Change, Transform, Transfigure, Alter
A confrontation with divinity, your own higher intelligence, is going to change you.
You’ll face blazing activation of your brain.
A philosopher who does his job well invariably upsets the hive and has to deal with the
forces set up to preserve the old order and prevent change.
A profound transcendental experience should leave a changed man and a changed life.
Life is altered because the very root of human identity has been deepened.
A society in which a large percentage of the population changes consciousness regularly
and harmoniously with psychedelic drugs will bring about a very different way of life.
A subject may “feel” the interior of his body, experiencing his internal structure and
processes as he understands them or as altered in some way.
A successful scientific innovator who presents the species with a new technology for
changing human nature and human destiny is always in trouble with the politicians.
A transformation will take place in human consciousness and we will emerge as a new
breed.
A very characteristic perceptual change is ornamentalization and geometrization of
human faces, animals and objects.
Altered states of consciousness appear to be the way to development of creative and
intellectual faculties.
Altered states of consciousness seem to be doors to ways of using the mind that are better
than those most of us follow most of the time.
Although the changes of perception are most striking in the optical field, they can also
involve hearing, touch, smell or taste.
Although this is in no way the norm, psychedelic experience can result in a major
personal transformation or can resolve a chronic emotional problem.
An extreme in the experience of changed time and space is the awareness of infinity and
eternity.
Another striking aspect of the psychedelic transformation is the development of an
intense interest in consciousness, self-exploration and the spiritual quest.
Are they outlawed because we fear drugs or because we fear the social effects of altered
states of awareness, religious intensity, and mysticism?
Artistic and scientific insight requires a touch of the same kind of loose thinking or
craziness that is found in altered states of consciousness.
Astronauts could be using these substances for preparation of altered states of
consciousness in space exploration.
At a certain point this form of therapy automatically changes into a serious philosophical
and spiritual quest addressing itself to the most fundamental questions of existence.
At the height of visionary experience it is crystal-clear that you can change completely.
Be an entirely different person.
Buddhism and Taoism are concerned with changing the consciousness of normal people
(unlike shrinks concerned only with disturbed people).
Certain people are increasingly changing interests, from possessions to states of mind or
from endurance to intensity of experience.
Change in behavior can occur with dramatic spontaneity once the game structure of
behavior is seen. The visionary experience is the key to behavior change.
Changes in human consciousness would make it possible for us to use the fruits of
modern science constructively and with wisdom.
Changes in the perception of forms and colors are so rich and dramatic that they have
been referred to as “orgies of vision” or a “retinal circus.”
Consciousness and alteration of consciousness cannot be studied from the standpoint of
external science, from the standpoint of look-at-it-from-the-outside science.
Consciousness-changing devices initiated many of the religious perspectives which,
taking root in history, continued after their psychedelic origins were forgotten.
Dramatic changes in our child-rearing and educational practices, politics,
communications will occur.
During any profound emotional experience, religious or otherwise, chemical or hormonal
bodily changes occur.
Each one of us may be capable of manufacturing a chemical, minute uses of which are
known to cause profound changes in consciousness.
Ego death is not permanent, but the break-through to a broader awareness generally
begins the process of transformation of the personality.
Events can divide and merge according to the changing fashions of historical description.
The boundaries of events are conventional rather than natural.
Every cell of your body is an energy torch which tracks back through millions of
generation transformations.
Extremely valuable insights may enable the subject to revise his thinking and self-image
and to alter his behavior in desirable ways.
Forms of architecture may be seen to have largely originated in various forms of altered
consciousness.
Ginsberg’s vision of a historic movement that would transform human consciousness
struck a responsive chord in Leary.
Historically, mystical experience has filled man with wondrous awe and has been able to
change his style of life and values.
In altered state of consciousness, one gains the ability to interpret his perceptions in new
ways.
In every culture of recorded history, men have used chemicals of vegetable origin to alter
consciousness.
In sessions where the emphasis is on aesthetic experiences and artistic inspiration, LSD
subjects are primarily interested in changed perceptions of forms, colors and sounds.
In the right psychological environment, these chemical mind changers make possible a
genuine religious experience.
Intuitive flashes are transient, spontaneous altered states of consciousness consisting of
particular sensory experiences or thoughts coupled with strong emotional reactions.
It is easier to change behavior if you understand the learned-game nature of behavior.
This sort of insight can be brought about by consciousness-expanding drugs.
It is noteworthy that most of the world’s highest religious and philosophical thought
originated in altered states of consciousness.
It is surely through the transformation of consciousness that we find the entrance to
heaven.
It makes sense to experience and study altered states of awareness to learn about the
nature of our world by directing attention to aspects of it that usually remain peripheral.
It seemed like the whole world was excited and aware of impending changes. It’s
growing. People are tired of the plastic bullshit conspiracy. They’re starting to think.
It transports me, it makes me see with eyes that transfigure a work of art into something
else, something beyond art.
Knowing about God is not enough. Transformation of the self is only through realizing or
feeling God.
Learning, memory, mood, judgment, identity, consciousness can be transformed by
electrical and chemical stimuli.
Leary saw the potential for change and we forget how constipated and self-limiting
American society was in the early sixties.
Liberation does not mean changing the world, but touching its true nature. (You can’t
liberate the world.)
Like breathing, music and other forms of sound technology have been used for millennia
as powerful mind-altering tools.
Love is transformed from a cliche to a living and vital reality. Lifelong convicts have
become compassionate and near-delinquents have been gentled.
LSD can produce dramatic changes in personality leading to unprecedented peace, sanity
and happiness.
LSD enables us to penetrate deeply and bring about changes in personality formerly
thought impossible.
LSD serves as a catalyst for inducing rapid and profound changes in the subject’s value-
belief system and in his self-image.
Many examples of the identification of a consciousness-changing drug with God and
associated with religious ritual could be cited.
Most of the great world religions were based on inner exploration employing brain-
changing vegetables.
Mystics of all faiths teach that understanding comes only when logic and intellect are
transformed.
New energies excite our highest aspirations and can alter our central notions of man and
his place on this planet.
No external interventions have a chance to create a better world unless they are
associated with a profound transformation of human consciousness.
Nonordinary states of consciousness certainly change dramatically the relationship
between the conscious and unconscious dynamics of the psyche.
Objects and stimuli are greatly transformed, so that at times they are even
unrecognizable.
Once the threshold of altered consciousness has been crossed, we are flooded with a
kaleidoscopic vision of extended perceptual fields and psychological insights.
Once we can see that consciousness alteration is not in itself undesirable, we need be
concerned only with an evaluation of methods of achieving it.
One of the top overriding values of these altered states is that they bestow direct
experience of phenomena usually apprehended only in abstraction.
One vast, immense, everlasting, cosmic wind blows through all and everything and keeps
it in motion—alive, changing, growing.
Our Western culture makes virtually no use of altered states of consciousness and tends
to regard all of them as pathological states.
People may feel keener awareness of their bodies or sense changes in the appearance and
feeling of body parts.
Profound self-understanding and a high degree of self-transformation may reward the
subject.
Psychedelic agents may facilitate lasting change in the direction of increased creative
expression and self-actualization.
Psychedelic drugs can stimulate a breakthrough to an enlarged consciousness of a
transfigured world of the Eternal Now.
Psychedelic drugs held the promise of changing mankind and ushering in a new
millennia. (The promise is still there and everywhere, at all times.)
Psychedelic experiences seem to have a powerful effect and can change a person’s
attitude toward life.
Psychology in general has failed to keep pace with personal explorations in altered states
of consciousness.
Rational consciousness itself is seen as a tissue thin artifact easily blown away by the
slightest alteration of our biochemistry.
Ritualistic legalism does little to alter character and nothing of itself to modify
consciousness.
Sanskrit, as Heard loved to point out, was a far superior language with over 40 different
words for alteration of consciousness.
Sexual love may be transformed into a type of worship in which the partners are for each
other, incarnations of the divine.
Subjects consistently reported that the drug induced in them a variety of changes which
facilitated the creative process.
Subjects underwent highly intense and unusual experiences which may change perception
of life experiences.
