All three authors had taken part in research investigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin and mescaline in addition to the ability of these substances to sometimes induce religious and mystical states of consciousness.

[1] A reading from the book was recorded by the authors on an LP under the name The Psychedelic Experience in 1966.

The book is dedicated to Aldous Huxley, an early proponent of psychedelics, and includes a short introductory citation from The Doors of Perception, Huxley's 1954 nonfiction work on the subject.

The text of The Psychedelic Experience discusses the Tibetan Book of the Dead and use the process of death and rebirth presented in it as a metaphor for the experience of ego death or depersonalization that is commonly experienced under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

The psychedelic internal "journey" is thus likened to a metaphorical death-rebirth experience, with the text intended as a guide.