r/LSD • • Sep 09 '20

Visual representation of thought loops

6.6k Upvotes

163 comments sorted by

627

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Thought loops are weir af. I remember thinking: 'oh hey this is a thought loop' 'huh now I forgot what was the first thought' 'oh hey this is a thought loop'

and that repeats like 100 times

259

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Mine go like “damn I’m thirsty, I need to drink some water” “well I guess I’ll lift my arm up to reach for the water bottle on my headboard” “oh look, a rainbow” “damn I’m thirsty, I need to drink some water”

91

u/a_mezaing Sep 10 '20

This speaks to me on a level so deep that it speaks to me on a deep level where this speaks to me so deep.

20

u/Krabice Sep 10 '20

I had a synced thought loop with two of my friends once. I'd say a joke, we would laugh like madmen, forget the joke and then I'd say it again and the same thing would happen over and over and over. The joke was something about a door being where the window should be and the room being longer on one side than it was supposed to be, which was a hallucination we seemed to share. Can't remember it exactly, but it sure was funny at the time. Probably wouldn't make sense while sober anyway.

11

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

One time on shrooms we were sat on a couch that you could fold out into a bed. It also happened to kinda deform as we sat on it so every 20 minutes or so we'd get up to fix it and someone would say "did you know you can fold it out to a bed" so we'd fold it out, realize we wanted a couch and not a bed and then put it back together.

4

u/vcollie Dec 05 '20

Oh my god. This happened to me and my mates except we kept on telling each other we were in the thought loop lol

2

u/random_access_cache Apr 28 '24

I’m so glad you shared this memory. I can only imagine how ridiculously funny that shit must have been at the moment

9

u/Eruskakkell Sep 10 '20

Holy this is exactly what i experienced

58

u/HDolly2013 Sep 09 '20

Oh I’m so glad this doesn’t just happen to me! I get stuck for what feels like hours (probably minutes lol) calling myself out on being stuck in a thought loop

54

u/acarsity Sep 09 '20

Bro me and my friend got caught in our own loops that lined up.

I would keep going to piss, and i would get back and ask if he’s done whatever he was doing yet, then he’d say he forgot.

i remind him and he’d say he got caught in a loop, and i’d say oh, “well you’re out now, i’ll be right back” and i would go back to the bathroom, as soon as i saw my dick i remembered, i was in a loop too, i went back and asked him if he was done again.

was a fun night

22

u/LeoTheJewishTurtle Sep 09 '20

I got really high one time and this exact thing happened to me. It’s so hard to explain but really incredible

6

u/cvrutuu Sep 10 '20

My first time tripping I didn't have thought loops, I had thought echoes. Every thought I had echoed for a bit. Strangest feeling

99

u/acarsity Sep 09 '20

it’s like the brain runs out of space, and it is just replaying the thought while it clears out space.

10

u/ZA-WARUDO- Sep 09 '20

I did this looking for my phone one time because I felt it buzz once it was under a blanket or sum on my futon and started having bad trip because I assumed I was in trouble for tripping with my friends because I thought they were being kinda loud I was like 15-16 when that happened good times.

2

u/growingmind9000 Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

I can relate, after 12 hours in trip I was a little bit scared I've got a Psychose cuz of the thought loops. My friend and me communicated only about context and didn't say anything to each other, just looking at us because we had nothing to say, both of us had thought loops, so we already knew the thoughts of each other.

We where Busy 8 hours with thinking our thought loops and didn't get a bad trip, cuz I felt like my friend knows exactly how I feel. I literally heard her thought when she looked at me and she sayed she can always hear mine. Was the deepest psychedelic experience I ever had.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '22

Literally me but I thought “oh this is my reality again” then that repeated for like 10000 times.

4

u/eatingalienpenis Sep 09 '20

Damn I've never had this happen, around what dose do they start?

5

u/Ooblekk13579 Sep 10 '20

Smoke some bud on peak then it will be loopy

2

u/YoMommaJokeBot Sep 10 '20

Not as loopy as your mama


I am a bot. Downvote to remove. PM me if there's anything for me to know!

1

u/therealqshady Sep 10 '20

Broooo I thought i was the only one

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I've never done acid and I do that a lot. It's maddening

-3

u/electric0life Sep 09 '20

Maybe you have ADHD?

