Psychedelics are typically the fastest and most reliable way to induce mystical experiences. These are the types of experiences that people often consider highly meaningful, and which they credit with causing a range of psychological benefits. However, there are also non-drug ways to induce these types of experiences, which many people will feel more comfortable…
View Post
During or after intense psychedelic experiences – typically elicited by taking a high dose, or a synergistic drug combination – one may find oneself in a state known as ontological shock. This is when reality, or one’s experience of reality, has been transformed so profoundly that it induces a visceral feeling of shock. However, this…
View Post
One thing that stands out about trip reports from early Western psychonauts is that they often involve unpleasant, uncomfortable experiences. Such experiences are still more frequently reported in Western countries without a tradition of ritualistic use than they are in non-Western, Indigenous cultures that do follow this kind of tradition. Julian Shea wrote an insightful…
View Post
Peter Tscherkassky is an Austrian avante-garde filmmaker. He’s one of the few filmmakers who, through his experimental techniques, can create truly mind-altering cinema. There are certainly many films I’d describe as psychedelic – in terms of depicting trips or because of their cinematography and themes – but Tscherkassky’s experimental short films are different to films…
View Post
An out-of-body experience (OBE) is an altered state of consciousness in which someone feels their conscious awareness has left the confines of their physical body, able to perceive the outside world from a different vantage point. During an OBE, it is common for people to report seeing their body from a distance or to be…
View Post