Psychedelic Experience

The Psychedelic Experience is a state of consciousness induced by psychedelics. The experience can be therapeutic given the correct priming (set) and setting.

Figure 1. "The Journey Explained" is an extract from "The psychedelic guide to the Preparation of the Eucharist" a book published by Robert E Brown in 1975.

The Journey Explained...

The brain is an immensely complex, randomly connected computer, balanced and tuned by an intricate chemical and electrical system which keeps it functional even when severely damped by alcohol or stimulated by amphetamines. However, the higher brain, the cerebral cortex, is dependent upon a constant flow of sensory input to give it a reference frame upon which it builds its various operations. Any disruption of this flow destroys the reference frame, and the cerebrum temporarily loses its ability to correlate data.

Any method which will modify or stop the feed of data to the cerebrum produces almost the same effect. The psychologist's sensory deprivation tank, a physical system, removes all sources of sensory stimulation. Certain chemicals, the hallucinogens. merely disrupt the influx of sensory information by unbalancing the lower brain where the selection center for incoming data is located, giving a jumbled mass of unrecognizably crossed signals. Both methods /cave the higher center with a floating reference system which it tries to maintain by developing, at random, a flow of synthetic sensory data. The mind sees these syntheses as hallucinations, and senses the loss of the reference coordinates in a feeling of disorientation with a lack of any conception of time, direction, dimension, etc. This randomized state of the brain may most nearly be likened to that of a newborn child who has no stability, due to the absence of any coordinates at all other than inherited instincts. The main difference is that a psychedelically treated brain has what is called a mind built up in its networks, while a child is empty.

We have seen how the mind continues to try to function even when the foundations have been dissolved. The foundation, or framework, is known as the ego, the dissolution of which is consequently known as ego-loss. If the mind has carefully been coached to accept ego-loss, it will continue to progress until it finally frees itself in its complete form. The result of this final inward look is a self-awareness and enlightenment which is devastating in impact and unbelievable to anyone who has never undergone the same experience.

The period of ego-loss and then the period of return of the ego are very sensitive to influences from the environment, either to the good or to the detriment of the individual's mind. The main cause of this extreme sensitivity to outside stimuli is the state of no-framework as exists in the infant. This artificial rebirth of the mind should be treated with as much care as that given the infant mind, with the greatest care devoted to the preliminary set and setting for each psychedelic experience. It must always be remembered how the deepest and most significant traumatic experiences come when the mind is largely unformed, as in the earliest years of life.

Other dangers in the deep psychedelic experience draw from deep conflicts and traumas which are kept hidden from the mind normally and which may appear with all the terrifying reality of the original experience. All that may have kept the mind from psychosis may have been the suppression of those unbearable experiences. Unless the mood surrounding the session, is nearly ideal coupled with complete trust in the psychedelic guide, the person could lapse into a deep psychotic fugue from which he might never recover. Very skilful handling of a session may very possibly bring those experiences out in a tranquil setting where the guide may help the person neutralize the traumatic effect permanently. All these considerations should be carefully looked after by individuals seeking religious enlightenment through drugs. Light doses tend to enhance moods but do not usually initiate strong hallucinogenic reactions, and are not as dangerous. Heavy doses used to bring about the psychedelic experience should never be casually played with by the novice.