Please bear with me as I'm tired, but I've been thinking about this a bit, so I wanted to type up a few of my early ideas.
First, I want each of you to do a little thought experiment, by thinking about the following questions:
What is it that you think of when you think of a "psychedelic experience"? Is it melting objects; colours; "enlightenment"; altered sensation of the passage of time; distorted body image; LSD; psylocybe mushrooms; tryptamines; alcohol? What makes a psychedelic experience? Do you have to ingest a substance? What about people who "trip" from taking something that you know doesn't contain a drug? Are they actually having a psychedelic experience? Why not? What if they're experiencing a "Level 4" even though they haven't taken anything? Does the chemical validate the experience as a true psychedelic experience? Or is the experiencing of certain phenomenon enough to qualify it as a psychedelic experience? What phenomenon make up a psychedelic experience? How many of these phenomenon have to occur?
If someone in North American culture were to take, for example, LSD, unknowingly, without having had any knowledge of descriptions of a psychedelic experience, would they experience the same type of phenomenon that consists of a typical psychedelic experience?
Reading about the mental effects of a drug affects the experience. The user enters the experience looking for a given set of phenomena. It is possible, that by expecting certain changes in consciousness and perception to occur, one misses out on other symptoms not previously described, or articulated in the discourse on psychedelic experiences.
For example, the Psychedelic Experience FAQ lists a given set of typical effects that one may expect to occur while under the influence of LSD or psilocin. The user's mind focuses on looking for these particular effects when a trip begins. By focusing on the prescribed effects, one is likely to miss out on other effects, even if they are subtleties.
After the experience, the user further validates the prescribed set of effects through discussion with other users, likely users, and non-users. Speaking about effects which nobody else has described makes the user's experience invalid as a "psychedelic experience." If a person is the only one to describe a particular set of effects, the reaction is considered atypical, and so not a valid psychedelic experience.
The model of a psychedelic experience is heavily constructed. Many new users look to veteran users for validation of which "level" (or "plateau") they reached. The new user does this by listing commonly known effects which breach the boundaries of the given "levels" or "plateaus", and asks for guidance in determining which level of effect was actually reached.
There is a conventional wisdom with some veteran users to deconstruct these levels of effect, by telling the new user not to worry about which particular one he or she reached. The new user is reassured that the levels are simply in place to communicate and compare the intensity of various experiences.
The standard discourse of what effects are typical is very stable. Not many users describe their LSD experiences in terms of Jungian archetypes seizing control of their minds. Users speak about "trails", "colour enhancement", and other known effects. Again, to re-emphasize, if one were to speak about the effects of a drug in a highly non-standardized way, anyone familiar with the discourse of psychedelic experiences would readily categorize such an experience as atypical, and possibly false ("you got bunk acid").
Surely there must be a superabundance of "changes in consciousness and perception" that occur with any given substance. By knowing, and more profoundly by expecting, the typical effects, one's experience of being under the effects of a drug, is altered. It is altered in a way as to be constructed by the normal discourse, and further reinforced by contributing to the discourse in order to validate one's experience.
But what is it about the effects of one drug that are psychedelic, and of another's that are not psychedelic? What if these drugs, one being psychedelic and the other not, share common effects? How does the classification system work? Where are the lines drawn?
Alcohol is not thought of as a psychedelic drug. Users don't speak of being "enlightened" while under the influence of alcohol. Nobody talks about changes in perception, or opening the doors of perception when it comes to alcohol use. The construction of an alcohol experience, is that the user is "drunk."
Consider some of the effects of alcohol. Surely it produces changes in thinking (cognition is altered). Perception is also changed (people speak of feeling more confident, of feeling relaxed, etc.) Why isn't alcohol a psychedelic drug if it produces changes in consciousness and perception? Perhaps it has to do with the majority considering the main effects of alcohol somatic. Alcohol is considered to primarily affect the way a person's body feels.
There are entirely different sets of experiences regarding alcohol. Some users describe feeling more poetic with alcohol in them. Is that psychedelic? Surely it has more to do with the mind?
Maybe alcohol isn't considered psychedelic because it seems to have a destructive effect on people's lives. Alcohol isn't thought of as causing "enlightenment." Alcohol doesn't make you more "open minded." Alcohol makes you "drunk" for one night, and then you have a "hangover" the next day.
Is that then the prerequisite for a psychedelic? Is it supposed to have some inspirational power over one's life? Some would say yes, but others disagree, and use psychedelic drugs purely for recreational value.
Certainly there is no chemical requirement for a drug to be considered psychedelic. What's important is effects upon ingestion.
The question is, do you really believe that when you take a psychedelic drug that you're experiencing what you would have experienced if you'd never known anything about psychedelic drugs (and their differences with "intoxicating" drugs)?
I highly doubt it. I think expectation, normal discourse, and the processes of validation and reinforcement play crucial roles in constructing a user's psychedelic experience.
The sad thing here is, that if psychedelics are supposed to "open" users' minds, then many users are allowing their experiences to be constructed and confined by the strict rules of "what makes a psychedelic experience."
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hehe...he said : "man stop it you make me feel weird and freaky" and i SAW he understood what i meant... cause he had tripped too....people who never tripped can think about but (i guess) most (of course there are non trippers who know probably exact these same feelings) can't "feel" these kind of philosophie.s yeah i sometimes get deep into these thoughts ..... a trip makes you realize your potential ...
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