While we are talking about the uses of psychedelic drugs, it is appropriate to discuss their dangers. The psychedelic voyage does produce some casualties; the question is how many and how serious they are, what causes them, and how to prevent them. This has been a matter of controversy since the 1960s. Drug users sometimes would not confess that they had any problems, because doubts and regrets were supposed to be a sign of rigidity or repression or some other inadmissible personal problem. Anti-drug crusaders sometimes would not admit that there was such a thing as a good trip or an insight to be derived from psychedelic drugs.
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Hallucinogens and Related Compounds
While hallucinogens have a long record of culturally sanctioned and salutary use, dating back thousands of years to pre-historical indigenous communities, their emergence since the 1960s as recreational drugs have led to maladaptive patterns of use and risks to young people. Adverse outcomes can include high levels of acute anxiety, psychotic decompensation that usually though not always resolves, and a chronic disabling condition identified as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). Over the past twenty years additional concerns have been aroused by use of MDMA (aka Ecstasy), which has achieved high levels of popularity among young people as a recreational dance drug. Other new trends among youth include experimentation with the dissociative hallucinogens, ketamine and salvia divinorum. With the re-emergence of approved and methodologically sound clinical investigations of hallucinogens, a better understanding of the full range of effects these highly unusual compounds have will evolve.
Psychedelics: My Problem Discourse
The discourse surrounding psychedelics is problematic on several vectors. The investigation of their effects on human beings is illegal in most circumstances, yet exploration continued after their scheduling in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The article examines this problematic from the viewpoints of four leading psychedelic outlaws—Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, and John Lilly—who continued their explorations and wrote extensively about these experiences post-illegalization. The paradox of prolixity in the face of unspeakable or ineffable experience is one dimension of the problematic. The author weaves in her own experiences of encounters with a language from the psychedelic sphere, in light of the call for new language to communicate about and with the spheres of experience contacted through psychedelic self-exploration.
Are Psychedelics Useful in the Practice of Buddhism?
In the fall of 1996 issue of the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, various teachers of Buddhist meditation practice commented on the value of psychedelic experiences, with opinions of them ranging from helpful to harmful. Here, the author hopes to explain these conflicting viewpoints by describing important aspects of employing psychedelics that must be taken into account for effective results. These embrace proper methodology, which includes set and setting, dose levels, appropriate substances, appropriate intervals, and proper integration of each experience. The author has found the informed use of psychedelics to be a valuable tool in accelerating proficiency and deepening meditative practice and offers recommendations for successful use. The adverse comments of several recognized teachers are evaluated to shed further light on fruitful application of psychedelic substances.
Entheogens and Existential Intelligence: The Use of Plant Teachers As Cognitive Tools Source
In light of recent specific liberalizations in drug laws in some countries, I have investigated the potential of entheogens (i.e., psychoactive plants used as spiritual sacraments) as tools to facilitate existential intelligence. “Plant teachers” from the Americas such as ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and peyote, and the Indo-Aryan soma of Eurasia, are examples of entheogens that have been used used in both the past and present. These have all been revered as spiritual or cognitive tools to provide a richer cosmological understanding of the world for both individuals and cultures. I used Gardner’s (1999a) revised multiple intelligence theory and his postulation of an “existential” intelligence as a theoretical lens through which to account for the cognitive possibilities of entheogens and explore potential ramifications for education.
“A Question of Balance: Health and Pathology in New Religious Movements.” in Anthony, D.; Ecker, B. & Wilber, K, Spiritual Choices: The Problem of Recognizing Authentic Paths To Inner Transformation
This article was written after I participated in a research seminar sponsored by the Center for the Study of New Religious Movements, Berkeley, California. As part of our research, we interviewed members and former members of spiritual groups over a period of eight months. The topic of health and pathology in new religious movements was of particular interest to me as a practicing psychotherapist, and I discuss it here from a transpersonal perspective. Current popular interest in spiritual alternatives is viewed in terms of psychological development. Motivation for joining groups is varied, and participation in such groups may be either healthy or pathogenic for individual development. Distinctions are made between ego mastery and spiritual mastery, and characteristics of genuine spiritual mastery are delineated. Choosing a teacher and recognizing groups that are potentially detrimental requires both self-awareness and the ability to evaluate levels of development beyond ego. A balanced use of intuition and reason, and willingness to recognize personal limitations, can contribute to adequate evaluation.
