Hypnagogic Imagery and Mescaline

Visual effects of mescaline and hypnagogic imagery (images experienced just before sleep) show more than superficial similarity, suggesting that comparing the two states may illuminate underlying processes. Early observations by Weir Mitchell (1896) noted this resemblance, and the authors' own research group began investigating after a subject described mescaline visions as similar to pre-sleep imagery. Findings from a prior study on hypnagogic imagery (McKellar and Simpson, 1954) and further mescaline experiments support the connection.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Similarity between certain of the visual effects of mescaline and hypnagogic imagery has been independently noted by several investigators, one of the earliest of these being Weir Mitchell (1896). Our own research group first became interested in hypnagogic experiences when one of the writers, as subject, in seeking to communicate the character of his mescaline visions, likened them to images he had encountered just before sleep. This led to an investigation of hypnagogic imagery as such, the results of which have been published elsewhere (McKellar and Simpson, 1954). Further experiments with mescaline, and consideration of the relevant literature of the two fields, suggest that the mescaline-induced and hypnagogic states are more than superficially alike, and that a comparison may illuminate the processes at work in each.