Levels of Psychedelic Experience

Levels of Psychedelic experience

The Erowid Psychoactive Vaults discuss Psychedelic Experience in an FAQ that partially overviews ideas expressed in Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. They classified five levels of psychedelic experience.

Level 1
This level produces a mild 'stoning' effect, with some visual enhancement (e.g. brighter colors) Some short term memory anomalies. Left and right brain communication changes causing music to sound 'wider'. Can be achieved with low to medium doses of cannabis.

Level 2
Bright colors, and visuals (ie. things start to move and breathe) some 2 dimensional patterns become apparent upon shutting eyes. Confused or reminiscent thoughts. Change of short term memory leads to continual distractive thought patterns. Vast increase in abstract thought becomes apparent as the natural brain filter is bypassed. Can be achieved with higher doses of cannabis or low doses of psilocybin.

Level 3
Very obvious visuals, everything looking curved and/or warped patterns and kaleidoscopes seen on walls, faces etc. Some mild hallucinations such as rivers flowing in wood grained or 'mother of pearl' surfaces. Closed eye hallucinations become 3 dimensional. There is some confusing of the senses (ie. seeing sounds as colors etc.) Time distortions and `moments of eternity`. Movement at times becomes extremely difficult (too much effort required) Can be achieved with normal doses of psilocybin or [LSD].

Level 4
Strong hallucinations, that is, objects morphing into other objects. Destruction or multiple splitting of the ego. (Things start talking to you, or you find that you are feeling contradictory things simultaneously) Some loss of reality. Time becomes meaningless. Out of body experiences and extra-sensory perception type phenomena. Blending of the senses.

Level 5
Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. One may feel like they are merging with space, other objects, or the universe, or feel oneness with the world. There are powerful, and sometimes brutal, psycho-physical reactions interpreted by some users as reliving their own birth. Feelings of reaching to the beginning or the end of space and time. The loss of reality becomes so extreme that it becomes ineffable. Dream or movie-like states, people have been reported seeing themselves in entirely different settings than their original setting. Many people experience religious phenomenon at this level. Often mentioned are an "all-powerful presence" or a "universal knowledge" which many equate to their idea of God or enlightenment. During experiences caused by substances such as DMT (which is an active ingredient in Ayahuasca), many people encounter conscious beings or entities that that seem to be alien or something stranger and manufacture visual patterns of objects that are self-aware themselves inside an incredibly strange and alien reality. These experiences cause people to experience an extra-dimensional reality of geometric patterns. Earlier levels are relatively easy to describe in terms of measurable changes in perception and thought patterns. "Ego loss", or complete dissolution of one's awareness of the existence of self, is an essential trait of level 5 experiences; the boundaries between "self" and encompassing reality cease to exist, and all that one is conscious of is the abstract manifestations of the hallucination. Thoughts are not processed or realized in words or an "inner voice", as in everyday life; in the midst of a level 5 hallucination, it is essentially impossible to distinguish conscious thought from the hallucination itself. This feeling has been described, with tryptamine-based hallucinogens like LSD or high doses of psilocybin, as a sense of "oneness" with the universe; with extremely powerful entheogens such as DMT or salvia divinorum, the resultant hallucination is difficult to describe, but has been likened by some to being "transformed into a Picasso painting". Many people claim to have spoken to intelligent entities during their trips, to have experienced alternate dimensions, or to have existed for thousands of years - often not as a human but as an abstract entity such as a shadow or paint - though the trip itself, in the case of salvia and DMT, lasted only five to ten minutes. This effect can be produced in high doses of LSD, salvia divinorum, and psilocybin.