The NeuroSoup Trip Guide: Aspects of the Entheogenic Experience

There is no way to describe all of the different entheogenic head spaces; each person has a unique set and each trip has a unique setting, so therefore each entheogenic experience is also unique. This is the reason you can take the same dose of the same entheogen and get completely different effects. With that said, it is still important to discuss some of the common head spaces that many people have experienced. When one person stands up and speaks of their experiences, their voice can barely be heard. When thousands of people stand up and speak, there is no ignoring it.

With this thought in mind, I started the Visit the New Community Trip Reports Area. It is a section on www.NeuroSoup.com where people anonymously submitted their entheogenic experiences for inclusion in this book. The main purpose of the Trip Report Project is to begin to collectively map out the transcendental states of consciousness that link us all together as one Great Being. The altered states of consciousness achieved through the use of entheogens can enable people, at any stage of spiritual development, to have peak experiences. These peak experiences can result in direct spiritual/ transcendental experiences that are very similar to, if not the same as, the direct spiritual/ transcendental experiences described by the world's religions.

I use a combination of my own experiences and the experiences of others, shared in the Visit the New Community Trip Reports Area, to exemplify the descriptions of the different headspaces in this chapter. There is no way to discuss all of the headspaces that a person can experience while on an entheogen because the possibilities are infinite; we will only touch on the ones that are most prevalent. It is also important to keep in mind that a person can experience many different headspaces during one trip. These headspaces often overlap and can often be components of other headspaces. For example, visual and auditory changes can be a part of the collective unconscious and fear can be apart of death/rebirth.

According to Charles Tart (1975), “…the variability of experience with the powerful psychedelics is so great that there seems to be no particular d-ASC [discrete altered state of consciousness] necessarily produced by them. Rather, a highly unstable condition develops characterized by transient formations of patterns that constitute d-ASCs… There is a continuous transition between various kinds of unstable conditions. The colloquial phrase tripping is appropriate: one is continually going somewhere, but never arriving. While this is probably true for most experiences with powerful psychelics in our culture, it is not universally true. Carlos Castaneda’s accounts of his work with Don Juan indicate that Castaneda’s initial reactions to psychedelic drugs were of this tripping sort. But Don Juan was not interested in having him trip. Among other things, Don Juan tried to train Castaneda to stabilize the effects of the psychedelic drugs so that he could get into a particular d-ASC suited to particular kinds of tasks at various times.”

The first step in this process is to realize that there are specific headspaces, or discrete altered states of consciousness, that can be/have been collectively experienced. The next step is to learn how to use your energy to focus your attention and awareness on them. Sometimes all it takes, to experience a particular headspace, is to know that it is possible. This knowledge can help you conceptualize a pattern or framework for a particular headspace in your mind. When you are in the transitional phase of a trip, where your boundaries are beginning to dissolve, you can try to envision and transition into the desired headspace.

Visual and auditory changes are usually one of the first effects noticed as a trip begins, or comes on. People often describe what happens to the vision by saying that the walls are melting, breathing, or moving. At the same time, colors increase in intensity and become much more vivid than in ordinary reality. Sounds are perceived with more clarity and dimension.

As the trip progresses with larger doses, the visuals often become so intense that the reality we are normally used to seeing disappears. What happens then is similar to the blinders being taken off a horse. Suddenly an entire new reality is able to be seen; it is the real reality and the fundamental basis for what we always thought to be the real reality.

There is a difference between a visual and auditory change and a hallucination; despite the fact that the greater part of society believes they are the same. Alexander and Ann Shulgin (2000) described it best in TIHKAL, “The important distinction is this: if you have taken a psychedelic drug and are, for instance, seeing increased brightness of color and richness of texture, interesting faces in large rocks, or kaleidoscopic imagery on your ceiling, and if you remain totally aware of the fact that such visual enhancements are due to your having taken a drug, you are NOT hallucinating. On the other hand, if you have taken a drug and see a pretty blue horse prancing across your living room carpet, and are convinced that everybody else in your vicinity can also see the horse; if you make no association between the blue horse and the taking of a drug, but are certain that what you’re seeing is part of consensual reality, then you are indeed hallucinating.”

