“There is no evidence that communion with entities during psychedelic experiences is not an illusion.”
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.
“I was in my kitchen, staring at this massive tree,” says Bill in Merseyside, England, as he recollects one of the times he’s done LSD. “Suddenly, he started speaking to me—although he didn’t introduce himself, which I thought was strange. It went on for about 15 minutes. He told me he knew who I was and that he’d been looking at me for a while. I felt like I was standing naked before the world. The tree looked me up and down, and looked inside of me, and said, ‘Ah, you’re alright: You can stay.'”
It’s likely that, while you’ve been watering it, you have mumbled something to the cactus on your coffee table or the yucca tree by your window. But there are some people who claim to have actually communicated with plants—and nature at large—after taking acid or other psychedelics. Most pass these conversations off as mere hallucinations, but others—usually the types who take mushrooms once and then get very into wind chimes—believe the plants really were talking back.
“The tree then said, ‘There’s more to be told.’ It was very enlightening, and I need to return when I can,” Bill continued. “It helped me understand how every living thing—plant, animal, and human—in the world is interconnected. It was as if someone was inside my head judging my feelings, my thoughts, and my emotions. It was also a two-way street though: I could feel how old he was—he’s obviously been through a lot with the way the earth is and how the town I live in was built up around him. I felt like he was almost judging me to see if I was right to be in that headspace with that connectivity. I have never felt so much peace and bliss.”