One of those bits of advice

[drwex]

Science Friday has a bit on with Oliver Sacks that includes some advice on distinguishing hallucinations. For example, he says, if you see a sky-blue cow up in the air, that's a hallucination.

And that reminds me of an old piece of advice (which I know I've shared with several of you):

When you are tripping, all cars are real. If you see a purple car with pink polka-dots on it coming at you out of the sky, get out of the way. You might be hallucinating the sky.

I believe I first heard this from someone at Senior House, but darned if I can remember who it was.

Comments

[dcltdw]

Bwah, that's a great piece of advice. :)

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

A similar useful heuristic, if you wear glasses:

Take your glasses off. If it's still in perfect focus, it's a hallucination.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

ooo very good idea.

[mizarchivist]

Yep. You might have mentioned that concept to me in the past.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

that's a great piece of advice

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I knew someone who ran into all sorts of trouble when, running a high fever, he ran out of the house all dressed but without his wallet, and proceeded to drive to work. He'd been repeatedly having a dream about smashing into a particular sort of car, so when that sort of car braked in front of him he thought he was dreaming. .. and smashed into the car.

[khatru.livejournal.com]

Along the same lines...

If you're eating cookies while tripping, there are *no* crumbs. anywhere, but most especially not on your skin.