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Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin (taken as magic mushrooms) are usually associated with the counterculture of the 1960s. The Beatles, for example, experimented with LSD and their whirling track. You never know what tomorrow brings is an attempt to describe the effects of LSD triggering. Medical research conducted on psychedelic drugs in the 1950s and 1960s and their effects on, for example, alcohol dependence.
When LSD became a banned Schedule 1 substance in the mid-1960s in the United States, funding was reduced to nil and research ceased in the 1970s. Although many felt that it was worth the hardly, it persisted, a government worried about the effects of drugs on young people ensured that the psychedelic genius was firmly questioned.
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It was only ten years ago that he took over, as described by Michael Pollan, who holds professorship at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard. How to change your mind Today, this research into the medical uses of psychedelic drugs continues in institutions such as New York University and Imperial College London.
Researchers are investigating ways in which psychedelic drugs can help end-stage cancer patients cope with their disease, cure addictions such as smoking and alcoholism, and relieve those who suffer from depression and, in the case of MDMA (called Ecstacy), stress disorder.
Volunteers take psilocybin on medical-monitored "trips" to suitable hospital rooms, then record and discuss with medical staff their experiences and the beneficial effects of medications, if any.
The results, says Pollan – who took LSD and magic mushrooms as part of his book research – show that the medical use of such substances can improve the well-being of patients. Psychedelic drugs do not create dependency and patients usually only need to take it one-time to reap the benefits.
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LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide – was first synthesized in 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman as part of a medical research program. His psychedelic properties were not discovered until 1943, when Hoffman accidentally ingested them.
Hoffmann lived a typical acidic journey, a kind of mystical and ineffable experience during which hallucinations, peaceful feelings, the sense of self-dissolution occur, and the user feels that it's part of something bigger.
LSD was used as a psychiatric medicine after 1947, but its adoption by the counterculture in the 1960s, encouraged by writers like Ken Kesey and his professor and acid guru Timothy Leary, who thought it would lead to a more peaceful world , it becomes a widely used recreational drug.
LSD was perceived as a shortcut to a mystical experience and played an important role in the ideology of love and peace of the 1960s. Psilocybin, found in some fungi, has a psychedelic effect similar to that of LSD. It was part of the medical research programs and was intended for intensive use for recreational purposes. Psilocybin is usually used in current clinical trials.
So, how do psychedelics help patients? The experience can change the patient's view of the world and give an addict the will and desire to end his addiction, or a person with terminal illness the strength to cope with death. It's a question of neuroscience, Pollan says.
Neuroscientists believe that psychedelic drugs can remove the constraints that the brain imposes on our conscious experience, thus allowing us to experience the world differently and, in the general view, more positively.
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Unlocking what it means to be conscious is one of the big challenges facing science in the 21st century. To simplify a complex – and scientifically controversial – theory, some neuroscientists believe that our consciousness is the product of a hierarchical process: some parts of the brain impose constraints on the way we perceive the world, and these constraints dictate our perceptions of the world. In short, we perceive the outside world of how the brain has been programmed to allow us to perceive it.
The evolution has led the brain to decide that a certain worldview – the acceptance of a particular reality – is beneficial for our survival. Among other things, this usually involves placing our individual at the center of this world.
According to Pollan, psychedelic drugs eliminate these constraints, allowing information to circulate freely in our brain and upset the hierarchy.
"In this model, the default mode network – which combines parts of the pre-frontal cortex, where our executive function is, with all memory and emotion centers – is, in the eyes of many neuroscientists, our "conductor", "Pollan says in an interview with the To post.
Drugs favor a change of perspective. You see your life and its problems differently
Dr. Michael Pollan
The brain tests show that this network sees a significant drop in activity if a subject took psychedelic drugs, which allows us to perceive the outside world without interference.
As author and writer Aldous Huxley wrote in 1954, psychedelics open the doors to perception. When this happens, the network becomes unregulated and the sense of self dissolves.
"We are suddenly in a state without ego," Pollan said. "The ego is a series of barriers – walls between you and nature, you and others, you and your own mind, you and your subconscious. When you lower these barriers, more information comes in. You feel that you are part of a larger entity. "
It is possible, he says, that psychedelics allow us to see the world as it is rather than see how our brain wants us to see it.
The patient's different view of the world under the influence of psychedelics can lead to behavioral changes as the drug clears.
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"Being alcoholic or depressed, you look at life from a certain point of view, and it's destructive," says Pollan. "Drugs favor a change of perspective. You see your life and its problems differently. Changing this perspective and seeing things from a different perspective can be constructive. "
Alcoholics and smokers, for example, while they are under the influence of psychedelics, may realize that they must not harm their bodies – and they bring this awareness back to their daily reality when the drug clears. Patients who die of cancer and who are part of the research said that the experience – the glimpse of another reality – made it easier for them to cope with death.
This treatment is only suitable for a certain type of mental problem, Pollan emphasizes. It will not solve all the problems of the world, as Timothy Leary thought. "The mental problems that medications seem to work well on share some brands. There is a kind of sticky – you are mentally stuck in a negative groove.
"For example, you can not imagine spending the day without another cigarette or drink. You can not imagine finding someone worthy of love. You see yourself in a negative way and this point of view is reinforced by your behavior, as well as by the predictable results of your behavior: you are stuck in these furrows. For many people, medications temporarily dissolve these throats. It's liberating, "says Pollan.
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The problem of psychedelic experiences, as first-year philosophy students will say, lies in their veracity – the mere fact of feeling something real does not mean that it is real. And if patients base their new positive perceptions on an illusion?
Pollan agrees that veracity is important for metaphysics, but says that most health professionals are not interested in it. Their approach is pragmatic – the psychedelic experience helps patients, whether it is a true experience or an illusion.
"People can not start answering that, no one knows, but … If, for example, a psychedelic experience allows a patient with cancer to die with serenity, who should he withdraw from it? Pollan said.
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