Psychedelic

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Psychedelic

For "psychedelics," see psychedelic drug
Psychedelic drug

A psychedelic substance is any psychoactive drugs whose primary action is to alter the thought processes of the brain and perception of the mind....
.

The word 'psychedelic' is an English term coined from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
words for "soul," ???? (psyche), and "manifest," d???? (delos). A psychedelic experience
Psychedelic experience

A 'psychedelic experience' is characterized by the perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ordinary restraints....
is characterized by the perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly ordinary fetters.

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The word 'psychedelic' is an English term coined from the Greek

Greek language

Sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimulus from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or Hood and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch, taste, thermoception , and 'gravity'....
as well as by psychedelic substances. Such experiences include hallucination

Hallucination

A hallucination, in the broadest sense, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus . In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space....
s, changes of perception

Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
, synesthesia

Synesthesia

Synesthesia ?from the Ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation" ? is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway....
, altered states of awareness, mystical states, and occasionally states resembling psychosis

Psychosis

Psychosis , with adjective psychotic, literally means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatry term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"....
.

The term was first coined as a noun in 1957 by psychiatrist

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a Medicine Specialty devoted to the Treatment of mental disorders, Biomedical research and Prevention of mental disorder. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
Humphry Osmond

Humphry Osmond

Humphrey Fortescue Osmond was a British psychiatrist, known for inventing the word psychedelic and for his groundbreaking research in using psychedelic drugs in medical research....
as an alternative descriptor for hallucinogenic drug

Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants

The general group of pharmacology agents commonly known as hallucinogens can be divided into three broad categories: Psychedelic drugs, dissociatives, and deliriants....
s in the context of psychedelic psychotherapy

Psychedelic psychotherapy

Psychedelic therapy refers to therapy practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly serotonergic psychedelics such as Lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocin and Dimethyltryptamine....
. Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary

Timothy Francis Leary was an American writer, psychologist, futurist, and advocate of psychedelic drug research and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space....
, who was largely responsible for the popularization of the term "psychedelic", was a well-known proponent of their use, as was Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963....
. However, both advanced widely different opinions on the broad use of psychedelics by state and civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state and commercial institutions of the market....
. Leary promulgated the idea of such substances as a panacea

Panacea (medicine)

The panacea , named after the Greek goddess of healing, Panacea , was supposed to be a remedy that would cure all diseases and Immortality. It was sought by the alchemy as a connection to the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance which would enable the transmutation of common metals into gold....
, while Huxley suggested that only the cultural and intellectual elite should partake of entheogens systematically.

The use of psychedelic drugs became widespread in the modern West

Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
in the mid-1960s. One of the first uses of the word in the music scene of this time was in the 1964 recording of "Hesitation Blues

Hesitation Blues

"Hesitation Blues" is a popular song written by Billy Smythe, Scott Middleton, and Art Gillham....
" by the Holy Modal Rounders

Holy Modal Rounders

The Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber....
. The term was introduced to rock music and popularized by the 13th Floor Elevators

13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators were an American rock band from Austin, Texas which existed 1965-1969. During their career, the band released four LPs and seven 45s for the International Artists record label....
1966 album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators is a 1966 album by 13th Floor Elevators. The album's sound is notable for its use of the electric Jug , as featured on the band's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me"....
.

Psychedelia

The fashion for psychedelic drugs gave its name to the visual style of psychedelia, a term describing a category of rock music

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
known as psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock

CharacteristicsThe musical style typically features electric guitars, 12 strings being preferred for their 'jangle'; elaborate studio effects - backwards taping, panning , phasing, long delay loops and extreme reverb; exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for the sitar and tabla; A strong keyboard presence, especially Hammond, Far...
, visual art, fashion

Fashion

Fashion refers to the styles and customs prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage, "fashion" exemplifies the appearances of clothing, but the term encompasses more....
, and culture

Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
that is associated originally with the high 1960s, hippie

Hippie

The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster , and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district....
s, and the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
. Psychedelia generally began in 1966, but truly took off in 1967 with the Summer of Love

Summer of Love

The Summer of Love refers to the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a phenomenon of cultural and political rebellion....
. Although associated with San Francisco, the style soon spread across the US

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, and worldwide.

The counterculture of the 1960s

Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s refers to the counterculture supported by a loosely connected yet large community of people who, in their strength of numbers, powerful personalities, creative or destructive works, politics, and/or other activities, served as counterpoints to the existing "The Establishment" of "powers that be" in American so...
had a strong influence on the popular culture of the early 1970s, and is well recognized even by those who are naïve to its psychedelic origins. It later became linked to a style of electronic dance music commonly known as psychedelic trance

Psychedelic trance

Psychedelic trance or psytrance is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and mesmerizing melodies....
.

Modern usage

The impact of psychedelic drugs on western culture in the 1960s led to semantic drift in the use of the word "psychedelic", and it is now frequently applied to describe any brightly patterned or colored object. In objection to this new meaning, and to what some consider pejorative

Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
meanings of other synonyms such as "hallucinogen" and "psychotomimetic

Psychotomimetic

A drug with psychotomimetic actions mimics the symptoms of psychosis, including delusions and/or hallucinations. Some drugs of the opioid class have psychotomimetic effects such as pentazocine and butorphanol....
", the term "entheogen

Entheogen

An entheogen , in the strictest sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religion or shamanism context. Historically, entheogens are derived primarily from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts....
" was proposed and is seeing increasing use. However, many consider the term "entheogen" best reserved for religious and spiritual usage, such as certain Native American churches do with the peyote sacrament, and "psychedelic" left to describe those who are using these drugs for recreation, psychotherapy, physical healing, or creative problem solving. In science, hallucinogen remains the standard term.

At the same time as psychedelic drugs were being used by the counterculture

Counterculture

Counterculture is a Sociology term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition....
of the 1960s, they were also being used in experiments by governments, who saw them and sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation

Mind control

Mind control is a broad range of psychology tactics able to subvert an individual's control of his own thought, behavior, emotions, or decisions....
; see MKULTRA for the CIA involvement in the use of psychedelic drugs.

Psychedelic

Psychedelia

Modern usage

See also

External links