Trip Report Project: Aspects of the Entheogenic Experience

Click Here to Submit Your Trip Report Describing an Aspect of the Entheogenic Experience

There is no way to describe all of the different entheogenic headspaces. Each person has a unique set and each trip has a unique setting, 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.

To make sure it is clear, this project is something much more than simply creating public awareness. The main purpose 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 the direct spiritual/transcendental experiences described by the world's religions.

Keep in mind that a person can experience many different headspaces during one trip and these headspaces often overlap. So, the intention is to not have complete trip reports. Instead there will be succinct descriptions of each particular headspace. Some of these headspaces are listed and described below - more categories will be added as needed. Submissions of experiences of Altered States of Consciousness other than through the use of entheogens will also be accepted.

Visual and Auditory Changes - view reports

Visual and auditory hallucinations are usually one of the first changes 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.

Euphoria - view reports

Euphoria is an intense, transcendent 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.”

Time Dilation - view reports

Time distortion, or dilation, is commonly experienced during an entheogenic trip. It starts off by feeling as if time is slowing down, then slowly progresses until it feels like time stops. It is easy to lose all sense of time; minutes turned into eternities.

Sexuality - view reports

According to Ann Shulgin (1997), “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.”

Regression - view reports

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).

Unity with Everything - view reports

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.

Fear - view reports

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.

Death/Rebirth - view reports

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

Telepathy - view reports

Telepathy is the transfer of information, thoughts, or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses.

The Collective Unconscious - view reports

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.”