The truth about the LSD experience in the 1960s.

Hallucination reports of seeing through skin and viewing bone structures (often called "X-ray vision" illusions) and telepathic communication were common and well-documented subjective phenomena in psychedelic folklore and "acid trip" reports during the 1960s and 1970s. 

However, clinical science confirms these are neurological hallucinations and cognitive distortions, not actual paranormal abilities.

Why People Experience "X-Ray Vision" on LSD.

When individuals report seeing their own bones or another person's skeleton through the skin, the brain is experiencing a severe breakdown in how it processes sensory data and mental imagery.

Hyper-Connectivity and Imagery: 

LSD floods the brain's 5-HT2A serotonin receptors. This causes the visual cortex to rapidly cross-talk with the parahippocampus—the region responsible for mental imagery and memory.

The "Filling In" Phenomenon: 

If a user looks at a hand, their brain already knows anatomical facts (that bones exist beneath the skin). Under LSD, the brain's filtering mechanisms fail. It superimposes its internal mental database of skeletal imagery directly onto the physical visual field, causing the person to believe they are actively seeing through the flesh.

Why People Report "Telepathy" on LSD.

The feeling of telepathic or unspoken communication with others during a trip is tied to distinct chemical changes in brain network boundaries.

Ego Dissolution: 

LSD drastically dampens activity in the brain's Default Mode Network (DMN), which maintains your sense of self and separates "you" from the rest of the world. When this boundary dissolves (a state called ego death), users experience intense feelings of "oneness" with the universe and the people around them. 

On LSD John Lennon from the Beatles famously wrote the song "I am the Walrus" in 1967 with the opening verse - 

"I am he

As you are he

As you are me

And we are all together."  

This means on LSD Lennon saw "everything and everyone" as "all-one" which to a devotee of Kṛṣṇa is nonsense impersonal mayavadi philosophy.

In the temporary material world the individual jiva-souls (living individual units of anti-matter) are housed in a material bodily vessel (decaying matter), this means they are NOT the material bodily vessel they occupy while in the temporary material world. 

The individual jiva-souls also are NOT "all-one" with God (Krsna), like when water leaves a container o vessel and merges into the ocean or river. 

No, the individual jiva-souls after leaving the confines of a material bodily vessel (decaying matter), always remain an eternal person as an individual "spiritual bodily form" (living units of perpetual anti-matter) whose eternal natural original home in the spiritual worlds of the Vaikuntha planets and Goloka-Vrindavana and NOT the decaying temporary material world.  

Hyper-Empathy and Confirmation Bias. 

Because boundaries are blurred, a user might perceive a companion's subtle body language, micro-expressions, or a shared silence as profound, direct mind-reading. 

When two people tripping together on LSD share similar sensory environments and suggestible states, they often naturally align in thought, which their altered states interpret as literal telepathy.

Controlled clinical studies have never demonstrated that LSD allows users to perceive objective reality outside the laws of physics or standard sensory organs. 

The experiences feel entirely real to the user because the brain processes these drug-induced hallucinations using the same neural pathways it uses to process veridical (real) sight and sound.

Microscopic amounts of LSD completely alter your reality therefore, LSD makes your brain feel you are one with the universe. This often out-of-body experience is happening in your brain creating visual Hallucinations that appear real but are not. 

Imperial College London 2025, the brain affected by LSD revealed, scans show how the drug affects the brain. 

In a study published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, the researchers found altered visual cortex activity under LSD is a mind-altering that causes vivid hallucinations. 

This overstimulation causes changes in thought, attention, perceptions, and emotions. 

Additionally, LSD reduces controlled brain activity replaced by hallucinations that appear real while on LSD.*.