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Psychonautics (from the Greek ψυχή soul/spirit/mind and ναύτης sailor/navigator - a sailor of the mind/soul) refers to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by mind altering substances, and to a research paradigm in which the researcher voluntarily immerses him/herself into an altered state by means of such techniques, as a means to explore human experience and existence. The term has been applied diversely, to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of the human condition, including shamanism, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, lucid dreaming, sensory deprivation, and modern drug users who use hallucinogenic drugs in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences.

A person who uses altered states for such exploration is known as a psychonaut.

Etymology and categorization

Etymology

The term psychonautics is attributed to ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott. It derives from the prior term psychonaut which is usually attributed to German author Ernst Jünger who used the term in describing Arthur Heffter in his 1970 logbook Annaherungen: Drogen und Rausch ("Drugs and intoxication"). Other sources state the word to have been coined in 1974 by O'Connell and O'Connell.

Definition and usage

Blom describes psychonautics as denoting "the exploration of the psyche by means of techniques such as meditation, prayer, lucid dreaming, brainwave entrainment, sensory deprivation, and the use of hallucinogenics or entheogens", and a psychonaut as one who "seeks to investigate their mind using intentionally induced altered states of consciousness" for spiritual, scientific, or research purposes.

Psychologist Elliot Cohen of the UK Institute of Psychonautics and Somanautics defines psychonautics as "the means to study and explore consciousness (including the unconscious) and altered states of consciousness; it rests on the realisation that to study consciousness is to transform it."He associates it with a long tradition of historical cultures worldwide.

Robert Thurman depicts the Tibetan Buddhist master as a psychonaut, stating that "Tibetan lamas could be called psychonauts, since they journey across the frontiers of death into the in-between realm".

Categorization

The aims and methods of psychonautics, when state-altering substances are involved, is commonly distinguished from recreational drug use by research sources. Psychonautics as a means of exploration need not involve drugs, and may take place in a religious context with an established history.

However there is considerable overlap with modern drug use and due to its modern close association with psychadelics and other drugs it is also studied in the context of drug abuse from a perspective of addiction, the drug abuse market and online psychology, and studies into existing and emerging drugs within toxicology.

Cohen considers psychonautics closer in association to various wisdom traditions, transpersonal and integral movements than to substance abuse.

Methodologies

• Hallucinogens including: DMT, LSD, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, mescaline, peyote, Salvia Divinorum, Ayahuasca, DXM, and ketamine. In traditional cultures entheogenic substances were obtained from plants such as the San Pedro cactus, seeds such as morning glory, and sometimes from animals such as the bufo alvarius toad. Deliriants such as datura of the of the nightshade family have at times been used, although these can result in loss of control, lucidity, and may result in harm.

• Disruption of psychological and physiological processes required for usual mental states - sleep deprivation, fasting, sensory deprivation, oxygen deprivation.

• Ritual, both as a means of inducing an altered state, and also for practical purposes of grounding and of obtaining suitable focus and intention.

• Dreaming, in particular lucid dreaming in which the person retains a degree of volition and awareness, and dream journals, both in order to better remember dreams and to further their understanding of their own symbolic internal dialogue.

• Meditation.

• Biofeedback and other devices that change neural activity in the brain (brainwave entrainment) by means of light, sound, or electrical impulses, including: mind machines, dreamachines, binaural beats, and cranial electrotherapy stimulation

These may be used in combination, for example traditions such as shamanism may combine ritual, fasting, and narcotic substances.

Notable psychonauts

• William S. Burroughs
• Peter Carroll
• Carlos Castaneda
• Ram Dass
• Albert Hofmann
• Aldous Huxley
• William James
• Jack Kerouac
• Ken Kesey
• Timothy Leary
• John Lilly
• Terence McKenna
• Alan Watts
• William White

See also

• Entheogen
• Psychoactive drug
• Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants
• Recreational drug use

External links

• The Vaults of Erowid
• The Psychonaut Community Forum, news and experiences for psychonauts
• The Lycaeum
• The Dextroverse
• Diary of a Psychonaut at The Lycaeum
• The Psychonautical Society "Dedicated to bringing together people interested in empirical psychology and chemically aided self-exploration." - forum and links for psychonauts
• Some guidance for psychonauts
• Psychonauts Entertainment for Psychonauts
• The LiveJournal Psychonauts Community

References

1. ^ A Dictionary of Hallucinations, p.434, Jan Dirk Blom
2. Addiction Research & Theory 2008, Vol. 16, No. 3 "Ketamine Case Study: The Phenomenology of a Ketamine Experience"
3. Ralph Flores, 2008 "Buddhist scriptures as literature: sacred rhetoric and the uses of theory"
4. Clinical Toxicology, Vol. 45, no. 4, 2007 "New Drugs of Abuse", van Riel
5. Ott Pharmanopo-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual, Intrarectal, Pulmonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufotenine, Journal of psychoactive drugs, 2001, VOL 33; PART 3, pages 273-282 , cited by A Dictionary of Hallucinations, Jan Dirk Blom, p.434
6. Jünger, Annaherungen: Drogen und Rausch, p.430, chapter title: Psychonauten - cited in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, Taylor et al, p.1312
7. "Guided imagery: creative interventions in counselling & psychotherapy" Hall, Hall & Stradling
8. ^ UK Institute of Psychonautics and Somanautics page at his Academy for Transpersonal Studies.
9. As noted by Flores, "Buddhist scriptures as literature: sacred rhetoric and the uses of theory" (2008) p.164
10. Addiction Research & Theory 2008, Vol. 16, No. 3 "Ketamine Case Study: The Phenomenology of a Ketamine Experience"
11. CyberPsychology & Behavior. August 2003, 6(4) "Importance of Cyberspace for the Assessment of the Drug Abuse Market: Preliminary Results from the Psychonaut 2002 Project"
12. Clinical Toxicology, Vol. 45, no. 4, 2007 "New Drugs of Abuse", van Riel

• Drug culture
• Spirituality
• Consciousness studies
• Psychology
• Metaphysics
• Psychedelia
• Entheogens