ABSTRACT
Since the early 1990s a new paradigm has been gaining currency among psychedelics enthusiasts. Increasingly, the category psychedelics are being subsumed under the rubric entheogens - substances that purportedly facilitate experiences of divinity. During the late 1950s and 1960s the use of psychedelics contributed to significant changes in Western understandings of the mind and consciousness, changes that were to have important social and political consequences. Contemporary entheogen use represents a psycho-spiritual terra incognito, and the responses to these 'alien' realms provide fascinating insights into the workings of the religious and para-religious mind. Patterns of contrasting coloured tiles are commonly associated with psychedelic and entheogenic substances. Some of the entities encountered during entheogenic travels were interpreted by my informants as the personifications of entheogenic organisms and substances. Encounters with 'imaginary entities' have been grist for theoretical mills for some time, and a number of interesting hypotheses have been brought forward.
