50 Psychedelic Quotes For Inner Discovery

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published December 7, 2022

Take a trip through these awesome psychedelic quotes.

It is estimated that well over 30 million people in the United States have tried psychedelic drugs at least once.

About 20 percent of the population identifies as lifelong users.

Tell us which of these psychedelic quotes most resonated with you in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these psychedelic quotes?

Psychedelics are drugs like:

LSD
Magic Mushrooms
Mescaline
Peyote

New studies suggest that people who use psychedelic drugs have shown improved mood and increased social connection, even after the drugs have worn off.

Scientists continue to study how these drugs can impact how we combat mental illness in others.

Many people know people at concerts or parties who use psychedelic drugs recreationally.

Yet, doctors prescribe these same drugs to impact patients positively.

Patients have been given psychedelic drugs to combat anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

Mental illness continues to be a health area of concern.

Perhaps new advances in psychedelic therapy can help relieve those with mental illness.

Psychedelic quotes about the experience

1. “Psychedelic means mind-expanding.” — Ian Brown

2. “Psychedelics prove to you that there’s more than one way of seeing the world.” — Jesse Lawler

3. “Psychedelics open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” — Terence McKenna

4. “There are people who can start having very powerful experiences without taking psychedelics.” — Stanislav Grof

5. “It’s mind-altering when you slip into someone else’s shoes. That’s psychedelic, man.” — Bryan Cranston

6. “All great music is in one way or another psychedelic.” — Genesis P-Orridge

7. “I’m into heavy duty, psychedelic, foreign music. That’s what I like listening to.” — Action Bronson

8. “Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third-story window.” — Terence McKenna

9. “Many of us who have experienced psychedelics feel very much that they are sacred tools. They open spiritual awareness.” — Stanislav Grof

10. “Classic rock, psychedelic rock – I like to dig up old music and see what I can get influenced by.” — Diplo

Psychedelic quotes from different perspectives

11. “In history, psychedelic plants were used by priests and shamans with a desire to discover the interior.” — Alejandro Jodorowsky

12. “I have the craziest dreams when I’m digesting a massive amount. It feels so real, it’s psychedelic.” — Joey Chestnut

13. “It’s time to move on to the next step in the psychedelic revolution. We’ve reached a certain point, but we’re not moving any more.” — Ken Kesey

14. “Through all of history mankind has ingested psychedelic substances. Those substances exist to put you in touch with spirits beyond yourself, with the creator, with the creative impulse of the planet.” — Ray Manzarek

15. “Drugs shouldn’t be used for recreation although they can be, but ultimately the point of psychedelics is to put you in touch with the powers of the universe.” — Ray Manzarek

16. “I think I’m constantly surprised that adults can’t deal with illogical things or thing that are weird or psychedelic. I’ve never really lost that.” — Noel Fielding

17. “I’d been focused on trying to start civil disobedience since 2010. I’d tried many things, and they hadn’t worked. So I went on a retreat and prayed, with some psychedelic medicines.” — Gail Bradbrook

18. “If god dropped acid, would he see people?” — Steven Wright

19. “LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.” — Steve Jobs

20. “Patients reported that their psychedelic sessions were an invaluable experiential training for dying.” — Stanislav Grof

Psychedelic quotes to expand your mind

21. “Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful.” — Unknown

22. “With psychedelics, if you’re fortunate and break through, you understand what is truly of value in life.” — Gary Fisher

23. “If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones.” — Alan Watts

24. “As long as I had easy access to psychedelics at the government-sponsored research project, most of my energy went into psychedelic sessions.” — Stanislav Grof

25. “The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.” — Terence McKenna

26. “I used to wear this cowboy outfit. I wouldn’t take off. It was ridiculous. My mum was like, ‘You’ve got to take that off sometime,’ and I was like, ‘No way, this is it.’ It was the ’70s – it was turquoise and yellow, really psychedelic colors. I wanted to be a psychedelic cowboy.” — Noel Fielding

27. “People get a real kick out of hearing our songs with an orchestra. It makes you feel like you’re in a movie with unexpected bursts of energy. It’s really kind of psychedelic in a way.” — Cindy Wilson

28. “When I first started out, I was making really slow, psychedelic ambient music because it was all I could do.” — Grimes

