Psychonaut

A psychonaut is an individual who explores the psyche through altered states of consciousness by using techniques such as meditation, lucid dreaming, sensory deprivation, hypnosis, prayer, and taking psychoactive drugs.

For instance, some of those who go into deep meditation become more in tune with their subconscious and may become less sensitive to pain.

Psychonautics came from the Greek words “psyche” which means “soul” and “nautes” which means “navigator”. This refers to the diverse methods (characterized by induced altered mind conditions) of exploring deeper insights and spiritual experience. This term was coined by Ernst Junger, an American psychonaut, physician, neuroscientist , and philosopher.