Psychonautics and New Spirituality Culture: The Art and Science of Psychedelic Mythmaking

Psychonautics involves the exploration of inner space via psychedelics. It is also a quasi-religious form of spirituality based in Eastern philosophy, Christian theology and modern psychedelic lore. This paper examines the mythmaking practices of individuals immersed in this subdivision of New Age spirituality culture. Drawing upon informants’ experiences using psychedelics to cultivate mystical states of awareness, and via a literary analysis of their beliefs within the context of mythological texts, we attempt a phenomenological interpretation of this niche religiosity. Through comparing ancient creation myths such as the Garden of Eden with popular stories involving ancient aliens, extraterrestrials, reptilians and machine elves, we hope to reveal features of an otherwise opaque, idiosyncratic and often misunderstood cultural perspective. Themes explored include notions of good and evil, disenchantment and re-enchantment, consciousness expansion, exploring alternate realities, reincarnation and identity transformation. The data was gathered over a two-year period at events in a New Age type spiritual community known as “Peaceburgh” located in western Pennsylvania, and during festival events at a Neopagan community known as Wisteria located near Athens Ohio.