Yes

Solar retinopathy from sun-gazing under the influence of LSD

Solar retinopathy is a condition that can result from focusing the eye(s) on the sun, and usually follows the independent viewing of a solar eclipse. It has also been reported after direct sun-gazing, in anti-aircraft lookouts (Flynn, 1942; Cordes, I944, I948), in military recruits hoping to obtain discharge from service (Ewald and Ritchey, I970), in hospitalized schizophrenic patients (Anaclerio and Wicker, I970), in individuals observing the sun as a religious ritual (Agarwal and Malik, I959), in sunbathers (MacFaul, I969; Ridgway, I967), in patients trying to blind themselves (Eigner, I966), and recently in patients under the influence of LSD (Ewald and Ritchey, 1970; Ewald, I971). Cases have also been reported following indirect or reflected sunlight injury, from water or desert sand (Rosen, 1948; Irvine, I945), and in patients undergoing “prolonged and unprotected exposure to the infra-red rays of the solar spectrum in the tropics” (Smith, I944). It has recently been suggested (Manchester and Manchester, 1972) that the temporary blindness of Saul of Tarsus may have been the result of solar retinopathy.
After a sun-gazing episode, patients complain of some or all of the following symptoms: decreased or foggy vision, central scotoma, metamorphopsia, chromatopsia, and headache.
The initial visual acuity after solar injury is usually 20/40 to 20/63, but may range from 20/20 to counting fingers. After approximately 6 months, the visual acuity is usually in the range of 20/20 to 20/40, although it has been reported as low as 20/400 (Rosen, I948). Patients who regain 20/20 vision often complain of permanent minute central scotomas (Flynn, ig60a; MacFaul, I969).
The initial ophthalmoscopic picture varies-from no change to marked macular oedema. Within I to 2 weeks, pigmentation in a mottled pattern replaces the oedema. Later, a hole in the fovea develops. Whether this is a true through-and-through hole in the retina is not known because no histopathological specimens have been available for study.
This paper describes two young patients who ingested lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and, while under its effect, gazed at the sun. Bilateral solar retinopathy resulted in each patient.

Decriminalisation in Portugal: Setting the Record Straight.

What you need to know:

-Drug-related deaths have remained below the EU average since 2001
-The proportion of prisoners sentenced for drugs has fallen from 40% to 15%
-Rates of drug use have remained consistently below the EU average

This briefing updates our 2016 report on Portugal’s groundbreaking reforms, and marks the 20th anniversary of their introduction.

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors

Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences with participant-attributed increases in well-being. However, little research has examined enduring changes in traits. This study administered psilocybin to participants who undertook a program of meditation/spiritual practices. Healthy participants were randomized to three groups (25 each): (1) very low-dose (1 mg/70 kg on sessions 1 and 2) with moderate-level (“standard”) support for spiritual-practice (LD-SS); (2) high-dose (20 and 30 mg/70 kg on sessions 1 and 2, respectively) with standard support (HD-SS); and (3) high-dose (20 and 30 mg/70kg on sessions 1 and 2, respectively) with high support for spiritual practice (HD-HS). Psilocybin was administered double-blind and instructions to participants/staff minimized expectancy confounds. Psilocybin was administered 1 and 2 months after spiritual-practice initiation. Outcomes at 6 months included rates of spiritual practice and persisting effects of psilocybin. Compared with low-dose, high-dose psilocybin produced greater acute and persisting effects. At 6 months, compared with LD-SS, both high-dose groups showed large significant positive changes on longitudinal measures of interpersonal closeness, gratitude, life meaning/purpose, forgiveness, death transcendence, daily spiritual experiences, religious faith and coping, and community observer ratings. Determinants of enduring effects were psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience and rates of meditation/spiritual practices. Psilocybin can occasion enduring trait-level increases in prosocial attitudes/behaviors and in healthy psychological functioning.

Psych 215: Introduction to Psychedelic Medicine

Course description of PSYC 215: Introduction to Psychedelic Medicine (Stanford, Winter 2019):
“The re-emergence of psychedelics in the academic arena has yielded insights which may profoundly impact our understanding of brain, mind, and the treatment of mental illness. This course will survey ongoing and developing clinical applications and scientific investigations of psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted treatments. Neuroscientific, clinical, and psychological perspectives will be discussed as well as the historical, legal, and cultural aspects of psychedelic medicine. Presentations will be given by the field’s scientists and therapists at the front line. Attendees will be able to engage directly with investigators and clinicians in the field during the course. Course may be taken for one unit (lecture, 6pm – 7pm) or students may attend additional discussion section (7pm – 8pm) for two units”

Psychedelic fauna for psychonaut hunters: A mini-review

Currently different classes of psychoactive substances are easily available for abuse, including several hundred novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Some of these drugs occur naturally in plants and animals or are chemically modified from plant or animal compounds and have been abused by humans over millennia. Recently, the occurrence of a new “drug culture” (e.g., psychonauts) who consume a great variety of NPS with hallucinogenic/psychedelic properties, facilitated the development of a new “psychedelic trend” toward the consumption of substances contained in some species of animals (“psychedelic fauna”). The present review aims at providing an overview of the most commonly abused “psychedelic animals,” by combining a dual search strategy coming from online psychonauts’ experiences and English literature searches on the PubMed/Medline Google Scholar databases. A multilingual qualitative assessment on a range of websites and online resources was performed in order to identify a list of animals who possess some psychoactive properties and could be abused by humans for recreational purposes. Several species are implicated (i.e., ants, amphibians, fish). Routes of administration depend on the animal, substance included, metabolism, toxicity and individual, social and cultural variability. Online purchase and access are easy through tourism-related search strategies (“frog trip,” “help of charmer snake,” “religious trip”).

