LOS ANGELES — A.J. took two small hits off a cannabis vape pen, a common ritual with his morning coffee. Moments after exhaling, a transfigured, kaleidoscopic version of the world emerged before his eyes.

“Some colors are seeping into the other colors,” the 30-year-old said, gesturing across his art-filled living room in Yorba Linda. “In that Persian tapestry on the wall, the flowers are flowing like the wind, back and forth, and the centerpieces of the horses and other animals, they’re stagnant still but I can feel them kind of moving, almost like a gallop.”

A.J. — who requested anonymity to discuss his drug use and medical history — was on no other mind-altering substances beyond the caffeine in his mug. The fantastical visions, which he’s come to expect and in some ways even enjoy, were a lingering effect of past drug use. They’re a manifestation of a rare condition called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, or HPPD, which has puzzled psychiatrists and researchers and raised alarms as psychedelic drugs have become more mainstream for both therapeutic and recreational use.

LSD and other hallucinogens have long been said to cause flashbacks for some heavy users, but HPPD is a unique phenomenon. It’s a lasting condition defined by a range of symptoms straight out of the “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

Psychiatrists, researchers and more than a dozen people with HPPD said in interviews that the mysterious and beguiling condition may be more common than currently known.

Some who suffer from HPPD develop the disorder after years of using hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. For others, just a single psychedelic experience can bring on its lasting effects. In a smaller number of cases, it has been triggered by MDMA and even cannabis alone.

Some with the condition live for years with frequent or near-constant visual aberrations. Others experience mild symptoms that pass after a few months. Many develop serious psychological and mental conditions, including anxiety, depression and dissociation from reality.

At its most severe, HPPD can destroy people’s lives or impair their basic faculties. Some lose jobs or fail out of school. A.J.’s visual perception was so affected that he had to relearn how to write and drive.

Many professionals who treat people with HPPD say they don’t want to discourage safe and informed use of psychedelics. But they warn that the condition can be life-changing, and that people should know the risk before dabbling in hallucinogens. Like any drug, doctors say, these powerful substances have side effects; for some, those effects don’t subside, and they are left to live for months or years with HPPD.

“Informed consent would mean full awareness of the risks, and I don’t think that’s happening right now,” said Sara Ouimette, a licensed psychotherapist in Oakland who has treated more than 20 people with the condition. “We’re only going to see more cases, unfortunately, as people are doing psychedelics like the Wild West.”

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