Every month, the BCSP brings you one essential read to keep you up to date with the leading topics in psychedelic science. This month, postdoctoral researcher Sean Noah explains “Adolescent Psychedelic Use and Psychotic or Manic Symptoms,” published in 2024 in JAMA Psychiatry.
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Psychedelic Grad Newsletter
A weekly curation of gems found in our community & across the psychedelic space. Expect podcast drops, our favorite psychedelic articles, and microdose levels of humor.
Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research Newsletter
At the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, our mission is to answer the most important questions in psychedelic research, therapy, and clinical education, and broaden the field of psychedelic science in collaboration with the best multi-disciplinary scientists in the world. We will conduct rigorous clinical trials that adhere to the highest ethical standards while elucidating underlying mechanisms driving psychedelic effects and therapeutic efficacy. We will provide evidence-based education to clinicians and the broader community to contribute to the development of innovative therapeutic approaches that benefit individuals and society.
Burning Shore
Welcome to Burning Shore.I am Erik Davis (www.techgnosis.com), an author, scholar, award-winning journalist, podcaster, and professional talker. My wide-ranging work dances around the intersection of alternative religion, media, the popular imagination, and the cultural history of California. Burning Shore will continue to rove through this wide field, as I think about now and then, culture and catastrophe, through the lens of what I call “California consciousness.”
Classic Psychedelics and Human-Animal Relations
Previous research has found associations between classic psychedelic use and nature-relatedness, but the link between classic psychedelic use and human–animal relations remains largely unexplored. Using data representative of the US adult population, with regard to age, sex and ethnicity (N = 2822), this pre-registered study assessed lifetime classic psychedelic use, ego dissolution during respondents’ most intense experience using a classic psychedelic, and three measures related to human–animal relations: speciesism, animal solidarity and desire to help animals. The results showed that lifetime classic psychedelic use was negatively associated with speciesism (β = −0.07, p = 0.002), and positively associated with animal solidarity (β = 0.04, p = 0.041), but no association was found with desire to help animals (β = 0.01, p = 0.542). Ego dissolution during the respondents’ most intense experience using a classic psychedelic was negatively associated with speciesism (β = −0.17, p < 0.001), and positively associated with animal solidarity (β = 0.18, p < 0.001) and desire to help animals (β = 0.10, p = 0.007). The findings indicate that classic psychedelics and ego dissolution may have an impact on human–animal relations. As these results cannot demonstrate causality, however, future studies should use longitudinal research designs to further explore the potential causal link between classic psychedelic use and human–animal relations.
Psychedelics as potential catalysts of scientific creativity and insight
Creativity, that is the creation of ideas or objects considered both novel and valuable, is among the most important and highly valued of human traits, and a fundamental aspect of the sciences. Dreams and hypnagogic states have been highly influential in promoting scientific creativity and insight, contributing to some important scientific breakthroughs. Phenomenologically, the latter states of consciousness share a great deal of overlap with the psychedelic state, which has also been associated with facilitating scientific creativity on occasion. The current article proposes that the dream, hypnagogic and psychedelic states share common features that make them conducive to supporting some aspects of scientific creativity and examines the putative underlying neurophenomenological and cognitive processes involved. In addition, some notable occurrences of scientific insights that have emerged from these types of altered states are reviewed and shared common features are presented, providing a ground for future research. The psychedelic state may have its own characteristic features making it amenable to creativity enhancement, such as brain hyperconnectivity, meta-cognitive awareness, access to a more dependable and sustained altered state experience, and potential for eliciting sustained shifts in trait openness. The contextual factors which may contribute to enhancement of scientific creativity and insight will be evaluated. While research in this area is limited, further work to elucidate how psychedelics may best contribute to scientific creativity enhancement is warranted.
Can psychedelics really change the world? Toward psychedelic technologies
Rather than opting for a seductive but angelic approach – seeing psychedelics as substances capable of “healing the world” – or a repressive approach based on the fear of seeing these substances become tools for “brain washing”, we must recognize what makes these substances unique among the large family of psychotropic drugs: their great sensitivity to extraphamarcological factors.
Are climate change and mental health correlated?
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time and is likely to affect human beings in substantial ways. Recently, researchers started paying more attention to the changes in climate and their subsequent impact on the social, environmental and economic determinants of health, and the role they play in causing or exacerbating mental health problems. The effects of climate change-related events on mental well-being could be classified into direct and indirect effects. The direct effects of climate change mostly occur after acute weather events and include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, substance abuse disorder, depression and even suicidal ideation. The indirect effects include economic losses, displacement and forced migration, competition over scarce resources and collective violence. The risk factors for developing those mental health issues include young age, female gender, low socioeconomic status, loss or injury of a loved one, being a member of immigrant groups or indigenous people, pre-existing mental illness and inadequate social support. However, in some individuals, especially those undisturbed by any directly observable effects of climate change, abstract awareness and acknowledgement of the ongoing climate crisis can induce negative emotions that can be intense enough to cause mental health illness. Coping strategies should be provided to the affected communities to protect their mental health from collapse in the face of climate disasters. Awareness of the mental health impacts of climate change should be raised, especially in the high-risk groups. Social and global attention to the climate crisis and its detrimental effects on mental health are crucial.
This paper was written with the aim of trying to understand the currently, scientifically proven impact of climate change-related disasters on mental health and understanding the different methods of solving the problem at the corporate level, by trying to decrease greenhouse gas emissions to zero, and at the individual level by learning how to cope with the impacts of those disasters
Ethical principles of traditional Indigenous medicine to guide western psychedelic research and practice
The resurgence of Western psychedelic research and practice has led to increasing concerns from many Indigenous Nations regarding cultural appropriation, lack of recognition of the sacred cultural positioning of these medicines, exclusionary practices in research and praxis, and patenting of traditional medicines. Indigenous voices and leadership have been notably absent from the Western psychedelic field currently widely represented by Westerners. An Indigenous-led globally represented group of practitioners, activists, scholars, lawyers, and human rights defenders came together with the purpose of formulating a set of ethical guidelines concerning traditional Indigenous medicines current use in Western psychedelic research and practice. A global Indigenous consensus process of knowledge-gathering was engaged which identified eight interconnected ethical principles, including: Reverence, Respect, Responsibility, Relevance, Regulation, Reparation, Restoration, and Reconciliation. A summary of the work is presented here with suggested ethical actions for moving forward within Western psychedelic research and practice spaces.
The potential synergistic effects between psychedelic administration and nature contact for the improvement of mental health
Therapeutic psychedelic administration and contact with nature have been associated with the same psychological mechanisms: decreased rumination and negative affect, enhanced psychological connectedness and mindfulness-related capacities, and heightened states of awe and transcendent experiences, all processes linked to improvements in mental health amongst clinical and healthy populations. Nature-based settings can have inherently psychologically soothing properties which may complement all stages of psychedelic therapy (mainly preparation and integration) whilst potentiating increases in nature relatedness, with associated psychological benefits. Maximising enhancement of nature relatedness through therapeutic psychedelic administration may constitute an independent and complementary pathway towards improvements in mental health that can be elicited by psychedelics.