LSA is a psychedelic that produces many of the typical or "classic" effects of other drugs in this category. This includes visual changes such as an enhancement of the perception of color, tracers, and after-images. Emotion and mentation are also strongly affected. Some LSA users experience unusual thought patterns, such as a "looping" of the same thought or perceived experience over a period of time. Often during an LSA experience, users become intrigued by topics and ideas that they normally are not very interested in.

For up to 3 hours after the effects have primarily ended, users may still notice minor visual alterations in colors and brightness. Some people feel "spacey" or empty headed during this period as well. Even the next day, some people experience a + or 1+ on the "Shulgin Rating Scale". This "afterglow" is usually apparent from changes in normal thought patterns and a slight enhancement of colors and brightness in one's vision. The specific effects that are experienced vary, and are largely dependent on the individual and their recent experiences in life. Some users have expressed that this variability of effect (from mild to extreme, sometimes at similar dose levels) is more pronounced than with other psychedelics from a wide variety of categories (dissociatives, tryptamines, phenethylamines, etc.); however, some of this variability may be due to the relative potency and chemical profile of different plant sources of LSA, and the crude (fairly non-selective) water-based extraction approach that many users employ when preparing their material for consumption. One researcher found an over ten-fold variation in the alkaloid content of the seeds that he tested, with some seeds containing no LSA at all;1 and LSA source plants may also contain additional ergoline alkaloids, such as ergonovine (found to be psychoactive at doses from 2 to 10 mg), elymoclavine and lysergol (found to produce "an excitation syndrome" in animal tests), as well as other chemicals.2