Psychonautics [sahy-kuh-naw-tiks] (Greek: psyche ‘soul/spirit/mind’ and naut ‘sailor/navigator’) refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by mind altering substances, and to a research framework for voluntarily immersing oneself into an altered state by means of such techniques, to explore human experience and existence.
The term has been applied diversely, to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of the human condition, including shamanism, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, sensory deprivation, and archaic/modern drug users who use entheogenic substances in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences.
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The Daily Omnivore 