Psychedelics are hallucinogenic drugs that artists in the 1960s used to create art that transcended the norm. In modern therapy, people use these drugs to relieve stress and depression. Musicians and creative individuals have used these recreational drugs to help them connect more to nature, bring mindfulness, and reduce anxiety and stress.
Many people have mixed reviews about psychedelics, citing them as dangerous, while some believe wholeheartedly in their healing powers. People who have taken psychedelic substances have experienced life-changing “trips”, which have always been for the better. Some of the most interesting psychedelic quotes have been compiled for you in this article about the environmental, societal, and personal aspects of psychedelic trips.
Here Are Some Fascinating Psychedelic Quotes
1.”Life lived in the absence of the psychedelic experience that primordial shamanism is based on is life trivialized, life denied, life enslaved to the ego.” — Terence McKenna
2.”Unlike happiness, unhappiness cannot happen without the presence of an ego.” — Mokokoma Mokhonoana
3.”The old you is only a shadow of the reality, which is the new you. The shadow is useless without its reality.” — Efrat Cybulkiewicz
4.”Psychedelics show you what’s in and on your mind, those subconscious thoughts and feelings that are hidden, covered up, forgotten, out of sight, maybe even completely unexpected, but nevertheless imminently present.” — Rick Strassman
5.”Enlightenment is just another word for feeling comfortable with being a completely ordinary person.” — Veronique Vienne
6.”Entheogens (or psychedelics, to be more historically correct) have now been recognized as the mother of our Western ecology and conservation movements, as well as the entire field of transpersonal psychology and our apparent desire to return to some firsthand spiritual and/or mystical understanding of God — rather than blindly accepting traditional religious dogma without an experiential basis.” — James Oroc
7.”That’s why I always recommend a psychedelic experience because it makes you realize that all you’ve learned is, in fact, just learned and not necessarily the truth.” — Bill Hicks
8.“Subjects see new dimensions in the universe, have strong feelings of being an integral part of creation, and tend to regard ordinary things in everyday life—such as meals, walks in nature, playing with children, or sexual intercourse — as sacred.” — Stanislav Grof
9.“Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather.”— Bill Hicks
10.“Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.” — John Lennon
11.”There is a wealth of information built into us … tucked away in the genetic material in every one of our cells … without some means of access, there is no way even to begin to guess at the extent and quality of what is there. The psychedelic drugs allow exploration of this interior world and insights into its nature.” — Alexander Shulgin
12.“LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important, creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” — Steve Jobs
13.“With psychedelics, if you’re fortunate and breakthrough, you understand what is truly of value in life. Material, power, dominance, and territory have no value. People wouldn’t fight wars, and the whole system we have currently would fall apart. People would become peaceful, loving citizens, not robots marching around in the dark with all their lights off.” — Gary Fisher
14.“Patients reported that their psychedelic sessions were an invaluable experiential training for dying.” — Stanislav Grof
15.“All great music is in one way or another psychedelic.” — Genesis P-Orridge
16.“Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful. If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope; he goes away and works on what he has seen.” — Alan Watts
17.“The rule of thumb is the more profound the experience, the longer you should wait before doing it again. The Guild of Guides suggests a minimum of six months between entheogenic journeys because it takes at least that long for the learning and insights to be absorbed and integrated into your life.” — James Fadiman
18.“Psychedelics can open the gates of perception and flood you momentarily with information of genuine cosmic significance. That doesn’t mean you’re the sort of character that can tolerate being filled with that kind of divine fluid; it might just break and crack you.” — Jordan Peterson
19.“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which he tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.” — Aldous Huxley
20.“If you want to have fun, take them (psychedelics) alone or with friends and spend the day in a beautiful setting. If you want to learn something about yourself and your relationships, take them with a therapist.” — Rick Strassman
21.“While I do agree substances can lead people — especially young people into problematic territory (indefinitely even)… those being so predisposed with a seeker mentality will eventually find their mark through a substance or more mundane trauma. A seeker seeks “trouble” to be transformed by it. The hero’s tale of initiation is as old as time.” — Pendomatic
Related: Higher Perspective Quotes
22.“Acid allows you to walk through the door to an alternate reality, but most people have no idea how to walk back through.” — Robert Pirsig
23.“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third-story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” — Terence McKenna
24.“What if, through responsible exploration with psychedelics, we free our minds? Free-thinkers are more difficult to manipulate and control, which begs the question: Why are psychedelics illegal?” — Zoe Helene
25.“I see the psychedelic experience as a birthright, and we can’t have a free society until people are free to explore their own mind.” — Terence McKenna
26.“By banning psychedelic research, we have not only given up the study of an interesting drug or group of substances but also abandoned one of the most promising approaches to the understanding of the human mind and consciousness.” — Stanislav Grof
27.“I was looking for something, and I wasn’t sure what it was. [After experimenting with] certain funguses, I had a psychedelic experience where I looked up at the clouds and went, ‘Oh!’ I realized that we all have our own power and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen.” – Adam Lambert
28.“The potential of the psychedelic drugs to provide access to the interior universe is, I believe, their most valuable property.” – Alexander Shulgin
29.“And so much of these plant psychedelic entities are at least 4,000 years old. Now, when you experiment – when you work with these plant psychedelics, what I have found is that these entities are actually there. They are aware of you; they are aware that you are a person, and they are able to communicate with you.” – D. M. Turner
30.“Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you’ve been to some of those places, you think, ‘How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?’” – Jerry Garcia
31.“Drugs shouldn’t be used for recreation although they can be, but ultimately the point of psychedelics is to put you in touch with the powers of the universe.” – Ray Manzarek
Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs | Sam Harris, Michael Pollan & more
Having been repressed in the 1960s for their ties to the counterculture, psychedelics are currently experiencing a scientific resurgence. In this video, Michael Pollan, Sam Harris, Jason Silva, and Ben Goertzel discuss the history of psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, acknowledge key figures including Timothy Leary and Albert Hoffman, share what the experience of therapeutic tripping can entail, and explain why these substances are important to the future of mental health.
There is a stigma surrounding psychedelic drugs that some scientists and researchers argue is undeserved. Several experiments over the past decades have shown that, when used correctly, drugs like psilocybin and LSD can positively affect the lives of those who take them.
Summary
Psychedelics have unique hallucinogenic properties that can open the mind of a recreational user to an elevated consciousness. These drugs offer therapeutic benefits and have been likened to serotonin as well. Psychedelic usage is still widely taboo as many questions about them remain unanswered.
John Lennon, Steve Jobs, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and many more notable personalities have spoken about psychedelics to understand reality better. We hope that you enjoyed reading about these psychedelic quotes in the article. If you would like to read more quotes regarding similar topics, please click on one of the links below.
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