Hi folks,

I'd like to share a concept of psychedelic experience that I developed as an attempt to make sense of my own trips (over 80 of them, mostly with psilocybin), because I didn't have access to integration services and got tired of not understanding what the hell was going on in spite of everything I've read and watched and experienced. Even my favorite Stan Grof's holotropic model was unsatisfactory: while it describes things on experiential level and provides valuable practical insights, it fails to explain how exactly transpersonal experiences become possible, how are they related to brain activity, and why one experiences a particular thing at a given moment.

Now, I'm not saying I've cracked the whole psychedelic riddle, but I managed to develop a concept that turned out to be very useful to me personally. At least, it shows that we can find a rational, 'technical' explanation to the most confusing psychedelic phenomena, and that we need to keep looking for such explanation rather than give up and decide that such phenomena cannot be explained rationally and studied by the mainstream science at all.

I'm not calling this concept a theory, since I lack the education and discipline required to develop anything truly scientific. It is a mere sketch destined to have huge gaps and inaccuracies. For instance, it implies that all psychedelics act the same, while in reality each substance has its own unique spirit. Still, I believe this concept has value, as it allows to approach mystical experiences rationally, uncover a single basic principle behind a wide spectrum of possible psychedelic experiences, and even produce a couple of interesting hypotheses. Hence I feel obligated to present it in hope that someone smarter than me will give it a look and maybe adopt a few points.

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Part 1. Synpsychea.

So. Let's start with an assumption that psychedelic state (hereinafter referred to as 'trip' without an 'a' ) is a state of consciousness among dreaming and wakefulness rather than a set of particular effects. We'll assume it is a single state that can have very diverse content. Therefore, the first step should be to compare trip with other states and see if it shares some traits with them and if it has any completely new traits.

Here is my best (but still rather amateur) attempt at such functional analysis.
Common traits between trip and wakefulness:

• perception of the outer world;
• control over the physical body;
• ability to memorize the events;
• (some degree of) lucidity.

Common traits between trip and dreaming:

• pseudohallucinations (which don't always happen, but they are possible in both states);
• suppressed short-term memory;
• bitty thinking and speech;
• distorted sense of time;
• suppressed critical thinking;
• increased suggestibility;
• powerful emotions;
• weakened control over attention.

Now, to the unique traits:

• Abstract sensations, the most well-known feature of psychedelic experience, which include fractal and geometric visions, weird noises and such;
• A range of frequent topics, which include death, insanity, magical and mystical experiences etc;
• Synesthesia;
• Indescribable and incomprehendable experiences beyond regular human vocabulary;
• Overwhelming intensity of the experiences;
• High density of various insights and breakthroughs;
• Mind loops;
• Tracers and echoes;
• Psychedelic sessions tend to have a certain composition that cannot be explained just through pharmacodynamics. Abstract sensations are more common in the beginning. Then they are (not always, but often) replaced with specific and meaningful visions which get more and more indescribable and intense towards the peak. Comedown and afterglow usually bring feelings of harmony, peacefulness and rejuvenation.
  

Having separated these unique traits (and hoping we didn't miss anything significant), the question is: can we somehow bring them to a common denominator? Yes (and I'll elaborate on this below), it seems that one of the major phenomena we actually observe here is loss of boundaries between various mental functions alongside with their content: just like synesthesia involves loss of boundaries between different sensory modalities, the same happens with many (if not all) mental functions during a trip. Let's call this hypothetical process 'synpsychea'.

