Psychedelic Perception in Queer-Feminist Reading and Writing (as Performance)

Abstract

This article considers the relationship between perception, language and embodiment in altered or expanded states of consciousness in queer-feminist writing that turns text into performance. How might these processes of perception—often ineffable, numinous, non-discursive and/or irrational, be articulated through language, narrative or discourse? What forms of knowledge production might these processes of perception lead to? How do they influence thinking, concepts of self and experience of reality and consciousness? I address these questions by bringing notions of altered, expanded and intuitive perception into conversation with psychedelic (and more broadly, consciousness) studies and queer-feminist epistemologies through analysis of the work of Gloria Anzaldúa. Drawing upon notions of the embodied mind, which suggest that the mind and body not only work in tandem but are conceptualized through environmental, relational, affective and other contextual influences, I explore how the dynamic relationship between text, embodiment and reality in Anzaldúa’s writing articulates what I call ‘psychedelic’ perception. I use this term to refer to certain forms of altered, expanded and intuitive perception that grapple with sensory experiences in immaterial, spiritual, imaginary and psychic realms. Furthermore, psychedelic perception attempts to situate these sensory experiences in the context of one’s interiority, especially for the purposes of self-transformation and psycho-spiritual healing. I argue that Anzaldúa’s engagements with language and writing can be read as forms of performance, due to her creative processes of ‘re-visioning’ reality and the shifts they enact in perception, cognition, and reality itself through embodiment and alternative forms of knowledge production. Additionally, I explore tensions and trouble binary oppositions between ‘ordinary’ and ‘nonordinary’ states of consciousness and how they interact with discursive and non-discursive, as well as universal and particular aspects of meaning-making and knowledge production.