Spravato

June 25, 20241 min readByRob Mark

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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Erika Ennejjar•recently

I’ve been on spravato for many years and started the at home ketamine treatments. I was hoping the ketamine and spravato would help me finally visualize something other than black, but unfortunately it didn’t. When people ask what it’s like on a normal day for me, I feel the image, I just can’t see it. And even with this, and past use of hallucinogenics, I still have never seen anything. I have tried so many meditations too and nothing ever works. I really hate this.

Myra Sontheimer•recently

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.

gregory coghlan•recently

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.

Weston Dehler•recently

I’ve tried two hallucinogens and failed to visualize.

Rob Mark•recently

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•recently

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