Synpsychea between mental functions and associations caused by this process could explain a wide range of common psychedelic phenomena. For example:

• Synpsychea between memory and perception could cause a feeling that a perceived event is not perceived but remembered, a phenomenon known as deja vu. Also, the opposite: some memory may be treated as perceived, resulting in reliving past events
• Synpsychea between memory and the hallucinatory aspects of perception in trip might be related to such phenomena as genetic and karmic memories.
• Synpsychea between speech and other functions might correspond to one interpreting various events and objects as meaningful signs and messages or observe words and thoughts manifesting in vivid scenes.
• Synpsychea between thoughts and other functions might be related to visions of guides and advisors expressing opinions about important questions and problems;
• Synpsychea between motor functions and other functions might be related to mental activity manifesting at body level in the form of movements and tensions and even allow massage or certain physical exercises to have powerful influence on one's mental state.
• The same logic explains the significance of music, scents, and the overall setting of the session.
• Synpsychea between self-image and other functions might be related to various identity shifts, such as identification with perceived or imagined objects, organisms, natural forces and whatever.
• Synpsychea between executive function might be related to experiences involving magical powers (i.e. attributing external independent events to one's will). Also, the opposite: internal events might be treated as involuntary or initiated by someone else (here go possession, channeling, telepathy and mind control).
• Synpsychea between working memory and perception could be related to tracers and echoes - the information being stored in working memory also manifests in perceprion;
• And, of course, synesthesia would be a particular case of synpsychea in this context.

At large, each mental function corresponds to a certain aspect of our existence and perception of the world. Thus, synpsychea between various mental functions must be related to dissolution of the corresponding boundaries and limitations in our experiential reality. This explains why motives of stepping beyond the known, possible, and permitted are so common for trip. Some experiences seem to express associations caused by this very loss of boundaries: visions of deities, jests, miracles, wars and disasters, orgies, contacts with aliens, travels to other worlds. Additionally, associations to ego boundaries dissolution and survival anxiety triggered by this dissolution could be related to some more complex experiences involving one's own safety, control, and self image: various body transformations, visions of foreign objects and creatures penetrating the body, out-of-body journeys, death and rebirth, tortures, illnesses, humiliations, and insanity.
It's hard to tell how exactly a particular experience is 'chosen' from this range to be experienced, but snpsychea explains how the whole range becomes available.

Most likely, synpsychea is not an instant leap but a gradual and continuous process. Once it begins and mental functions gain access to each other's content, they should be unable to process this new information correctly and therefore interpret it as random noise at first. This explains why most psychedelic sessions start with abstract sensations, illusions and distortions, sudden impulses, and uncomfortable feelings of confusion and sensory overload.

After the adjustment period, mental functions should be able to adapt and learn to process the new information. This might be where abstract sensations turn into specific images and events. Furthermore, having lost boundaries between themselves and being forced to communicate and cooperate, mental functions might eventually start to fuse into one synchronous activity. The differences between thoughts, emotions, perceptions, will, speech, memory etc would simply vanish.
This explains why psychedelic experiences are so often not only hard to describe, but it's even impossible to say whether a particular experience was a vision, or a sound, or a feeling, or a memory, or an action, or a self-transformation, or a thought etc.
Also, the gradual nature of such fusion would explain why psychedelic experiences naturally tend to become more and more transpersonal and generalized towards the peak and from one session to another.
Full and complete synpsychea between all mental functions must be experienced as something like the whole image of reality losing its complex structure and transforming into undifferentiated existence that holds time, space, matter, and consciousness in itself. This seems to be the final target destination of every psychedelic journey, no matter if it's actually achieved. Let's refer to it as 'psycho-singularity'.
Since synpsychea might force mental functions to communicate and synchronize their activity, trip so often ending with feelings of wholeness and harmony (even if psycho-singularity wasn't achieved) is not surprising at all.

Synpsychea between different mental functions could also involve joining their resources (the computing powers of the underlying brain cortex areas), which would allow solving certain tasks more efficiently and open a possibility for dramatic breakthroughs and insights, be they psychotherapeutic, philosophical, artistic, or even, as James Fadiman has shown us, innovative and scientific. On the experiential plane, such fusion must result in complex experiences that explore relevant questions or problems. We're speaking of previously separate mental processes beginning to participate in each other's tasks. For example, reasoning might gain perceptual, motor, memorial etc dimensions - the whole experiential reality would appear to be juggling and transforming all its contents in search for a solution or answer.

