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Welcome to this epic bit of wild psychedelic aesthetic, including super cool trippy art, pictures and gifs!
Have you ever had a teacher pull up optical illusions, brain teasers, problem solving handouts, or other exercises/visuals that had a way of making you think much deeper than you ever thought possible? I remember always having at least one teacher every year, that would set aside a day to just let everyone in the class quietly (and independently) work on a handout full of exercises that challenge your perception, which triggered my interest!
This post is going to include a lot of optical illusions, cool videos/GIFs, and more. It is going to awaken your senses and perhaps even help you escape from reality for a bit. Imagine this post as a gigantic capsule of WHOA. Some of the content will make you think critically, help you escape reality, and some of it will make you laugh – I mean, if you read my blog often, then you know none of my posts are ever really “typical” or “low key”. 🤣
Tip: Have your sounds on for any videos or have your own music playing in the background if you’re just scrolling through for the visuals/videos! (Why? Sounds/music in the background make them look even cooler for some reason!)
WARNING: If you have Photosensitive epilepsy (PSE), please be advised that some of the following content will contain fast moving GIFs/images with unusual/bright patterns that sometimes contain strobe-light effects.
Trippy Art & Optical Illusions (Still)
After looking at the following optical illusions, you will start to wonder about the science around how they work. Why do they make us believe that the photos are actually moving? How can a picture that actually isn’t moving cause us to feel dizzy, or even queasy? It is pretty interesting!
Check out this read on it: The Science Behind Optical Illusions
1. Rainbow Spiral
This one here might be effective if you ever need to puke up some SPAM that your mom made you eat. Good golly – even I can’t handle looking at this one long, or else I risk doing just that! LOL
Some optical illusions like this just look like they are moving, but are not! (We will get to the video optical illusions soon).
2. Moving Cheerios?
As you can easily notice, the GIF below is trippy as hell because when you look at it by staring right outside of the square, it looks like they are slowly moving – some clockwise and some counterclockwise. Kind of bizarre!
3. Dots Trippy Art
Ah, yes – the classic moving dot grid illusion that many people have seen at least once in their life. It never gets old though!
4. Shake Your Head
If you shake your head side to side (left to right, not up and down), you will see the “hidden image”, even if you do it slightly. For me though, I can see the hidden image even with my head still. How about you?
Read more about how this one works here.
5. Ben Stiler or Beyonce?
For the sake of being honest, this illusion took me a bit to start to see Beyonce, but trust me she is there. 😂 The image of Ben Stiler will come immediately, but if you try to look at it in a way where the mouth looks like an open-mouth smile, you will see Beyonce with a big grin and long hair. Still can’t see her,? Go ahead leave me a comment below and perhaps I can try to help. HA! Creepy, right?
Hint: Download the image, open it using your device and simply zoom out as much as you can. It makes Beyoncé look like the dominate face that you see when it is small, and looks more like Ben when you zoom in!
6. Trippy Blue Circles
Do you see the blue circles moving/expanding? It is kind of wild! The reasoning behind our brains seeing movement in this non-animated photo has a name – Peripheral Drift Illusion (PDI), which refers to a motion illusion generated by the presentation of a sawtooth luminance grating in the visual periphery.
Most observers can see the illusion easily when reading text with the illusion figure in the periphery. The motion of such illusions is consistently perceived in a dark-to-light direction.
Wikipedia
7. Vertical Optical Illusion
LA Lakers vibes, right here.
8. Wait, What?
Trippy Optical Illusions (Moving/Animated)
Here are some trippy GIFs and videos that will surely make you think you’re going bonkers – even though these are actually moving. Some say these are similar to what “high” people see when they are on “LSD” or “Mushrooms“, but you can totally skip the drugs because you obviously don’t need them to “trip“, when looking at these bizarre animations! 🤣
1. Rainbow Spiral Trance
A colorful & classic rainbow trance GIF!
2. Hypnotic Black & White Stripes
The black and white stripes remind me of both Beetle Juice and the Chershire cat.
3. Spinning Arrows
SO COOL – but also super satisfying to watch.
4. Strobe Circles
What other name could there possibly be for this one besides “Strobe Circles” – Lamest name ever, but I was in a trance!
5. Unicorn Cellulite?
Yeah – the first thing that came to my mind was unicorn cellulite being jiggled while the unicorn takes it’s morning run across purple mountain majesties. 😂😂
6. Rainbow Cell
The GIF above this one is unicorn cellulite, and well, this one is a hyper cell of a rainbow. 🤣 Okay, not really, but using your imagination is fun! Try it. What do you see?
7. Color Block Trance
Making this post is making me a little nauseous, but that is A-OK because deep down I love it. 😂
8. Spinning Dancer
Maybe you’ll take as long as I did to figure it out but first, look at this GIF of a spinning silhouette. Which direction do you see her spinning in? To her left, or right? At first, I was convinced that she was DEFINITELY going clockwise, or spinning right. However, due to the lack of detail in the light and shadows, our minds are able to make her look like she is going either way.
Still confused? Scroll down a teeny bit and look at the comparison with the color coding to help guide you sense of direction. It is wild, but that is because it is fascinating. 👽
9. Sick Strobe Light Effects
The strobe-effect ones are my favorite. They also act as a free strobe light when you’re in a dark room. Just play it on your phone, in the dark and create a little mini-light show. 😋 All of these I got from Giphy.
