Psychonautics

Illustration from 1930's literature depicting the field of Psychonautics - "The Secret of the Golden Flower," a Chinese book of alchemy and meditation.

Psychonautics (from the Greek ψυχή (psychē "soul/spirit/mind") and ναύτης (naútēs "sailor/navigator")—a sailor of the mind/soul 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 paradigm in which the researcher voluntarily immerses themselves into an altered state as a means to explore human experience and existence.

The term has been applied diversely in order to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of consciousness, including shamanism, meditation, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and archaic/modern drug users who use hallucinogenic substances in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences.

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

Formal 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, 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 or scientific research purposes.

Psychologist Dr. Elliot Cohen of Leeds Metropolitan University and the UK Institute of Psychosomanautics 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. Leeds Metropolitan University is currently the only university in the UK to offer a module in psychonautics.

Distinction from recreational drug use

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 in some forms need not involve drugs at all, and is primarily used for the purposes of gaining insight into one's life and the nature of consciousness as well as for spiritual reasons which may take place in a religious context with an established history. It's worth noting that in contrast, recreational substance usage is primarily sought out for the purposes of pleasure seeking and fun. Although these two concepts can often manifest themselves as a by-product of psychonautic hallucinogen usage, it's important to remember that the distinction between the two contexts depends entirely on the users primary intentions.

Methodologies

The San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi) has been used for healing and religious divination in the Andes Mountains region for over 3000 years.

• Hallucinogens and especially psychedelic entheogens such as peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD and DMT, but also dissociatives and atypical psychedelics such as ketamine, dextromethorphan, Tabernanthe iboga, Amanita muscaria and Salvia divinorum
• Disruption of psychological and physiological processes required for usual mental states - sleep deprivation, fasting, sensory deprivation, oxygen deprivation/smoke inhalation, holotropic breathwork
• 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
• Hypnosis
• Meditation
• Meditative or trance inducing dance, like Sufi whirling can also be used to induce altered state of consciousness
• Prayer
• 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 hallucinogenic substances.