Here's a compilaton of vids, that do a reasonable job of representing open eye visual effects of LSD or shrooms, basically at a low dosage where there is no Synesthesia or serious Visuals yet like fractals or other stuff.
Most of the video covers what i would call i good easy going recreational affaire.
At this level, fractals and visuals like that would only apear with eyes closed.
It's when they occur with eyes open that things get really interesting
Note, this is still far from totally accurate, but that's the thing about LSD, it's almost impossible to explain to somebody who hasn't done it.
It's like explaining what skydiving feels like to somebody who hasn't even flown in an airplane. Except LSD at pshychedelic level, as an experience is many , many times more complex that skydiving.
It's like (skydiving to the 10th power) times sitting on a nuclear bomb as it goes off.
This would be no where near psychedelic :
You look at yourself, but yer face is difficult to read, expressions blurr even though yer face doesn't really change in reality
It shows the weird face, but is somewhat lacking the color and perception , on lsd and shrooms, everything seems more vibrant, alive,
a brick wall is amazing to watch, it's like a calm sea, going up and down...
in this vid, if it were lsd, not just the face would move, but the entire room would be alive .
Easy Rider also had a pretty decent acid scene it it.
Not so much the visuals, but the confusion, feel, time weirdness was captures well
On higher doses, the closed eye visuals take over with eyes open.
an LCD screen becoms really, really fun then, because it will often have it's colors just run out . Can't explain it any other way, but the sharp edges of the screen, and contrast on teh screen makes tings look very sharp, but as your perception changes, what you see, just runs out, like a cartoon picture with paint that didn't dry, and runs out.
Add to that when Synestaesia kicks in, it starts with a mild vibration of the music, that you see in the walls or other objects, as if the walls are speakerboxes producing the music.
When it goes up, pretty much you hear color and see sound.. there is no way to explain that any better in writing.. It's pretty fun.
After that, anything higher, all bets are off.. Typically loss of ego.
You forget that you are you, you are a human, you forget all concepts like "i am" or "i am alive" or 'time"
That's not difficult to go through... But at some point your going to start remembering things. and that might just be very scary, cause you might just remember something stupid and run with it.
You go, i, what is i, i am, hey, i am , me? cool, what am i
Then a thought comes up, i'm alive, but wtf is happening, am i coming or going? Is this birth or death?
And you can see your self sitting in total despair, and you tell yourself :hey, it's alright, couple of hours and the lsd wears off
At the same time you sit there in misery, and you see yourself telling you it's alright, but you don't believe it, because at some point a thought/lie had come up, that lsd is a destructive drug and whoever tries it, even just once, is basically a goner and will be stuck in it for ever and ever and ever.
That's what would be called , a bad trip. Basically your own thoughts control the whole thing.
And if at some point you have something negative pop up, you totally run with that idea scary as it might be. Especially if you sit there alone, with nobody you trust around to talk you down
At some point i snapped out of it, in a split second. It was like being in the deep end of the pool, 3-4 meters under water, and then going up to the surface in desperate need of air.
And that split second, was like breaking the water and gasping for air.
I gasped for air, opend my eyes, saw my appartment rather thrashed and turns out i sat in a relaxed lotus position, and Bubba sat on my leg purring in overdrive...
That's one of the craziest mind tricks ever played on myself
But very valuable, because it taught me that even under major stress, i can keep cool and work it out. From that point onward, i also ended a long streak of self destructive behaviour... Not in one go, but i went for improvement across the board. Ditched the things that dragged me down (that included the crappy 911 project)
But, it's different for everybody, you go in with what you got, and you come out with what you make of it.
Essentially , it's your own mind that has the most influence on the end result.