Introduction

Modern Western thought has largely operated under the implicit assumption that human intelligence represents the apex of the cognitive hierarchy. Within this framework, non-ordinary states of consciousness have often been interpreted as “hallucinations”, degradations, or distortions of normative cognition. In contrast, historical, anthropological, and phenomenological evidence suggests that many cultures understood certain non-ordinary states, particularly those induced by sacramental substances, not as deficits, but as privileged modes of access to intelligence, knowledge, or guidance exceeding ordinary human understanding, often accessible to trained priesthood, or shamans.

This text examines ancient sacramental practices, modern phenomenological reports, and contemporary neuroscientific findings to explore the hypothesis that: Sacraments function as vehicles for communication with higher-order or ‘other’ intelligence.

Within this framework, therapeutic effects commonly associated with substances such as psilocybin are examined as enabling or preparatory outcomes rather than their primary purpose. In other words, healing is not the primary purpose of the vehicle but rather a side-effect, which is produced to prepare the individual physically and psychologically for that kind of higher communication.

The added value of this article is that it reframes well-documented psychedelic phenomena, especially reported communication with non-human intelligences, into a coherent, interdisciplinary hypothesis that neither dismisses participant reports nor oversteps scientific evidence, thereby identifying a genuine explanatory gap in current models of consciousness.

Ancient Sacraments and Hierarchies of Intelligence

Ethnographic and historical sources indicate that many ancient cultures did not regard humans as occupying the highest level of intelligence within the cosmos. Instead, intelligence was often conceived hierarchically, distributed across gods, spirits, ancestors, or intermediary beings whose cognitive capacities exceeded those of humans (Eliade, 1964).

Across a wide range of traditions, psychoactive sacraments were used to facilitate encounters with this broader hierarchy of intelligence. In Indo-Iranian religious traditions, the sacred drink soma played a central role in ritual practice and was described as granting visionary access to divine reality.

“We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered. Now what may foeman’s malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man’s deception?” (Rig-Veda 8.48; Griffith, 1896)

A comparable pattern appears in ancient Greek religion. The Eleusinian Mysteries, initiation rites dedicated to Demeter and Persephone and practiced for nearly two millennia, were widely understood to provide participants with direct experiential insight into divine reality and the nature of death. Ancient sources consistently emphasize that initiation involved not merely instruction but transformative revelation (Burkert, 1985).

“We were initiated into the most blessed of mysteries, which we celebrated in our state of innocence before we had any experience of evil… we beheld the blessed vision and were initiated into that mystery which may truly be called most blessed, when we were with the gods.” (Phaedrus; Plato, c. 370 BCE)

“At first there are wanderings and painful journeys in darkness… but then a marvelous light appears, and pure regions and meadows receive the initiate, with sacred voices and divine apparitions.” (Fragment preserved by Stobaeus; Plutarch, c. 90–120 CE)

“The mysteries lead the soul upward toward the divine and prepare it for communion with the gods.” (Commentary on Plato’s Republic; Proclus, c. 440–470 CE)

In Mesoamerican cultures, psilocybin-containing mushrooms known as teonanácatl (“flesh of the gods”) were consumed in ceremonial contexts aimed at divination and communication with spiritual entities rather than healing alone (Wasson, 1980). The Mazatec healer María Sabina described the mushrooms as mediators through which divine knowledge becomes audible:

“The mushrooms speak… they show the truth and allow one to see God.” (Sabina, in Wasson, 1980)

Similarly, in Amazonian traditions, the sacramental drink ayahuasca is understood as enabling communication with spiritual intelligences that transmit knowledge to shamans. Anthropological accounts describe these experiences as encounters with non-human teachers who provide songs, healing knowledge, and cosmological insight.

“Shamans say that under the influence of ayahuasca they communicate with spirits who teach them songs, medicines, and knowledge.” (Narby, 1998)

Healing, while frequently reported, was commonly described as a consequence of restored alignment with this broader cosmological order rather than as the primary aim of sacramental practice (Winkelman, 2010).

Phenomenology of Sacramental States

Qualitative research consistently demonstrates that entheogenic experiences often involve perceptions of agency, intentionality, and communication. Participants frequently report encounters with presences or beings perceived as autonomous, intelligent, and purposive, as well as experiences of dialogue, instruction, or transmission of knowledge (Griffiths et al., 2006).

Importantly, these phenomenological features have been documented in controlled experimental settings involving participants without prior religious belief or expectation of metaphysical encounters (Studerus et al., 2011). While phenomenological data cannot establish the independent existence of perceived intelligences, the recurrence and structural similarity of these reports across individuals and contexts suggest that they are not easily reducible to idiosyncratic fantasy or cultural suggestion alone.

Reported Communication and Entity Encounters: Empirical Evidence

Beyond general phenomenology, multiple studies and scholarly analyses explicitly document reports of perceived communication with non-human or non-ordinary intelligences in sacramental states.

In a landmark double-blind study, Griffiths et al. (2006) reported that participants frequently described encounters involving a sense of external authority, guidance, or interaction with what were experienced as intelligent presences. These encounters were often rated among the most meaningful experiences of participants’ lives and were associated with lasting changes in attitudes and behavior.

Studerus et al. (2011) further demonstrated that such experiences occur independently of personality traits, prior beliefs, or expectations, indicating that perceived communication and agency cannot be fully explained by suggestion or religious priming.

Perhaps the most explicit documentation of perceived communication comes from Strassman’s controlled studies of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). In DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Strassman (2001) reports that a substantial proportion of participants described encounters with autonomous entities that engaged in communication, instruction, or examination of the participant. Notably, these reports exhibited striking thematic consistency across subjects, despite the absence of shared cultural narratives or expectations.

