Why do psychedelic visuals look the way they do?

[Ropuch7]

@Carl-Richard

Watch this short video:

It made me think of your question.

It briefly describes how were DeepDream videos and pictures made. In short, researchers told the AI to find and highlight previously learned patterns in random photos. It was supposed to give them insight into how the machine "thinks".

Created pictures hold an uncanny resemblance to some of the psychedelic visuals.

Now, psychedelic drugs are known to increase the communication between different brain regions or connect those which are normally separated.

In the sober state, what you see is very stable as your brain is sticking to well-trained and tested patterns. It is connected with its survival efficiency. However, when you allow the free flow of energy, you get patterns mixed. You could see it as a sort of information leakage. The patterns which are not supposed to be applied are suddenly being projected because the "control center" is being bypassed. It can also be the case that as the brain works more holistically, the visuals represent a larger brain/mind structure. This would be a similar point to what @acidgoofy was saying (about looking "inside one's body"/seeing "one's energy").

I don't have a clue regarding the meaning of specific shapes and colors.

What I am trying to do is to give you more dots to connect. Obviously, The AI searching for the "dog pattern" in clouds cannot be directly compared with the human mind which is much more complex. So take it with a grain of salt.