Psychedelics have been made illegal in most countries and are seen as only a ‘dangerous recreational drug’, but this is now about to change due to research showing promising positive results on mental health by an amazing group of professionals.

‘Psychedelic’ Substances have been used by various cultures throughout the world for their mystical, medicinal and spiritual associations.

There are many different kinds of psychedelics. Some occur naturally, in trees, vines, seeds, fungi and leaves. Others are made in laboratories.

Psychedelics come in a number of different forms:

  • LSD comes in small squares of blotting paper or gelatine that are soaked in LSD, which are then swallowed, it can also come in tablets or capsules.
  • Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) can be cooked, boiled into a drink or eaten raw. The dried version is sometimes smoked, mixed with cannabis or tobacco. Psilocybin can also come dried in capsules.
  • Mescaline from the peyote cactus can be found as a white powder, while dried, ground peyote buttons can be found as capsules. It is usually swallowed, but can be chewed or smoked.
  • Ayahuasca is a plant based hallucinogenic tea. Traditionally used in parts of South America.
  • DMT is found in a variety of plants and is the psychoactive ingredient in ayahuasca. It usually comes as a white crystalline powder when produced synthetically.

The term psychedelic, comes from the Greek for “mind- manifesting”, it was used by Humphry Osmond, a British psychiatrist working in Canada in the 1950s.

In the Dictionary it means ‘a mental with profound sense of intensified sensory perception, sometimes accompanied by severe perceptual distortion and hallucinations and by extreme feelings of either euphoria or despair.

Effects of psychedelics

Psychedelics target specific centres of the brain to alter its understanding of sensory input. 

The effects a person experiences will depend on the type of psychedelic, the strength of the dose, their tolerance, whether other drugs have been taken as well and the persons functioning/state of mind.

Generally, some of the common effects of psychedelics include:

  • Hallucinations of sight, sound, taste and touch
  • Blurring of the senses, such as sounds being ‘felt’ or colours being ‘heard’
  • Feeling detached from the body
  • Distortions of time, direction and distance
  • Relaxation
  • Accelerated heart rate
  • Dilated pupils
  • Nausea and loss of appetite.

More and more natural healing methods are being used in modern healthcare and the benefits of these old traditions are being taken more seriously.