29. “I have the craziest dreams when I’m digesting a massive amount. It feels so real. It’s psychedelic.” — Joey Chestnut

30. “Evolution of mankind is paralleled by the increase and expansion of consciousness.” — Albert Hofmann

Psychedelic quotes that make you think

31. “It became much more complicated politically to work with psychedelics because of the unsupervised experimentation with psychedelics, particularly among young people.” — Stanislav Grof

32. “Ever since Willie Nelson brought rednecks into an alliance with hippies back in the psychedelic ’70s, Austin has milked its quirky libertarian spirit for a worldwide bonanza of free publicity.” — Douglas Brinkley

33. “We were all proto-hippies, and we all thought that comics would be greatly improved if everything was a bit psychedelic like Jim Steranko.” — Alan Moore

34. “I really feel that I’ve been unjustly exorcised from the story of psychedelic music.” — Genesis P-Orridge

35. “Whilst I’m all for psychedelic science – I think it’s fantastic – I don’t think we necessarily have time to wait for the science to tell us these medicines are useful. The indigenous cultures have already shown us the ways.” — Gail Bradbrook

36. “But having these more psychedelic experiences of being really, really sad made me realize how brittle reality can be.” — Robyn

37. “I’ve always felt that all the music I’ve made is psychedelic.” — Genesis P-Orridge

38. “In teaching color, you teach people how to look something and see the tone in it and break it down to be able to paint it and reproduce that color. But then, I’m psychedelic, so I look at color differently. I like colors that are in contrast with one another, so that they flicker back and forth.” — John Van Hamersveld

39. “When I think about the real pioneers of the psychedelic movement in a musical sense, not just the culture, everything had a handmade sort of vibe to it. We’re inventing our culture as we move along into this.” — Chris Robinson

40. “When you read the psychedelic literature, there is a distinction between the so-called natural psychedelics and synthetic psychedelics that are artificially produced.” — Stanislav Grof

Psychedelic quotes that make you trip

41. “I do not view myself as a psychedelic person but as a yogi. Although most link the Beatles with bringing awareness of yoga to the public, it was myself who actually brought yoga into the mainstream in the United States.” — Peter Max

42. “That’s why I always recommend a psychedelic experience because it makes you realize that all you’ve learned is in fact just learned and not necessarily the truth.” — Unknown

43. “Psychedelics are powerful tools and, like any tool, they can be used skillfully, ineptly, or destructively. The result will be critically dependent on the set and setting.” — Stanislav Grof

44. “I see the psychedelic experience as a birthright, and we can’t have a free society until people are free to explore their own mind.” — Terence McKenna

45. “What if, through responsible exploration with psychedelics, we free our minds? Free-thinkers are more difficult to manipulate and control, which begs the question: Why are psychedelics illegal?” — Zoe Helene

46. “Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing.” — Terence McKenna

47. “Psychedelics show you what’s in and on your mind, those subconscious thoughts and feelings that are hidden, covered up, forgotten, out of sight, maybe even completely unexpected, but nevertheless imminently present.” — Rick Strassman

48. “That’s why I always recommend a psychedelic experience because it makes you realize that all you’ve learned is in fact just learned and not necessarily the truth.” — Bill Hicks

49. “Entheogens (or psychedelics, to be more historically correct) have now been recognized as the mother of our Western ecology and conservation movements, as well as the entire field of transpersonal psychology and our apparent desire to return to some firsthand spiritual and/or mystical understanding of god—rather than blindly accepting traditional religious dogma without an experiential basis.” — James Oroc

50. “Life lived in the absence of the psychedelic experience that primordial shamanism is based on is life trivialized, life denied, life enslaved to the ego.” — Terrence Mckenna

What are your thoughts on psychedelic drugs?

It is important to remember how vital our intentions are.

Our intentions matter immensely.

On its own, a hammer is a neutral prop.

It is a tool to be used by people.

A hammer can be of excellent service to us, especially if we attempt to put a nail in a wall.

We can also use a hammer as a weapon to hurt someone or something.

The intention is everything.

Psychedelic drugs are similar in a way.

Many of these drugs are mood amplifiers.

They increase the intensity of emotions we have inside of us.

Similar to the idea of the hammer, LSD, Peyote, Mescaline, or Mushrooms can help people heal from trauma or be used as a tool to generate more trauma.