Complementing these findings, Luke (2011) systematically analyzed entity encounters across psychedelic experiences and identified them as a recurrent and cross-substance phenomenological category. Luke argues that these encounters possess sufficient consistency and coherence to warrant serious scholarly attention, regardless of one’s ontological interpretation.

Additional evidence comes from the extensive clinical LSD research conducted by Stanislav Grof, who analyzed thousands of psychedelic sessions in psychiatric and research settings. Grof observed that many subjects reported experiences involving encounters with archetypal or transpersonal intelligences as well as identification with what appeared to be a universal field of consciousness underlying reality. In these states, participants frequently reported access to knowledge or insight that seemed to transcend their individual cognitive capacities.

As Grof describes:

“Identifying with the consciousness of the Universal Mind, the individual senses that he has experientially encompassed the totality of existence… He feels that he has reached the reality underlying all realities and is confronted with the supreme and ultimate principle that represents all Being.”

Consciousness of the Universal …

Grof further noted that subjects in these states often reported a sense that all fundamental questions about existence had been answered through direct experiential insight rather than discursive reasoning. Such experiences were frequently interpreted by participants as encounters with a form of universal intelligence or cosmic consciousness.

Taken together, these sources establish that reports of communication with non-human intelligences or participation in transpersonal fields of awareness are a well-documented empirical feature of sacramental states, even if their ultimate ontological status remains unresolved.

Neuroscience and the Question of Cognitive Hierarchy

Neuroscientific research has identified robust neural correlates of sacramental states, including decreased activity in the default mode network (DMN) and increased global functional connectivity (Carhart-Harris et al., 2012). These changes correlate with ego dissolution, non-ordinary self-referential processing, and increased cognitive flexibility.

While these findings explain the mechanisms by which non-ordinary states arise, they do not determine whether such states represent degraded cognition or alternative modes of information processing. As philosophers of perception have noted, identifying neural correlates does not resolve the referential status of experiential content (Noë, 2004).

The assumption that ordinary waking consciousness represents the optimal or highest form of cognition is itself a philosophical position rather than an empirical conclusion. From this perspective, sacramental states may be understood as reconfigurations of cognition that temporarily suspend certain constraints while enabling others, potentially allowing access to patterns of meaning or intelligence ordinarily filtered out.

Therapeutic Effects as Enabling Conditions

Clinical research demonstrates that psilocybin-assisted therapy can produce sustained reductions in depression, anxiety, and addiction following a limited number of sessions (Griffiths et al., 2016; Carhart-Harris et al., 2018). These outcomes are frequently mediated by experiences described as meaningful, revelatory, or spiritually significant (Griffiths et al., 2006).

Within the framework proposed here, therapeutic effects may be understood as enabling conditions rather than endpoints. Reduced psychological rigidity, increased emotional integration, and diminished egoic control appear to facilitate both improved mental health outcomes and the depth of sacramental experiences reported (Carhart-Harris et al., 2018). Healing may thus prepare the cognitive system for engagement with expanded modes of perception or interpretation.

Conclusion

Historical records, phenomenological research, and contemporary neuroscience collectively challenge the assumption that human intelligence occupies the apex of the cognitive hierarchy. Across cultures and experimental settings, humans have repeatedly reported sacramental experiences characterized by communication, instruction, and interaction with intelligences perceived as non-human or transpersonal.

This paper does not claim that such intelligences are empirically verified entities. However, it establishes that reports of communication with higher intelligence are a robust, well-documented feature of sacramental states, supported by controlled studies, cross-cultural anthropology, and phenomenological analysis. The persistence and coherence of these reports warrant serious interdisciplinary investigation rather than dismissal.

Therapeutic effects, while empirically well supported, may be best understood as threshold conditions—preparing consciousness for experiences that ancient cultures consistently interpreted as encounters rather than hallucinations. Whether these encounters reflect external realities, emergent properties of consciousness, or deeper cognitive structures remains an open question, but one grounded in evidence rather than speculation.

References

Burkert, W. (1985). Greek religion. Harvard University Press.

Carhart-Harris, R. L., et al. (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(6), 2138–2143.

Carhart-Harris, R. L., et al. (2018). Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: Six-month follow-up. Psychopharmacology, 235(2), 399–408.

Eliade, M. (1964). Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy. Princeton University Press.

Griffith, R. T. H. (1896). The hymns of the Rigveda (Book 8, Hymn 48). E. J. Lazarus & Co.

Griffiths, R. R., et al. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268–283.

Griffiths, R. R., et al. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1181–1197.

Grof, S. (2008). LSD: Doorway to the numinous: The groundbreaking psychedelic research into realms of the human unconscious. Park Street Press.

Luke, D. (2011). Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 75(1), 26–42.

Narby, J. (1998). The cosmic serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

Noë, A. (2004). Action in perception. MIT Press.

Plato. (1997). Phaedrus. In J. M. Cooper (Ed.), Plato: Complete works. Hackett Publishing.

Plutarch. (2004). Moralia (Vol. 15: Fragments). Harvard University Press.

Proclus. (2013). Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Republic. Cambridge University Press.

Sabina, M. (1977). María Sabina: Her life and chants. Ross-Erikson.

Strassman, R. (2001). DMT: The spirit molecule. Park Street Press.

Studerus, E., et al. (2011). Prediction of psilocybin response in healthy volunteers. PLoS ONE, 6(2), e16983.

Wasson, R. G. (1980). The wondrous mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica. McGraw-Hill.

Winkelman, M. (2010). Shamanism: A biopsychosocial paradigm of consciousness and healing. Praeger.