psychedelia
Sixties kaleidoscopic culture
Psychedelia refers to the culture, art, and aesthetic associated with psychedelic drugs and their mind-altering effects.
The term encompasses the visual style (swirling colors, kaleidoscopic patterns), music (extended improvisations, unusual sounds), and broader sensibility that emerged from 1960s drug experimentation: The poster was pure psychedelia—Day-Glo colors and melting lettering.
It can describe anything evoking that era's hallucinogenic experience, whether or not drugs are involved.
Showing constantly changing patterns
- tie-dyeBound-fabric coloring technique
- paisleyCurved teardrop textile motif
- mandalaCircular spiritual diagram
- fractalShape repeating at every scale
swirling · Day-Glo · fluorescent · op art · poster art · blacklight · lava lamp · trippy
Psychedelic hallucinogen
- psilocybinHallucinogenic substance from fungi
- mescalinePsychoactive cactus alkaloid
- DMTPowerful naturally occurring hallucinogen
- ayahuascaPsychoactive Amazonian plant brew
peyote · magic mushrooms · trip · acid · ego death · set and setting · hallucination · visuals
Countercultural youth of the sixties
- flower powerNonviolent resistance ideology
- free loveUnstructured romantic and sexual bonds
- Summer of Love1967 counterculture convergence
- Haight-AshburyCounterculture crossroads in San Francisco
commune · anti-establishment · Timothy Leary · Ken Kesey · acid tests · consciousness expansion · head shop · underground press
Drug-influenced heavy music
- Pink FloydProgressive rock band
- Grateful DeadLegendary jam band
- Jefferson AirplanePsychedelic rock band
- Tame ImpalaAustralian psychedelic rock act
Jimi Hendrix · The Doors · sitar · fuzz guitar · wah pedal · phaser · flanger · tape delay
Broadening one's awareness
- surrealDreamlike and strange
- dreamlikeHazy and fantastical
- hypnoticInducing trance or slumber
- otherworldlySeemingly not earthly
transcendent · mystical · euphoric · synesthesia · distorted · ethereal · visionary · cosmic
kaleidoscopic
Showing constantly changing patterns
- tie-dyeBound-fabric coloring technique
- paisleyCurved teardrop textile motif
- mandalaCircular spiritual diagram
fractal · swirling · Day-Glo · fluorescent · op art · poster art · blacklight · lava lamp · trippy · morphing
LSD
Psychedelic hallucinogen
- psilocybinHallucinogenic substance from fungi
- mescalinePsychoactive cactus alkaloid
- DMTPowerful naturally occurring hallucinogen
ayahuasca · peyote · magic mushrooms · trip · acid · ego death · set and setting · hallucination · visuals · flashback
hippies
Countercultural youth of the sixties
- flower powerNonviolent resistance ideology
- free loveUnstructured romantic and sexual bonds
- Summer of Love1967 counterculture convergence
Haight-Ashbury · commune · anti-establishment · Timothy Leary · Ken Kesey · acid tests · consciousness expansion · head shop · underground press · love-in
acid rock
Drug-influenced heavy music
- Pink FloydProgressive rock band
- Grateful DeadLegendary jam band
- Jefferson AirplanePsychedelic rock band
Jimi Hendrix · The Doors · Tame Impala · sitar · fuzz guitar · wah pedal · phaser · flanger · tape delay · reverb
mind-expanding
Broadening one's awareness
otherworldly · transcendent · mystical · euphoric · synesthesia · distorted · ethereal · visionary · cosmic · consciousness
- music genresblues, pop, jazz, rock, classical
- 70sdisco, bell-bottoms, Saturday Night Fever, pet rock, leisure suits
- Sixtieshippies, Beatles, Woodstock, Vietnam War, JFK
- art termspainting, sculpture, drawing, portrait, landscape
- altered statestrance, altered states, hallucination, altered perception, consciousness expansion
- Swinging SixtiesCarnaby Street, mods, mod fashion, Beatles, Rolling Stones
psychedeliasobriety
Unimpaired mental state
lucidity · clarity · normalcy · clear-headedness · groundedness
psychedeliaminimalism
Aesthetic of reduction
realism · naturalism · austerity · plainness · conventionality
psychedeliarationalism
Reason as knowledge source
empiricism · materialism · pragmatism · literalism · positivism
- psychedelic artHallucinogen-inspired visual style
- psychedelic mushroomsFungi inducing hallucinations
- psychedelic rockHallucinogen-inspired music genre
- Psychedelic musicHallucinogen-inspired sonic genre
- psychedelic therapyTreatment using consciousness-altering substances
- psychedelic printsVivid, swirling decorative patterns