A psychedelic experience is characterized by the perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ordinary fetters. Psychedelic states are one of the stations on the spectrum of experiences elicited by psychedelic substances. On that same spectrum will be found hallucinations, distortions of perception, synaesthesia, altered states of awareness, mystical states, and occasionally states resembling psychosis. A hallucination is a false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus. ... PSYCHOLOGY In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ... Does a form of synaesthesia exist in everyone? It appears that people may not attach sounds to shapes arbitrarily. ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... Psychosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Not everyone who takes psychedelic drugs has a true psychedelic experience, and many achieve altered states of consciousness through means other than drugs — meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, spirit quests, etc. This entry pertains to the word psychedelic, its origin and uses. ... Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A prisoner at the United States Camp X-ray facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba being subjected to sensory deprivation, through the use of ear muffs, visor, breathing mask and heavy mittens. ...

For many, the psychedelic experience is a personal thing, but there are many common themes, often focusing around a sense of connectedness. The range of this sense of connectedness appears to be relative to the strength of the experience, and ranges from a sense of connectedness to everything in the immediate vicinity, to a sense of oneness with everything. Oneness is a religious term referring to the experience of the absence of egoic identity boundaries, and, according to some traditions, the realization of the awareness of the absolute interconnectedness of all matter and thought in space-time, or ones ultimate identity with God (see Tat Tvam Asi). ...

The range of the drug-induced psychedelic experience tends to have the ability to go far beyond that of other methods without requiring much preparation, and for that reason tends to be less predictable, much more immersive and often quite overwhelming and scary.

Levels of Psychedelic Experience

The Psychedelic Experience FAQ describes five different levels of experience:

• Level 1:

This level produces a mild "stoning" effect, with some visual enhancement (e.g. brighter colours) Some short term memory anomalies. Left/right brain communication changes causing music to sound "wider".

• Level 2:

Bright colours; visuals (e.g. things start to move or breathe); some 2 dimensional patterns become apparent upon shutting eyes. Confused or reminiscent thoughts. Change in short term memory leads to continual distractive thought patterns. Vast increase in creativity becomes apparent as the natural brain filter is bypassed.

• Level 3:

Very obvious visuals, everything looking curved and/or warped, patterns, kaleidoscopes or fractal images seen on walls, landscapes, faces, etc. Some mild hallucinations such as rivers flowing in wood-grained or mother-of-pearl surfaces. Closed eye hallucinations become 3 dimensional. There is some confusing of the senses (e.g. seeing sounds as colours). Time distortions and "moments of eternity". Movement at times becomes extremely difficult (too much effort required).

• Level 4:

Strong hallucinations, e.g. objects morphing into other objects. Destruction or multiple splitting of the ego (e.g. things start talking to you, or you find that you are feeling contradictory things simultaneously). Some loss of reality. Time becomes meaningless. Out-of-body experiences and ESP-type phenomena. Blending of the senses.

• Level 5:

Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. Total loss of ego. Merging with space, other objects or the universe. The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation. The earlier levels are relatively easy to explain in terms of measurable changes in perception and thought patterns. This level is different in that the actual universe within which things are normally perceived, ceases to exist.

The Mandelbrot set, named after its discoverer, is a famous example of a fractal. ... Extra-sensory perception, or ESP, is the name given to any ability to acquire information by means other than the five canonical senses (taste, sight, touch, smell, and hearing), or any other sense well known to science (balance, proprioception, etc). ...

See also

• Psychedelic
• Entheogen
• Recreational drug use
• Responsible drug use

The word psychedelic is a neologism coined from the Greek words for mind, ψυχη (psyche), and manifest, δηλειν (delein). ... The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words, ενθεος (entheos) and γενεσθαι (genesthai). ... Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational rather than medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. ... The concept of responsible drug use is that a person can (for recreational, creative, spiritual, or entheogenic purposes) use a drug without it interfering in other parts of ones life and with no risk of danger to oneself or others. ...

External Links

• Drugs-plaza Many Drugs Experiences reports
• PsychedelicJones One man's experiences exploring psychedelic consciousness with magic mushrooms, salvia divinorum and other substances.