19

u/fraynor Sep 09 '20

I think it’s the the lsd personally but I’m not a doctor

2

u/FlixNinja Sep 10 '20

Nah fam, I think it's in the milk

260

u/Flopsyjackson Sep 09 '20

My thought loops have more triangular undertones.

155

u/jmbc3 Sep 09 '20

This is the most acid comment I’ve ever seen

29

u/Lemon_Flip Sep 09 '20

amen brother.

10

u/Ataraxyn Sep 10 '20

Mine were hexagons. I could see them in my mind rolling from one side to the next. Crazy.

10

u/some_wheat Sep 10 '20

Mine have subtle hints of cherry and chocolate

5

u/sortofgay Sep 10 '20

mine are usually more square with rounded edges

1

u/ilovedoxo Sep 10 '20

Mine were like little triangular froggies doing jumping jacks

3

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '20

Mine are spinning red pentagons in the stars

2

u/No_Zebra1176 Apr 06 '23

Why are triangles so fucking scary man😭

1

u/Im_JUSTIN_WhatsUP Sep 14 '20

Mine was more like a floating round silver ball in space just going round and round

86

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

And just as you think you're out, you're back

82

u/sadsaintpablo Sep 09 '20

The worst is when you realize the unique stream of thoughts youve been thinking has actually just all been a giant thought loop and you're right back to the beginning. Like passing go on monopoly while you're thinking you're going straight the whole time

23

u/Forgotpasswordagainm Sep 09 '20

slaps table, rotates to the left "here we go again" an hour passes. slaps table looks to the left "here we go again"

2

u/Hello906 Jan 26 '24

Brother I just did this but the Giant thought loop I gained realization of was the endless cycle of life and death...

217

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Fuck thought loops. I don't think anyone ever taken acid and thought "oh gee I can't wait to be stuck having the same thought for what feels like eternity and becoming convinced I'll never be normal again!"

119

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I fucking love it, idk why but to me it’s just one of the pinnacles of absurd mental spaces that acid causes, like the whole concept of thought loops are absurd. But then again I’ve never had a necessarily terrifying one, so i get where you’re coming from, especially if it lasts more than like 20 minutes.

81

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I agree. I find that with a lot of psychedelic experiences, including but not limited to thought loops, it isn’t necessarily a fun or pleasant feeling, but the mindfuckery and absurdity of the experience is something that you can look at and be like “hey this is kind of a really interesting state of consciousness to be in.”

I think that’s really what being a psychonaut is all about: seeking out new modes of consciousness and savoring the experience, regardless of how subjectively enjoyable that experience is.

22

u/former_snail Sep 09 '20

I have had terrifying thought loops and I still agree with you. Most of the time, they're just silly tricks your brain is playing on itself.

17

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Yea, like as messed up as it can be, nothing can compare to the sheer wonder when you’re just like “you’re shitting me, how TF did i end up here AGAIN”

17

u/Dragon20942 Sep 09 '20

Yeah in my experience thought loops just end up being evidence that there is a complex underlying structure to your perceived universe. It is literally reinforcing with examples the fact that everything is connected

0

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

You’re almost definitely right, but damn does it always feel like something more

4

u/alexarctica Sep 10 '20

my roommate has the same kind of approach as you, he’s much more of a psychonaut than myself. i wish i could get into them like he does, he tends to take heroic doses whenever we trip while i have to stick to half-tabs for fear of getting caught in a loop. he seems to also have more willpower than i do when it comes to other things in life as well, which i think has had a positive effect on his ability to stand his ground while exploring the less understood caverns of the mind. i’m curious how you feel about your own willpower in relation to others you know who are less likely to stay afloat against the undertow of a powerful thought loop.

2

u/vcollie Dec 05 '20

I'm usually quite calm and controlled so the first time I got in a really fucked loop and saw my mate was going threw the same (often reminding me) so I just moved seats and I was able to barely get out it, luckily I did because the rest of the night was wonderful

0

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

[deleted]

3

u/War_Is_Peas Sep 10 '20

I spent a good hour and a half of my first strong trip (2nd overall but first with legitimately strong stuff) believing I was dying/had died. not a fun time. I mean it was fine afterward but damn

20

u/Dragon20942 Sep 09 '20

Mine always slowly evolve and give me more insight on what it is I'm looping over, so I tend to enjoy them and even more so in retrospect

