Same. When I read that line my first thought was "ok, but have you tried that sober?" It seems like a rather intuitive way to counter the illusion without the need for DMT.

It's pretty easy for me to replicate the balanced circles by gazing at the center point. However, I can't say whether that would've held true had I not been predisposed to the possibility via the article.

It does require me to slightly "space out", for lack of a better way of putting. Not defocus, more like downshifting my visual cortex a notch.

For whatever it's worth, I was a college kid in the 90s, and I can induce a wavy effect on patterned walls and floors via a similar spacing out.

Author of the article here! Yes, of course, I've tried this sober — merely shifting attention does not work.

Thanks for the report. Some people do report being able to cancel it while sober. For most of them, defocusing their vision is required, which is not particularly surprising - you are removing the surrounding context.

Could you please tell me more about downshifting the visual cortex? I am planning to publish an update on this illusion, with various sober attention techniques to establish a baseline for future research.

I don’t find the illusion to be very effective in a sober state, so I’m not really sure what to think of the idea that 5-MeO “cancels” it. The one on the right barely seems bigger if at all, and I feel like I can context switch it similar to the Necker cube you mentioned. I guess I’m not impressed :)

At least I learned 5-MeO isn’t a song visual experience, I thought it was for some reason. On N, N-DMT you wouldn’t be able to look at anything.

It also won't work on DMT. Because when you take DMT, whatever variety, you will not be able to look at a monitor, a picture or anything really. The whole concept of "looking at something" is inapplicable then.

This is about 5-MeO-DMT, not N,N-DMT (which is what people usually mean by "DMT"). Very different experience.

True. I think the entire article might just be a boast that the author took some DMT.

same!