Psychedelic infused Enlightenment
A psychedelic entheogen is any natural occurring psychoactive substance that induces alterations in your perception, mood, consciousness, mental cognition, or behavior for the purposes of spiritual development.
Entheogens have traditionally been used to supplement many diverse practices geared towards achieving transcendence, including divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, healings, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to ‘Higher’ forms of consciousness such as those experienced in meditation, near-death experiences, and spiritual experiences.
The term "entheogen" was coined in the 1970s from Greek and literally means ‘becoming divine within’¹. It was introduced by a group of ethnobotanists and scholars of mythology to avoid the perceived negative associations of hallucinogen and psychedelic.
Psychoactive entheogens are indeed psychoactive substances, typically of plant, fungi, and cacti origin, that are ingested to produce a non-ordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes. These substances induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior. They are used in many parts of the world for religious, magical, shamanic, or spiritual purposes.
Psychedelic
Plants, Fungi, & Cacti
Entheogens include a variety of psychoactive chemical compounds and tryptamines found in all-natural plants, fungi, and cacti. Most commonly known entheogens include psilocybin mushrooms, DMT containing ayahuasca, mescaline containing peyote cacti, ibogaine, cannabis, and kratom. MDMA, ketamine, and LSD, are synthetic chemicals also being studied for their therapeutic benefits.
These 3rd eye opening psychedelic hallucinogens are known around the world as sacred healers. The term “Entheogen” more accurately conveys the therapeutic values and inherent theological implications of these spiritual experiences. Entheogen reflects the perspectives embodied in traditions around the world, where they are seen as having intrinsic spiritual properties and other worldly intelligence. Entheogens include many substances that alter experience in dramatic ways which are interpreted as sacred, evoking experiences of direct contact with a supernatural or spiritual domain, including special relationships with spiritual beings, often plant or animal deities. Entheogens have shamanic uses, and have been noted for their ability to provoke the personal experience of transformation and spiritual enlightenment. They are used in a variety of rituals, where they are viewed as essential to a community’s contact with sacred and mythological realities, and promote social solidarity by reinforcing interpersonal relations among members of the community. New scientific studies show “Breakthrough Therapy” treatments are surrounding the use of entheogenic based medicine in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy and integration in patients with previously untreatable mental and emotional health conditions including but not limited to, PTSD, anxiety, pain management, depression, and even addiction. Drugs like opium, cocaine, and amphetamines are derived from plants and flowers yet despite their medicinal benefits and entheogenic properties, these substances still remain illegal.
Our goal is to change the way patients view and utilize these all natural plant medicines and groundbreaking mental health treatments. Our in-depth educational resource guides will teach you everything you need to know about entheogens and the psychedelic community. Follow us for updated information on psychedelic research, the legal status of psychedelic entheogens around the world, and the emerging psychedelic industry.
Ayahuasca (DMT)
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Ayahuasca is a South American entheogenic brew commonly made out of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, the Psychotria viridis shrub or a substitute, and possibly other ingredients; although, in the West, a chemically similar preparation also known and sold as ayahuasca, but occasionally also known as "pharmahuasca", can be prepared using illicitly manufactured N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and a pharmaceutical monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) such as isocarboxazid.
The brew is used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin. B. caapi contains several alkaloids that act as MAOIs, which are required for DMT to be orally active. The other required ingredient is a plant that contains the primary psychoactive, DMT. This is usually the shrub P. viridis. Ayahuasca is used for suicide prevention, depression, anxiety, panic, and symptoms related to trauma. It is also used to control impulses, for sleep problems, pain, cancer, and to help people addicted to drugs and alcohol quit using them.
People who have consumed Ayahuasca report having mystical or religious experiences and spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth, the true nature of the universe, and deep insight into how to be the best person they possibly can. This is viewed by many as a spiritual awakening and what is often described as a rebirth. It is often reported that individuals feel they gain access to higher spiritual dimensions and make contact with various spiritual or extra-dimensional beings who can act as guides or healers.
Recently, ayahuasca has been found to interact specifically with the visual cortex of the brain. It is claimed that people may experience profound positive life changes subsequent to consuming ayahuasca. Vomiting can follow ayahuasca ingestion; this is considered by many shamans and experienced users of ayahuasca to be a purging and an essential part of the experience, representing the release of negative energy and emotions built up over the course of one's life. The ingestion of ayahuasca can also cause significant but temporary emotional and psychological distress.There are potential antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of ayahuasca. A single dose of ayahuasca significantly reduced symptoms of treatment-resistant depression.
Psilocybin Mushrooms
Typically used in small group community settings, they enhance group cohesion and reaffirm traditional values. Terence McKenna documented the worldwide practices of psilocybin mushroom usage as part of a cultural ethos relating to the Earth and mysteries of nature, and suggested that mushrooms enhanced self-awareness and a sense of contact with a "Transcendent Other” reflecting a deeper understanding of our connectedness with nature. Subjects given psilocybin described their experience as having elements of "a genuine mystical nature and characterized it as one of the high points of their spiritual life".
Psilocybin has been approved as a breakthrough therapy treatment in patients with mental and emotional disorders like major depressive disorder, End of life Anxiety, Addiction, or PTSD. These “Magic Mushrooms” are even showing great potential in treating physical ailments like debilitating Cluster Headaches. Psilocybin mushrooms have been and continue to be used in indigenous New World cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual contexts. Reflecting the meaning of the word entheogen ("the god within"), the mushrooms are revered as powerful spiritual sacraments that provide access to sacred worlds.
