Editing Psychonautics (section)

==Etymology and categorization==
The term ''psychonautics'' derives from the prior term ''psychonaut'', which began appearing in North American works in the late 1950s. The first reference that corresponds to contemporary usages of the term was in the 1965 edition of the ''Group Psychotherapy'' journal. A 1968 magazine, ''Beyond Baroque'', refers to [[Timothy Leary]] as a psychonaut.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} 

[[Germany|German]] author [[Ernst Jünger]] describes ideas related to psychonautics - in reference to [[Arthur Heffter]] - in his 1970 essay on his own extensive drug experiences ''Annäherungen: Drogen und Rausch'' (literally: "Approaches: Drugs and Inebriation").<ref name="dictionary of hallucinations" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Jünger |title=Annaherungen: Drogen und Rausch |pages=430 |chapter=Psychonauten}} Cited in {{cite book |last=Taylor|title=The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature |page=1312 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kgUAQAAIAAJ&q=psychonaut+%22Annaherungen:+Drogen+und+Rausch%22 |access-date=2010-03-05 | year=2005 | publisher=Thoemmes Continuum|isbn=978-1-84371-138-4 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> In this essay, Jünger draws many parallels between drug experience and physical exploration—for example, the danger of encountering hidden "reefs."

[[Peter J. Carroll]] made ''Psychonaut'' the title of a 1982 book on the experimental use of [[meditation]], [[ritual]] and [[drugs]] in the experimental exploration of consciousness and of [[psychic phenomena]], or "[[chaos magic]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Carroll |first=Peter J. |title=''Liber Null''. (1978) and ''Psychonaut''. (1982) (published in one volume in 1987) |date=April 1987 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=978-0-87728-639-4}}</ref>

The term's first published use in a scholarly context is attributed to [[ethnobotany|ethnobotanist]] [[Jonathan Ott]], in 2001.<ref>{{cite journal |year=2001 |title=Pharmanopo-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual, Intrarectal, Pulmonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufotenine |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=273–282 |url=http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=103562030&ETOC=RN |access-date=2010-03-05 |doi=10.1080/02791072.2001.10400574 |last1=Ott |first1=Jonathan |pmid=11718320 |s2cid=5877023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302224138/http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=103562030&ETOC=RN |archive-date=2 March 2012 |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription }} Cited by {{cite book |last=Blom |first=Jan Dirk |title=A Dictionary of Hallucinations |page=434 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qbF44AEMGdcC&pg=PA434 |access-date=2010-03-05 |isbn=978-1-4419-1222-0 |year=2009 |publisher=Springer }}</ref>

===Definition and usage===
Clinical psychiatrist Jan Dirk Blom describes psychonautics as denoting "the exploration of the psyche by means of techniques such as [[lucid dreaming]], [[brainwave entrainment]], [[sensory deprivation]], and the use of [[Hallucinogen|hallucinogens]] or [[entheogen]]s, and a psychonaut as one who "seeks to investigate their mind using intentionally induced altered states of consciousness" for spiritual, scientific, or research purposes.<ref name="dictionary of hallucinations"/>

Psychologist Dr. Elliot Cohen of [[Leeds Beckett University]] and the UK Institute of Psychosomanautics defines psychonautics as "the means to study and explore consciousness (including the unconscious) and altered states of consciousness; it rests on the realization that to study consciousness is to transform it." He associates it with a long tradition of historical cultures worldwide.<ref name="Cohen">UK Institute of Psychonautics and Somanautics [http://www.transpersonalacademy.co.uk/psychonautics.htm page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101110073128/http://www.transpersonalacademy.co.uk/psychonautics.htm |date=10 November 2010 }} at his {{cite web |url=http://www.transpersonalacademy.co.uk |title=Academy for Transpersonal Studies |access-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923100000/http://www.transpersonalacademy.co.uk/ |archive-date=23 September 2010 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Leeds Beckett University offers a module in Psychonautics<ref>{{cite web |title=Course Specification - BA (Hons) Psychology and Society |url=https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/~/media/files/Courses/Information/SPSYC.pdf |website=Leeds Beckett University |publisher=[[Leeds Beckett University]] |access-date=11 September 2020 |date=2017–18 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314230052/https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/~/media/files/Courses/Information/SPSYC.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Elliot Cohen |url=https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/staff/dr-elliot-cohen/ |website=Staff Directory |publisher=[[Leeds Beckett University]] |access-date=11 September 2020}}</ref> and may be the only university in the UK to do so.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

American Buddhist writer [[Robert Thurman]] depicts the [[Tibetan Buddhist]] [[yogi|master]] as a psychonaut, stating that "Tibetan lamas could be called psychonauts, since they journey across the frontiers of death into the in-between realm."<ref name="flores"/>

===Categorization===
The aims and methods of psychonautics, when state-altering substances are involved, is commonly distinguished from [[recreational drug use]] by research sources.<ref name="dictionary of hallucinations"/> Psychonautics as a means of exploration need not involve drugs, and may take place in a spiritual context with an established history. Cohen considers psychonautics closer in its association to wisdom traditions and other transpersonal and integral movements.<ref name="Cohen"/>

However, there is considerable overlap with [[drug culture|modern drug use]] and due to its modern close association with [[psychedelics]] and other drugs, it is also studied in the context of [[drug abuse]] from a perspective of addiction,<ref name="addiction research"/> the drug abuse market and [[online]] psychology,<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1089/109493103322278790 |last1=Schifano |date = August 2003|first1=Fabrizio |last2=Leoni |first2=Mauro |last3=Martinotti |first3=Giovanni |last4=Rawaf |first4=Salman |last5=Rovetto |first5=Francesco |title=Importance of Cyberspace for the Assessment of the Drug Abuse Market: Preliminary Results from the Psychonaut 2002 Project |journal=CyberPsychology & Behavior |volume=6 |pages=405–410 | issue=4|pmid=14511453 }}</ref> and studies into existing and emerging drugs within [[toxicology]].<ref name="toxicology"/>