Euphoria is an intense, transcendent feeling of happiness combined with an exaggerated feeling of physical and emotional well-being. Ann Shulgin (2000) wrote in TIHKAL that, “The first thing they can be said about this experience is: it’s good and nourishing, food for our souls. Euphoria belongs in all our lives, as often as possible, because it feeds us with energy and hope… I have experienced euphoria at its higher spiritual form, bliss, as an upwelling of thanksgiving to the Source, by whatever name is called. The feeling I have when giving whole-hearted Thank You to the universe is identical to that felt in a state of euphoria… As with all motions felt by human beings, euphoria does not last, cannot be present all the time, and is not meant to be constant.”

In my opinion, entactogens are the most euphoric of all the substances classified as hallucinogens. I have taken MDMA around fifty times so far in my life, and each time it has helped me to experience a feeling of pure, blissful, happiness. This is the reason I like to candy flip, which means I like to take a dose of MDMA about an hour and a half before I take a dose of LSD. This way I start the LSD trip off in a euphoric state of mind, or set, like we discussed in chapter 2.

Time distortion or dilation is commonly experienced during an entheogenic trip. It often starts off by feeling as if time is slowing down, and then slowly progresses until it feels like time stops. It is easy to lose all sense of time; minutes can easily turn into eternities. Matt Phelps described time dilation during a psilocybin trip by explaining, “I was 200 years late for work. Consequently I began to view my job in a larger context.”

Another example is how Corncob described time dilation. “On my second time trying LSD I decided to try smoking marijuana along with it to increase the effects, which it worked very well in sort of "distorting" the LSD experience and letting me step into a whole new part of this wonderful entheogen. I took about 3-4 hits total of the marijuana 5 hours into the LSD trip, the LSD was still running very strong and many psychedelic patterns were overlaying my vision along with everything around me breathing and floating along with me, a sort of wonderland experience. About 30 minutes after I smoked the grass, I started to feel a sensation as if I was separating or "dissociating" from the world around me and time started to slow down and speed up very slightly until I was around 15 seconds behind time. I felt as if everything I was doing and saying, as well as anything everyone else was doing/saying, was predetermined and I felt that I knew what was going to happen just a few seconds before it actually happened. Time kept going further and further until I was approximately 45 seconds 'behind' time. It was fairly insane and I found myself saying out loud to my friends what was going on though what came out wasn't what I meant to say so they didn't catch what I meant but its ok. The whole time dilation experience lasted about 30 minutes to an hour (time was distorted so I'm not exactly sure how long) and the whole time I couldn't decide if I was ahead of time or if I was just behind time and everything around me was just 'lagging' if you will, but the brain waves saying when something was going on would be sent on time.”

Another aspect of time distortion is the loop. JCJC described experiencing this effect, “Around two hours after taking a large dose of MDMA (approx. 500mg) and 6 Baby Hawaiian Woodrose Seeds, I experienced the strangest and to date most intense sensation of time distortion I have ever felt.

I use the word distortion for I feel that dilation would not be accurate. While dilation suggests a lengthening of time, this experience involved becoming caught in a 'tide' or loop of time. I would experience a period of time at a normal rate, but at one point would be suddenly pulled back to the start of said time period where I would experience it all again.

The strangest and most profound aspect of this experience was the fact that although time was definitely looping, real world event proceeded in their usual order and I could see that their effects were as would be expected in the 'regular' time flow.

Although this experience was very frightening (I believed I would never be able to escape from the loop) my experience with psychedelics has taught me to embrace and never to resist such events so I tried to explore the situation and try to work out what was going on.

My conclusion amounted to an analogy of a rip tide in the ocean. While the ocean as a whole progressed as normal, a small area was subject to a very localized and vigorous distortion. From here I was able to realize that I was the only one affected and that no one else was aware of the 'problem'.