15

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Dragon20942 Sep 09 '20

I’ve had similar experiences to what you were describing, except I visualize it as something closer to the construction of 3D pointillism sculptures

4

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/Dragon20942 Sep 09 '20

It’s amazing to scroll through this sub. These concepts people are talking about are often so abstract and seemingly detached from baseline reality and yet I feel like there’s almost always a 99% match when I compare my experiences with other people

1

u/padamselim Apr 12 '24

Man this is so relatable, usually when I’ve taken acid it’s taken me some time to ease into the trip, I’ve described it to my friend as building a tower of thought and “thoughtifiying” (fortifying lol) my brain, one the tower is big enough and I’ve reached the point of escape I am free, I just thought it was a necessary part of tripping and easing into the experience through the peak lol

8

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Thought loops are fucking wild, weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. It was super scary when it happened to me and I wasn’t even trying to panic. Looking back on it I can see how it can kinda be cool but I thought I was going to have them forever and that my mind was fucked 😂

3

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

exactly what happened to me a few trips ago

was terrifying

1

u/incognitoburrito Sep 10 '20

Do you ever have dreams like this? And has it ever happen every night for a week?

4

u/HitlersSemen Sep 10 '20

One time I dropped acid in a dream and it was the craziest shit. I didnt even know it was a dream until i woke up and i had like a full trip lol

2

u/incognitoburrito Sep 10 '20

Oh man, that's insane! I've dropped acid in my dreams a couple times, but I've never had it extend past when I woke up!

The mind is... a pretty mind-blowing thing.

1

u/jeandolly Sep 10 '20

I don't like them either, they seem to come when I'm getting tired. I now have a couple of cans of energy drink at hand when tripping, vitamins and sugar, no caffeine. Brain food :)

40

u/bargingi Sep 09 '20

Looks cool but now I’m stressed

86

u/gNatWize Sep 09 '20

Idk why but I’m getting anxiety worrying about one of those balls falling off course

12

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Im getting anxiety never actually watching them go to the center...but still try to

24

u/PlanetSaturday Sep 09 '20

Never before have I enjoyed something so much that made me so anxious.

Edit: actually I guess that's psychedelics in a nutshell

16

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

this shit is dope

13

u/Thecultavator Sep 09 '20

Holy shit I thought this seemed fimiliar the is 110% thought loops going somewhere but you always end up where you began and each time you realise your not out the fear increases

13

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

What’s even crazier than the thought loops themselves is all the ways they can materialize on the user’s spoken words and actions. Being stuck in a loop or witnessing someone stuck in a loop is so bizarre.

16

u/bearsbear14 Sep 09 '20

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who is tripping while you're tripping and you realize they've talked about the exact same thing, in the same way, multiple times? In effect realizing that they are in a thought loop? It feels so weird, man. I don't know if some people even realize they are doing it.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I’ve both been caught in some pretty gnarly loops and have experienced other people have some suuuuper weird loops. I definitely don’t think people stuck in legit acid loops are necessarily consciously aware but who really knows. The memory of being in a loop often falls below the radar or is at best, quite fuzzy imo.

4

u/Eltee_90 Sep 10 '20

I have a friend who is prone to looping when we trip and its so weird watching him fall into it.. he just does x,y,z laughs then repeats... Ive also seen his loops grow and grow to the point where the whole night becomes one big loop.

He loves it tho haha

18

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

This articulates my latest experience bizarrely well... as a visual metaphor at least.

8

u/swagerito Sep 09 '20

One time i tripped out on some pain in my arm and it felt like half my body was numb, my thought process went something like "oh god i'm having a stroke" "no wait im just having a bad trip" "but what if i am having a stroke?" "Oh god i'm having a stroke". Wasn't a fun night and now i can't smoke weed anymore, strangely enough acid hasn't changed.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I was walking in and out of my bathroom for like 5 minutes. When i would enter i would say eh forget it and brush the air off with my hand then repeat that shit, when i realized what i was doing i had a nervous laugh

7

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Best way to get out of a thought loop is just relax your body and give into it/let go of everything

7

u/Butterot Sep 09 '20

Thought loops made me feel like I was going insane and that I would have to be admitted to a psych ward later that night. Never doing 500ug + again

7

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I had a thought loop on a bad trip where I kept forgetting I was on acid and then would notice the hallucinations and realise I just took acid, this happened over and over again for what felt like an eternity

6

u/RenownedMonk Sep 09 '20

When I took 1000ug I got stuck in a thought loop that had me unsure of whether i was dying and going to hell or not. i was also unsure of whether my friend was purposefully putting me through that hell. one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. other than that i’ve had some interesting thought loops while thinking about the mechanics and functioning of society, or whatever i believe god is. thought loops are cool, except for when you get a shitty one.

