What do psychedelics do? 

The term “psychedelic” means “mind-manifesting.”  It was coined by Humphrey Osmond and Aldous Huxley, and later popularized by Timothy Leary and the Harvard group. 

In the psychiatric research literature about psychedelics we mostly encounter the descriptor “hallucinogenic,” a term accompanied by the notion that these drugs and plants induce hallucinations in the sense of “illusory perceptions.” 

This is misleading for several reasons - some of these reasons become apparent when using psychedelics, others are more surface-level.

Its meaning is revealed to us much more accurately when we look at the etymological origins of the term: alucinare, from the Latin, means “to wander in mind”. We can find a continuation of this metaphoric connotation of a journey or expedition in the way psychedelic experiences are described as “trips” in colloquial language.

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From Albert Hoffmann’s research papers on LSD, we gather the idea that psychedelics effectuate a sort of loosening up of the ego or self, more specifically, of that which we perceive to be our immutable self. Hoffmann calls the loosening up of what has become solidified as our inner being “seelische Auflockerung”. This is the concept of psycholysis, which became foundational to the dominant model for LSD-assisted psychotherapy in Europe before its criminalization, and has recently re-entered our awareness as microdosing. Owing to an understanding that psychedelics can lead to a lowering of egoic defenses and to an increase in awareness of unconscious emotional dynamics and reaction patterns, it was assumed that such insight would bring about a resolution of inner conflicts.

Pharmacological, i.e. “mood-altering drugs” (stimulants, depressants, narcotics) primarily emphasize the action of the drug. Little to no consideration is given to the “(internal) set and (external) setting” — yet, these are key aspects of the mindful consumption of psychedelics. 

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Within this framework, the psychedelic substance functions as the trigger mechanism to an experience of consciousness which is understood to be itself influenced by the context of the internal set (the intention, expectations, motivation of the user of psychedelics), and the external setting (the physical location, surroundings of the trip, including the presence of a trip guide). 

But beyond that, and in contrast to pharmacological drugs, psychedelics act as “consciousness expanding” substances enabling the individual to gain insight into emotional dynamics, patterns of behavior, addictions, or repetition compulsions/self-defeating or destructive patterns. 

Psychedelics enable us to
question and transcend limiting
concepts of self.

Stanislav Grof writes, that after resolving personal, i.e. biographical childhood issues, as well as perinatal traumata, individuals are even able to access realms of consciousness beyond time, space and other “grounding” parameters of our everyday worldview (Grof 1985). Grof argues that within these transpersonal realms, as he calls them, consciousness attains the predominantly holotropic quality of “seeking the whole.” 

Holotropic states are higher levels of consciousness which give us access to greater degrees of wholeness and unity with ourselves and the world. This is the state that people describe as the state of merging with all beings at all times, thus becoming simultaneously all beings and all times, and experiencing what it could mean to be other people.

While there are many commonalities in experience when people take psilocybin mushrooms or similar psychedelics, variations in experience do occur. This is partly due to dosage. 

Lower doses produce a sense of enchantment with one’s everyday life and psychological insights about oneself. 

Higher doses lead to more intense experiences of archetypal themes that seemingly arise from a collective psyche. 

Even higher doses can allow for the experience of unity with all creation mentioned above. 

Unlike with other psychedelics, more people report being guided by a greater intelligence on high doses of psilocybin. With guidance and carefully planned intentions, approx. 70% of people taking doses of five dried grams of psilocybin mushrooms can undergo mystical experiences of interconnection as described by Grof.

The sense of separation we moderns experience so acutely is without a doubt the source of our greatest fear, pain, depression and hopelessness. Psychedelics can heal our fractured sense of self, feelings of isolation, alienation, rejection, and loneliness. 

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Psychedelics inspire us to create art, transform society, heal others, and develop an eye for the beauty in the world.

Even a single direct experience can greatly transform our lives, fostering subjective realization as a means to achieve unity, to see that we are not separate and, in fact, exist as part of a larger whole—within a family, a relationship, a community, the planet, and the universe.