Psychedelics

The psychedelic (mind manifesting) drugs are classified as those whose primary action is that of enhancing or amplifying the thought processes of the brain. One prominent psychological explanation of psychedelics' effects is the "reducing valve" hypothesis, derived from Aldous Huxley's reflections on his experiments with mescaline. In this view, the drugs disable the brain's experiential "filters," which block or suppress unimportant or undesired signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain, including but not limited to the senses, emotions, memories and the unconscious (or subconscious) mind. This effect has been described as mind expanding, or consciousness expanding as the conscious mind becomes aware of (or sometimes assaulted by) things normally inaccessible to it. At high levels this can become overwhelming, and can result in a dissociative state whereby one is so occupied by their racing thoughts that they lose touch with the outside world during the peak of the experience.

Classic psychedelics include LSD (acid), psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms), mescaline (peyote), LSA (morning glory seeds) and also Ayahuasca (yage). Some of the synthetic "club drugs" such as MDMA ('pure' ecstasy), 2C-B (nexus), DOM (STP) and 5-MeO-DIPT (Foxy Methoxy) which have much more specific action to particular aspects of the psyche are also classed as psychedelics, as well as cannabis (marijuana).

Some psychedelics (namely LSD, psilocybin and cannabis) are extremely non-toxic, making it difficult to overdose unless these compounds are combined with other drugs.