Eventually I was released naturally from the loop and went quietly to a darkened room to think it through and consider what had happened. The lesson I learned from the experience was a profound one. It made me realize the extent to which 'time' as we think of it, is a product of our brain and experience and is probably completely separate from the scientific concept of time, and although there is no doubt a physical plane along which event precede and supersede each other, the human interpretation of this is at best illustrative and in no way accurate. It really shook up the way I think about the concepts of time and space.

I have been unable to clarify this idea further in my mind however it was a powerful lesson which I think will one day make more sense to me. Although it was a frightening experience, I am very glad I had it.”

I had a very similar experience with the loop. Here is an excerpt, from Lysergic, in which I described my ergot trip. This trip was composed of multiple aspects of entheogenic experience including visual and auditory changes, fear, the collective unconscious, and the godhead. However, I think it best illustrates time distortion because I repeatedly experienced all of these aspects in the loop:

The visuals were really starting to kick in now. They were thick and heavy like my breathe. Dark colors, red, purple, and blue. They overtook me; I could no long see my hand when I held it up in front of my face. A different world existed inside of me. A liquid oceanic playground for the mind. Would I come back from this space? Spiraling thoughts that made no sense. Fear of the unknown. Would I be okay?

Sexuality is another important aspect of the entheogenic experience. I will begin by discussing aphrodisiacs because this is what most people ask me about first. The type of substances that I have found to be the best aphrodisiacs are entactogens. It is not that entheogens aren’t or cannot be aphrodisiacs; it is that entactogens seem to be a little more predictable. At the same time, entactogens don’t always cause you to want to have sex; it is just much more likely than with entheogens. I think this is because entheogenic experiences are generally much deeper and stronger than experiences with entactogens.

My favorite combination of entactogens is MDMA and GHB. I’ll share a little part of my experience. Six years ago about this time of year, I went out shopping for groceries and ended up buying a Santa hat also. I came home and, as I unpacked the groceries, my boyfriend and girlfriend at the time convinced me to take the MDMA/GHB combo with them. About 45 minutes after I dosed, the walls started to vibrate and breath in a way that I have not experienced with any other combination of drugs. I felt warm and fuzzy all over. I also felt sort of woozy, but in a good way. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling and giggling. Then I began feeling the most turned on that I had ever experience so far in my life. I quickly took off everything but the Santa hat. I think you get the picture, so I won’t explain further…

I have had both positive and negative experiences with having sex while tripping. I will start with the positive aspects first. And of course, we must start with the never-ending state of orgasmic bliss. Both entheogens and entactogens enhance the sexual experience. They can cause everything to feel better and more intense. This often increases the amount and length of orgasms a person can have. Sometimes it increases to the point that it seems like you are in this constant, timeless state of orgasm.

According to Ann Shulgin (1997) in PIHKAL, “If you are familiar with certain psychedelics or visionary plants, and have experience in using them, love-making can become a truly multi-dimensional experience, sensuousness interwoven with spirit, jeweled images behind closed eyelids combining with smell and feel of skin, and the orgasm flowering deep in the mind before it explodes – excruciatingly sweet and long – in the body.”

Another positive aspect is the unity and bonding that can occur. Most of the time whenever I tripped with a long-term boyfriend, we usually ended up making love at some point during the trip. It was always a very beautiful experience for us to share; it allowed us to bond in a much deeper way than during the usual sexual experience. The boundaries that existed between our separate senses of self easily melted away and we were able to join as one being. We were able to truly worship each other, in a way that is beyond words. This aspect has a lot to do with the person you are with. I believe this type of bonding occurred because my partner and I had been dating for awhile before the experience; we completely trusted each other. We were in love before the experience, so this helped us both feel safe and secure. We also could read each other really well; so we knew when the other one was in the right headspace to make love.

One aspect that can be both positive and negative is that both entheogens and entactogens often decrease inhibitions. This can be great fun if you are with someone you trust. It can give you the opportunity to explore aspects of sexuality that you might feel to shy to experiment with otherwise.

