I am writing this article to serve as a dedicated analysis, breakdown and description regarding that of a particularly complex and previously undocumented cognitive component of the psychedelic experience which can be referred to under the title of a “state of direct communication with the subconscious”. In terms of its consistent interlocking subjective effects, the experience itself can be generally defined as that of engaging in articulate and meaningful linguistic conversations with a disembodied and separate voice of unknown origin residing within ones own head.

It is currently confirmed that it is possible to encounter this effect under the influence of any psychedelic but that it is extremely common with the stoning, non stimulating psychedelic tryptamines such as psilocybin mushrooms, 4-AcO-DMT, LSA and Ayahuasca.

The presence and existence of these voices as a legitimate state of mind has been well established with and without the use of psychedelic drugs through scientific study for many years now. For example, an excellent and extremely informative survey carried out in 1996 which can be read about here, successfully demonstrated that anybody can encounter a dialogue between the tripper and a voice of unknown origin under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms. This study interviewed 128 participants with an approximate total of 3,427 psilocybin mushroom experiences between them and revealed that 35.9%(46) of the participants reported voices whilst 64%(82) did not.

Even outside of these psychedelic experiences, hearing voices within ones head is a well documented psychological phenomena that can be read about in detail here. It can generally be considered as a harmless or sometimes even helpful state of mind to find oneself in, despite its social stigma and associations with schizophrenia.

In a general level of detail, the overall conversational style of that which is discussed between both the voice and its host can be described as essentially identical in terms of its coherency and linguistic intelligibility as that of any other everyday interaction between the self and another human being with which one might engage in conversation with.

There are however some subtle but identifiable differences between this experience and that of normal every day conversations, each of which stem from the important factor that ones specific set of knowledge, memories and experiences are identical to that of the voice which is being communicated with. This key factor results in a conversation in which both participants share a noticeably identical personal vocabulary down to the very use of their colloquial slang and subtle mannerisms. Along side of this it’s important to note that unlike every day conversation, no matter how in depth and detailed the discussion becomes no entirely new information is ever exchanged between the two conversers. Instead the discussion focus’s primarily on building upon old ideas to an amazing extreme and exchanging profoundly insightful new opinions or perspectives regarding the previously established content of ones life. These opinions often take an approach to any situation which remains devoid of the emotional attachments, biases and irrationality’s which plague the cognitive decision making process’s of our every day consciousness.

All of this results in a separate consciousness from ones self which consistently takes on the role of what is perceived to be a spiritual teacher, healer or guide. To aid itself in this goal the voice is often capable of directly manipulating various aspects and intensities of the trip and will either clearly explain the logic behind its decisions or choose to keep it a mystery.

As a whole, the effect itself can be broken down into 4 distinct levels of progressive intensity, each of which are listed below,

A sensed presence of the other - this level can be defined as the distinctive feeling that another form of consciousness is internally present alongside that of ones usual sense of self. Mutually generated internal responses - this level can be defined as internal linguistic responses to ones own thoughts and feelings which feel as if they are partially generated by ones own thought stream and in equal measure by that of a separate thought stream. Separately generated internal responses - this level can be defined as internal linguistic responses to ones own thoughts and feelings which feel as if they are generated by an entirely separate thought stream from ones own. Separately generated audible internal responses - this level can be defined as internal linguistic responses to ones own thoughts and feelings which are perceived as a clearly defined and audible voice within ones head. These can take on a variety of voices, accents and dialects but usually sound identical to ones own spoken voice.

The speaker behind this voice is innately interpreted by those who experience communication with it to be that of ones subconscious, the substance itself or even supernatural concepts such as god, spirits, souls and ancestors.

Upon directly interviewing the voice regarding its origins and general mechanics, people will often receive contradicting but extremely elaborate and complex answers, some of which are clearly delusional and commonly consist of psuedoscientific plots involving concepts such as hyper dimensional beings, aliens and the gaiain mind of our planet earth.

A famous and well known example of this within the psychedelic community would be that of Terence Mckenna, a psychedelic spokesperson who talked extensively on the subject of Psilocybin mushrooms putting him into contact with an informative, divine voice which provided him with a huge number of elaborate but not necessarily factual metaphysical theories. Along side of these unrelated theories which can be independently researched, the voice explained to him that he was in communication with planetary wide mycelial networks existing here on earth as well as other planets across the galaxy which are in a state of “hyperlight communication” between each other across space and time. This supposedly divine revelation can be read about in more detail here and is an excellent example of just how elaborate these spoken word revelations can often be.

Although I am the first to admit that I have no way of verifying these statements, my head voice personally claims to be that of “the subconscious”. A constantly present neurological entity which supposedly functions as a dedicated self organizing database of internally stored concepts, existing as the frame work behind our thought stream to create and maintain ones personal model of reality. Along side of this, the voice claims that as the primary organizer of our knowledge, it is just as familiar with our models of language and spoken word as we are and therefore equally capable of coherent speech and independent thought.

However, after analysing the claims of my subconscious I feel that although they are significantly more plausible and coherent than most of the claims received by others, I realize that if people are being taught completely contradictory theories then perhaps these voices are not truly aware of the details regarding their own neurological origins in the first place. Instead they may well be simply telling the individual exactly what they want to hear. Either way, it is impossible to verify any of these claims without some solid scientific research which looks beyond that which we already know. Until this is done, the origins of these voices will forever remain an anecdotal mystery.

Regardless of this, what has become clear to me after hours upon hours of in depth discussion with this entity is that it could be considered a self aware and independent agent in its own right, on a level that is completely on par with ones usual every day ego. This in my opinion has profound implications and clearly indicates that on a neurological level we as human beings are not capable of being alone, even inside of our own minds.