Such a tremendous potential to alter the consciousness made LSD a sure subject of heated
debate.
Terrence McKenna, among others, has speculated that the evolution from prehuman to
human was the result of synergy of mind-altering plants and the human mind.
The atomic structure of matter is known intellectually but never experienced by the adult
except in states of intense altered consciousness.
The average person may pass through new dimensions of awareness and self knowledge
to a “transforming experience.”
The basic structure of experience is given by our sense of space and passage of time.
Both are profoundly altered in psychedelic mystical states.
The blinders are removed and the individual glimpses the nature of the process. This
revelation comes through a biochemical change in the body.
The changes in human consciousness spell the beginning of a new era such as has never
existed before—at least not in recorded history.
The changes of consciousness have ontological relevance through offering valid insights
into the nature of human existence and the universe.
The claim that the drugs “expand consciousness” refers to changes in several dimensions
of experience.
The confrontation with God, the authentic religious experience, does have the power to
transform.
The consciousness-changing drugs give a glimpse into the mind. One could almost say
that LSD gives a glimpse into the very soul of man, taps a universal knowing.
The current popular method of behavior change is psychotherapy, which defines
confusion and inefficiency in game playing as illness.
The discoveries that lie on the horizon are unimaginably transformative for human
society.
The effect of consciousness-expanding drugs will be to transform our concepts of human
nature, of human potentialities, of existence.
The experience can open one’s eyes and make one blessed and transform one’s whole
life.
The experience has shaped, at a deep level, my responses to dramatic changes that have
taken place in my life.
The experience may be chaotic, beautiful, thrilling, incomprehensible, magical, ever-
changing.
The familiar view of our surroundings is transformed; it appears to us in a new light,
takes on a special meaning.
The formal world becomes the real world in the moment when it is no longer clutched, in
the moment when its changeful fluidity is no longer resisted.
The game is about to be changed, ladies and gentlemen. Man is about to make use of that
fabulous electrical network he carries around in his skull.
The individual gains experiential access to the unitive states. This tends to change the
way of being in the world and the basic approach to life.
The irrepressibly boisterous spirit of Tim (Leary) bequeathed to us the exhortation to be
sacred clowns who evolve into social change artists of compassionate rascalry.
The most important rule is that the tripper decides what behavior change is desired.
Nobody else has the right to decide for him.
The mysterious uprising of love is the experience of complete relationship with another,
transforming our vision not only of the beloved but of the whole world.
The person is allowed to glance back down the flow of time and perceive how the life
energy continually manifests itself in forms, transient, always changing, reforming.
The power of substances to produce altered states of consciousness is understood by
Western scientists in biochemical rather than supernatural terms.
The process involves a profound personal transformation during which most aspects of
the individual’s life are dramatically redefined.
The process of neurological imprinting and the way we build up our conditioned mental
processes is resistant to change.
The psychedelic peak experience is certainly an important factor mediating deep
personality transformation.
The psychedelic state, and other forms of altered consciousness are worthy of serious
study if the act of human creation is to be better understood, guided, and encouraged.
The psychedelics offer the hope that we are on the threshold of a new renaissance in
which man’s view of himself will undergo dramatic change.
The public at large fails to take seriously any positive feelings of inner change through
drug experience. (That’s because they have never experienced those positive feelings.)
The scope of psychology is complex, dealing as it does with processes which are ever-
changing.
The slightest movement, the change in voices, a curtain waving in a breeze assumes
many values.
The spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied
only by a change in our world view.
The strong conviction of belonging and of having a personal worth gives new meaning to
the outer world and changes in the perception of it.
The structure of nature is a multiple of changing patterns, not a multitude of distinct
things.
The transformation of consciousness is like the correction of faulty perception or the
curing of a disease.
The transformative power of such experiences has been appreciated throughout history in
the legacies of the ancient mysteries.
The use of drugs to alter consciousness is nothing new. It has been a feature of human life
in all places on the earth and in all ages of history.
The use of mind-altering drugs as religious sacraments was not restricted to a particular
time and place, but characterized nearly every society on the planet.
The universe in which a human being lives can be transfigured into a new creation by
using “that other kind of seeing which everyone has but few make use of”.
The wisdom for change and healing comes from the collective unconscious and surpasses
by far the knowledge that is intellectually available to the therapist.
There exists an abundance of evidence to indicate that mind-changing drugs have
importantly affected the course of human history.
There exists societies that make liberal use of drugs to alter awareness, but do not appear
to have problems with them.
There is a general enhancement and intensification of consciousness and at the same
time, an extension and transfiguration.
There is no question that altered states of consciousness can heighten aesthetic
sensitivity.
There is simply energy in various intensities, durations, qualities, patterns: signals to be
received, changed, selected, filed, retrieved and harmonized.
These drugs are useful in producing valuable personality changes in individuals with
serious personality disorders.
These drugs, if properly used, could be the source of energy that is to transform the
human mind.
These drugs intensify experience, transfiguring the way we normally regard objective
reality.
These drugs produce ecstatic states from which new learning, a shift in values, or
subsequent behavior change purportedly ensue.
These experiences changed my assumptions about how and why we become who we are,
and why we behave the way we do.
These plants are found all over the world all the way back in history and probably used
and known about before the creation of any system of mind-changing exercises.
This experience has considerably changed my view of reality. These are new experiences
of the world I want to explore.
This Other World is vibrant, with strange energy transformations and exists in another
dimension of mind or self.
This profound experience may constitute a new and powerful means for eliciting
profound therapeutic changes and for facilitating reconstructuring of the personality.
To those who rode on the crest of the wave of the psychedelic years, the transformation
of society seemed only an arm’s length away.
Turning on requires a change in the physiology of the human body. You have to have
something to bring about the biochemical change, a sacrament.
2 commandments—Don’t alter someone’s consciousness, don’t stop someone from
altering their own consciousness.
Upon the certainty of this union with God depends the entire joy, power and world-
transforming character of the mystical experience.
Virtually in every religious tradition, both civilized and primitive, use has been made of
mind-changing drugs used for the purposes of inducing visionary experiences.
Visionaries insist on the impossibility of recalling in anything even faintly resembling its
original form and intensity, their transfiguring experiences. (Using words can’t do it.)
We attempt to impose our ego-will on the ever-changing life process, a stoppage, a
blocking of life-energy flow.
We have hardly scratched the surface in understanding fully the facets and functions of
altered states of consciousness.
We have much to learn from appropriate investigation of this powerful mind-altering
chemical.
We were lured by the vision of a new, transformed, transfigured human race, free of hype
and materialism, and we wanted to help change the world.
Western literature had almost no guides, no maps, no texts that even recognized the
existence of altered states.
You are going to face blazing illumination of the divinity. It’s going to change you
completely. You’re never going to be the same. Do you want to do it?
A deeper understanding of the transformative process based on the synthesis of historical,
anthropological and experimental data could have important implications for many
different areas, including psychiatry, art, philosophy, religion and education.
A lively boost was the publication of Huxley’s books, Doors of Perception and Heaven
and Hell; his enormous erudition and lucid explanations put the whole business of taking
a drug to change your consciousness on a totally new level.
A sexual partner may change in age or appearance, take on the features of mythical and
historical figures, and sometimes come to represent all men, all women, or natural
features like landscapes, rivers and oceans.
Become a cheerleader for evolution. That’s what I did and my grandfather before me.
These brain-drugs, mass-produced will bring about vast changes in society. (That was
Aldous Huxley speaking to Timothy Leary while both were tripping.)
Consciousness changes. Your nerve endings, neural cameras, cellular memory banks,
protein structures become broadcasting instruments for the timeless humming message of
God located inside your body.
Consciousness is central and primary. This reversal of the prevailing scientific view
which sees consciousness as secondary and peripheral to material reality, changes
conventional ideas of cause-and-effect relationships.
Experiencing the profound psychological changes induced by LSD is a unique and
valuable learning experience for all clinicians and theoreticians studying abnormal mental
states.
For most people, it’s a life-changing shock to learn that their everyday reality circuit is
one among dozens of circuits which, when turned on, are equally real, pulsing with
strange forms and mysterious biological signals.
