Visuals and Immersion

Visual environment is one of the most visible parts of supervised ketamine care and one of the least studied. Clinics commonly control lighting, offer eyeshades, and keep the room low-stimulus. Some settings use screens or projected imagery. What follows separates what can be cited from what is simply how rooms are run.

Eyeshades and internal focus

Eyeshades are a standard part of psychedelic-assisted therapy protocols and are widely described in clinical accounts, generally with the rationale of directing attention inward and reducing environmental distraction. We are not able to cite a replicated trial that isolates eyeshade use as a variable and measures its effect in ketamine treatment specifically, and we are not going to imply one exists.

Experiential — Subjective reports or common clinical practice, not a demonstrated therapeutic effect. Common clinical practice; not a demonstrated therapeutic effect.

◇Source pending verification: a ketamine trial isolating eyeshades or visual environment as an independent variable

Lighting and room design

Dim, warm, adjustable lighting and a reclining position are near-universal in clinics offering this treatment. These are comfort and setting decisions made by the clinical team, not interventions with their own evidence base. Whether a room is set up this way, and what can be adjusted for you, is a question for the clinic.

Experiential — Subjective reports or common clinical practice, not a demonstrated therapeutic effect.

Screens and immersive media

Immersive visual media — projected imagery, VR headsets, reactive screens — appear in some settings and in a small amount of research in adjacent fields. There is no established clinical standard for their use in ketamine treatment, and this site makes no claim that watching visual media improves any clinical outcome.

◇Source pending verification: controlled evidence for immersive visual media in ketamine treatment outcomes

The Ketalux Visualizer: what it actually is

Ketalux includes a browser-based Visualizer. It is a listening companion for personal, non-clinical use. It is not a therapeutic device, is not part of any treatment protocol, and is not intended for use during a supervised session unless your clinician has specifically approved it.

Audio, privacy, and permissions

• It offers two sources: an audio file you pick from your own device, and — on browsers that support it — sharing audio from another browser tab.
• It does not request microphone access. There is no microphone capture in the implementation. Tab sharing uses the browser’s screen-share permission prompt, and the video track is stopped immediately so only audio is analysed.
• Audio is analysed locally in the browser with the Web Audio API. Nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted to Ketalux or any third party, and there is no server-side or third-party audio-analysis service involved.
• There is no Spotify or streaming-service integration. Tab sharing is a browser capability, not a connection to any music service.

Motion, brightness, and what we do not claim

The Visualizer is designed around slow, continuous motion rather than rapid cuts, respects the operating system’s reduced-motion setting, provides a pause control, and offers a lower-intensity preset. Those are design choices, not a medical guarantee.

Because its output responds to the audio you supply, brightness and contrast change during playback, and we have not tested it against any photosensitivity standard. We therefore do not describe it as non-strobing, epilepsy-safe, seizure-safe, or medically safe. If you are photosensitive, have a seizure disorder, or are unsure, do not use it without speaking to a clinician.

On mobile, and using two devices

On phones and tablets, the tab-sharing source is generally unavailable — mobile Safari and mobile Chrome do not expose the browser API it depends on — so on a mobile device the practical option is playing an audio file from that device. If you want visuals alongside music from a streaming service, the workable arrangement is a desktop browser that supports tab sharing, with the music playing in another tab on the same computer. Using a second device as the music source (a phone playing through speakers, for example) will not drive the visuals, since there is no microphone input: the scene will simply idle. It does not fabricate movement when there is no audio signal.

If microphone-driven visuals or live sound are what you actually need, the audio visualizer on SonicSenses.com (external site) accepts microphone input as well as local files and tab audio, which the Ketalux Visualizer does not. For a quieter, non-reactive alternative, the audio and visual wellness library on Beiing.com (external site) offers fixed calming visuals and a breathing visual instead of audio-driven motion. Neither is a clinical tool, and the same photosensitivity caution applies.

If it does not run

The demo below is loaded only when you ask for it, and it is isolated from the rest of the page: if the graphics layer cannot start in your browser, the page continues to work and shows a short notice in its place.

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