We all have that friend who went to Amsterdam, tripped on truffles, and experienced a profound psychedelic trip. But most descriptions in the psychedelic domain are more relative abstractions of the ‘quality’ of a trip than any genuinely scientific charting of hyperspace. In our first psychedelia article, we visited the cardinal rules of having a psychedelic experience. In this article, we examine the various levels that can be attained in this realm. Bear in mind that we will not delve into the issue of how much of a substance to ingest in order to reach any given level. Results in such forays are usually relative, and in any case the first cardinal rule of psychedelia should guide you well through such a query.
The idea of mapping the psychedelic experience across five levels emerges from Timothy Leary, who translated the Bardo states mentioned in the Tibetan Book of Dead into the five levels we know today. Since then other psychonauts have added to it, and some have suggested slightly different interpretations. The basic gradations however remain the same, as well as the well-identified characteristics of each level.
Level 1 – I’m Feeling Goood
We begin the psychedelic experience at the lowest tangibly differentiable state. For most people, the best way to know whether you’re on level 1 or not is to listen to music. Under level 1 we begin to perceive a marked difference in the quality of music. To some, it even conveys direct meaning or imagery simply through vibration. Other symptoms include a general uplifting of mood and sociability.
Anyone who’s been even remotely stoned knows what level 1 feels like, though the level 1 of cannabis is still significantly different than the level 1 of psilocybin or MDMA. Even the onset and recognition of this level is a different experience for every substance.
Level 2 – And So It Begins
It doesn’t take too many experiences for one to figure out that level 2 is where the party really begins. For me, this is so because it is at level 2 where our mind wonders for the first time, even if for fleeting moments, whether it can handle what it knows is coming next. This tickling sense of slight trepidation characterises the gradation from level 1 to level 2. For substances that are relatively short-lasting and usually do not take us much higher, such as MDMA, level 2 can feel more like an intense rush of the nervous system.
For the core psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin, level 2 is marked by the onset of exterior breathing—walls begin to weave in and out, lights dim and brighten and dim again, and motion currents form in curtain or wood patterns. And so level 2 is a highly exciting phase. It gives us a sense of the world we are about to be flung into, but all the control and clarity of mind still appears to be present.
Each level also by definition contains characteristics of previous levels, and so reaching level 2 can create situations where we find creases on our bed to be moving in beat with the music we’re listening to, which itself is sending dizzying phases of light behind our eyelids! Those who enjoy psychedelics for the creative states they encourage usually prefer to stay at level 2, and thus weigh their dose accordingly. Thoughts seem to flow rapidly, which in turn catalyses thinking in new and unexplored directions. Yet you are still well-oriented to the world around you, and can thus engage in art, writing or other creative pursuits. As a writer, in my own experience, trying to write once I’m beyond this level usually produces only gibberish. Usually.
Level 3 – The Universe within your Head
When the multi-dimensional, meaning-loaded, infinite-hued and fractal universe behind your eyelids becomes so overwhelming that it sucks you into your own head, you know that you’ve arrived at level 3. For me, you haven’t really had a psychedelic experience unless you’ve reached this level. The time and perception warping characteristics of level 3 are necessary for one to truly understand why everyone who’s ever had a psychedelic experience recommends it so sincerely to others.
At level 3, the visuals, fractal and kaleidoscopes oft mirrored in movies and animated media are playing at full screen inside your head. The sheer vibrancy and colourful geometry of these sights is so overwhelming that one can get lost in the flow, swept by the dazzling brilliance of what one beholds. This makes it easy for us to lose our sense of time, and the repeating onset and withdrawal of these sights constitute the disorienting, seemingly time-dilated journey through the world of psychedelic hyperspace that is called a ‘trip.’ Level 3 is also where some people show the first true signs of fear. What one can see at this level is enough to shake the senses and question the mind. How we react to it depends of course on our set and setting. But for seasoned psychonauts, the gradually upwards flowing curve of level 3 is the stuff barely contained anticipation is made of.
The primary characteristics of level 3 are not merely visual, for it is also marked by flights of profound and racy thought. Commonly reported sentiments are moral epiphanies, feelings of sonder, ellipsism, onism and occhiolism. (Yep, search each of them up on Google, and then know that you can truly understand them only on level 3 of psychedelia!)
Level 4 – Alien Beings have Infected Us, ‘bout Time we Infected Them!
In my opinion, level 4 is the psychedelic reward. It is the delicious fruit that is yielded when our labour through the previous levels is done. Level 4 is where all our assumptions are laid out bare in front us and whipped flat, ground into a fine paste-like membrane. Level 4 is where we are turned inside out, ripped of all our vanity and fake skin, and hurled into the heart of the universe. Finally, level 4 is where the difference between hallucination and reality ceases to matter—for we realise that meaning is meaning, regardless of where it is manifested.
