July 7, 2024

As per my previous post, I did a lot of acid, mesc, ‘shrooms, et c. in the ’70s; I have no idea any more what/how I hallucinated. I have very vivid dreams but if they are images they do not come forward when I wake even though I often remember much of my dreams. When I was in 9th grade, I was sent to a Catholic monastery – every day at 6:00pm we knelt for an hour of prayer which was just so boring that I would stare at the second hand of the clock. I eventually was able to jump from the first 5 seconds to the end of the hour w/o any idea of the intervening time – no Idea if this is related to Aphantasia or not but now, if I am not careful, I can lose hours of the day by losing attention to what is going on. I have no idea what occurs mentally when I am ‘gone’ or where I go.

Myra Sontheimer
on August 1, 2024

Hi. I have aphantasia and also do spravato. Yes! I see something when on spravato. I did Ketamine IV for several years before spravato. On the IV I had vivid visual images but it is too costly without insurance. On spravato I see colors that often look backlit I frequently touch my eyes to ensure they are closed. I can change the color and sometimes see a horizon that I go towards. I have been trying to teach my mind to “see” by concentrating on lighter areas or slight changes in texture while under. What I see is weird and only lasts for moments. Last time I focused on light spots and it looked like an old stone wall and another spot revealed the very red lips of a woman. It lasts moments and I can’t seem to follow the image as it dissipates into the normal nothing. On mushrooms, I see a Kaleidoscope with color that I don’t have control over. I hope the spravato is working for you.