thumb|right|upright|Illustration from [[The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese book of alchemy and meditation.]]

Psychonautics (from the Ancient Greek ' 'soul, spirit, mind' and ' 'sailor, navigator') refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by meditation or mind-altering substances, and to a research group in which the researcher voluntarily immerses themself in an altered mental state in order to explore the accompanying experiences.

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, the Siddhars of Ancient India, sensory deprivation, Self-experimentation of psychedelics in groups may foster innovation of alternative medication treatment. A person who uses altered states for such exploration is known as a psychonaut.

Etymology and categorization

The term psychonautics derives from the prior term psychonaut, which began appearing in North American works in the late 1950s. The first reference that corresponds to contemporary usages of the term was in the 1965 edition of the Group Psychotherapy journal. A 1968 magazine, Beyond Baroque, refers to Timothy Leary as a psychonaut.

German author Ernst Jünger describes ideas related to psychonautics - in reference to Arthur Heffter - in his 1970 essay on his own extensive drug experiences Annäherungen: Drogen und Rausch (literally: "Approaches: Drugs and Inebriation"). In this essay, Jünger draws many parallels between drug experience and physical exploration—for example, the danger of encountering hidden "reefs."

Peter J. Carroll made Psychonaut the title of a 1982 book on the experimental use of meditation, ritual and drugs in the experimental exploration of consciousness and of psychic phenomena, or "chaos magic".

The term's first published use in a scholarly context is attributed to ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott, in 2001.

Definition and usage

Clinical psychiatrist Jan Dirk Blom describes psychonautics as denoting "the exploration of the psyche by means of techniques such as lucid dreaming, brainwave entrainment, sensory deprivation, and the use of hallucinogens 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. Leeds Beckett University offers a module in Psychonautics and may be the only university in the UK to do so.

American Buddhist writer 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." and studies into existing and emerging drugs within toxicology.]]

  • Hallucinogens,
  • Disruption of psychological and physiological processes required for usual mental states - sleep deprivation, fasting, sensory deprivation, The American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, writer and inventor John C. Lilly was a well-known psychonaut. Lilly was interested in the nature of consciousness and, amongst other techniques, he used isolation tanks in his research.

Ken Kesey is an author well-known for accounts of his experimentation with psychedelic drugs. Philosophical- and Science-fiction author Philip K. Dick has also been described as a psychonaut for several of his works such as The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. McKenna spoke and wrote about subjects including psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, metaphysics, alchemy, language, culture, technology, and the theoretical origins of human consciousness.

In the early 21st century, ayahuasca practice in the Amazon became increasingly linked to psychonautic exploration. Hamilton Souther, an American ayahuasquero, is known for his work with ayahuasca at Blue Morpho in Peru, gaining recognition through international media coverage and later for his books describing his apprenticeship in Amazonian shamanism.

American philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris has extensively discussed and written about the spiritual properties of psychedelics, notably in the 2014 book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion.

Among the most influential figures are undoubtedly Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin who together authored PiHKAL and TiHKAL, a pair of books which contain fictionalized autobiographies and detailed notes on over 230 psychoactive compounds. Some present-day psychonauts refer to themselves as "Shulginists" to denote a belief in the principles they identify in Shulgins' work.

See also

  • Astral projection
  • Drug culture
  • Higher consciousness
  • List of psychoactive drugs
  • Mind at Large
  • Oneironautics
  • Psychedelic experience
  • Psychedelic replication
  • PsychonautWiki
  • Responsible drug use
  • Personal science
  • Quantified self
  • Self-experimentation
  • Seth Roberts
  • Subjective Effect Index
  • Trip report
  • Trip killer

References

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