Toward a New Science of Psychedelic Social Psychology: The Effects of MDMA (Ecstasy) on Social Connection
Psychedelic science has generated hundreds of compelling published studies yet with relatively little impact on mainstream psychology. I propose that social psychologists have much to gain by incorporating psychoactive substances into their research programs. Here I use (±)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as an example because of its documented ability in experiments and clinical trials to promote bonding, love, and warmth. Social connection is a fundamental human need, yet researchers still possess few tools to effectively and durably boost it. MDMA allows investigators to isolate the psychological mechanisms—as well as brain pathways—underlying felt social connection and thus reveal what should be targeted in future (nondrug) studies. Accordingly, I introduce a conceptual model that presents the proximal psychological mechanisms stimulated by MDMA (lowered fear, increased sociability, more chemistry), as well as its potential long-term impacts (improved relationships, reduced loneliness, stronger therapeutic alliances). Finally, I discuss further questions (e.g., whether using MDMA for enhancing connection can backfire) and promising research areas for building a new science of psychedelic social psychology. In sum, psychopharmacological methods can be a useful approach to illuminate commonly studied social-psychological processes, such as connectedness, prejudice, or self, as well as inform interventions to directly improve people’s lives.
Psilocybin Mushroom (Psilocybe Semilanceata) Intoxication With Myocardial Infarction
Case Report: Intentional intoxication with natural hallucinogenic substances such as hallucinogenic mushrooms continues to be a major problem in the US and Europe, particularly in the harbor complex of northwest Poland (Pomerania). A case is described of Psilocybe intoxication in an 18-year-old man resulting in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, arrhythmia, and myocardial infarction. The indole concentrations of hallucinogenic mushrooms may predict the risk for adverse central nervous system and cardiac toxicity.
A Regulatory Perspective on the Evaluation of Hallucinogen Drugs for Human Use
In recent years, there is renewed interest in the study of various hallucinogens for their potential therapeutic effects. In the United States of America (USA), the abuse potential assessment of a drug is carried out as part of the general safety and efficacy evaluation of a drug. Additionally, the abuse potential assessment is taken under consideration in determining if a drug needs to be subject to controls to minimize the abuse of the drug once on the market. This assessment is conducted for all new drugs with central nervous system (CNS) activity, that are chemically or pharmacologically similar to other drugs with known abuse potential, or drugs that produce psychoactive effects predictive of abuse, such as euphoria and hallucinations. This paper describes the regulatory framework for evaluating the abuse potential of new drugs, with emphasis on hallucinogens. The paper discusses the role of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the evaluation of the abuse potential of drugs and its role in drug control, and provides an overview of the controlled status of hallucinogens and the requirements to conduct research with Schedule I substances in the USA.
Psychedelic Moral Enhancement
The moral enhancement (or bioenhancement) debate seems stuck in a dilemma. On the one hand, the more radical proposals, while certainly novel and interesting, seem unlikely to be feasible in practice, or if technically feasible then most likely imprudent. But on the other hand, the more sensible proposals – sensible in the sense of being both practically achievable and more plausibly ethically justifiable – can be rather hard to distinguish from both traditional forms of moral enhancement, such as non-drug-mediated social or moral education, and non-moral forms of bioenhancement, such as smart-drug style cognitive enhancement. In this essay, I argue that bioethicists have paid insufficient attention to an alternative form of moral bioenhancement – or at least a likely candidate – that falls somewhere between these two extremes, namely the (appropriately qualified) use of certain psychedelic drugs.