However, if you are with people you don’t know very well, it can create situation that you might regret. For instance, I have been at several parties where I took off all of my clothes and ran around naked, making out with whoever happened to be in front of me at the time. I look back at these experiences and wonder what I was thinking – I guess I really wasn’t thinking. Reflecting upon my behavior just makes me laugh, although I could see the potential for some people to really feel embarrassed by a situation like this.

Now, we must move on to one of the the more negative aspects which, again, has a lot to do with the people you choose to trip with. It is sad to say, but some people try to use entheogens as date rape drugs. This is why it is so very important that you trust the people you trip with. It is also a good idea to trip with more that one person, this way there are others around to help you if you are ever victimized in this way.

While many of the entheogens were still legal, psychotherapists studied and observed thousands of people while they were on their journeys. During these sessions of LSD assisted psychotherapy, the doctors quickly realized that when patients took low to medium dosages, they usually had experiences of reliving scenes from their infancy and childhood (Grof 1993).

The first time I experienced regression was during a mescaline trip. I was tripping with a group of seven or eight people; we started the trip off by skinny dipping in our pool. As soon as I started to feel effects, I got out of the pool. Then I started to feel nauseous so I spent some time the bathroom. When I came out, I realized that I still didn’t have my clothes on. I could barely talk and my legs felt wobbly as I asked everyone to help me find my clothes. In reality, they kept coming up to me and bringing me clothes to wear that fit me. However, at the time, I thought that they were all ten sizes too big. I was experiencing the sizes of things change in a way very similar to Alice eating the pieces of the mushroom and changing size, in Alice in Wonderland.

At the same time, I started to feel like I was seven or eight years old. I kept thinking about things in a very juvenile way. I thought everyone in the group was teasing me by giving me close that wouldn’t fit. They reminded me of all the mean, laughing kids that made fun of me when I was growing up. I was always the nerdish outcast in my class. The deeply hidden painful memories started flowing back to me, causing me to feel angry and sad. No matter what the people in my group did or how they tried to interact with me, I can only see them as those mean children that made fun of me.

After a came down, I realized that it was all part of the trip. They may have been laughing at me, because seriously who wouldn’t have been? But, they weren’t purposely giving me clothes that didn’t fit. In fact, piles of my clothes were spread all over the house. It was obvious that they had tried their best to help me find them.

I think that regressing back to that painful time during my childhood was very beneficial to me. Before the trip, I didn’t ever think about all that stuff that happened so many years ago. Regressing back to it helped me see that there was a part of myself that needed to heal. I needed to experience those hurt feelings once again, so that this time I could properly put them to rest.

When you enter into this type of headspace, a deep sense of forgotten belonging permeates throughout your soul. You no longer feel alone in the world and this causes you to feel happy, safe, and secure; you feel the love that connects you with everything and everyone. You feel overjoyed to be connected with the all the plants and animals on earth.

An example of this aspect of the entheogenic experience was described by Bob Hanes during a psilocybin mushroom trip. “As we walked in this ancient reptilian primordial reality we noticed that there were large horseshoe crabs along the beach. They had been left there by the tide. They each were around 8 inches across and 10 or so inches long. They look not like a crab but like a giant Trilobite. I have been told that they are very, very old and have not changed in millions of years. Many of these crabs were turned on their backs. Their legs are not long enough to rite themselves. A sense of sorrow and compassion for the crabs came over me. We spent the remaining hours of darkness walking the endless beach and throwing the struggling crabs back into the sea. It was a beautiful night. Stars glistened, waves crashed in the night and many crabs were returned to the sea. After the trip was over I reflected back wondering if I really had been interfering with the natural universal cycle of the crabs. Under other circumstances maybe. But on that night I was one with beach and the crabs. It was the natural thing to do.”

Fear is a very common aspect of the entheogenic experience. During trips, we fear all sorts of things. Dying, going crazy, and overdosing are just a few examples. I will begin this section by explaining my experience of being afraid of death. Before I begin my description of the several LSD trips where I experienced this, I would like to mention that I could have categorized this under both the fear and the death/rebirth categories. I chose fear because I think it is a common component of the ego death/rebirth process.