Graduate students were lining up at our office doors for neurological fieldwork. Every
weekend, the Harvard residence houses were transformed into spaceships floating miles
above the yard. (That was Timothy Leary.)
I think it’s time to be brave and honest. I know that if everybody who’d ever taken a
major psychedelic stood up and said “Yeah, I did that and this is how it shaped my life,”
the world would be a better place the next day.
I’m eternally grateful for this experience. LSD changed my life. I’ve lived more, felt
more, enjoyed life more in the last few years than I had dreamed possible. LSD gave me
that treasure. (That was actor Cary Grant.)
Ideation, images, body sensation and emotion are fused in what is felt as an absolutely
purposive process culminating in a sense of total understanding, self-transformation,
religious enlightenment and possible mystical union.
If drugs can change the way in which the brain sees, hears, smells and assembles
meaningful form out of the chaos of sensation, they can also radically transform the
nature of sexual feeling.
If we can think of the brain as a computer, then by temporarily altering the chemistry of
the brain, stimulates new connections, linking up memories and information in unusual
ways. By this kind of synthesis, fresh concepts are formed…
In altered states of consciousness this new perception of the world becomes dominant and
compelling. It completely overrides the everyday illusion of Newtonian reality, where we
seem to be “skin-encapsulated egos” existing in a world of separate beings and objects.
In the spiritual and mystical literature of all ages, one can find numerous descriptions of
spectacular physiological changes in the body or seemingly impossible achievements of
people in various extraordinary states of mind.
Individuals who experienced the phenomenon of ego death followed by the experience of
rebirth and cosmic unity seemed to show radical and lasting changes in their fundamental
understanding of human nature and its relation to the universe.
Individuals who transcend the boundaries of ordinary reality and embark on the spiritual
journey, typically experience a dramatic change in their concepts of the dimensions of
existence.
Is it entirely inconceivable that our cortical cells or the machinery inside the cellular
nucleus “remember” back along the unbroken chain of electrical transformations that
connects every one of us back to that original thunderbolt (the origin of life)?
It has mediated a profound spiritual opening in atheists, skeptics and materialistically
oriented scientists, facilitated far-reaching emotional liberation and caused radical
changes in value systems and the basic life style. (The “it” is LSD.)
It may be that LSD not only changes the pre-conditions of death, but alters the transition
as well. The question is, does it do anything else? No one can answer, for in this realm,
there is not a single expert.
LSD can catalyze and precipitate a sudden dramatic transformation. On occasion, one
LSD experience has drastically changed an individual’s world-view, life philosophy and
entire way of being.
LSD will change biochemical balances inside our nervous system and you can experience
directly some of the things which we externally view through the lenses of the
microscope.
Much of the combined efforts of psychiatrists, psychologists, neurophysiologists,
biochemists and other related professionals is one-sidedly directed toward interfering
with processes that have unique therapeutic and transformative potential.
New insights into a new, transfigured world of givenness, new combinations of thought
and fantasy—the stream of novelty pours through the world in a torrent, whose every
drop is charged with meaning.
Oftentimes, those who underwent psychedelic therapy reported dramatic personality
changes involving not only the relief of neurotic symptoms but a wholesale revamping of
value systems, religious and philosophical beliefs, and basic lifestyle.
One of the most fascinating by-paths of the history of religion is the one that traces the
use of chemicals in various religious traditions for the purpose of changing the state of
mind and producing enthusiasm, the sense of God within.
One of the most important changes most people experience through non-ordinary states
of consciousness involves a new appreciation for the role of spirituality in the universal
scheme of things.
Psychedelic research seems to offer a unique approach to the future exploration of the
process of ritual transformation. The parallels between LSD sessions and the ritual death-
rebirth process are striking.
Psychologically, the psychedelics promised easier access to repressed unconscious
materials, shortcutting the years and prohibitive expense of psychoanalysis. In behavior
change, they held the promise of reducing the recidivism of paroled prisoners.
Rocks are aware. Inorganic matter is involved in energy changes, structural excitements,
evolvings, pressured sculptings. Inorganic matter—rocks, cliffs, valleys, mountains are
alive and wise.
Some researchers would hold that all phenomena occurring in altered states of
consciousness should be labeled “psychotic.” (I would hold that any researchers who
believe that should be labeled “psychotic.”)
Suddenly, the familiar view of our surroundings is transformed in a strange, delightful
way: it appears to us in a new light, takes on a special meaning. Such an experience can
be as light and fleeting as a breath of air, or it can imprint itself deeply upon our minds.
The best model for understanding the changes in behavior that occur after psychedelic
drug use is the changes in one’s views of self and world after a voyage to a strange
country.
The brain replaced the genitals as the forbidden organ that must not be touched or turned
on by the owner. The only way in which consciousness-change experiences could be
discussed was in terms of philosophic-religious.
The conventional duality of subject and object, knower and known, feeler and feeling, is
changed into a polarity. The knower and the known become poles, terms or phases of a
single event which happens, not to me or from me, but of itself.
The “emptiness” of the universe signifies the fact that the outlines, forms and boundaries
to which we attach all terms are in constant change and in this sense, its reality cannot be
fixed or limited. It is called empty because it cannot be grasped.
The experiencer and the experience become a single, ever-changing, self-forming
process, complete and fulfilled at every moment of its unfolding and of infinite
complexity and subtlety.
The experiencer, when he opens his eyes, sees the outer world transfigured, sees it as
glowing with an intensity of light and significance and life, which is something he simply
does not see at all in his ordinary state.
The new emphasis was on recognition of spirituality and transcendental needs as intrinsic
aspects of human nature and on the right of every individual to choose or change his or
her “path”.
The psychedelic can alter the perception of energy, matter, and time in such a way as to
enable select random access of the spatial and temporal dimensions and make it possible
to inhabit the skins of a variety of forms and entities.
The richness of opportunities for deep dramatic shifts and transformations that is
characteristic of psychedelic states seems to make LSD a very special adjunct to
psychotherapy.
The society always owes a great debt to the people who defy authority and force change,
and I see Leary in the tradition of Thoreau and Whitman, and the entire American
transcendental impulse.
The subject’s own body and the bodies of the persons present in the session room show
grotesque changes; some anatomical parts can appear miniaturized, others magnified or
elongated. Similar bizarre distortions also involve the perception of inanimate objects.
The vision-producing drugs have a long history. As far back as knowledge of man exists,
there have been stories of herbs, roots, brews and potions to be eaten, drunk or smoked to
change in some way the state of consciousness.
The wide historical and geographical distribution of transformative rituals focusing on
death and rebirth and their psychological relevance for individuals, groups, and entire
cultures suggest that they must reflect important basic needs inherent in human nature.
There was talk of change and of a peaceful, world-wide revolution of all-powerful
understanding and love. The talk was of love, all the more exciting and beautiful because
it seemed honest.
These states of mind can be extremely beneficial, often leading to physical and emotional
healing, profound insights, creative activity and permanent personality changes for the
better.
This century, the scientific understanding of reality has undergone dramatic changes, but
traditional psychologists and psychiatrists have not yet accepted the inevitable
consequences for their disciplines.
Those individuals who have faced death and rebirth in their sessions show specific
changes in their perception of themselves and the world, in their hierarchies of values,
general behavior, and overall world-view.
Transformative experiences associated with positive emotions such as feelings of oneness
with humanity and nature, states of cosmic unity, encounters with blissful deities, and
union with God, have a special role in the healing and transformative process.
Unbiased systematic study of this material would lead to changes in our understanding of
the human psyche and of the nature of reality that would be as far-reaching and radical as
those that were introduced into physics by the theories of relativity and quantum theory.
Various objects in the surroundings can lose their usual forms; they seem to pulsate and
be in a state of strange instability and flux. During this process, they frequently appear
grossly disproportional, distorted and transformed.
We can perhaps see the whole course of a psychedelic experience as an effort of
consciousness to rid itself of false identifications and experience its own everchanging
identity.
We have been taught to narrow our awareness to a fantasy world of symbol solids. But
that’s not how it really is. All matter is energy—everything is whirling change, even you!
