Hallucinogens are used to achieve heightened states of consciousness, relief stress, and increase mental awareness. Everyone's brain is different therefore, what works for one person may be detrimental, or life threatening for another. Hallucinogens taken in excess lead to rehab and private inpatient programs.
Hallucinogens or psychedelics are mind-altering drugs which affect the mind's perceptions, causing bizarre, unpredictable behavior and severe, sensory disturbances that may place users at risk of serious injuries or death. The combination of hallucinogens with other substances, like alcohol or marijuana, can increase the chances of adverse effects and risk of overdose as well.
Some hallucinogens can be found in plants. Mescaline comes from a cactus called peyote. And certain mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, are hallucinogens. But many hallucinogens are chemicals that don't occur in nature.
The effects of hallucinogens are widely unpredictable depending on the potency, dose, the user's mood, surroundings, and personality. The first effects may be felt within 30-90 minutes, and last 12 hours depending on the type and amount of drug taken. Individuals under the influence may have dilated pupils, increased heart rate and blood pressure, incoherent speech, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. Users that combine drugs or overdose can go into convulsions, coma, or experience heart and lung failure. They may even die.
Hallucinogens have a profound effect on the mind by altering sensations and emotions. Users may feel several different emotions at once or experience dramatic mood swings. These drugs can cause sensory disturbances, such as delusions and hallucinations. They may also allow users to "hear" colors and "see" sounds. Users may even experience flashbacks up to a year thereafter, where they feel the drug's effects without taking more of the drug.
Although most hallucinogens do not normally cause addiction, they do build tolerance quickly, requiring larger amounts of the drug to get "high." The risks of adverse reactions and overdose increase as users take larger amounts of the drug to get high.
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamid) - acid - is a potent hallucinogen derived from lysergic acid and is a powerful semisynthetic psychedelic drug.
Ecstasy is a hallucinogenic stimulant related to methamphetamine and Mescaline. Ectasy is a category of trance or trancelike states in which an individual transcends ordinary consciousness and as a result has a heightened capacity for exceptional thought or experience.
PCP (phencyclidine), often called angel dust.
The effects of hallucinogens are widely unpredictable depending on the potency, dose, the user's mood, surroundings, and emotional issues. The first effects may be felt within 30-90 minutes, and last 12 hours depending on the type and amount of drug taken.
Individuals under the influence may have dilated pupils, increased heart rate and blood pressure, incoherent speech, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. Users that combine drugs or overdose can go into convulsions, coma, or experience heart and lung failure. They may even die.
Hallucinogens have a profound effect on the mind by altering sensations and emotions. Users may feel several different emotions at once or experience dramatic mood swings. These drugs can cause sensory disturbances, such as delusions and hallucinations. They may also allow users to "hear" colors and "see" sounds. Users may even experience flashbacks up to a year thereafter, where they feel the drug's effects without taking more of the drug.
Although most hallucinogens do not normally cause addiction, they build tolerance quickly, requiring larger amounts of the drug to get "high." The risks of adverse reactions and overdose increase as users take larger amounts of a drug. PCP or Ketamine, on the other hand, may cause dependence, an intense craving for more of the drug.
Ayahuasca therapy boom: Risky or life-changing? CNN - April 12, 2016
Ayahuasca, also known as "yage," is a mind-altering concoction made from two Amazonian plants: the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of the chacruna plant. It's generally taken in the Amazon jungle as part of a ritualistic ceremony, guided by a shaman singing traditional songs called icaros. In the past many Westerners have flocked to ayahuasca centers in the jungle as it's reported to have beneficial effects on conditions such as depression and anxiety, as well as aiding people to quit serious addictions.
What happens in your brain when you take LSD? BBC - April 12, 2016
Researchers from Imperial College London have run scans on the human brain in order to look at the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. Researchers hope that the findings of the study might pave the way to develop therapeutic applications to treat patients.
1 in 20 People Have Hallucinated Live Science - May 28, 2015
About 1 in 20 people in the general population have experienced at least one hallucination in their lifetime that wasn't connected to drugs, alcohol or dreaming, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed information from more than 31,000 people in 18 countries who were interviewed as part of a mental health survey from the World Health Organization. Participants were asked whether they had ever heard voices or seen things that didn't exist, or if they had experienced a delusion (a false belief), such as the thought that their mind was being controlled or that they were being followed. The study excluded people who possibly had a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia or manic depression, which can cause hallucinations and delusions. Therefore, the findings show that hallucinations and delusions are not always connected to serious mental illness, the researchers.