Trippy Art: Psychedelic GIFs/Videos
These are what you would automatically label as “psychedelic“, even though you would only assume these kinds of things are what people see when they are on psychedelics such as LSD & mushrooms. The word “psychedelic” also means the following when describing this kind of art:
“Psychedelic art or clothing has bright colors and strange patterns of a type that might be experienced by taking psychedelic drugs.”
Cambridge Dictionary
1. Eye Love It.
How long will you stare at it even though it’s the same image over and over? So cool. 😎
2. Shark Face
She looks like she’s trying to tip-toe with a shark head on her shoulders but the high heels are defeating the purpose. 😆
3. Purring Radar
What if this is what love looks like, but we can’t see it? 😍 When it comes to cats though, it is likely this euphoria won’t last forever. 😋
4. Pretty Guts Spilling
Rainbow liquid spilling from your brains could represent whatever your want it to. Brain lava? The art of letting go of a harsh (but vibrant) relationship? Dumping out extra creative juices that sadly didn’t get to get used at work?
Like I said, these are usually leave plenty of room to be interpretative. 💚
5. Out of Control
What would it look like if we could unscrew our heads and try to put ourselves back together after a public meltdown? I am not sure, but I am certain it would look similar to this amazing gif:
6. Space Men
These are some badass space-themed GIFs that you’re going to love and I am confident that you will!
7. Disney Dazed Trippy Art
Cartoon characters are always great centerpieces for psychedelic art, but Disney characters are my favorite. Here is why:
Me every morning, trying to decide which personality to wear to work. 😛 Nah, just kidding, but this a great representation of Belle’s inner energy when trying to find her papa. 😋
8. Panda Vibes
I love the way this one has the purple, yellow and blue stripes going in different directions via the lens, and background. Sweet!
9. Creepy Face
Creepy but cool. Kinda like a crash dummy…lol
10. Free Falling
This one is more relaxing than psychedelic, but it still is a little freaky to look at.
11. Alien Mermaid Human
Mermaid? Human? An Alien, maybe? I just do not know, but I do know that her lip color is on point. 💜
12. Good Vibes
Just stare at the center of this one until all the stress is temporarily distant. It is actually soothing to me because of how slower it is, compared to most GIFs like this. 💤
13. Rainbow Love
Want a cool video to watch? Check out these aesthetically similar videos that are visually killer! 💛
This one is more “Trance-Like” than psychedelic, but still makes you feel like you’re watching something out-of-this world:
Definitely more psychedelic looking and it’s called “Eat my Sass” – HA! 💜
Psychedelic-inspired Merch
There aren’t a ton of companies that use psychedelic-inspired art as part of their designs, but they do exist! Here are some of my favorite items that scream TRIPPY.
1. Moon Lamp
More like mood lamp! 😍 The colors and detail in this light are dreamy to look at, so you will never get bored of seeing it.
2. Bull Dog Throw Blanket
The bright colors and cute design give the bulldog a more “softer” look, right? 😂 I love the vivid colors so much.
3. Psychedelic Trippy Art Table
This table is too cool for words, however it’s definitely one of those tables where not using a coaster is a big, fat, HELL NAW!
4. Cool Mountain Tapestry
I love tapestry art because there is NO way I can break it, stub my toe on it, or have a problem transporting when moving into a new place. So many benefits – and it looks incredible. 💛 Plus, tapestry art looks even more amazing with stringed lights! – A.L.W.A.Y.S.
5. Alien Tie Dye Crop Top
Tie Dye doesn’t always have to give you a drowsy hippie look! It can look pretty cute, like this crop top, which comes complete with a cute & creepy alien. 👽
Or just get a tie dye phone lamp – yep, you read that right. People are so creative, and I adore it!
6. Mermaid Boots
Mermaids can be trippy – but in a subtle, cool, under-the-sea way. I love it so much. 💜
7. Gourd Lamp “The Message.”
What is a “Gourd Lamp“, you ask? It isn’t really well defined online, but using this amazing lamp pictured below, you can see that it pretty much means that the design/shape/textures of the vase portion, create an illuminating effect, depending on the light. You would think they were 2 different lamps almost – very versatile. 🤩 In a way, it looks like the coolest genie in the world lives inside but Christina Aguilera isn’t inside, I checked. 😥
8. Trippy Cheshire Cat Pillows
These are awesome because the CHESHIRE CAT is life!
And they have a unicorn version….. BACK THE EFF UP. 😂😍
9. Psy Backdrop Art
The artist of this piece deserves some MEGA FAME! Look at the harmony between every single element of this art! Wow! That term “four-eyes” has never looked so good. 💜 Shout out to Fractalika – who has no idea who I am – but check out their shop to find other cool stuff like this, because it is too good not to!
10. Mushroom Earrings
Again, you don’t need to do drugs to appreciate cute, colorful mushroom-themed items. These would have looked amazing with a groovy Halloween costume I rocked in the early 2000’s BITD!
Did you like this post? If so, it is also likely that you’ll dig a post I did recently that has a ton of cool outfits and accessories that are vivid and eye-catching, especially in places like raves, music festivals and trippy parties. 🙂
Check it out here: Fun Outfits & Accessories for Music Festivals, Raves & Parties
Feel free to share your thoughts, or favorite trippy art in the comments section below! 💚
