According to María Moliner (Spanish librarian and lexicographer), "transcend" is about the ability to give off a strong smell or aroma that can be noticed from far away. This idea ties into the concept of "essence," which, in a spiritual or even religious sense, refers to something that can go beyond its physical limits, reaching other dimensions once it's freed from the body.

We can think of the "human spirit" as a kind of scent or essence that comes from an amazing plant—our brain. Even though the brain is an animal organ, it operates using substances that link us back to our plant-like origins.

An "entheogen," a hallucinogen that supposedly allows "divine possession," as one frequent user of such drugs described, "intensifies and separates the spirit from its brain connections, allowing it to cross the boundary that keeps us stuck in our everyday reality."

Some people who use mescaline say that the only way to truly transcend is through a "leap of the spirit" into realms that we hardly know. The essence of the drug, which is like a "spiritual" ferment that matches and connects with the human spirit, pushes the spirit to make that leap, transcend itself, dive deep into its own being, and discover its cosmic possibilities.