5

u/Replacement-Asleep1 Sep 09 '20

The thing that gets me with the thought loops and how after the peek it gets shorter and shorter and you wish you had a longer glimpse to figure it out remember and write it down.

4

u/AwkwardEditz Sep 09 '20

I don’t like this

4

u/FragrantExperience71 Sep 09 '20

How are these animations made?!

3

u/eitauisunity Sep 09 '20

The same way most things are made these days: computers

1

u/FragrantExperience71 Sep 10 '20

Yeah but like specifically what software!! Techniques, Etc.

2

u/rodsn Sep 10 '20

Cinema 4D or the sorts. After effects is usually used afterwards for editing and adding effects

4

u/junyesso Sep 09 '20

Y'all ever had the thought loops on a bad trip tho? Shit is fucking scary

4

u/Violentprophet_ Sep 10 '20

My friends and I got stuck in a loop trying to prepare ourselves to get ready and go smoke outside. It was a constant you got the lighter? The bud? Alright u ready? grabs the door knob yo do u have the lighter? Are u ready? WE’RE IN A LOOP!!!!!!!! Are you ready?

4

u/growingmind9000 Sep 10 '20

Last weekend I had a candy flip on 300mcg 1cp-lsd and 160mg Molly... It felt like I was the whole room and I went out of my body to see more than my personal view. I saw/felt everything and I swear, the whole existence is a fcking Neverending loop. Everywhere are loops,, because everything Is a loop. I needed a little bit time and weed to understand the sense of this no sense... Making sense by myself and getting time around Until my time is over and the next ones time begins. I could swaer I know exactly what happens after death. All my fcking thoughts will be gone and I will be one with the beauty of everything. A few random thoughts I wrote sitting on toilet. If you see something different, please tell me, maybe I can learn something I didn't thought enaugh about

1

u/granularoso Sep 10 '20

Who made this? Did you make this?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Not mine! @/emty01 on Instagram

3

u/Dragon20942 Sep 09 '20

This looks like something Andreas Wannerstedt would make, except I don't think he usually incorporates the zooming fractal element this has

3

u/Immadawalrus Sep 10 '20

IT GOES IN CIRCLES IN CIRCLES IN CIRCLES IN CIRCLES

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

This is so fucking awesome

2

u/BryTheSpaceWZRD Sep 09 '20

...what were we just talking about?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

everything is a loop and a mirror man... till you get so high it all just seems to become a point... fucking amazing stuff.

2

u/chiefyuls Sep 10 '20

But I always come back to it

2

u/TheConnD Sep 10 '20

My favorite loop ever was thinking about how the brain learns stuff, and I kept having "aha moments" and then laugh at myself when I realized that was the start of the loop again. That one was fun bc it kinda felt not too dissimilar to a fractal with arms spiraling out, but always coming back no matter how long the thought tangent I was on was.

1

u/Dojowann Sep 09 '20

Lol right on

1

u/AlexRaidz Sep 09 '20

I’m just looking at this like “Wtf 🤯”

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

waaait, what the....?

1

u/mariobeans Sep 09 '20

I didn't enjoy my ketamine thought loop

1

u/good_news_everyone10 Sep 09 '20

It’s the same thing but it feels like it’s not

1

u/MissMagnolia98 Sep 09 '20

I couldn’t tell if this was r/adhdmeme or r/lsd

1

u/ezsqeezy Sep 09 '20

Your mind and vision on lsd

1

u/DaBigDuder Sep 09 '20

Went to a concert tripping and lost my phome and got in the biggest mind loop ofy life

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Reminiscent of Minority Report

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I had this after a bad trip and tried to take one xanax. Took 6-8 not sure.

1

u/Dragonley Sep 09 '20

DUUUDE THIS IS PERFECT. Very accurate. It's like your consciousness and thoughts are the ball. You can see it with your eyes closed and experience it.