Look at your baby pictures. Look in the mirror. You are a dramatically changing process.
What a boon to society—converting violent criminals to law-abiding citizens! If we could
teach the most unregenerate how to wash their brains, then it would be a cinch to coach
non-criminals to change their lives for the better. (That was Timothy Leary.)
What I learned from Tim (Leary) had nothing to do with drugs but it had everything to do
with getting high. His die-hard fascination with the human brain was not about altering it,
but about using it to the fullest.
Anything which changes consciousness is a threat to the established order. This is one
issue on which the entire spectrum of political opinions, left and right, agree. Anything
which expands consciousness is out. (All politicians are right-wingers. Democrats are
liberal right-wingers. Republicans are fascists.)
Colors are bright and glowing, the outlines of objects are defined as they have never been
before, spacial relationships are drastically altered, several or all of the senses are
enormously heightened—“all at once” the world has shed its old, everyday facade and
stands revealed as a wonderland.
Consciousness after the ingestion of LSD manifests a characteristic qualitative
transformation of a dreamlike nature. It can transcend its usual limits and encourage
phenomena from the deep unconscious not accessible under normal circumstances. This
is frequently referred to as expansion of consciousness.
Every human being is born with an innate drive to experience altered states of
consciousness periodically, in particular to learn how to get away from ordinary ego-
centered consciousness. This drive is a most important factor in our evolution, both as
individuals and as a species.
Every time you take LSD you completely suspend, you step outside of the symbolic
chessboard which you have built up over the long years of social conditioning and you
whirl through different levels of neurological and cellular energy, continually flowing
and changing.
He who controls the mind-changing chemicals controls consciousness. He who controls
the chemical can twist your mind, can alter your personality, can change you and your
concept of the world. (No one has the right to control your consciousness and experiences
by threatening you with jail. Your life belongs to you.)
How can we Westerners see that our own potentials are much greater than the social-hive
games in which we are so blindly trapped? Once the game structure of behavior is seen,
change in behavior can occur with dramatic spontaneity. The visionary, brain-change,
consciousness-altering experience is the key to behavior change.
Human beings are born with a drive to experiment with ways of changing consciousness.
The idea that it is normal to seek changes in consciousness has never been discredited.
(No matter how strong the attempt, ignorance cannot discredit wisdom and lies cannot
discredit truth.)
I never suspected that the ancient spiritual systems had actually charted, with amazing
accuracy, different levels and types of experiences that occur in non-ordinary states of
consciousness. I was astonished by their emotional power, authenticity, and potential for
transforming people’s views of their lives.
I would not be allowed the freedom to discuss the reasons why these laws should be
changed. This is a clear violation of the American Constitution, academic freedom,
scientific openness and of all the principles upon which democratic societies are based.
(That was Timothy Leary.)
If properly handled, a psychedelic crisis has great positive potential and can result in a
profound personality transformation. Conversely, an insensitive and ignorant approach
can cause psychological damage and lead to chronic psychotic states and years of
psychiatric hospitalization.
If we perceive this has some sort of deep significance and we do something about it, then
it may be very, very important in changing our lives, changing our mode of
consciousness, perceiving that there are other ways of looking at the world than the
ordinary utilitarian manner and it may also result in significant changes of behavior.
It is important to realize that the subjective experience of time is radically changed in
nonordinary states of consciousness. Within seconds of clock time, one can experience a
rich and complex sequence of events that lasts subjectively a very long time, or even
seems to involve eternity.
LSD subjects sophisticated in mathematics and physics have occasionally reported that
many of the concepts of these disciplines that transcend rational consciousness can
become more easily comprehensible and be actually experienced in altered states of
consciousness.
Psychedelics induce alterations of perception which make the nervous system aware of
itself. (It’s not that the nervous system becomes aware of itself. It’s always aware of
itself. The alterations of perception allow the person to become consciously aware of
what’s going on with the nervous system.)
Religious experience is the most profound and powerful aspect of the human personality
and is the aspect most capable of bringing out the compassionate and creative qualities of
the human spirit. Furthermore, it is the most effective agent of wholesome profound
personality change.
Spiritual literature and traditions of the world over validate the healing and
transformative power of such extraordinary states for those who undergo them. Why,
then, are people who have such experiences in today’s world almost invariably dismissed
as mentally ill?
The emotional effects are even more profound than the perceptual ones. The drug taker
becomes unusually sensitive to faces, gestures, and small changes in the environment. As
everything in the field of consciousness assumes unusual importance, feelings become
magnified.
The observations of the last few decades have drastically changed our understanding of
the relationship between conscious-ness and matter and of the dimensions of the psyche.
They show consciousness as an equal partner of matter, or possibly even superordinated
to matter, and creative intelligence as inextricably woven into the fabric of the universe.
The perception of the environment can be changed in a way that bears a striking
resemblance to the pictures of famous Cubist painters. The fantasy process is usually
considerably enhanced and contributes an important creative element to these perceptual
changes.
The value, apart from their intrinsic value, so to say the ethical, sociological and spiritual
value of the visionary experience, is that if it is well used, it can result in a significant and
important change in the mode of consciousness and perhaps also in a change in behavior
for the good.
Under appropriate conditions the psychedelics could considerably speed and facilitate the
process of working through psychological blocks. Material inaccessible in an ordinary
state could be brought into awareness, sometimes producing dramatic transformations
including death/rebirth experiences and alleviation of symptoms.
We are going to have to develop, as chemistry has developed, a language that will pay
respect to the fact that our experience, our behavior, our social forms are flowing all the
time and if your language isn’t equipped to change and flow with them, then you are in
trouble, you’re hooked. You’re drugged by the educational system.
We hoped that fellow scientists and administrators, recognizing the power of drugs to
change behavior, would support our work. The opposite reaction developed. The more
successful our research, the more grumbling from the bureaucracies of science. (That
was Timothy Leary referring to his days at Harvard.)
We often encounter the impressive but little understood phenomenon of timeless,
universal symbols and themes emerging into consciousness in a particular dramatic form
adapted to the requirements of the psychedelic drug subject who becomes the drama’s
protagonist and thereby is transformed. (eyes closed)
We were on our own. Western psychological literature had almost no guides, no maps, no
texts that even recognized the existence of altered states. We had no rituals, traditions or
comforting routines to fall back on. We avoided the sick-man atmosphere of the hospital.
(That was Timothy Leary.)
Within the new world-view, the very creative principle of the universe is experientially
available to the individual and, in a certain sense, is commensurate and identical with him
or her. This is a drastic change of perspective and it has far-reaching consequences for
every aspect of life.
Words like hallucination and psychosis were loaded; they implied negative states of
mind. The psychiatric jargon reflected a pathological orientation, whereas a truly
objective science would not impose value judgments on chemicals that produced unusual
or altered states of consciousness.
Your body carries a protein record of everything that’s happened to you since the
moment you were conceived as a one-celled organism. It’s a living history of every form
of energy transformation on this planet back to that thunderbolt in the Precambrian mud
that spawned the life process over 2 billion years ago. (It’s the DNA code.)
A new and exciting area was discovered for psychedelic psychotherapy: the care of
patients with terminal cancer and some other incurable diseases. Studies of dying
individuals indicated that this approach was able to bring not only alleviation of the
emotional suffering and relief from severe physical pain associated with cancer, but also
dramatically transform the concept of death and change the attitude toward dying.
Altered states of consciousness enrich man’s experiences in many areas of life. The
intense aesthetic experience gained while absorbed in some majestic scene, a work of art,
or music may broaden man’s subjective experiences and serve as a source of creative
inspiration. There are also numerous instances of sudden illumination, creative insights,
and problem solving occurring while man has lapsed into altered states of consciousness.
Although scientific interest in psychedelic substances is relatively recent, their ritual use
can be traced back to the dawn of human history. From time immemorial, plants
containing powerful mind-altering substances have been used for the diagnosing and
healing of diseases, enhancement of paranormal abilities, and for magical or ritual
purposes.
