werd. well, wouldnt that default back to psychedelic ?

I think psychedelic is when the part of you that needs reason is eclipsed by another 'part' that is without reason. I guess the importance that we place on these psychedelic moments is because the part that is without reason is a place of pure creation and life. This is because, much like the ultimate meaning of 'life', there is no answer that we could ever KNOW. 'Knowing' is an illusion. It's when one sees what is actual, rather than what is reasonable... I think that pretty much sums it up. :)

nice 1

Huxley describes it as the temporary lack of the central nervous system's flitering mechanism through which all info must pass before getting to the brain. Thus your brain becomes a gigantic super sponge indiscriminately soaking up all knowledge it comes into contact with.

but I think its swirley pretty thingys.

In the end, it always turns out to be something intangible and inexpressable within all conventional forms of communication. It's like trying to explain to a computer what love is.

Maybe the best way to convey what is psychedelic is to use a language that encompasses our tangible universe. Maybe a slightly suggestive expression of such concepts would suffice.
Maybe something like this;

doesn't the hexagonal structural nature of organic compounds make sense, in an unspoken way (but visually conceptualized) when perception is clear? in my past experiences, everything seems to have a sort of geometric 6-sided profile, in four dimensions.

Psychedelic is "mind altering". It could be drugs, but it could be music that makes you dance, puts you in a trance, creates euphoria, stimulates your imagination, takes you out of the mundane realm. I'm old enough to remember when "psychedelic" first came out!!

Oops. someone wanted exampes of psychedelic or mind-altering experiences that didn't involve drugs. They ask "have you ever had such an experience?" Yes. I had an experience like that this spring when the Brood X 17-year Cicadas hatched on the East coast of the US. They are a huge brood of millions of insects that dig out of the ground and climb into the trees for their mating season, once every 17 years. They aren't gross insects, but large beautiful ones, and they filled the trees with the most incredible haunting, eerie droning whistle which people have compared to a "UFO" sound. Being surrounded by this was like being on another planet. Another life-form had taken over our mundane world and transformed it completely. For a month I became addicted...I walked in this soundscape as if I were in a trance. It was a spiritual experience. I was always a Nature worshipper, but now I totally bonded with Nature like never before, and I've never been the same since. I got a mini-disc recorder and went out and recorded other insect songs, notably the summer crickets, and I'm planning to make a CD. Um, that was a bit off-topic, but maybe not, because my nature/insect sounds would work GREAT in an Ambient soundtrack!!

you must by fairly old; psychedelic was a term first proposed by Humphrey Osmond in 1956. (from the greek words psyche, meaning soul, and deloun meaning to show or reveal)