Of Roots and Fruits : A Comparison of Psychedelic and Non-psychedelic Mystical Experiences David B. Yaden, Khoa D. Le Nguyen, Margaret L. Kern, Alexander B. Belser, Johannes C. Eichstaedt, Jonathan Iwry, Mary E. Smith, Nancy A. Wintering, Ralph W. Hood Jr., and Andrew B. Newberg Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 2017, Vol. 57, (4), 338–353 DOI: 10.1177/0022167816674625 Abstract Experiences of profound existential or spiritual significance can be triggered reliably through psycho-pharmacological means using psychedelic substances. However, little is known about the benefits of religious, spiritual, or mystical experiences (RSMEs) prompted by psychedelic substances, as compared with those that occur through other means. In this study, 739 self-selected [...]
Lire la suiteThe Past and Future of Psychedelic Science : An Introduction to This Issue Richard E. Doblin, Merete Christiansen, Lisa Jerome, Brad Burge JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS, 2019, VOL. 51, NO. 2, 93–97 https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2019.1606472 ABSTRACT Psychedelic plants and fungi have been used in indigenous medicinal traditions for millennia. Modern psychedelic research began when Albert Hofmann first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) in 1938. Five years later, became the first person to ingest LSD. Hofmann was unaware of the significance of his actions, and the effects they would set in motion. After a burgeoning period of scientific and cultural exploration in the1950s and ‘60s, psychedelic research was [...]
Lire la suiteCan Psychedelic Drugs Attenuate Age-Related Changes in Cognition and Affect ? Jacob S. Aday, Emily K. Bloesch, & Christopher C. Davoli Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, August 2019 DOI: 10.1007/s41465-019-00151-6 Abstract Older adulthood can be characterized by various cognitive and affective changes. In general, older adults show declines in creativity and executive functioning. They also score lower in openness to experience, empathy, and many suffer from a paucity of meaningful experiences. Further, depression, pessimism, and suicide can be major concerns for this population. Although currently there are few interventions that can effectively address these changes, recent findings from psychedelic science suggest myriad parallels between the effects [...]
Lire la suiteHeaven and Hell Revisited Peter Webster Composed in 1996 for The Psychedelic Library How is it possible for two persons of such obvious intellectual talent as William Braden and Aldous Huxley to have such radically different experiences as a result of ingestion of a similar quantity of mescaline? Both Huxley and Braden brought to their first psychedelic experiment a wide knowledge and understanding of science, religion, mysticism, literature and fine arts, yet Huxley’s initial psychedelic experience was a revelation, and led to the writing of The Doors of Perception, a book which launched a movement, if not a revolution. William Braden’s experiment, recounted [...]
Lire la suiteThe Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca : Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization Ede Frecska, Petra Bokor and Michael Winkelman Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2016, Vol 7, Article 35, 1-17. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00035 Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive brew of two main components. Its active agents are b-carboline and tryptamine derivatives. As a sacrament, ayahuasca is still a central element of many healing ceremonies in the Amazon Basin and its ritual consumption has become common among the mestizo populations of South America. Ayahuasca use amongst the indigenous people of the Amazon is a form of traditional medicine and cultural psychiatry. During the last two decades, the [...]
Lire la suiteA Psychotherapeutic View on the Therapeutic Effects of Ritual Ayahuasca Use in the Treatment of Addiction Anja LOIZAGA-VELDER MAPS Bulletin Special Edition, Spring 2013, 36-40. Ayahuasca is a traditional plant preparation of the Amazon basin with psychoactive properties. In recent decades ayahuasca has gained the attention of researchers in multiple disciplines worldwide due to its acclaimed therapeutic and spiritual qualities. It is an admixture of two plants : the harmaline containing vine Banisteriopsis caapi, and the DMT-containing leafs from the Psychotria viridis bush. It is typically administered by a trained expert in a ritual context. The use of ayahuasca has spread beyond the Amazon [...]
Lire la suiteAyahuasca-Assisted Therapy for Addiction: Results from a Preliminary Observational Study in Canada Gerald Thomas, Philippe Lucas, N. Rielle Capler, Kenneth W. Tupper and Gina Martin Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 2013, 6, (1), 1-13. Abstract: Introduction : This paper reports results from a preliminary observational study of ayahuasca-assisted treatment for problematic substance use and stress delivered in a rural First Nations community in British Columbia, Canada. Methods : The “Working with Addiction and Stress” retreats combined four days of group counselling with two expert-led ayahuasca ceremonies. This study collected pre-treatment and six months follow-up data from 12 participants on several psychological and behavioral factors related to [...]
Lire la suiteChapter 1 : You Have a Constitutional Right to Psychedelics. Academic Freedom, Personal Conscience, and Psychotechnologies Thomas B. Roberts From: Ellens, H. J. & T. B. Roberts. 2015. The Psychedelic Policy Quagmire: Health, Law, Freedom, and Society. Santa Barbara, CA. ABC-CLIO. Author’s note: This also applies to the European Charter of Human Rights and to similar national and international statements. Added Mar. 16, 2016. The problem : we do not suppress books and the ideas they contain; we do suppress psychedelic mindstates and the ideas they contain. Censorship is the issue of contention here: intellectual censorship. In this chapter, we’ll spot the single-state fallacy as [...]
Lire la suitePsychedelic Elephant A critique of psychedelic research Peter Webster juillet 2019 https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?type=researcher&query=Psychedelic%20Elephant My title might lead some who are old enough to remember the incident 1 2 to expect from this essay an indictment of the idiots who conducted the "scientific research" during which an elephant was clearly murdered.3 It is always great fun to expose foolishness and willful ignorance. But unfortunately, psychedelic research in those days, the 1950s and 1960s, attracted no small number of other scientists who, at least in retrospect, could also be called idiots. Jean Houston (1967) has described one of her initial observations of LSD administration. The subject was told by [...]
Lire la suiteIntegrating Psychedelic Medicines and Psychiatry : Theory and Methods of a Model Clinic Jordan Sloshower Chapter 7, In : Labate B., Cavnar C. (eds) : Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science, 2018 © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_7 Abstract The past two decades has seen a significant increase in both popular and scientific interest in psychedelic substances and plants as therapeutics for mental illness, addictions, and psychospiritual suffering. Current psychiatric practice privileges a biological paradigm in which the brain is considered the locus of mental illness and symptom-focused treatments are delivered to patients as passive recipients. In contrast, a psychedelic healing paradigm, constructed through [...]
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