Entheogen is a term coined in 1979 by scholars Carl Ruck, R. Gordon Wasson, Jonathan Ott, and colleagues to describe psychoactive substances used in religious, spiritual, or shamanic contexts to induce states of consciousness interpreted as contact with the sacred, the divine, or transcendent reality. The word is derived from the Greek entheos ("having the god within") and genesthai ("to generate") — literally, "that which generates the divine within." It was proposed as a more precise and less culturally loaded alternative to terms like "psychedelic," "hallucinogen," or "intoxicant," which carry connotations of Western recreational drug culture.
Entheogens include a wide range of substance classes: classical serotonergic psychedelics (psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, DMT, mescaline), dissociatives (ketamine, used in some contemporary spiritual practices), deliriants (datura, fly agaric), cannabis, and various plant preparations (ayahuasca, San Pedro cactus, iboga, morning glory). What unites them is not chemistry but context: the intention, set, setting, and cultural frameworks within which they are used. A substance that serves as an entheogen in a curated indigenous ceremony is not categorically different from the same substance used recreationally — but the context transforms the meaning and often the nature of the experience.
The concept of entheogens has been enormously influential in the study of religion, anthropology, and the pharmacology of consciousness. It has also been important in contemporary psychedelic therapy — the therapeutic framework explicitly imports entheogenic elements (intention, ceremony, music, relational support) into clinical settings, recognizing that the context of use profoundly shapes therapeutic outcomes.