During the beginning of several of my trips, I developed this fearful feeling that I was going to die. Then I would start to freak out. I would think to myself something like, "it is coming on too strong! I took too much! I've done it this time! I'm going to die! I don't want to die! I'll never take another psychedelic again if I can make it through this!"

At some point during each of these experiences, I would grow tired of fighting for my life and decided to just let go and die. At the point of letting go, I would often feel a little bit of sadness that my life was over. Then I would feel great peace within myself. And this is where it would always get interesting. Time would stop being a part of my new/old reality. Also I wouldn't perceive any of my senses; I would be sort of out of body. I would instantly know all the knowledge in the universe, or the collective unconscious. We don't have the words in the English language to adequately describe what this is like. Experiencing the Godhead is life changing, to say the least. Eventually, toward the end of my trips I would regain awareness of time, my senses, and those around me.

You see I wasn't really dead, even though at the time I thought I was. My ego had only stopped clinging to this illusory reality. I think that is what happens when we die. We just stop clinging to the illusion and return to what we always are deep within ourselves.

The next example is an explanation of Nave Rotool’s fearful experience on DXM and Cannabis. “I was in the hospital for overdose, I had a vision of myself being placed in a holding cell, like I was an ancient puzzle hanging on the wall, it flowed and I looked like some kind of Mayan calendar, with countless others surrounding me, each in their own holding cell. Thoughts of all the people whom I would forever see, their lives torn apart from my death, all the guilt and pain flowed through me, and there was nothing I could do.”

Another example is from Sparks during a Salvia Divinorum experience. “Extreme, terrifying FEAR beyond FEAR. Within 30 seconds after taking a hit of Salvia from a water pipe, it suddenly became apparent that everything I was, everyone I knew and every experience I had was not real. It was as if giant beings were playing with me on a board game, I was a wooden toy figure of the game, and they had decided to fold up the board and put it away.

I thought to myself ‘Who would be so mean-spirited to make me think I was real all this time when I am not?!’ In addition to the fear, was the strongest sense of disappointment I've ever felt. I was crying and screaming for help. I was completely dis-associated and this caused more fear than I have ever experienced in my life.

I was ‘messed-up’ for three days, because I did not know if I was really back or if this feeling would start over again. I mostly got over it with the help of a caring friend, but I've never been the same since.

The effects just came on so suddenly, it ramped up so fast and that started off the ‘fear-fest’ that was this experience. There was nothing good about it, except for the fact that I learned just how HUGE my ego is that I would be petrified to lose it.”

Stanislav Grof (1993) said that his, “…clients [during thousands of sessions of LSD assisted psychotherapy] experienced psychological death and rebirth...”

Here is an example of what ParadigmShift22 experienced during a trip with psilocybin mushrooms. “Last time the mushroom spoke to me I was bewildered. I was rather naive at this time in my life and in a sort of spiritual limbo but thought I would be fine because my last mushroom trip went fantastic despite my terrible set & setting. My friends and I decided to eat 3.5 grams of an unknown strain of mushroom in my friend’s house.

The taste of these mushrooms was much worse than the last ones and the stem was longer and skinnier with a smaller cap. I felt the effects within only 5-10 minutes. The onset felt much more dirty and strange than the last batch. Within 20 minutes I found myself in one of the strangest & scariest trips of my entire life. We went outside to the deck and I promptly sat down and closed my eyes and saw organic imagery pulsating & vibrating in ways unbeknown to human linguistics.

I found myself in the Logo's that Terence McKenna always spoke of. I had this horrible feeling and I wished I never took the mushrooms and swore off drugs for the rest of my life. My mind was moving incredibly fast. I was exhibiting strange behavior so my friends asked me if I was OK. I exclaimed "No, no, no" then silence. I just stopped talking; this I thought couldn't get any more intense.

