The NeuroSoup Trip Guide: Choosing the Right Hallucinogen

Choosing the right hallucinogen is the first step in preparation for a trip. It is best to go into a journey with an understanding of your intentions, or what you really want to get out of the experience. For example, do you want to take a substance that will help you and your significant other bond? Do you want to take something that will help you explore spirituality in a very unique and introspective way? Do you want a light experience or a strong one? Do you want heavy visuals or something more touchy-feely?

In order to choose the most appropriate hallucinogen for your specific purpose, you must first understand their basic psychological effects. Also because the word hallucinogen covers such a wide variety of psychoactive substances, including the cannabinoids, sedative-hypnotics, entactogens, and entheogens, we must narrow the field a bit. We will only discuss the entactogens and entheogens because they are most pertinent to the content of this book.

The term entactogen was originally created by Dave Nichols, a well-known entheogenic researcher and cofounder of the Heffter Institute, to refer to substances that generate a sense of the “the touch within”. Entactogens are also often called empathogens because they can help you identify with the feelings of others.

MDMA is the most obvious example of an entactogen or empathogen. Before it was made illegal in 1986, it was actively used in psychotherapy sessions. Thousands of doctors believed that MDMA could help patients overcome emotional barriers and work through stressful emotional issues with less anxiety. One psychiatrist even dubbed it penicillin for the soul.

When describing the effects of MDMA, Alexander Shulgin (2000) said that he felt “…absolutely clean inside, and there is nothing but pure euphoria. I have never felt so great, or believed this to be possible. The cleanliness, clarity, and marvelous feeling of solid inner strength continued through the rest of the day, and evening, and into the next day. I am overcome by the profundity of the experience..."

Entheogens have been used as a spiritual tool for exploring consciousness by many different cultures throughout history. Some examples are the kykeon of Eleusis, the soma of the Rg Veda, the peyote of the Native American church, the teonanácatl of the Aztecs, and the ayahuasca or hoasca of the Santo Daime and União do Vegetal.

The word entheogen has a very spiritual connotation, unlike many of the other words used to describe psychedelic or hallucinogenic drugs. Entheogens (like LSD, DMT, and mescaline) can help you understand the timeless divinity that links us all together. The word entheogen was originally created by Ruck et al. (1979). Here is what they wrote about its meaning:

DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, is one example of an entheogen that has been used in a spiritual setting for millennia. In South America two churches, the Santo Daime and União do Vegetal, use ayahuasca, or hoasca, as their sacrament. This is a tea made from boiled plants. One plant contains DMT, another plant contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), and there are often other plant admixtures that vary from brew to brew. The two main plant components are combined in the tea because DMT is only orally active when it is combined with an MAOI. Otherwise DMT can be insufflated, smoked, injected, or administered anally without an MAOI.

Despite the fact that DMT is classified as a Schedule I drug, the United States Supreme Court still recognized its spiritual significance. In the case of Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente União do Vegetal, the Supreme Court heard arguments on November 1, 2005 and unanimously ruled in February 2006 that the U.S. Federal Government must allow the União do Vegetal to import and consume ayahuasca for religious ceremonies under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Even our own Supreme Court recognizes the spiritual significance of these substances.

The Takawasi center in Peru also uses ayahuasca in combination with western psychotherapy to treat patients with addictions. Jacques Mabit (2007) explained that, "At the psychological level, ayahuasca activates the processes of psychic repair such as:

increase in intellectual capacity and concentration;
emergence of memories and recognitions;
reformulation of conflicts;
reduction of anxiety;
stimulation of dream life;
identification of the ‘shadow’ that, therefore, releases possession of the subject and induces it to understand the other and ask for forgiveness;
reduction of projective phenomenon;
rapid gratification of effort with an increase in tolerance for frustration;
improvements in self-esteem;
recognition by the subject of the uniqueness of their being and their location in the world; and
facilitation of the process of differentiation or individuation.”

Jacques Mabit (2007) also described some of “…the affirmations of the ex-patients who were subjected to the protocol:

‘All of the patients say that these plants help them diminish the unpleasant effects of the abstinence syndrome.’
‘Ayahuasca appears to facilitate introspection and the discovery of one’s self’ (14 of 15 patients).
‘Ayahuasca enables on to see, understand and forgive in a gentle, liberating process without blaming’ (8 of 15).
‘Ayahuasca teaches you (recognition of mistakes; knowledge of oneself, one’s will and one’s interior strength; new capacities; decision making ability; motivation for change; projection into the future).’
‘The protocol induces a change in the quantity and quality of dreams’ (10 of 15).
‘One live in an experience of communion with nature’ (11 of 15).
‘One discovers the existence of an invisible dimension to life’ (11 of 15).
‘The relationship to the sacred helps the therapeutic process’ (12 of 15).
‘The ritual use of the natural psychoactive substances is differentiated from the non-ritual use in order to provide protection, guidance, healing and to inspire respect’ (13 of 15).”

Chapter 1: Choosing the Right Hallucinogen