"seeing little people" is such a hyper specific visual effect, it begs questions. Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see (try holding your head rigidly ahead and look with a steady gaze at a near field pattern like floor tiles to experience your brain filling in the missing pieces in the field) I ask: what could this actually be?

For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.

When I had posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), the visual effect was as if I was looking at TV "snow" from the analogue days, combined with a shape unquestionably like red blood cells. Was I seeing blood? I am told no: I was seeing small points inside the focal zone of my eye, below the minimum resolving size, and the optical path turns points into rings.

So is "little people" moving stimulation of the nerve endings interpreted as "walking" and a strong vertical alignment for some reason? Is the colour an aspect of rods and cones being involved, or the nerves going to rods and cones being differentially effected?

> For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.

What you describe seems to refer to scintillating scotoma, which appears to be well known and documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

I personally have my doubts whether it has to do with blood pressure (i had it while on medication and normal blood pressure), or that it's generated by the brain, but lack the time/motivation/skill to research this further.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogenic_bolete_mushroom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilliputian_hallucination

One wonders how it would affect someone who has been blind from birth: would they hear little people? Would their optic system be activated by the unknown compounds? etc.

Similar phenomena consistently reported in high doses of Benadryl: little spiders.

Yep, there might be two factors here. From what you describe in your experiences, these seem like real artifacts that occur due to physical changes happening on and around the eyeball? (Photopsia seems to be what you describe).

In my experience when hallucinating (from sleep deprivation), it is the brain failing to correctly interpret patterns seen through the eyes.

For e.g., I would think I see a cardboard box on the ground ahead of me, but then when I get closer I realise it is just dirt of different shades that was perceived as a 3d box. Similar experience when hallucinating people. In my mind I imagine my friend with a certain colour shirt, then during a period of sleep deprivation, I think I see him on the trail ahead of me. But it was just a rock that was a similar colour.

Do hallucinogenics typically affect the brain and also the actual optics? Maybe it is some combination that is causing the perception of "little people".

Reconsider the blood cell visualization thing. I've had bilateral PVD. Each was accompanied by an initial few minutes of seeing a few dozen small dark spots that had lighter grey centers. Most visible when I looked at the sky. They all disappeared after a few minutes. I think these were RBCs from minimal retinal blood vessel tearing at the PVD events.

Human RBCs are ~6µm - 8µm diameter. Human retinal light sensing cells range from ~0.5µm - 10µm diameter, depending on type and position. They're close packed.

Given the geometry, RBCs leaking onto retinal cells should cast shadows that could be resolved as images. And that's right where leakage is most likely to occur during a PVD event.

> Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see

Your mind also creates the visual field. It is not real even though it is usually quite consistent. Brain fills the gaps after it has filled all the rest.

Just a handy visualization of a world that is likely to be a lot more chaotic.

I've heard of this before, including a first person account, and the effects are apparently that specific. Lots of people consistently report the same thing. It's not just moving patterns, it's actually a bunch of tiny people running around, climbing on the furniture, etc.

You’re thinking perception

When it’s not perceived from a visual cue