Boy was I wrong, I don't remember this part but apparently we drove down to another friend’s house where they guided me to the living room area where I sat down immediately. At this point I lost my ego and didn't know anything really.

Pure awareness is all I was at this point. Ornate facets of color & sound permeated my existence. Everything that I considered reality before this trip was being re-arranged like there was nothing to it. When I came back to reality I was reborn and my spirit was renewed. This was the classic death & rebirth trip. My old ego was lost and I was given the wonderful gift to be a new person.”

John Croley also experienced the death and rebirth process in his psilocybin mushroom trip. Here is what he said about it, “Personally I think that every psychedelic experience is a death and rebirth cycle. We must die of self to live with god or the cosmos or whatever name you choose to give the infinite.

It felt like I was being pulled by the strongest force imaginable out of the body from above and behind my head. This whole process was shear terror because I realized that I was not in control. I was no longer steering the ship so to speak. Something had taken over and I felt tiny and useless compared to this huge and all powerful thing. I kept trying to run away from this pull with all my strength, but the effort was futile. It had control and there was nothing I could do, so I must have given in to it because the terror finally subsided. Now it has control and I am long gone, dissolved into the biggest clear ocean imaginable so to speak. It was like the mind had become the entire cosmos, and was infinite-clear air. It had no substance, no color, no shape, no sound, no smell, no characteristics, but at the same time no limitations or boundaries. It was like seeing through to the transparent nature of infinity without really seeing, and it is impossible to describe. I don't know how long this lasted, maybe it is still going on to a certain degree, but that was 7 years ago. I haven't tried psilocybin since then.

I think that what happened was only a tiny, brief, and incomplete glimpse into this ‘clear’.”

Telepathy is one of the most enjoyable entheogenic headspaces. Telepathy is the transfer of information, thoughts, or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. I will try my best to explain what it feels like to me:

Next are two descriptions of Moloko’s experiences with telepathy. The first was during a trip with a fresh whole cactus (mescaline variety), pureed in blender with vanilla ice cream. “This aspect is telepathic: ‘psychic amplification’, I’ll call it. It is when you're in a close-knit group of fellow trippers, and you're all tripping together. You sense the feeling of their entheogenic experience, and they are also feeling your entheogenic experience---so that what you are feeling becomes magnified into a communal group experience; which is like one unified happening, greater than just your own perception. It is completely non-verbal. You're not actually sensing other's thoughts. You're just all sensing together the basic entheogenic aspects--timelessness, sacredness, absolute resolution of all the paradoxes of life, absolutes of all kinds--truth, beauty, harmony, euphoria, unity (my keyboard has no symbol for the infinite). The essence of a group entheogenic experience is indescribable, like the entheogenic experience itself, there's no way that words can convey it. The sum of (successful) group tripping is greater than the individuals involved. It is a ‘psychic amplification’ via telepathy going right off the charts to the infinite. I highly recommend it.”

Moloko’s second experience was during a trip with fresh salvia, chewed (not swallowed). “Trip begins with ‘the others’ (a group of tall ethereal beings). No words are used, just thought. They ask, ‘What do you want?’-- I ask, ‘Am I in danger of dying?’ -- They answer, ‘Yes.’ I say, ‘What can I do to stop it?’ They answer, ‘We cannot tell you, but there must be an exchange.’ I ask, ‘But what does that mean...I don't understand?" They say, ‘There must be an exchange. And now we are done.’ ...End of trip. The next day (in reality) a friend phones and says, ‘I know I'm supposed to call you. Haven't talked in a year, but I feel something important now.’ And since he's a real Chippewa medicine man, I figure he knows something. So, he tells me to, ‘Make an offering. Put it on a plate. Go out in the woods. Burn some incense. Say a prayer. Then leave. ‘BUT DON’T LOOK BACK! THIS IS IMPORTANT! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T LOOK BACK!’ The offering was the ‘exchange’ of the ‘others’. My friend was subliminally alerted by telepathy during my trip. Although I didn't think of him, the distress signal and the need for a solution were communicated involuntarily.”