Synpsychea and joining mental resources could also explain the great intensity of psychedelic experiences and why each experience tends to fill the entire consciousness and dye the whole image of internal and external reality in accordance to the experience's mood and theme.

So far we've covered most of the unique traits of trip listed above (exceptions are mind loops and tracers). As to the traits it shares with wakefulness and dreaming, the very presence of these traits points to the dissolution of boundaries between different states of consciousness.

So, synpsychea could indeed be one of the few primary psychological effects of psychedelic substances and the common (and, surprisingly enough, invariable and neutral) denominator for a wide spectrum of psychedelic experiences. This may look like an oversimplification, but the same molecule must, after all, produce the same primary effects, whereas all the variable and optional effects must be secondary or unrelated phenomena. Even if this concept is a miss, a common denominator must exist, and I cannot think of another candidate that would explain the situation better. It doesn't contradict anything I already know about psychedelics (though my knowledge is limited) and it is compatible with any worldview since it doesn't assess the value or validity of mystical experiences and merely explains how they are reflected on the functional level, just as we would study, say, thought process disregarding if a given thought is correct or wrong.

Also, this approach can be considered an extension of Stan Grof's theory of holotropic states. While holotropic model suggests gradual loss of boundaries and limitations on experiential level, synpsychea concept basically extends the same principle to functional level. Thus, it could serve as a bridge between transpersonal psychology and mainstream psychology. Again, it is not a theory yet, but if this sketch turns out to be valid, this would mean transpersonal psychology is actually compatible with mainstream science and doesn't require any paradigm shifts to be taken seriously. Which would be a huge bingo and a step forward in the development of a psychedelic 'theory of everything'.

Certainly, suggesting such complex and novel mechanism as synpsychea begs the question: why would our minds be capable of this process in the first place? Assuming psychedelic substances trigger synpsychea, why are they able to do that at all? Well, answering that would require a reference to neuropsychology which I'm not very familiar with. I can only suggest that, since this process is similar to synesthesia, they might also have similar underlying mechanisms. In my very dilettante understanding, synpsychea might represent a regression to early childhood when the brain cortex was less functionally differentiated. However, looking for hypothetical causes of a hypothetical phenomenon seems a little premature, it's probably best to put this question on hold until it's clear whether synpsychea concept is valid or not.

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Part 2. Three gunas model.

Synpsychea partially explains how the whole spectrum of psychedelic experiences becomes available, but doesn't explain how and why a particular experience is 'chosen' to be experienced. However, this choice should depend not on the direct action of the psychedelic substance, but on some parallel or secondary mind activity. It's currently impossible to fully understand how exactly psychedelic experiences are formed (understanding that would mean that we can reliably predict what a given person will experience in a given session). But we can at least develop a model that distinguishes between direct psychedelic effects and all other phenomena, allowing us to study the remaining unknowns.

So, I'm suggesting a very simple hypothetical model named 'Three gunas model'. It also allows to analyze psychedelic experiences. I tried this approach on several of my own most complex experiences and managed to reach feelings of clarity and closure rather easily.

According to the functional analysis, each trip can be split into three basic aspects or components:

• dream component, which produces spontaneous hallucinatory experiences;
• wakefulness component, which allows some degree of lucidity and conscious control over one's actions and reactions, and also contains the 'set and setting' formula;
• gravity towards psycho-singularity, gradual dissolution of all subjective boundaries.

For the sake of brevity, I named these aspects Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva respectively.

Now, we could try to analyze any psychedelic experience using the following algorithm:

• Determine which subjective boundaries were removed by Sattva, making the experience in question possible.
• Determine which content was spontaneously produced by Tamas.
• Determine what reactions and intentional actions were performed by Rajas.
• Analyze Rajas and Tamas separately, using the preferred approaches to dream and behavior analysis. Sattva is pharmacologically induced and therefore its effects should be simply accepted in their isness and not dissected analytically. Note: I'm not suggesting to ignore Sattva - transcendence is one of the juiciest features of trip. Just that it should be accepted and integrated as is without much overthinking.
  

