Form constant: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:44, 3 October 2024

Latest revision as of 05:13, 15 August 2025

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==History==

[[File:Klüver's Form Constants.jpg|thumb|Klüver's four form constants]]

In 1926, [[Heinrich Klüver]] systematically studied the effects of [[mescaline]] ([[peyote]]) on the [[subjective experience]]s of its users. In addition to producing hallucinations characterized by bright, "highly [[Saturation (color theory)|saturated]]" colors and vivid imagery, Klüver noticed that mescaline produced recurring [[geometric pattern]]s in different users. He called these patterns "form constants" and categorized four types: [[lattice (group)|lattices]] (including [[Hexagonal lattice|honeycomb]]s, [[checkerboard]]s, and [[triangle]]s), [[Spider web|cobweb]]s, tunnels, and [[spiral]]s.<ref name="Bressloff2002">{{cite journal | last = [[Paul Bressloff|Bressloff]] | first = Paul C. |author1-link=Paul Bressloff |author2-link=Jack D. Cowan |author2=Cowan, Jack D. |author3=Golubitsky, Martin |author4=Thomas, Peter J. |author5=Weiner, Matthew C. |date=March 2002 | title = What Geometric Visual Hallucinations Tell Us About the Visual Cortex | journal = Neural Computation | volume = 14 | issue = 3 | pages = 473–491 | doi = 10.1162/089976602317250861 | pmid = 11860679| citeseerx = 10.1.1.146.572 | s2cid = 207683037 }}</ref>

In 1988 [[David Lewis-Williams]] and T.A. Dowson incorporated the form constant into his [[Entoptic phenomena (archaeology)#David Lewis-Williams's system|Three Stages of Trance model]], the geometric shapes comprising the visuals observed in the model's first stage.