11 Odd Facts About 'Magic' Mushrooms Live Science - November 11, 2014
1. Mushrooms hyperconnect the brain
2. Slow the brain down
3. Magic mushrooms go way back
4. Magic mushrooms explain Santa ... maybe
5. 'Shrooms may change people for good
6. Mushrooms kill fear
7. They make their own wind ...
8. At least 144 species of mushroom contain the psychoactive ingredient psilocybin
9. Experimenting with 'shrooms
10. The counterculture cultivator
11. Animals feel the effects
Magic Mushrooms Create a Hyperconnected Brain Live Science - October 29, 2014
Magic mushrooms may give users trippy experiences by creating a hyperconnected brain. The active ingredient in the psychedelic drug, psilocybin, seems to completely disrupt the normal communication networks in the brain, by connecting brain regions that don't normally talk together. The research is part of a larger effort to understand how psychedelic drugs work, in the hopes that they could one day be used by psychiatrists - in carefully controlled settings - to treat conditions such as depression.
Humans, on some level, intuitively sense a loss of "powers" they once possessed but were taken away when they entered physical reality, to play within its boundaries - one day to return to consciousness and light. And yet the quest for many as been to go beyond and find their way back to that which they know is their inherent gifts. This goes to studies in alchemy and the quest for eternal life.
People are drawn to white powdered gold to move beyond physical consciousness. Gold takes us to alchemy -- or consciousness beyond linear time. Ancient alchemists called white powdered gold the Elixir of Life - a substance that would facilitate extraordinary life-spans and cure many diseases by allowing the body to operate as close to perfection as possible. It is likewise, the Philosopher's Stone in alchemy.
Hebrews called white powdered gold Manna - an edible substance that, according to Abrahamic doctrine, God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert according to the Bible and the Qur'an. Some called it the Food of the Gods. One myth states that white powder gold, had been around since the destruction of the Temple of Solomon. When the high priests left as the temple was being destroyed, they took the secret out into the desert and organized a commune called Qumrun where they became the Essenes. Eventually, the white powder was used to nourish a woman named Mary, mother of Jesus. Some claim that it was the white powder of gold which allowed Jesus his many gifts, including his ascension into heaven.
In ancient Egypt, white powder gold was associated with Thoth and alluded to in the Book of the Dead
Thoth was also Hermes in Greek mythology and Merlin featured in Arthurian legend.
Ancient Mesopotamians called the powder 'shem-an-na' (highward fire-stone).
Derived from gold, platinum, and other transition elements, these impalpable white powder substances have been referred to as 'monatomic' (a single atomic state). As such, they were classified by their research pioneer, David Hudson, in the 1980s as ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements).
New understandings in physics suggest, however, that the powders might actually be 'diatomic' or small atomic cluster 'condensates'. It is now generally accepted, therefore, that the materials might be more universally referred to by the generic terms ORMUS or 'M-state' elements. Ormus was also a 10th - 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf - which takes us to ancient Persia and Zoroaster, who was also Thoth.
Thermo-gravimetric analysis has revealed that, at certain high temperatures, the material weight of M-state elements will reduce substantially, even to the degree that they will levitate. In specific circumstances they also have the ability to become superconductive and to resonate in parallel dimensions.
Today, there are a number of companies manufacturing products containing M-state substances. Some are working from a pure gold base, while others are using platinum group trace elements from sea sediments and volcanic or meteoric Earth sources. The extent to which these products might individually approach the fully charged superconductive state, however, is unknown to us at this time since the enigmatic powders do not react to conventional analysis as do the metallic elements from which they derived.
In conclusion - white powder gold is simply another mind-altering drug or hallucinogen.
Shaman traverses the axis mundi - the world center or the connection between Heaven and Earth - and enter the spirit world by altering consciousness. This is generally done with the use of mind-altering drugs found in nature, but in truth they are just getting "high".
Throughout the ancient Americas, rulers and shamans used hallucinogens to connect with the spirits of the other world. They believed that only those in touch with the supernatural realm could heal the sick, predict the future, ensure the fertility of the world, and resolve the larger problems of existence.
