• Psychedelic Drugs Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting RulesBluelight Rules
    PD's Best Threads Index
    Social ThreadSupport Bluelight
    Psychedelic Beginner's FAQ
  • PD Moderators: Esperighanto | JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

psychedelics vs hallucinogens

JasonSmith

JasonSmith

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
302
Location
760 / north country san diego
I've been somewhat confused on each of their definitions. If I was talking about LSD being a psychedelic, I'd be referring to the "mind-fuck" from it, change of perception on reality, sense of reality, etc.? And If I was talking about LSD being a hallucinogen, I would be referring to the hallucinations, seeing shapes and thing distorted? I'm aware LSD is both a psychedelic and a hallucinogen, but I'm just trying to clarify the difference. Thanks
 
Psychedelic is a more accurate term to describe these drugs, but usually you'll hear the term hallucinogen used by anti-drug organizations. "Mind-Manifesting" doesn't sound as scary as "you gon' see shit!".
 
they are more or less one in the same. i think hallucinogen was what the class of drugs used to be called but now it has changed to psychedelic as that is a more descriptive term.
 
Something can be psychedelic without causing visual or auditory hallucinations.

Its all a relative scribble wobble dribble drobble.
 
Hallucinogen is a guy named Simon Posford ;) heh j/k

Psychedelic is more definitive.
 
The psychedelic 'effects' include hallucinations in the definition. So maybe in describing a trip one could say that the hallucinatory effects of the psychedelic were quite overwhelming, or the hallucinatory effects of the psychedelic weren't quite as powerful as I expected but it sure was a mind fuck. Both falling under the umbrella of 'psychedelic'.
 
I think the drugs we consider psychedelic nowadays started off as being called "Consciousness expanding" drugs, then pyschomimetic (or psychotomimetic?) then hallucinogenic. Kind of shows the history of how they were perceived. First as great consciousness expanders then mimic-ers of psychosis then hallucination producing blah blah blah. Feel free to correct me anyone but psychedelic kind of encompasses the whole she-bang in my, somewhat uninformed, opinion.

But yeah, psychedelic encompasses hallucinogenic but not necessarily the other way around.
 
Psychedelic is the word I use for the serotonergics, 5-HT agonists.

Hallucinogen is a wider cathegory. Including perhaps dissociatives, deliriants and some other substances.

IMO
 
JasonSmith said:
I've been somewhat confused on each of their definitions. If I was talking about LSD being a psychedelic, I'd be referring to the "mind-fuck" from it, change of perception on reality, sense of reality, etc.? And If I was talking about LSD being a hallucinogen, I would be referring to the hallucinations, seeing shapes and thing distorted? I'm aware LSD is both a psychedelic and a hallucinogen, but I'm just trying to clarify the difference. Thanks
Click to expand...

This is just my opinion, but psychedelics are 5-ht2a agonists only(barring few exceptions).

The only class of drugs that produce true "hallucinations" IMO are deliriants.(ie anticholinergics and the like)
 
"Hallucination" is on oft-misused term which means to perceive something that does not exist. So seeing the walls breathe and believing it to be an effect of drugs is a visual effect. Seeing them breathe and believing them to be doing so would be illusion, to perceive a real object as being other than it really is. And a true hallucination would be to see a non-existent wall breathing and believe it to be real. This is a very rare effect of psychedelics, and as delta 9 says is more commonly associated with deliriants. Having said that, many dissociative users experience true hallucinations.
 
Thanks guys :) That's exactly what I was looking for. Great responses.

And a true hallucination would be to see a non-existent wall breathing and believe it to be real.
Click to expand...
So something that's not even there, ie a purple elephant? And as for the illusion (the first example), that's like seeing stuff change, but it's still really there.
 
So something that's not even there, ie a purple elephant? And as for the illusion (the first example), that's like seeing stuff change, but it's still really there.
Click to expand...
Exactly. When you see a stick bend as it goes into water, that's an illusion. When you see a stick that isn't there you're hallucinating.
 
JasonSmith said:
Thanks guys :) That's exactly what I was looking for. Great responses.

So something that's not even there, ie a purple elephant? And as for the illusion (the first example), that's like seeing stuff change, but it's still really there.
Click to expand...

A "hallucination" is defined as perception without any stimuli at all. So seeing a purple elephant out of think air(lol) would most likely be a true "hallucination"

When you take psychedelics and get visuals, you are only seeing distortions or perversions of the visual stimuli you're already receiving. (IE these are the "illusions" you mentioned)
CEVs are another story, although the eyelids are slightly transparent so even if you have your eyes closed but the light is on you are still getting small amounts of visual stimuli.
 
Mjäll said:
Psychedelic is the word I use for the serotonergics, 5-HT agonists.

Hallucinogen is a wider cathegory. Including perhaps dissociatives, deliriants and some other substances.

IMO
Click to expand...

Spot on IMO as hallucinogens also includes anticholinergics (eg atropine & scopolamine), dissociatives (eg ket & PCP), cannabinoids and kappa opiate agonists (eg salvinorin A) as well as some other weird & wonderful stuff. I tend to keep psychedelic to refer to the 5HT agonists, although just to add to the confusion, some of the other hallucinogens above have a psychedelic (ie mind manefesting) effect
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top