psychedelotropism
Etymology
Psyche (ψυχή, psykhḗ):
mind, soul, spirit, or animating principle
Delos (δῆλος, dêlos):
to shine, light up, manifest, or reveal
Tropos (τρόπος, trópos):
a way, to turn, to orient or direct
Psychedelotropism (PDT) refers to the potential of psychedelics to help adaptively re-orient their users through functions of the serotonin system as a master homeostatic regulator that integrates mind, body, and world.
Initially conceived in 2018 and first detailed in the preliminary work, “Psychedelotropsim: Serotonergic Origins of Luminous Experience Induced by Classical Psychedelics” (2020), and explored in more depth in the second edition (2024), Fortier draws from foundational work on the serotonin system highlighting its homology with auxin, the primary phototropic growth hormone in plants, to understand psychedelic experience. PDT proposes that acute and enduring effects of classical psychedelics, including its potential for meaning-making, insight, visionary restructuralization, ego dissolution, and tendency to re-orient its users, might be better understood when considered as manifestations of the serotonin system’s roles in managing resources, and integrating the mind, body and world into a cohesive system.