The possibility to put Sattva out of brackets and analyze Rajas and Tamas separately using completely different approaches is the main perk of the 'Three gunas' model. It's easier to analyze distinct aspects than the whole thing at once. Also, the possibility to use any existing dream and behavior analysis approaches is quite convenient (that is, in case such approach is valid), because psychedelic psychology is not very mature yet. While the model shows that we shouldn't burden ourselves trying to find psychological explanations to certain puzzling aspects of trip (Sattva), at the same time, it emphasizes one's power and responsibility over trip and their own mind (Rajas), describing trip as an active dialogue with oneself rather than a chaotic and unpredictable sequence of experiences and effects.

As an example, one of the most frightening and confusing recurring experiences in my own trips was a classic case of demonic possession. Here is the analysis, which reflects my own personal beliefs.



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Part 3. Hypotheses.

I promised to draw a couple of hypotheses from this concept. Unfortunately, I don't possess the resources to test them, all I can do is offer them as is.

1. Since trip has much in common with dreaming, various dream herbs like Kalea Zakarechichi might affect it in a similar manner as they affect dreams. Also, substances that tend to disturb sleep and dreaming (like caffeine and nicotine) might dull trip as well. Also, since melatonin reduces sleep latency, melatonin might help shorten the uncomfortable effects in the beginning of a session.

2. Since trip has much in common with dreaming, some gaps in psychedelic science caused by legal restrictions could be filled by borrowing ideas and solutions from oneirology, especially lucid dreaming studies.

3. Since abstract sensations and general discomfort might represent the mind's adjustment to the new state which takes time, microdosing psychedelics several hours before macrodosing might be a way to prepare the mind for the experience, smooth out the transition, and even skip the least meaningful initial stages. I managed to try pre-microdosing only once (with LSD), and that trip was totally free from abstract sensations and any discomfort during the transition, immediately bringing me to a state of profound prayer - it was as if that trip BEGAN with the afterglow. Of course, a single case proves nothing but that this area is worth exploring.

4. Since Tamas and Rajas could represent secondary mind activity rather than the direct action of the psychedelic, it might be best to treat both of them as forms of resistance overlaying and opposing the pure transcendence that psychedelic substances 'actually' induce. (Yes, I'm saying that visions could, in fact, be a form of resistance as much as intentional control.) In such a case, meditation (as a way to exclude both diving into dream-like visions and acting intentionally) during a trip seems to be the best approach to take the most out of the session and allow it to unfold into the inexpressible mystical revelation. Okay, this is a rather old idea, I guess Albert Hoffman was the first to suggest it. Three gunas model only gives it a firm ground.

5. Since trip can be split into three components, each having its influence on the whole process, each of them might be the source of a given experience. Thus, psychedelic experiences could be distributed into three corresponding categories and we can draw three basic forms of trip. Experiences initiated by Rajas would be clear and controllable, but lack spontaneity and much new input. Experiences initiated by Tamas would be vivid and thrilling, but not very interactive and coherent. Experiences initiated by Sattva would be meditative and transcendent, free from complex plots or intentional activities. If such classification is valid, this would help with psychedelic analysis and integration even more, because we would know which aspect requires more attention in a given case.

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That's pretty much it. If anyone has read this far, you have my profound gratitude. I hope you found a couple of points useful or at least had a good laugh. The concept is still in development, so, feedback or questions will be much appreciated. I'd be even more happy to find out that I'm late and all the ideas presented here were already considered and tested by real scientists.

Cheers.

*DISCARDED parts* (some statements found to be resulting from my ignorance)

I've updated the original post, because I got some new input and realized certain parts of the concept were incorrect.

The post edited (as it's a rather complex topic and I'm still learning to express my thoughts properly)