Natural hallucinogens were regarded by pre-Columbian cultures as sacred and endowed with inherent force. Their preparation and ingestion were associated with elaborate rituals, and they were consumed only by people considered to have sufficient power to communicate with the spirits and ancestors who dwelled in the other world.
Psychedelic Mushrooms are also known as magic mushrooms, sacred mushrooms, and, more generally, hallucinogenic mushrooms. They are fungi which have psychedelic, i.e. "mind manifesting", properties when ingested. In modern Western society, they are used recreationally for their psychedelic effects.
Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class, known for its mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and psilocybin. It occurs naturally in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), the San Pedro cactus and in the Peruvian torch, and as well in a number of other members of the Cactaceae plant family. It is also found in small amounts in certain members of the Fabaceae family including Acacia berlandieri.
Peyote - means "glisten" or "glistening". Other English names include cactus pudding, dumpling cactus, turnip cactus, whiskey cactus, white mule, devil's root, diabolic root, Indian dope and mescal button. Native North Americans are likely to have used peyote for at least 5,500 years. It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico. It is found primarily in the Chihuahuan desert and in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Le—n, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi among scrub, especially where there is limestone. Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, peyote is used worldwide as an entheogen and supplement to various transcendence practices, including meditation, psychonautics, and psychedelic psychotherapy. Peyote has a long history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous Americans. It flowers from March through May, and sometimes as late as September. The flowers are pink, with thigmotactic anthers (like Opuntia).
Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 - April 27, 1998) was a Peruvian-American author and student of anthropology.
Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his alleged training in shamanism. The books, narrated in the first person, relate his supposed experiences under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus. His 11 books have sold more than 28 million copies in 17 languages. Critics have suggested that they are works of fiction; supporters claim the books are either true or at least valuable works of philosophy and descriptions of practices which enable an increased awareness.
Castaneda withdrew from public view in 1973 to work further on his inner development, living in a large house with three women ("Fellow Travelers of Awareness") who were ready to cut their ties to family and changed their names. He founded Cleargreen, an organization that promoted tensegrity, purportedly a traditional Toltec regimen of spiritually powerful exercises.
Terence McKenna (November 16, 1946 - April 3, 2000) was an American psychonaut, lecturer, and writer. He was noted for the use of psychedelics, and subjects ranging from shamanism, language, metaphysics, historical and civilizational timelines, the theoretical origins of human consciousness, and Novelty Theory or Timewave Zero. According to McKenna, the universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness, which would eventually reach a singularity of infinite complexity, at which point anything and everything imaginable would occur simultaneously.
Dr. Timothy Leary was a guest on my television talk show, "The Metaphysical Experience" in 1990. Leary believed that these drugs can help lift you into a higher reality space to have better understanding of other realities. When I looked in his eyes, one could see that "vacant look" of a soul lost in this reality and soon to cross over. Shortly after our interview, Leary died.
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 - May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, campaigner for psychedelic drug research and use, 60s counterculture icon and computer software designer. He is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. During the 1960s, he coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
Along with Dr. Leary, Dr. Ralph Minzer, and Dr. Richard Alpert explored these domains from a scientific perspective linking them with books like the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Dr. Richard Alpert - April 6, 1931 - December 22, 2019 - later known as Baba Ram Dass. Alpert was a professor of psychology at Harvard University who became well known for his controversial research program which studied the effects of LSD.
He later converted to Hinduism and is currently one of the most prominent American Hindus. He was born to a prominent Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts.
Alpert worked closely with Dr. Timothy Leary at Harvard, where the two conducted many experiments on the effects of LSD. The pair were dismissed from the university in 1963 due to their controversial research on the Harvard Psilocybin Project. They relocated, and continued their experiments at a private mansion in New York.
In 1967, Alpert traveled to India, where he became heavily involved in meditative practice and yoga. After meeting and becoming a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, a Hindu guru in Uttar Pradesh, he changed his name to Ram Dass, meaning servant of God.
Upon his return to the United States, Alpert founded several organizations dedicated to expanding spiritual awareness and promoting spiritual growth. In February 1997, he suffered a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia, but he continues to give lectures at a variety of places.