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PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY + 31 Try this mental exercise: Consider how you might look forward to your day as a "research subject" under the influence of a "psychotomimetic agent." Then reconsider: How would you feel about your role as a "cel- ebrant" in a "ceremony" involving an "entheogenic sacrament"? How would these different contexts affect your interpretation of the hallucina- tions and intense mood swings brought on by the drug? Would you be "going crazy" or having an "enlightenment experience"? If you were administering psychedelics, what types of behavior would you anticipate in your research subject, and what sorts would you ignore? Much would depend upon whether you were giving a "schizotoxin" or a "phantasticant." You might encourage an "out-of-body experience" in a "shamanic" context, but abort the same effects by giving an antipsychotic rn . an 10 antidote in a "psychotomimetic" one.'” Hallucinogen is the most common medical term for psychedelic drugs, and it emphasizes the perceptual, mostly visual effects of these drugs. However, while perceptual effects of psychedelics are usual, they are not the only effects, nor are they necessarily the most valued. The visions actually may be distractions from the more sought-after properties of the experience, such as intense euphoria, profound intellectual or spiritual insights, and the dissolving of the body's physical boundaries. I prefer the term psychedelic, or mind-manifesting, over hallucinogen. Psychedelics show you what's in and on your mind, those subconscious thoughts and feelings that are are hidden, covered up, forgotten, out of sight, maybe even completely unexpected, but nevertheless imminently present. Depending upon set and setting, the same drug, at the same dose, can cause vastly different responses in the same person. One day, very little happens; another day, you soar, full of ecstatic and insightful discoveries; the next, you struggle through a terrifying nightmare. The generic nature ofpsyche- delic, a term wide open to interpretation, suits these effects. Psychedelic has taken on its own cultural and linguistic life. It now can refer to a particular style of art, clothing, or even an especially in- tense set of circumstances. When it comes to rational discourse about drugs, psychedelic also stirs up powerful 1960s-based emotions and con- flicts over unrelated political and sociological issues. Many of us now