Humanity has always sought to arrive at a deeper understanding of the reality around it through altered states of consciousness.

East Asian religions include a number of practices that allow people to penetrate reality to such an extent that they can “travel” with their minds. This practice dates back to Buddha Sakyamuni, who through meditation came to understand the nature of phenomena and the law of karmic causality, and also found the path leading to liberation from the suffering of rebirths and to the Awakened state.

In the pre-Hispanic Americas, the use of psychotropic plants was a common practice among several indigenous communities. Substances such as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca, were often employed in sacred spiritual and healing rituals, allowing practitioners to reach altered states of consciousness. This condition, described as a “journey of the mind,” served to reconnect with natural forces, and to return in balance with them, a basic condition also for true and profound healing.