Other common characteristic of level 4 is the encounter with intelligent entities, seemingly older and more powerful than us. One gets the sense that they are quite at home in the psychedelic world, and are familiar with our own clumsiness as a species when it comes to navigating hyperspace. Some people also report out-of-body experiences, but I place that quality in level 5.
It should be clear by now that level 4 is pretty intense and certainly no laughing matter. No amount of reading up on this level can really help you understand what perceiving it could be like. For many people, the only way to adapt to what is realised/understood in level 4 is to perceive the existence of god or a protector entity. This is why so many come out of the psychedelic experience having felt something profoundly religious. My own opinion is somewhat different. I can certainly attest to the existence of intelligent minds, but my engagement with them reveals that there are fundamental questions about life, the universe and everything to which even they seek an answer.
A certain peculiarity about level 4 emerges when sitting with a friend or a group of friends (all of whom are on level 4 like you). I’ve experienced the phenomenon first-hand, and have talked to others who conform it. Testimonials of it can even be found online—telepathy. Not telepathy in the way that science fiction would have us imagine, but a vaguer, less tangible conveyance of thought or intent without the use of words. I’ve been in situations where, after riding hard and long on a vital query, I’ve reached the point of giving up and my friend blurts out—What’s the point, you’ll never figure it all out anyway! Those who’ve experienced this phenomenon will know what I mean, but unfortunately those who haven’t will find that I fail to describe it well enough.
Level 5 – Load Brain into Cannon, Aim at the Universe, Fire!
Timothy Leary described level 5 as the ‘epicentre of the psychedelic experience,’ and it is mighty difficult to describe anything psychedelic better than him! Terence McKenna viewed level 5 as the centre of one’s ‘mandala network,’ though with McKenna it is easy to slip into woo-woo and pseudoscience. These are some of the qualities that differentiate level 5 from all previous states:
The conviction that one has been flipped into an alternate dimension. This alternate dimension may be as different from your own as possible, or it may have everything the same except that your right eye looks much smaller than your left one!
Cosmic and celestial visions played out at the grandest scales—the creation and destruction of universes, the rise and fall of intelligent civilisations, or the story of a line of cells from birth to the death of a larger organism. Experiencing life with such god-like vision is the closest we can get to perceiving omnipresence or extra-temporality.
Out-of-body experiences. The first time out-of-body can be a life-changing event for some people, especially if it hits them unexpected. It can trigger a strong burst of longing for one’s family and loved ones, as well as other things that best form our identity. What the out-of-body drives home most strongly is the existence of mind as something separate to matter. This realisation, that mind can also be present outside of body, soon blends into another, equally profound realisation:
Out-of-mind experiences. It is one thing to find yourself conscious and yet outside of your body. But it is another thing altogether to be conscious not as yourself but as something else. At level 5, we can find ourselves perceiving as an alien consciousness—alien because it is very obviously not our own, as whatever constituted our sense of self has long vanished. There are many interpretations of this phenomenon. To some, this is direct evidence of the concepts of atman and brahman—we are all but drops of consciousness that must one day reunite with the infinite and everlasting ocean. To others, this sort of complete dissolution of the self proves that some objective truths must exist about the universe, independent of the mind. While I’m sceptical of the former and lean towards the latter, to me level 5 of the psychedelic experience is the great unexplored frontier of humanity. I once came across a meme that lamented-
“Our generation is the unluckiest—we were born too late to explore the ocean, and too early to explore the universe.”
The facts of this quote may well be true, but when I read it all I noticed was that it ignores the most important universe of them all—the psychedelic universe. Every psychedelic experience I’ve had has reaffirmed that this universe is every bit as worth exploring as the others, even if it does exist between our ears (more on that in the next article). The trick is only to apply the same methods of excited, curious and scientific inquiry to psychedelia that we’ve applied to physics, chemistry and biology for centuries.
Now that we’ve described the five levels, what next? How does one incorporate this knowledge into one’s psychedelic regimen? The point to these levels is not to chase the highest one or see it as a kind of conquest. The point is to establish milestones along the psychedelic landscape that give some hints to the character of the territory they’re placed in. Wayfarers hitting upon a milestone can assure themselves in the knowledge that others have passed by before them, or simply that they are not lost in the first place! The milestones tell them the climate of their territory, and warn against possible rainstorms or typhoons to be expected. Lastly, these milestones represent the spirit of psychonautic explorers, who are trying to map a terrain that has little to no scientific help due to the severe international laws that prohibit research into psychedelic substances and make it arguably imprudent to talk or write of them in public.