Both Freud and Skinner explained creative processes in terms of their deviance from
“normality” rather than as positive, healthy processes to be encouraged and developed. It
is not surprising that most American psychiatrists and psychologists are baffled by the
reports of LSD activity, puzzled by the subjective reports of LSD users, and skeptical
about the value of LSD in man’s efforts to understand, describe and change his behavior.
Certain physical stimuli from the environment can change the session in a very dramatic
way. This may be observed in connection with certain accidental sounds; thus barking of
a dog, sound of a jet, explosion of fireworks, factory or ambulance sirens or a particular
tune may have a specific biographical meaning that can elicit quite unexpected responses
from the subject.
Changes in point of view cannot happen overnight, for they require acceptance of painful
truths: that children daydreaming in class, for example, might be using their minds much
more profitably than children paying attention; that psychotic patients may be in a better
position to understand and experience reality than the psychiatric authorities who dose
them with tranquilizers.
Everything may seem bathed in a theatrical or lunar light or illuminated from within.
Objects change their shape and size; walls and floors undulate as if breathing; spatial
perspective is distorted into exaggerated depth or flatness; stationary objects look as if
they are in motion without seeming displaced in space; faces become younger, older or
caricatured in various ways.
Exploration of the potential of these substances for the study of schizophrenia, for
didactic purposes, for a deeper understanding of art and religion, for personality
diagnostics and the therapy of emotional disorders and for altering the experience of
dying has been my major professional interest throughout these years and has consumed
much of the time I have spent in psychiatric research. (That was Stanislav Grof.)
If mystical experiences are integrated into the personality, they are highly therapeutic.
Single-state scholars and theoreticians are hard-pressed to explain this therapeutic value.
Denial is easier. But if an enlarged map of reality includes altered states of consciousness,
then experiencing such states logically leads to a fuller view of reality, and therapists tell
us that a fuller view of reality is therapeutic.
In most preindustrial societies and ancient civilizations, there have existed powerful
rituals designed to transform and consecrate individuals, groups, or even entire cultures.
These transformative events, termed rites of passage by anthropologists, are of
fundamental importance to the discussion of the experience of symbolic death and
rebirth.
It can dissolve or temporarily suspend the effectiveness of those psychical mechanisms
whose functions would appear to be to inhibit emergence of certain processes and
contents of the mind. Once these inhibitions are dissolved, the ground has been prepared
for the free psyche to function in such a way as to result in the beneficial transformation
and self-realization of the individual.
It has been shown that LSD experiences of death and rebirth and mystical states of
consciousness can change patients’ concepts of death and life and alleviate their fears of
dying. Psychedelic therapy has proved to be more than an important tool in the control of
mental and physical pain, it has contributed greatly to our understanding of the
experience of death.
LSD is a unique and powerful tool for the exploration of the human mind and human
nature. Psychedelic experiences mediate access to deep realms of the psyche that have
not yet been discovered and acknowledged by mainstream psychology and psychiatry.
They also reveal new possibilities and mechanisms of therapeutic change and personality
transformation.
Most of our colleagues in the psychology department couldn’t take the brain-change
work seriously. They couldn’t admit that our new subject matter even existed. Altered
states of consciousness simply didn’t exist as a category in the psychology of that time.
It was the familiar tunnel vision that has always narrowed the academic mind. (That was
Timothy Leary at Harvard.)
Nonordinary experiences are vital to us because they are expressions of our unconscious
minds, and the integration of conscious and unconscious experience is the key to life,
health, spiritual development, and fullest use of our nervous systems. By instilling fear
and guilt about altered states of consciousness into our children, we force this drive
underground, guaranteeing that it will be expressed in antisocial ways.
One frequently sees geometric patterns of multi-colored abstract lines that are visionary
in nature. Although such patterns are often more clearly visible when one’s eyes are
closed, they may be seen superimposed upon objects in the external world when one’s
eyes are open. These abstract patterns are generally three-dimensional and constantly
change in a steady, rhythmic flow, resembling the view through a kaleidoscope.
The discovery of brain-change drugs has been compared to the discovery of the
microscope. New forms swim into perception. It’s a truism that you cannot impose the
ethics and language of the past upon the subject matter revealed by a new extension of
the senses. Galileo was arrested for describing what he saw in his telescope. The
inquisition would not bother to look through the lens.
The ecstatic experience of a mystical nature is the most captivating, moving and
awesome experience known to man. It is also the most thoroughly transforming and the
most enlightening of all human experience. More than any one single facet of religion, it
constitutes the psychological foundation on which the whole enterprise known as
“religion” is built. It is the ultimate source from which the strength of religion flows.
The global popularity of chemical mind-changers is due to their producing ecstasy,
perception change, fresh sensation. Ecstasy means to break out of the verbal prisons,
suspend your imprints, see things anew, perceive directly. With freshened perception
goes the feeling of liberation, insight, the exultant sense of having escaped the lifeless net
of symbols.
The new data are of such far-reaching relevance that they could revolutionize our
understanding of the human psyche. Some of the observations transcend in their
significance the framework of psychology and psychiatry and represent a serious
challenge to the current Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm of Western science. They could
change drastically our image of human nature, of culture and history, and of reality.
The opportunity to vividly experience specific memories from different periods of one’s
life makes it possible to see their interrelations and discover chains of unconscious
neurotic patterns underlying specific emotional problems. This can be an important
transforming experience that results in profound changes in the personality structure,
emotional dynamics, and behavior of the individual.
The subject may experience slight or drastic changes in the size, configuration, substance,
weight and other attributes contributing to definition of the body. He may seem to
himself to assume the form of some animal or even some inanimate object and he may be
reduced to a sub-atomic particle or expanded to the proportion of a galaxy. He may
experience his body’s dissolution and the sense of having no body at all.
These abstract, three-dimensional forms are intensely illuminated and brilliantly colored.
After a time, they tend to take on the appearance of concrete objects, such as richly
patterned carpets or mosaics or carvings. These in turn modulate into rich and elaborate
buildings, set in landscapes of extraordinary beauty. Neither the buildings nor the
landscapes remain static, but change continuously. (eyes closed)
We use all sorts of drugs to ease our minds but none to reveal our minds. We seem to
want change, but not understanding. Most of us have never heard of psychedelic drugs,
and those who have would never think of using one themselves. Although man has used
drugs in religious rites to discover his relationship with God since the dawn of history,
the Judeo-Christian mind cannot accept such practices.
When we set out to study consciousness and such elusive altered states as ecstasy, there is
the observer’s “subject matter” and there is the subject’s “reality” and usually these have
no relation. The psychiatrist may see psychosis, while the subject may be experiencing
hedonic ecstasy. The outside observer has an entirely different view. (The psychiatrist
must be experienced with LSD or it’s a joke.)
Harvard dismissed Timothy Leary without a hearing even though his contracts had
several more months to run. There had been no effective protest by the Harvard faculty
against this gross abuse of the principles of academic freedom. Previously I had put
professors on a kind of pedestal, but my views were now gradually changing. I realized
that the average university professor, like most human beings, is both sheep-minded and
chicken-hearted.
If the human potential that Jesus demonstrated is understood to be within us, if the
capacity to grow to godlike stature is directly experienced by all Christendom as the key
to the Kingdom, then Christianity will fulfill its purpose by encouraging people to evolve,
to transform themselves, to rise to a higher state. (That means the LSD state of cosmic
consciousness. Do phony idiots such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson understand
that?)
If the potential exists for the upheaval of a person’s “change of life flow,” then it is
unprofessional, if not criminal, to fail to advise him of this potential outcome. And if you,
yourself, as the investigator, are uncertain of the potential ramifications of such an
experiment, then you are remiss in exposing others to that which you are not personally
familiar. One must personally know the experience to understand properly another’s
experience.
Leary the scientist, Alpert the intellectual and later the mystic, Metzner the scholar: what
held these three together was their shared faith in the power of the transcendent
experience to remove the blinders that keep us at odds with each other. A world where all
humans have access to the mystical experience would be a world transformed, they
believed. Everyone would then directly see what Jesus, Buddha, Moses and Mohammed
preached.