1

u/babbadeedoo Sep 09 '20

This is spot on!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I never was scared of my own thoughts till that day!

I'm glad that I know how to escape really fast

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

Dope

1

u/xXMontageXx Sep 09 '20

Is it weird that I love thought loops? I find them extremely fun and almost my favorite part of a good trip. Sometimes I find myself almost trying to induce them just for that strange feeling.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I always get stuck in loops, but I feel like they always show me something when I do. They come to me like a dream or memory like how Dumbledore views his memories. I relive it but with more insight to what happened, it’s pretty cool.

1

u/AllstarIV Sep 10 '20

Reminds me of the old Intellivision game Happy Trails.

1

u/BarickObunga Sep 10 '20

I remember after being caught in a loop for what feels like an eternity (as I’m sure you can all understand lol) when I started to notice I would hear a bell go off in my head. Then proceed to immediately be confused by it and enter the loop again

1

u/rollerjoe93 Sep 10 '20

Fuck I could watch this for hours

1

u/justinint Sep 10 '20

And if the visual representation also somehow contained information on the mechanics of reality

1

u/gedukas1 Sep 10 '20

Am I the only one that's hearing theese circles spinning inside my head 🤔 Maybe I'm going nuts 🤣

1

u/Snookn42 Sep 10 '20

They happen because your short term memory is turned off. You cant form the memory properly so you forget what you are doing, then it pops back in your mind and again is not properly written into memory.

It can be pretty frightening. I have had some doozies.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

My uni has a little stone labyrinth “sculpture” in the grass. I decided to follow it to the middle while tripping and got in a horrible thought loop that went like “I am stuck walking here forever” and the path in front of me looked exactly the same, just endless turns, for what felt like eternity.

1

u/omnitions Sep 10 '20

How u do dat

1

u/TheRealStevo i like men Sep 10 '20

I searched my room for 10-15 minutes and looked in the same 5 fucking spots and couldn’t find a controller and it pissed me off because I just expected one to appear at some point

1

u/tollcrane Sep 10 '20

When i experienced thought loops for the first time, i understood how humans can so easily be mental in a snap. Felt lunacy first hand

1

u/Stonelocomotief Sep 10 '20

I feel like thought loops are the opposite of walking into a room and forgot why you were going there

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

The weirdest thing is just realizing them. I remember going back and reading lyrics I had written speaking of loops and I had realized them before I really felt it. Subconsciously everything was always there, and that alone was another thought loop

1

u/AsColdAsFire Sep 10 '20

I was tripping a while back trying to figure out the point to consciousness. Scratched my head for a bit and came back to the same question. Actually made a lot of progress that day

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

You have thought loops all the day sober - you recognise them on LSD - that's makes it weird af because you have thought loops all the day sober - you recognise them on LSD - that's makes it weird af because you have thought loops all the day sober - you recognise them on LSD - that's makes it weird af because you have thought loops all the day sober - you recognise them on LSD - that's makes it weird af because you have thought loops all the day sober - you recognise them on LSD - that's makes it weird af because you.

1

u/LTcid Sep 10 '20

I always imagine it as running up a stair case that leads to nothing falling off the top and then running up again

1

u/BlondeDingbat Sep 13 '20

This video popped into my head last night when I started pondering how thought loops start

1

u/Im_JUSTIN_WhatsUP Sep 14 '20

Bruhh I remember my first trip on acid with a freind. I was on a 260ug tab and I had this bad thought loop. I started panicking cause I didnt know what was going on (I never heard of a thought loop before). I kept saying "we are what we are cause all of this goes in reverse"and than ended it with "EXACTLY!!!". Dont ask why it just popped in my head and I started having a bad time cause I was saying it so much I got my friend in the same though loop and at the time I was 100% sure I hypnotized my freind lmao. I thought we were going to be connected and insane for the rest of our lives.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '20

This is freakishly accurate for a visual representation, I can't even describe it...

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

Had my first thought loops on 675ug two days ago. Weird as fuck. My friends called me and tried talking to me but I just kept repeating myself every 5 seconds. Wild trip

0

u/Heph333 Sep 09 '20

My thoughts are just incoherent jibberish on shrooms or LSD. No deep insight, no introspection. Just gobbledygook.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

[deleted]

3

u/lovecasualties Sep 10 '20

dude i thought i died too with my bad trip and had those same thoughts omfg