What Are Psychedelics
4:06 minutes
The term psychedelic has Greek roots:
The first half, “psyche” means “mind” or “soul”
The second half “delos” means “to manifest” or “to make visible”
Putting these two halves together, psychedelic means “to make your mind/soul visible”. This references the temporary effects of any psychedelic medicine, that of altered perception and thought patterns, also known as non-ordinary states of consciousness.
What is Consciousness?
While there is no universally agreed upon definition, the term consciousness is typically referring to our sense of self, our awareness of thoughts, emotions, and experiences as they arise, and our memories of those experiences as time passes. We are typically so used to our own way of perceiving the world and ourselves, that we can go throughout life without thinking about consciousness at all. Don’t feel bad if this is you - it’s most of us!
What are Non-ordinary States of Consciousness
Some people seek out and explore non-ordinary states of consciousness. This may be for healing purposes, to achieve personal change and growth, out of curiosity, or simply for pleasure. Achieving non-ordinary states can happen in many different ways. Sometimes it’s achieved by working with psychedelic medicine, but it also can be reached with other activities like meditation, breathwork, prayer, or finding a flow state through movement, music, and dance. No matter how people get there, once in the altered state, they begin to perceive the world and themselves in a new way.
Non-ordinary states are unique to each individual, but there are common themes that emerge. Some of the common themes are:
ego dissolution (the “I” or person you see yourself as dissolves and merges with something larger)
flexibility of the mind
increased openness to new ideas and more curious
enhanced creative problem solving
mystical experiences
While the listed examples are typically viewed as positive, sometimes it can be overwhelming or frightening to people. These types of challenging experiences are more likely to occur when someone is not prepared for the experience, is in a place where they do not feel comfortable as it occurs, or they lack proper support. People who have more challenging experiences can still often find meaning from them, but not always.
The potential that lies in non-ordinary states is in their ability to shift perspective and create new connections inside of ourselves.
Psychedelics are unique in their ability to reliably and powerfully induce non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is because of this that they are being researched so heavily for treating many forms of mental illness and substance use disorders, and there is growing research in physical illness as well.
Psychedelic medicine may be a new topic for you, as they are gaining a lot of attention in the news with the increased research and several popular authors writing about them (thanks, Michael Pollan!) But psychedelic medicine is far from new - we’ll briefly cover the history of psychedelic medicine next. Don’t skip it - I promise it’s important!
