Psilocybin’s main synergistic effect seems ultimately to be in the domain of language. It excites vocalization; it empowers articulation; it transmutes language into something that is visibly beheld. It could have had an impact on the sudden emergence of consciousness and language use in early humans.

It is language that enables us to not merely experience reality, but to participate in its creation.

If hallucinogens function as interspecies chemical messengers, then the dynamic of the close relationship between primate and hallucinogenic plant is one of information transfer from one species to the other.

‘Language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world, but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence … Reality is not simply ‘experienced’ or ‘reflected’ in language, but instead is actually produced by language.’

Culture is a uniquely human trait, and it arises from, and depends on, language. This is the critical connection to the psychedelic state. Human language originates from inner ideation (which can be understood as another term for imagination). It is image-ination, the making of images, the interior representation of something thought or perceived,