The Harvard Psychedelic Project was surrounded by a charged field of excitement,
glamour, adventure, enthusiasm, mystery, hyperbole, passion, controversy. Those who
were running the show were charismatic, distinguished, articulate and colorful. Whilst the
majority of the Harvard faculty was content to observe the world, our message was
revolutionary: if things are not right, then let’s change them. (That was Michael
Hollingshead.)
A minor change in the environment often creates an entirely new mood.
All is energy; all energy flows, all things continually transform.
All matter is energy in temporary states of change and there’s no structure.
Altered awareness of the body may involve the whole body or a part or parts of the body.
Altered states of consciousness can heighten aesthetic sensitivity.
Altered states of consciousness have a clear potential for positive psychic development.
Any true change would have to be based on a different concentration from that of reason.
Change your lenses and look at life in a new way.
Consciousness is chemical in nature and changes as chemistry changes.
Consciousness is not obliterated but deeply changed and drastically refocused.
Consciousness is usually qualitatively changed and has a dreamlike character.
Conversion or startling change in behavior patterns can occur.
Drugs change the quality of consciousness profoundly.
Drugs dramatically alter the manner in which reality is experienced.
Human evolution seems to be characterized by alterations of consciousness.
Ideas and words are more or less fixed, whereas real things change.
Improvement in therapy involves a basic change in the patient’s core belief system.
In order to change behavior, it is necessary to change your inner experience.
It does change you inside yourself.
It has changed the direction of an individual life completely.
LSD can produce enormous changes in our sensory and emotional systems.
LSD is the source for the energy that is to transform human consciousness.
Man can change and become divine in this lifetime.
Mood changes abruptly, often in response to awareness of some perceptual stimulus.
Once “normal” modes of awareness are suspended, consciousness changes occur.
One’s chemistry changes one’s perception.
Our view of nature is largely a matter of changing intellectual and literary fashions.
Perceptual changes can occur in any sensory area.
Psychedelic drug use can change the direction of people’s lives.
Psychedelic drugs changed my feelings about being alive.
Psychedelic drugs not only enhance sexuality but transforms it.
Spicing up the chemistry of the cortex will alter the entire nature of human experience.
The body is a whirlpool, constant only in appearance, but actually a stream of changes.
The chicken-in-the-egg transformation is one variety of the experience of rebirth.
The confrontation with divinity is going to change you.
The controllers censor anything that gives the power to change reality to the individual.
the dance of energy transformations—All is one dance of electrical energy.
The ego is the principle stumbling block to favorable changes in personality.
The essence of life is its fluidity, its ability to change, to flow and to take a new course.
The experience can be wonderful, insightful, enlightening and life-changing.
The external world doesn’t change, but your experience of it becomes drastically altered.
The glimpse of a larger reality that such experience affords may change a person’s life.
The knowledge acquired in altered states demands new kinds of scientific theory.
The most brilliantly colored patterns change incessantly.
The nervous system can be changed, expanded.
The possibilities for individual transformation and cultural change are enormous.
The psychedelic voyage changed the traveler.
The psychedelic voyage, like many adventures, changed the traveler.
The quality of individual consciousness can be changed.
The same old world is transfigured with the “glory of God”.
The scientific approach views changed behavior negatively.
The subject experiences the world as transfigured and unified.
The substance which produces the change of mind is regarded as divine.
The ultimate change is the “you” that you imagine and the real “you” merging into one.
The various perceptual changes are extraordinarily rich.
The vision changed my life.
The walls change color with the music.
The world was changing and we sat at the hub of the wheel.
The world wears a constantly changing expression on its face.
There are endless levels of energy transformations accessible to consciousness.
There is a central human experience which alters all other experiences.
There is an enormous ignorance about the science of consciousness alteration.
These new mind changers will tend in the long run to deepen the spiritual life.
These substances dramatically alter consciousness and expand awareness.
Time is drastically altered.
We can all change and love each other.
We must change our thinking to use the potentialities of our new instruments.
We were young and idealistic with energy and ready to change the world.
You can come out of a session with changed emotions.
You can learn how to alter your brain function to experience in novel ways.
I find this world to be beautiful and if I can retain the insights I am getting, there will be
some fundamental change in my whole being.
The whole quality of consciousness is changed and I feel myself in a new world in which,
however, it is obvious that I have always been living.
What is happening to Martin’s shirt? It begins to glow. The leaves and peacocks are
moving. Yes the design is changing. (the “flowing shirt”)
I see all these sensory dimensions as a round dance, gesticulations of one pattern being
transformed into gesticulations of another and these gesticulations are flowing through a
space that has still other dimensions, which I want to describe as tones of emotional color
or light or sound.
Great changes are taking place in this universe of myself.
He develops new and free energy from the unconscious to alter his life situation.
He realizes Einsteinian relativity, senses that all is flow and evolutionary change.
My companions have changed. They are supernaturally beautiful.
When the vase changes shape, I feel this in my body.
A godlike sublimity swallowed up my soul. I was overwhelmed but I leaned on God and
was immortal through all changes.
Around me poured streams of gems of every color, in ever changing patterns like the play
within a kaleidoscope.
Every acoustic perception became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound
generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent forms and color.
eyes closed—There surged upon me a succession of fantastic, rapidly changing imagery
of a striking reality and depth, alternating with a vivid kaleidoscopic play of colors.
He felt that his life had been “transfigured” by the “new being” which had emerged out of
the depths of his psyche.
He saw eternal cycles of life and death unfolding in front of his eyes. Nothing really got
destroyed; everything was in eternal flux and transformation.
I knew every tree, every bush; but it was transformed, transfigured into the perfection of
a world newly created.
I saw deep parallels between various mathematical concepts and altered states of
consciousness.
I suddenly understood the message of so many spiritual teachers that the only revolution
that can work is the inner transformation of every human being.
In a flash, the Door in the Wall would slide open and wherever you were, in a room,
lying on the grass, walking on the beach, would be magically transformed.
Outside at night, the world was transformed. The full moon shone so brightly it seemed
like a sun.
Pressure on the eyeball produced alterations of visual perception. (If your eyes are closed
and a light is put just in front of the closed eyes, that will influence visions.)
The light was changing color kaleidoscopically with a different pitch of musical sounds.
(Color changes as sounds change.)
The women changed toward ideal pictures or representatives of the sensuous temptress or
the madonna.
There HAVE been revolutions, I told myself. It really CAN happen. Changes HAVE
been made by the people.
We were changed forever, because we were experiencing these inspiring truths. And we
could laugh at ourselves as well, as we saw through our various ego-trips and guises.
A different quality of consciousness came with a rush. The room was suddenly
transfigured. All objects stood out in space in an amazing way and seemed luminous. I
was aware of the space between objects, which was pure vibrating crystal.
As I looked around the room, I saw great bands of moving streams of energy particles
traversing the space, passing through and between myself and the other people. We all
seemed to be part of these moving, everchanging bands of energy.
I felt totally new, as though I’d just been born. Having had so much ego burned away had
cleared and refreshed my spirit. It was a grace that profoundly changed my life by giving
me a reason to override my scientific skepticism and accept the reality of the spirit.
I had the most profound experience of my life. From this single experience, the whole
scope, depth and direction of my life have changed miraculously. Indeed a miracle has
happened to me.
I went someplace overwhelmingly different that night, and to a large extent, stayed there
for the rest of my life. My transformation didn’t go through phrases. I was simply
somebody different after that.
It was the classic visionary voyage and I came back a changed man. You are never the
same after you’ve had that one flash glimpse down the cellular time tunnel. You are
never the same after you’ve had the veil drawn.
Subjects responded by becoming deeply absorbed in the “new world” of altered
perceptions—often to the point of forgetting altogether their early concern with
psychological categories and labeling phenomena in terms of pathologies.
The city was transformed into the wonderful world I had experienced when hearing
fables as a child. The rich colors and textures, more real than real, were pure
enchantment. Walls of buildings had an added dimension to their surfaces.
The very heavens seemed to pour open and pour down rays of light and glory. Not for a
moment only, but all day and night, floods of light and glory seemed to pour through my
soul and oh, how I was changed and everything became new.