Carl Gustav Jung (1981) coined the term collective unconscious. He theorized that, “In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.”

In many ways, entheogens have helped prove that Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious is correct. We have discovered that this shared consciousness is extremely multi-faceted. Experiences of this nature can be specifically ancestral and contain many culturally historic themes pertaining to your heritage. At the same time, they are not limited to this; they often encompass a much larger group of people or contain themes from other cultures that you may never have even heard of before.

Many of these experiences are often deeply spiritual and are filled with many real verifiable facts about the religions they are concerning. Sometimes it feels as if you are there just observing the events take place before you; while at other times, it feels like you are actually there re-living them. This type of experience can help you develop a greater understanding of the spiritual practices of the other cultures, as well as your own. It can also help you empathize with other cultural groups throughout history.

During many sessions of LSD assisted psychotherapy, doctors observed patients assume complex postures (asanas), perform gestures (mudras), and even speak languages that were obviously from ancient cultures. The subjects often had no prior knowledge of these cultures’ spiritual practices. Yet, during their trips they were able to tap into the shared memories and re-live many of the peoples’ collective spiritual experiences.

Stanislav Grof (1993) reported that “with no previous knowledge or training they engaged in movements characteristic of the !King Bushman trance dance, the whirling of the dervishes from the Sufi tradition, ritual dances performed in Java or Bali, and symbolic gestures of the Indian Kathakali that express themes from Hindu mythology, as they are performed along the Malabar coast. On occasion, people experiencing other lives speak in languages-sometimes obscure, archaic ones-of which they have no knowledge in their ordinary lives. In some instances, the authenticity of the languages used has been confirmed through audio recordings made of sessions where this phenomenon occurred. In other cases, the vocal performances had all the elements of a language, but were unable to decipher what was being said.”

Whenever I have experienced this type of headspace, it has been very profound and meaningful to me. There’s no better way to learn about another religion or spiritual tradition than actually re-living it yourself. It is difficult to even begin to describe the beauty and the magnitude of this type of experience; the words do not exist in our language. Yet, I will go ahead and try to explain what it felt like to me for the first time:

Another example of the collective unconscious is the experience of a friend of mine. Sarah was younger than me. However, when we tripped together she often transformed into what looked like an eighty year old woman. Her posture would morph, so that she walked with a hunchback. Her voice would even change to sound older and more gravelly.

When this would happen to her, she would go over and pick up a book we had on Hinduism. It didn’t have much writing, but was full of color pictures of the deities. She would then proceed to tell us these very in depth stories of who the deities were, what their significance was, and how they related to each other. There was so much detail in her stories; when this first happened, it caught those of us that were tripping with her off guard.

After the first trip where this occurred, she explained to me that she had a very limited education on Hinduism. She was as surprised about her knowledge as the rest of us. So, I did some research and was able to verify the validity and accuracy of her tales. In fact, she added more detail than in any of the resources I could find.

These experiences are shaped by the shared concepts of all humanity and, because of this, they are often very diverse. Many times, they involve spiritual practices of cultures throughout history and from around the world, like described above. However, they are can encompass many other concepts; they also can be about mythical creatures, aliens, and other cosmic forces that, again, we as humans have all co-conceptualized.

Stanislav Grof (1993) explained that “many years of research have demonstrated that in non-ordinary states of consciousness we can not only witness mythic and archetypal realities, we can actually become these archetypes. We can completely identify with Sisyphus rolling his rock up the steep hill in the depths of hades. We can become Theseus slaying the Minotaur in the dark labyrinth. We can radiate in with the beauty of Aphrodite or shine in the glory of Helius and Apollo. We can take on the body image and the inner experiences of such mythic creatures as Cerberus, Cyclopse, or Centaurus... ...Occasionally, even the world of fairy tales comes alive, and we meet or identify with mermaids, elves, fairies, gnomes, or trolls.”

