http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/

Do the blind hallucinate on LSD?

By Daniel Smith on Jan 15, 10 10:03 AM

4059747.jpg

Now there's a question no curious scientists could resist to try and answer.

And according to Mind Hacks, they did way back in 1963.

Boffins gave 24 blind people LSD and then sat back and recorded their experiences.

So can they? Well, kind of.

Blind people who lost their sight after several years of vision reported they could indeed see the swirly shapes and bright colours associated by taking a trip (I am told).

However, those who were born without being able to see did not hallucinate - probably because they never had enough visual experience to shape a fully-functioning visual system when their brain was still developing.

This just goes to show you there's no quandary some white coat won't attempt to tackle!!

Weird Science Factoid: The Earth rotates more slowly on its axis in March than in September. It needs a run up to make it to the end of the year.

Join the Weird Science Facebook group here, or follow us on Twitter here or by searching for weirdsciblog.

Want to be sent the 'best' of the Weird Sci Blog every month? Then sign up for Weird News - a newsletter containing more info about the subjects we cover, plus some extra stuff that didn't make the blog. Interested? Subscribe by e-mailing wscience@me.com with the title 'count me in' and we'll do the rest.

Authors

Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.

Keep up to date

Sponsored Links