psychotomimetic

   Also known as psychotic, hallucinogen, hallucinogenic drug, hallucinogenic substance, magicum, pseudohallucinogen, illusinogen, mysticomimetic, phanerothyme, phantasticum, eideticum, psychedelic, psychedelic drug, and psychedelic substance. The term psy-chotomimetic is indebted to the medical Latin term "psychosis, which in turn stems from the Greek noun psuchosis (the giving of life, the process of animating, breathing life into), and to mimesis (the mimicking). It translates loosely as 'imitator of psychosis'. The term psy-chotomimetic was introduced in or shortly before 1957 by the British psychiatrist Humphry Fortes-cue Osmond (1917-2004). It is used more or less interchangeably with the other terms above to denote a group of chemical substances which -in relatively high doses - have the potential to alter consciousness and to evoke phenomena such as hallucinations, illusions, "sensory distortions, "delirium, loss of contact with reality, and sometimes coma and death. In 1979 the term " entheogen was proposed as an alternative for these terms, in an effort to reinstate the original spiritual connotations of substances like these in "mysticism and shamanism. A person intentionally employing psychotomimetics for the purpose of exploring the psyche may be called a "psychonaut. For a more detailed account of this group of substances, see the entry Hallucinogen.

   References

   Nichols, D.E. (2004). Hallucinogens. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101, 131-181.

   Osmond, H. (1957). A review of the clinical effects of psychotomimetic agents. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 66, 418434.