Cosmic consciousness or the Godhead is a difficult concept to describe. This is because the words that we have available to us in our language aren’t advanced or developed enough to be able to describe it adequately. Beyond this, once you describe it and put words to it you have failed to truly capture its essence. This headspace is the ultimate paradox; everything and nothing, all time and no time, all encompassing thought and no thought at all. Some people describe it as the ultimate state of nondual awareness; while others describe it as reality with all the veils pulled back.

According to Ken Wilber (2000), “In the deepest within, the most infinite beyond. In ever present awareness, your soul expands to embrace the entire Kosmos, so that Spirit alone remains, as the simple world of what is. The rain no longer falls on you, but within you; the sun shines from inside your heart and radiates into the world, blessing it with grace; supernovas swirl in your consciousness, the thunder is the sound of your own exhilarated heart; the oceans and rivers are nothing but your blood pulsing to the rhythm of your soul. Infinitely ascended worlds of light dance in the interior of your brain; infinitely descended worlds of night cascade around your feet; the clouds crawl across the sky of your own unfettered mind, while the wind blows through the empty space where your self once used to be. The sound of the rain falling on the roof is the only self you can find, here in the obvious world of crystalline one taste, where inner and outer are silly fictions and self and other are obscene lies, and ever-present simplicity is the sound of one hand clapping madly for all eternity. In the greatest depth, the simplest what is, in the journey ends, as it always does, exactly where it began.”

This type of headspace can also be described by using an analogy, which by the way is what most of the major world religions have done. Imagine that each living person is the tip of one finger on your hand. Notice that the base of your hand connects all the fingers. We will call this base the Godhead. Now in our normal living state of perception we do not experience God. We only experience our fingertip; the trap of our five senses. However, during our dreams, meditations, prayer, and through the use of entheogens we can travel up the finger toward the hand. Sometimes we can even reach the hand and experience the basis of all existence. When we reach the hand, all of our universal questions are answered in an eternal instant. We are open, unconstrained, and filled with the infinite love of the universe. We are one with all humanity and we remember who we always were all along. We see the façade of our fingertip existence and we understand our true nature.

There are so many different types of experiences that, on the Trip Report Section of the website, I created an “Other” category for people to post in. Moloko described his headspace during an LSD trip, “Setting: five 20yr. old men, a group of mutual friends, sitting cross-legged around a "hearth" (5 stones arranged in a circle, with some wildflowers arranged in that; at the top of a hill, midmorning, mid-June, year 1967,the weather is cloudy-overcast(no sun).We drop Sandoz acid--the best! We're waiting for it to happen. This is my first acid trip! Nothing yet, we agree together. Still waiting. Then someone says "Let's eat an orange." He starts to peel the orange...then... the heavens open up ... an intense beam of sunlight streaks through a sudden crack in the clouds , directly, and only upon the orange...which turns an unearthly brilliant fluorescent glowing color... coinciding just exactly at the first instant the peel is cracked open with the thumb pushing in...the rind oils spray out into the air in extreme slow-motion, and just...hang...there... sparkling, suspended, multi-faceted, and extremely brilliant...stopped in time! The breathtaking moment does finally end, though, and we look at each other, double-taking to verify that incredible sight. We all saw the exact same thing in "other-reality" at exactly the same time. In the flash of that blinding, spellbinding, magical instant, the group had simultaneously entered the trip together. That’s synchronicity! (P.S.--yes, the rest of the trip was great! And even now, 40-odd years later, I'm happy to recall that time of beauty and insight.)”

ShadyGrove told us about his headspace during an LSD trip, “I went back inside and I was starting to move past the peak. I decided to play guitar so I opened iTunes to play along with some Grateful Dead. I started the song "Sugaree" and when it came time for a guitar solo I began just exploding with creativity. My solos were none like when I am sober, I could feel the music and knew exactly where I wanted to go with my playing. It felt as though there were no barriers to my playing and I began to grow overwhelmed with joy. I was so excited during the time I was dancing intensely back and forth with my playing.”

Chapter 4: Aspects of the Entheogenic Experience