Recordings › Psychedelics are NOT haram | Mufti Abu Layth · 17 Oct 2020 › Segment 2 of 8
How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness?
qiyas qiyaas muftisConsciousness as a spectrum: the electromagnetic analogy
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This segment4:28 to 7:26 · 2 min 58 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenOrdinary perception reaches only a sliver of what exists, as the eye sees only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum; Mufti Abu Layth says consciousness has layers we normally cannot access.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth compares ordinary consciousness to dial-up internet and psychedelics to fibre-optic broadband, then offers what he calls a suitable example, the electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays all exist, yet only the tiny rainbow portion in the middle is open to the human visual field. After some trouble with his screen he puts it in money: if the whole spectrum were ten thousand pounds, visible light would be thirty-five pounds, and the rest is still there but inaccessible. He says consciousness works the same way: the layers are there, but we do not normally have access to them.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says ordinary human consciousness has access to only a small part of what exists, as the eye sees only a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, and that the other layers of consciousness are there but we do not normally have access to them.
“Now, in a similar way, consciousness works the same. That the consciousness is there, but we just don't have access to that layer of consciousness.”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine4:28 to 7:26 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
But there is a legacy of human civilization that for thousands of years has really spoken about this about the the the kind of wonder that this does. It opens how it connects humanity and and I want to give you a parallel that you see because these things what they do is they expand your consciousness.
Like imagine you're on dialup the old dialup for the internet. These things will put you on broadband fiber optic kind of [laughter] receptivity of consciousness and I think this is an a suitable example. This is the electromagnetic spectrum people. Now this is light as as it comes you know the electromagnetic uh wave what it brings with it.
Now you will have all of these different things that will be right in front of us. I mean they will as you can see from radio waves to microwaves to infrared to visible rays. Then you will have uh ultraviolet it will go to x-rays, gamma rays. We that tiny portion that you can see in the middle right that that um right there with the rainbow if that makes any sense to you.
Uh sorry if you if you can see that that is all that is open to the human visual field that is all that we can see. The other things are absolutely there. They exist. See them, right? We can't see them. But it doesn't mean that they don't exist. They absolutely do. And I feel that this is a uh a suitable example.
Sorry, I'm just trying to close this. I got to get uh I'm going to switch how I do this from now on the right. So this what what you can see there is that tiny thing and let me give you an example imagine the percentage of the vis visible field is like this if I had it's actually not point [laughter] and you will have let let me actually give you exemplify by giving an example
imagine I had £10,000 right that is the visual £10,000 or I could do it the other way as in you could go with space. Okay, but let's say £10,000 money makes a lot of sense to people. That is the entire visual the electromagnetic spectrum out there. All you get is £35 out of it.
That's all you get out of £10,000. The £35 is the visual field that we have access to visible light. uh that's all that we can see. The rest of it is still there. It's not that it doesn't exist. It's just we don't have access to it. Now, in a similar way, consciousness works the same. That the consciousness is there, but we just don't have access to that layer of consciousness.
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-10-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, October 17). How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness? [Video, segment 2020-10-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/2/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness?" Video, segment 2020-10-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 17, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/2/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-10-17-S02, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness?}}, year = {2020}, month = {10}, date = {2020-10-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/2/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/2/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-10-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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