Kratom
Kratom or Mitragyna speciosa, is a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia. It is indigenous to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, where it has been used in traditional medicines since at least the nineteenth century. Kratom has opioid properties and some stimulant-like effects. Traditionally the leaves are chewed to relieve musculoskeletal pain and increase energy, appetite, and sexual desire. The leaves or extracts from them are used to heal wounds and as a local anesthetic. Extracts and leaves have been used to treat coughs, diarrhea, and intestinal infections. They are also used as intestinal deworming agents in Thailand.
Mescaline
Mescaline is a chemical that can bring significant mental and emotional health benefits to experienced users. This tiny cactus activates serotonin receptors, which has a positive impact on the neurotransmitter that regulates moods and perceptions. (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is a natural occurring psychedelic protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, known for its hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of LSD and psilocybin. Mescaline has a wide array of suggested medical usage, including treatment of alcoholism and depression, due to these disorders having links to serotonin deficiencies. However, its status as a Schedule I controlled substance in the Convention on Psychotropic Substances limits availability of the drug to researchers. Because of this, very few studies concerning mescaline's activity and potential therapeutic effects in humans have been conducted since the early 1970s. It occurs naturally in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), the San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), the Peruvian torch (Echinopsis peruviana), and other species of cactus.
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known as acid, is a hallucinogenic drug from the Ergot fungus. Effects typically include altered thoughts, feelings, and awareness of one's surroundings. LSD can catalyze intense spiritual experiences and is thus considered an entheogen. Users sometimes report out of body experiences. Religious and mystical experiences observed during LSD sessions appear to be phenomenologically indistinguishable from similar descriptions in the sacred scriptures of the great religions of the world and the texts of ancient civilizations. It is used mainly as a recreational drug or for spiritual reasons.The most common immediate psychological effects of LSD are visual hallucinations and illusions (colloquially known as "trips"), which can vary depending on how much is used and how the brain responds. Good trips are stimulating and pleasurable, and typically involve feeling as if one is floating, feeling disconnected from reality, feeling joy or euphoria (sometimes called a "rush"), decreased inhibitions, and the belief that one has extreme mental clarity or superpowers. LSD causes an animated sensory experience of senses, emotions, memories, time, and awareness for 6 to 14 hours, depending on dosage and tolerance. The user may experience anything from subtle changes in perception to overwhelming cognitive shifts. Changes in auditory and visual perception are typical. Some sensory effects may include an experience of radiant colors, objects and surfaces appearing to ripple or "breathe," colored patterns behind the closed eyelids, an altered sense of time, crawling geometric patterns overlaying walls and other objects, and morphing objects. Some report that the inanimate world appears to animate in an inexplicable way; for instance, objects that are static in three dimensions can seem to be moving relative to one or more additional spatial dimensions. Many of the basic visual effects resemble the phosphenes seen after applying pressure to the eye and have also been studied as form constants. The auditory effects of LSD may include echo-like distortions of sounds, changes in ability to discern concurrent auditory stimuli, and a general intensification of the experience of music. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary dissociation. Studies have shown, a single dose was effective at reducing alcohol consumption in alcoholism. LSD has also been studied in depression, anxiety, and drug dependence, with positive preliminary results.
Ibogaine
Ibogaine is a disassociative primarily used for breaking addiction ,specifically to opioids. Ibogaine is derived from the root of the Tabernanthe iboga, a plant known to exhibit psychedelic effects in its users. The experience of ibogaine occurs in two phases, termed the visionary phase and the introspection phase. The visionary phase has been described as oneirogenic, referring to the dreamlike nature of its psychedelic effects, and lasts for 4 to 6 hours. The second phase, the introspection phase, is responsible for the psychotherapeutic effects. It can allow people to conquer their fears and negative emotions. Ibogaine catalyzes an altered state of consciousness reminiscent of dreaming while fully conscious and aware so that memories, life experiences, and issues of trauma can be processed.
Sassafras
Sassafras is a hallucinogen that’s also known as methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). You might also hear it called sass or sally. It’s derived from the oil of the sassafras plant. This oil, called safrole, can be used to make MDA. MDA causes your brain to release more chemicals called neutrotransmitters, which produces the high. MDMA is also known as “Molly” or “Ecstacy” , and is also made from Safrole or produced synthetically in a Lab.
Blue Lotus Flower
Nymphaea caerulea or the Blue lotus plant contains the psychoactive alkaloid aporphine. This mild sedative has been used by ancient Maya and Egyptian cultures to promote relaxation, pain, and insomnia. Typically brewed as a tea or dried and rolled into a cigarette to smoke.
Syrian Rue
Peganum harmala, commonly called Syrian rue, is a perennial, herbaceous plant, with a woody underground root-stock, of the family Nitrariaceae, usually growing in saline soils in temperate desert and Mediterranean regions. The alkaloids contained in the plant, including the seeds, are hallucinogenic, possibly due to a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, thus it is sold in the West for recreational drug use.
Worldwide Legal Status of Entheogens
Our SykoActivists are working hard to decriminalize psychedelic plant medicines and to expand safe access to these amazing life changing therapuetic substances. We keep you updated with current legislation on the ballot and the legal status of entheogens here at home and around the globe.
“I see the mycelium as the Earth's natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.”
— Paul Stamets
Psychedelic Resources
