Psychedelics & Cyber-Shamanism

Early pharmacology: mescaline isolated (1897); peyote and other plant medicines studied by Western science while remaining living indigenous sacraments.

• Albert Hofmann (1938/1943): synthesized LSD-25 at Sandoz and discovered its effects in 1943 (“Bicycle Day,” 19 April 1943).
• Aldous Huxley (1954): The Doors of Perception framed mescaline through the “reducing valve” theory of mind and Perennial Philosophy — the literary launch of the modern psychedelic idea.
• The 1960s: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) ran the Harvard Psilocybin Project (1960–63); the era fused psychedelics with Eastern mysticism and counterculture.
• Cyber-shamanism: Terence McKenna (the “stoned ape,” Timewave Zero), John C. Lilly (isolation tank + consciousness), and Robert Anton Wilson fused psychedelics with information theory and cybernetic mysticism.
• Chemistry & method: Alexander Shulgin (PiHKAL, TiHKAL) mapped hundreds of compounds; James Fadiman systematized set/setting and microdosing.
• Clinical renaissance (2000s–): Rick Doblin founded MAPS (1986); modern RCTs at Johns Hopkins, Imperial College and NYU show meaningful effects for depression, end-of-life distress, and PTSD.

A note on the evidence. Split the standing cleanly. The clinical arm is –2 and improving: psilocybin- and MDMA-assisted therapy have real, modern controlled trials (with caveats: small samples, hard-to-blind, regulatory caution). The metaphysical arm is: DMT “entities,” McKenna’s Timewave 2012 prediction (which failed), and “these are literally other dimensions” are experience-reports and speculation, not findings. Mandatory safety flags: genuine psychiatric risk (especially for those predisposed to psychosis), and near-universal legal control of these substances. Describe; do not encourage illegal use.

State reveals. Non-ordinary states can disclose aspects of mind/reality the default state filters out (Huxley’s reducing valve). (→ Life Is a Dream; Consciousness Is Fundamental.)

• Ego dissolution as gateway. The “death” of the ordinary self in a high-dose experience is often the therapeutic/mystical hinge. (→ The Inner Creates the Outer death & dissolution; All Is One all is one.)
• Set and setting govern outcome. Intention, mindset, and environment shape the experience decisively — a profoundly psychological finding. (→ The Inner Creates the Outer; The Inner Creates the Outer.)
• Continuity with shamanism. Plant medicines are framed as technologies indigenous cultures long used for healing and contact. (→ shamanism.)

Aldous Huxley — The Doors of Perception (1954).

• Timothy Leary — The Psychedelic Experience (1964).
• Terence McKenna — Food of the Gods; The Archaic Revival.
• Albert Hofmann — LSD: My Problem Child (1979).
• James Fadiman — The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide.
• Also in the lineage (24 nodes): Shulgin, Doblin, Dennis McKenna, Metzner, Narby, Osmond, Wasson, Sabina, Strassman, Stolaroff, Grof-adjacent figures, Hancock, Pinchbeck, Ram Dass (tagged transpersonal), Lilly (cybernetics), R. A. Wilson (chaos magick).

Psychedelia is a vivid modern carrier of The Inner Creates the Outer (ego death as the doorway), All Is One (the unitive “all is one” experience that high doses reliably occasion), Consciousness Is Fundamental (the felt primacy of consciousness), and Life Is a Dream (a participatory, plastic reality).

It is also a stress-test of the skeptical literature: the experiences are real and often transformative; the ontological claims about other worlds are not thereby established.

Grew from: indigenous shamanism and plant-medicine traditions, plus 20th-c. pharmacology. Fused with: cybernetics/information mysticism (McKenna, Lilly, Wilson); and Eastern Buddhism/ nonduality (the 1960s East-meets-acid synthesis).

Seeded: transpersonal psychology (Grof’s work grew directly from LSD research); modern psychedelic-assisted therapy; and a large slice of New Age and festival culture.