They had felt themselves to be in a rare state of accord and understanding. Much had
been conveyed, they added, by slight gestures and changes of facial expression that had
escaped the guide’s attention.
I cannot say exactly what the mysterious change was. I saw no new thing, but I saw all
the usual things in a miraculous new light, in what I believe is their true light. I saw for
the first time how wildly beautiful and joyous, beyond any words of mine to describe, is
the whole of life.
I was not I any more but a consciousness that encompassed a vastly broader spectrum of
reality than “I” had ever dreamed. I was changed, and the new vision so attracted me that
I stopped paying attention to the segment of reality that had formerly held my complete
attention, mainly, the physical plane.
The dimensions of the room were changing, now sliding into a fluttering diamond shape,
then straining into an oval shape as if someone were pumping air into the room,
expanding it to the bursting point. I was having trouble focusing on objects. They would
melt into fuzzy masses of nothing or sail off into space, self-propelled, slow motion trips
that were of acute interest to me.
The ordinary world was erased, it was expanded, enlivened and made infinitely more
interesting. For example, I became totally engrossed in contemplating the fascinating
edges of weaving around edges and radiating out from them. The telephone was a
veritable marvel of diamond studded, gem-encrusted, crystalline sculpture, yet itself also
moving, breathing, changing, as if it were alive.
What saved me from despair of my encounter with the Nothingness that lies at the heart
of All was the realization that what I had witnessed was the destruction of matter, not of
spirit. Modern physics tells us that matter is composed of atoms that stick together for a
time to form an object—a table, a wall, a human body. Matter is energy; I saw it re-
transformed.
With my eyes closed, colorful, ever-changing fantastic images invaded my mind
continuously. It was especially remarkable how all sounds—for instance the noise of a
passing car—were transported into visual sensations, so that with each tone and noise, a
corresponding colored image, changing in form and color like a kaleidoscope, was
produced.
He re-experienced his own embryological development, from the fusion of the sperm and
egg through millions of cell divisions and processes of differentiation to a whole
individual. This was accompanied by an enormous release of energy and radiant light.
The sequences of embryonal development were intermingled with phylogenetic
flashbacks showing the transformation of animal species during the historical evolution
of life. (eyes closed)
Emotions intensified, changed with lightning quickness.
Even ordinary space was extraordinarily transformed.
Everything was transfigured as though by a heavenly light and everything was beautiful.
Her face was transfigured by a kind of supernatural beauty, her body glowed with life.
I experienced the euphoric effects of LSD, a celestial transformation of reality.
I had a major revelation that changed my whole life perspective.
I was astonished by the emotional power, authenticity and transformative potential.
I was undergoing radical transformations.
Much had been conveyed by slight gestures and changes of facial expression.
My interest in altered states had been awakened.
Perceptions changed from moment to moment with intensive decidedness.
Reading, the words ran into one another and changed shapes.
She underwent a profound spiritual transformation.
They experienced a deep inward change in their spiritual awareness.
a colorful visionary adventure resulting in a profound spiritual opening and personality
transformation
a dream-like state marked by extreme alterations in consciousness of self, in the
understanding of reality, in the sphere of experience and marked changes in perception
a flowing series of richly detailed, colorful, constantly changing images and emotional
transformations
a historic movement that would inevitably change man at the very center of his nature,
his consciousness
a new orientation complete with insight and energy sufficient to effect a dramatic and
positive self-transformation
a Now that changed incessantly in a dimension, not of seconds and minutes, but of
beauty, of significance, of intensity, of deepening mystery
a potent universal drama from which the person emerges with a sense of having been
redeemed, transformed (eyes closed)
a radical conversion experience, a transformation of self based on a new state of
awareness, a new state of consciousness—higher consciousness
a religious experience culminating in a sense of total self-understanding, self-
transformation, religious enlightenment and possibly mystical union
a single overwhelming experience that produces a drastic and permanent change in the
way a person sees himself and the world
a stirring emotional encounter sufficient to change one’s established values and the
resolution to act upon the revelation
a transformation of the external world so that it seems overwhelmingly beautiful and
alive and shining
a vision of what may be called living geometries, geometrical forms brilliantly lighted,
continuously changing (eyes closed)
a vivid flooding of his mind with an intense sense of pastel colors of changing hues and
with a wavelike motion
alteration of the filtering mechanisms that regulate the access of perceptual and emotional
stimuli to consciousness
alterations of perception which enable us to see ourselves and the world in their basic
unity
alterations of sense perception, of emotional level and tone, of identity feeling, of the
interpretation of sense data and of the sensations of time and space
an altered state of consciousness in which the ordinary structures of experience are
broken down
an altered state of consciousness that focuses our awareness on something other than our
ego and intellect
an entirely new outlook on life, whereby everything becomes transformed and made of
the Glory of God
an unending series of colorful, very realistic and fantastic images, constantly changing in
shape and color like pictures in a kaleidoscope (eyes closed)
changes in consciousness, changes in our ways of feeling our own existence and our
relation to human society and the natural world
changes in perception of sunlight on the floor, the grain in wood, the texture of linen, the
sound of voices across the street
confront the awesome illumination of the metaphysical void and new energy
transformations
dramatic changes in human consciousness and our experience of the inner and outer
world
how to explain in scientific terms the mechanism that allows psychedelics to change
behavior
in the Garden of Eden, in an Other World which is yet essentially the same as this world,
but transfigured and therefore transporting
increased vividness of color, visual harmonies, change in depth perception, sharper
definition of detail, changes in time sense, especially listening to music
internal freedom, the politics of the nervous system, the right to change your
consciousness
landscapes which change constantly, passing from richness to more intensely colored
richness, from grandeur to deepening grandeur (eyes closed)
LSD a very powerful behavior-changing agent with immense potential for therapy if used
properly
LSD the power to transform a combative, violent, competitive race into gentle mystics
and philosophers
many mechanisms of therapeutic change that are entirely new and have not yet been
discovered and acknowledged by traditional psychiatry
may gain a new perspective on himself or gain an important insight into his defenses
which results in a change of behavior
Millbrook an attempt to bring people back from their trip in a position to sustain their
spiritual transformation
new and powerful mechanisms of healing and personality transformation that are now
available in traditional psychiatry and psychotherapy
observes the altered image in a mirror, has an altered feeling of his body’s contours, feels
his body is heavier or lighter, has greater or less density
profound aesthetic imagery—Objects in the room may suddenly become transformed into
works of considerable beauty and artistic value.
punitive laws, the lengthy imprisonment of citizens for no other crime than the altering of
their own consciousness
real worlds revealed when the mode of consciousness has been changed from the
utilitarian to the aesthetic or spiritual
surfaces swelling and expanding from bright modes of energy that vibrated with a
continuously changing, patterned life
that hallucinogens produced radical changes in consciousness that could have a profound
and beneficial effect
the complete transformation of consciousness which is “enlightenment”, “deliverance”,
“salvation”
the feeling that this present experience would remain with me and bring about deep
changes
the healing, transformative and evolutionary potential of nonordinary states of
consciousness
the increased significance and meaning attributed both to internal and external stimuli
during alterations in consciousness
the irrationality that pervades much psychiatric thinking about drugs and altered states of
consciousness
the liberated and transfigured consciousness which experiences the paradox of the
absoluteness of relationships, the infinity and universality of particulars
the need to discriminate between pathological states that have to be medically treated and
transformative states that have a positive potential and should be supported
the right to achieve euphoria, the right to get “high”, the right to experience new
sensations, the right to expand and change one’s consciousness
the root of religion, namely religious experience, the most captivating and transforming
experience known to man
the smug naivete of words in contrast to the raw rich ever-changing panoramas that
flooded my brain
the task of developing brain-change methods for eliminating human ignorance and
suffering
the transformation of character which is the necessary pre- requisite of a total, complete
and spiritually fruitful transformation of consciousness
to go beyond into regions where the terrain in unfamiliar, but where a much more
profound transformation and self-realization is possible
to utilize powerful experiences for healing, the healing and transformative potential of
powerful experience
transformation into animal forms, becoming inanimate objects or pure energy and
dissolution into the no-body state
experiences of a world transfigured into unimaginable loveliness, charged with intrinsic
significance and manifesting, in spite of pain and death, an essential and divine All-
Rightness
lacework patterns, geometrical forms, architecture, fountains, fireworks, landscapes,
persons, animals, historical and mythical scenes, all constantly moving and changing
(eyes closed)
sensory and emotional changes referred to as “distortions,” “regressions,” “loss of ego
structure,” “abnormal perception of body image”—this is the language of pathology (It is
absurd to refer only negatively to such sensory and emotional changes.)