Psychedelics alter metaphysical beliefs

Can the use of psychedelic drugs induce lasting changes in metaphysical beliefs? While it is popularly believed that they can, this question has never been formally tested. Here we exploited a large sample derived from prospective online surveying to determine whether and how beliefs concerning the nature of reality, consciousness, and free-will, change after psychedelic use. Results revealed significant shifts away from ‘physicalist’ or ‘materialist’ views, and towards panpsychism and fatalism, post use. With the exception of fatalism, these changes endured for at least 6 months, and were positively correlated with the extent of past psychedelic-use and improved mental-health outcomes. Path modelling suggested that the belief-shifts were moderated by impressionability at baseline and mediated by perceived emotional synchrony with others during the psychedelic experience. The observed belief-shifts post-psychedelic-use were consolidated by data from an independent controlled clinical trial. Together, these findings imply that psychedelic-use may causally influence metaphysical beliefs—shifting them away from ‘hard materialism’. We discuss whether these apparent effects are contextually independent.

The Evolved Psychology of Psychedelic Set and Setting: Inferences Regarding the Roles of Shamanism and Entheogenic Ecopsychology

This review illustrates the relevance of shamanism and its evolution under effects of psilocybin as a framework for identifying evolved aspects of psychedelic set and setting. Effects of 5HT2 psychedelics on serotonin, stress adaptation, visual systems and personality illustrate adaptive mechanisms through which psychedelics could have enhanced hominin evolution as an environmental factor influencing selection for features of our evolved psychology. Evolutionary psychology perspectives on ritual, shamanism and psychedelics provides bases for inferences regarding psychedelics’ likely roles in hominin evolution as exogenous neurotransmitter sources through their effects in selection for innate dispositions for psychedelic set and setting. Psychedelics stimulate ancient brain structures and innate modular thought modules, especially self-awareness, other awareness, “mind reading,” spatial and visual intelligences. The integration of these innate modules are also core features of shamanism. Cross-cultural research illustrates shamanism is an empirical phenomenon of foraging societies, with its ancient basis in collective hominid displays, ritual alterations of consciousness, and endogenous healing responses. Shamanic practices employed psychedelics and manipulated extrapharmacological effects through stimulation of serotonin and dopamine systems and augmenting processes of the reptilian and paleomammalian brains. Differences between chimpanzee maximal displays and shamanic rituals reveal a zone of proximal development in hominin evolution. The evolution of the mimetic capacity for enactment, dance, music, and imitation provided central capacities underlying shamanic performances. Other chimp-human differences in ritualized behaviors are directly related to psychedelic effects and their integration of innate modular thought processes. Psychedelics and other ritual alterations of consciousness stimulate these and other innate responses such as soul flight and death-and-rebirth experiences. These findings provided bases for making inferences regarding foundations of our evolved set, setting and psychology. Shamanic setting is eminently communal with singing, drumming, dancing and dramatic displays. Innate modular thought structures are prominent features of the set of shamanism, exemplified in animism, animal identities, perceptions of spirits, and psychological incorporation of spirit others. A shamanic-informed psychedelic therapy includes: a preparatory set with practices such as sexual abstinence, fasting and dream incubation; a set derived from innate modular cognitive capacities and their integration expressed in a relational animistic worldview; a focus on internal imagery manifesting a presentational intelligence; and spirit relations involving incorporation of animals as personal powers. Psychedelic research and treatment can adopt this shamanic biogenetic paradigm to optimize set, setting and ritual frameworks to enhance psychedelic effects.

Unifying theories of psychedelic drug effects

How do psychedelic drugs produce their characteristic range of acute effects in perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self? How do these effects relate to the clinical efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies? Efforts to understand psychedelic phenomena date back more than a century in Western science. In this article I review theories of psychedelic drug effects and highlight key concepts which have endured over the last 125 years of psychedelic science. First, I describe the subjective phenomenology of acute psychedelic effects using the best available data. Next, I review late 19th-century and early 20th-century theories-model psychoses theory, filtration theory, and psychoanalytic theory-and highlight their shared features. I then briefly review recent findings on the neuropharmacology and neurophysiology of psychedelic drugs in humans. Finally, I describe recent theories of psychedelic drug effects which leverage 21st-century cognitive neuroscience frameworks-entropic brain theory, integrated information theory, and predictive processing-and point out key shared features that link back to earlier theories. I identify an abstract principle which cuts across many theories past and present: psychedelic drugs perturb universal brain processes that normally serve to constrain neural systems central to perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self. I conclude that making an explicit effort to investigate the principles and mechanisms of psychedelic drug effects is a uniquely powerful way to iteratively develop and test unifying theories of brain function.

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