ENTHEOCENE noun [en-thee-uh-seen] / ɛnˈθi əˌsiːn /
Pharmakon › Phenomenology

Phenomenology

Effects as people report, practise and measure them, in one shared vocabulary that every plant profile in the archive grades.

The vocabulary groups its effects in domains, from what is seen to how the self and other beings are met. Each effect is attested plant by plant, from up to seven kinds of evidence, and graded under the archive’s evidence standard. An effect with its own entry gathers those attestations into one account: the reports, measurements, traditions and open interpretations across the archive.

26 effects8 domains2 entries210 attested profile rows23 plant profiles

01Reading the index

Each effect below carries its definition and, where one corresponds, its nearest factor on the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale (Studerus, Gamma and Vollenweider, 2010) and its type in Shanon’s structural typology of ayahuasca visions (Shanon, 2002). Beneath it are the plants whose profiles attest it. Each square shows the grade of that plant’s strongest attestation, and each name opens the profile row, where the sources are given. Plants whose profiles record the effect as not established are listed separately.

Grades apply to what is reported, measured and practised, never to what an experience is. A square marks the strength of the record, not a verdict on the experience.

EstablishedSupportedVariableContestedUnresolvedConjecturalAnecdotal
EthnographyIndigenous testimony and ethnographic fieldworkHistoryhistorical and archival sourcesExperiencepublished first-person accounts, phenomenological corpora and qualitative studies of themIconographyart and drawings, read as interpretationTrialcontrolled studies and psychometric scalesSurveysurveys and naturalistic field studiesPharmacologypharmacology and neuroscience

02Visual

03Other senses

04Body

05Self and unity

06Affect

07Cognition

08Relation to other beings

09States of consciousness

10Plants and effects

The same record read the other way: every profiled plant against every effect. A square is the plant’s strongest grade for the effect; a dash marks an effect its profile records as not established; an empty cell is an effect its profile does not yet attest, which is not the same as its absence.

AcaciaA. muscariaA. colubrinaA. peregrinaB. caapiB. suaveolensC. zacatechichiC. purpureaD. cabreranaE. pachanoiH. salicifoliaI. corymbosaL. williamsiiM. tenuifloraN. rusticaP. somniferumP. harmalaPsilocybeP. viridisS. divinorumT. ibogaT. cacaoV. theiodora
Visual
Geometric patterningsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Immersive realmssupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Cosmic and scalar visionsupportedsupportedsupported
Other senses
Intensified hearingsupportedsupportedanecdotalsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Sound–vision couplingsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportednot establishedsupportedsupported
Body
Nausea and purgingsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Tremor and motor slowingsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Raised blood pressuresupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportednot establishedsupportedsupportednot establishednot established
Altered bodily sensationsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Out-of-body flightsupportedsupportedsupported
Self and unity
Ego dissolutionsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Unitive experiencesupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Death and rebirthsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Affect
Heightened empathysupportedsupportedunresolved
Fear and dreadsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Bliss and euphoriasupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Cognition
Noesissupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Autobiographical recallsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Introspective reflectionsupportedsupported
Ineffabilitysupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Loss of ordinary awarenesssupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Time distortionsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportednot establishedsupportedsupported
Delirium without insightsupported
Relation to other beings
Autonomous entitiessupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported
Teaching by the plantsupportedsupportedsupported
States of consciousness
Dreamlike statessupportedsupportedunresolvedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupportedsupported

Sources

2 sources · Harvard (Cite Them Right) · status and kind are recorded per source, not assumed
How to read the labels on each source
Source type
What kind of work it is: journal article, book, legislation, patent application, database record and so on. A word after the dot (ethnography, protologue, primary source) keeps the genre the entry was first filed under. “Unclassified” means the citation does not say enough to tell.
Peer review
Recorded for each work separately, and only where it has been confirmed for that work. It is never inferred from a DOI, a publisher or a journal, since journals also publish editorials, letters and commentaries. Where it has not been confirmed, the entry records it as not established. It does not apply to legislation, court decisions, treaties, patents, datasets, database and collection records, historical texts, films, talks, press releases or web pages.
Check
What was checked when the entry was added. DOI checked: the DOI’s registry record (Crossref) matched the citation’s title, first author and year. Verified: the record itself was opened and matched the citation: a library catalogue record for a book, or the page itself for a database entry, law, patent or archive document. “Verified (abstract)” and “(summary)” mean only the abstract or a summary was read. Located: a record was found but not fully matched. Bibliographic record and Stable record (in essays): a catalogue or stable web record exists; what was checked against it is not recorded. Unverified: no check is recorded. No locator found: a search found no record. Secondary: read through another source.
What the labels do not say
None of them means the source supports a particular sentence. Where a sentence is graded, its evidence note names its sources and whether each supports it, disputes it or gives context. Dates and reviewers of checks are not recorded for each entry; the version note at the foot of a graded page dates its last review.
  1. Shanon, B. (2002) The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    DOI checkedBookPeer review not establishedOpen record ↗
  2. Studerus, E., Gamma, A. and Vollenweider, F.X. (2010) ‘Psychometric evaluation of the altered states of consciousness rating scale (OAV)’, PLoS ONE, 5(8), e12412.
    LocatedJournal articlePeer review not established