the deliberately inculcated conservatism of the psychiatric-medical mind, brainwashed
through many years of arduous academic training to perceive any change in functioning
as pathological
the potentials of the drug experience for revealing new levels of consciousness and
bringing about changes in personality and behavior faster and more effectively than any
other method known to us
the psychological implications of the psychedelic experience, the accelerated personality
change, the rapid learning, the sudden life changes so regularly reported by psychedelic
researchers
Western culture’s preference for consensus reality, lack of a genuine understanding of
altered states of consciousness and strong tendency to pathologize all such states without
discrimination. (It is “consensus reality” based on ego that is really pathological.)
the Primordial Tradition: an age-old wisdom of humanity, neglected only where modern
science and secularism rule, its truths revealed to the interior eye in altered states of
consciousness and now, finally, in natural science itself as it reaches its limits and begins
to glimpse something beyond
a change in spatial perception
a change in the flow of life-purpose, this “change of life flow”
a complex change in consciousness
a deeper and changed perception
a dramatic emotional healing and a profound personality transformation
a dreamy state of altered consciousness
a face which glows and changes, telling more than a thousand lips
a galaxy of nuclear-powered atoms spinning through changing patterns
a great, endlessly changing design
a lack of cultural understanding of the importance of the transformational journey
a life-changing experience
a life-changing joyous discovery
a major transformative experience
a “musical” conception of the world in which order is dynamic and changing
a mysterious change into something rich and supreme
a potentially life-changing opportunity
a potentially life-changing process
a process of deep self-exploration and inner transformation
a profound and lasting personality change
a profound transformative experience of a transcendental nature
a radical spiritual transformation in the life of the individual
a rapid and extensive change in values
a sudden a revolutionary change
a transformation of consciousness that would sweep the world
a transforming energy
a transforming experience, one that profoundly and beneficially changes the person
a variety of perceptual changes in all sensory areas
accelerated personality change, rapid learning, sudden life changes
alchemists—the transformation of material consciousness into “spiritual God”
alterations in visual experience
altered body image
altered states of awareness
altering old thinking patterns and providing new perspective
an alteration in the value of the significance of colors
an awareness of energy transformations with no imposition of mental categories
an experience in which consciousness itself undergoes a remarkable change
an immediate change in behavior
an inner change which in turn “makes all things new”
an inner transformation of the individual and a social revolution
an intense stimulation of the imagination and an altered state of awareness of the world
an unusual potential for mediating transformative and mystical experiences
beauty in the eternal transformation of forms and colors
bring about major personality transformation
can be of immense value to us and of great importance in changing our lives
change in the structure of the sensory world
change into something rich and strange
changed hearts and reformed lives
changed ways of seeing, interpreting and reacting to people and events in the world
changing colors and patterns
changing the quality of consciousness
changing waves of color
changes in perception, changes in feelings, and changes in thought
changes in perception, mood, thought patterns
changes in the perception of visual form
changes in thought and feeling
changes in values and beliefs, personality and behavior
consciousness both the object and the instrument of change
constantly changed intensity and pattern
death the transformation and renewal of life, the shuffling of the pack for a new deal
depth altered from its normal dimensions
dramatic changes in the personality structure
dramatic emotional and perceptual changes
dramatically altering and expanding human awareness and potentialities
drug-induced, brain-change experiences
dynamic patterns continually changing into one another—a continuous dance of energy
emotional transformations
energy transformations
entered dimensions of consciousness that permanently altered their concept of reality
ever-changing landscapes of exaggerated beauty (eyes closed)
ever-changing views of majestic beauty (“views” meaning visions, not ideas or opinions)
experiencing insights that resulted in positive changes in their lives
facilitating a deep transformative experience of a transcendental nature
high velocity, high altitude, swift-changing realities
immense changes in perception
instant personality-change
intense and life-changing religious experiences
intense emotional changes and wide variations
intense transformative states of mind
jet-propelled trips into altered states
life-changing growth experiences
living, changing, self-luminous stone (or any object)
LSD a method of changing consciousness and brain function
LSD a way to transform the world
LSD the source of the energy that is to transform human intelligence and consciousness
made him a new man and radically changed his way of life
magical personality transformations
mosaics lighted from within glowing, moving, changing
music very helpful for mood change
nature that had been magically transfigured
new changes of magnificence
new conceptions of consciousness and its alteration
nonordinary awareness, altered awareness
overwhelmed with perceptual changes
people who are changing consciousness, who are pursuing the eternal quest
perpetually changing three-dimensional patterns
powerful perceptual and emotional changes
profound alterations of consciousness
profound consciousness-altering effects
profound healing and life-transforming experiences
profound states of altered awareness
provides new means for altering consciousness
psychic realities experienced during altered states of consciousness
psychological integration, illumination, self-transformation
radical alterations of visual perception
radical internal transformation
rich changes in visual perception
see visions within and a transformed world without
sensory changes dynamic and vivid
spiritual eroticism, ecstatic exuberance, mystic altered states
spiritual transformation
striking visual and emotional changes
that altered states of consciousness included the highest forms of human experience
that death is a change of scene˜
that our next evolutionary step would be “a change of consciousness”
that true insight would lead to true change
the arrogance of the power-holders who labeled altered states of consciousness as disease
the captivating and transforming perception
the “central experience that alters all others”
the change-over from self-consciousness to cosmic consciousness
the changes in sensation and awareness that LSD can call forth
the changing flux of experience
the climactic transforming confrontation (eyes closed)
the complexity of the mental alterations
the consciousness-altering effects on the depth of the psyche
the cultural value and philosophic implications of altered states
the deep intuitive consciousness that transforms the whole person
the drug’s mind-changing powers
the energy and power involved in changing your nervous system
the eternal flow of always-changing energy processes
the experience with its richness and transformative potency
the feelings evoked by the change in the subjective sensations due to the drug
the gift of illumination received through an altered state of consciousness
the healing wisdom of the transformative process
the life-changing therapeutic effects of the psilocybin experience
the mind-changing, mind-manifesting, or mind-revealing drugs
the miraculous transformation of an enclosed convent-garden into a fragment of heaven
the new concept of man which emerges from LSD transformations
the potent consciousness-altering qualities of LSD
the potential therapeutic value of these transformative experiences
the potentially transformative symbolic and analogic dramas (eyes closed)
the power of inner religious experience to mediate wholesome personality change
the power of LSD to change humanity for the better
the power of these drugs to change behavior
the power of these drugs to change beliefs and transform ways of life
the power to change and shape personality at a deep level
the process of psychological transformation and spiritual opening
the profound revolutionary transformation
the remarkable transformative potential of nonordinary states of consciousness
the sense of the world as a system of transformation˜
the therapeutic and transformative power of nonordinary states of consciousness
the transformation of consciousness
the transformation of the particular in the universal
the transformative potential of LSD
the transforming spirit of play
the unfamiliar altered consciousness induced by LSD
the “unitive” experience of the mystic, the transformed sense of the self
the value of a drug-induced, sudden transforming encounter
this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug
this new science of precise, disciplined brain-change
this remarkable transformation of consciousness
those deeper levels where the more rewarding and transformative experiences occur
thought, mood and perception changes
to change your nervous system biochemically
transformation in what people consider religion
transformation of consciousness and character
transformations in consciousness that effect thought, perception and feelings at once
truths revealed to the interior eye in altered states of consciousness
visual, intuitive and emotional transformations
wild hunger for meaning, passion for transformation
words—static, psychedelic experience—fluid and everchanging