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Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

independent.co.uk

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Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#231

Post by bencollier49 »

cyberpip wrote: post #225
bencollier49 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, certain psychedelics have the effect of imbuing everything with significance, which results in apparently "earth shattering" revelations during an experience which later turn out to be dross. Unfortunately in some cases people carry on believing the dross. It's like hearing a song or a joke in a dream which seems really beautiful or funny, and turns out to be utterly dull when you wake up and replay it…

I'd agree that it does make everything seem significant, at least for a period, but it's what comes after that has significance, after a period of integration. It creates an ability or a moment to come at a problem from a new angle, previously closed off to a person due to their established thinking patterns and past experiences. I think the important thing to consider here is that if a person goes into these experie…

I'd say persistent relations between unrelated ideas, magical thinking and schizotypal behaviour. Also potentially, fixation on "new perspectives" which might not actually be optimal.

That said, I largely agree with your perspective as well: "The opposite is also true".

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#232

Post by lalos »

dqpb wrote: post #222
lalos wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the ugly things associated with psychedelic drug use? I would think the 'worst' would be becoming a full blown hippie and remove yourself from society but still that would be a personal choice. What are the traits you see as a worse person?

Thats clever! Warp a persons mind with drugs and then chalk up any extreme behavior change to personal choice.

The adjective worse was what I was asking about. What is worse about a person that decides to live off the grid? or not care about materialistic things? Yes the decision/change was extreme and caused by the experience of the drug use but why classify it as worse? I'm not saying drugs are safe, just that I've never heard of people doing psychedelics and behaving like alcoholics, addicts of pain killers, etc. That is why I asked what examples of 'worse' did he notice, I want to hear from his experience maybe he is on to something.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#233

Post by taurath »

pmoriarty wrote: post #90
cyberpip wrote: post #64

Lately, all this media attention to psychedelics reminds me of this Terence McKenna quote: "[W]hy this[psychedelics] is not four-inch headlines on every newspaper on the planet I cannot understand because I don’t know what news you were waiting for, but this is the news that I was waiting for. It’s an incredible challenge to human understanding to try and make sense of this." from https://www.asktmk.com/talks/Rap+Dan…

"[W]hy this[psychedelics] is not four-inch headlines on every newspaper on the planet" Psychedelics might reveal to you that the neat little reality that you thought you had all figured out is a lot stranger and different from from what you thought it was, that your understanding of it might be all wrong, and that your place in it might not be all that cozy and secure. The experience could put everything in to questi…

> "Psychedelics might reveal to you that the neat little reality that you thought you had all figured out is a lot stranger and different from from what you thought it was"

Or for people that are severely depressed, that your broken reality and thought loops that are deeply ingrained can actually be healed without a major neuronal shift.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#234

Post by grabeat »

gepi79 wrote: post #214
simplemts wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Do not fall for the romantic tales of psychonauts to reach some kind of enlightenment. All these people suffer from psychosis." Nothing like a blanket statement in your first sentence to immediately discredit your argument. "All black people... All psychonauts... All Americans..." When you look at it yourself... doesn't it sound stupid to try to argue this way? There are now hundreds of studies showing numerous bene…

> "Nothing like a blanket statement in your first sentence to immediately discredit your argument." My opinion is as valid as the opinion of psychonauts. Maybe more so because I do not rave about great insights about the universe or gods or aliens or chakra or kundalini or third eye or old souls; New Age stuff whose proponents are famous for the promotion of altered states (!) by meditation or yoga or drugs. > "There…

No chakras, gods or old souls are needed for you to agree to the statement that some aspects of reality are constructed by the human mind (cf. Kant). It explains, for instance, why you perceive what you're sitting on right now as a "chair" rather than the mere collection of atoms and molecules that it's actually made of. Nature outside of the mind has no concept of an object, and no concept of a subject. Acid may help one see reality that way, if one is curious and mentally stable enough to want to.

Disclaimer: NOT intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#235

Post by taneq »

b6 wrote: post #226
chongli wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not the GP but I will give it a try. Unequivocally bad: Death of a loved one. Unequivocally good: Birth of a child. Most people tend to experience these things more than once in a normal life. They represent a reality more real and more final than even psychedelics could manage: life and death. Impermanence.

> Unequivocally bad: Death of a loved one. Imagine how it would be if we didn't die. So is death good or bad? I have a family friend whose first wife died of cancer. After mourning for years, he found another woman and married her. Unlike his first wife, she was insistent on having a baby. When their baby was born, he told us that, having held his child in his arms, he understood now that it would have been a huge mi…

You're being obtuse. If losing a loved one before their time isn't "bad" then your definition of the word "bad" is useless, or at least irrelevant to our current discussion.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#236

Post by mythrwy »

GuiA wrote: post #199
yosito wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I'm not saying we have a full picture of what's going on, but the scientific method is much more effective at helping us arrive at a real description of what is going on than any arbitrary religion of the past.

The scientific method is the most important tool that humanity has ever developed, without question. That being said, the belief that the scientific method can build up arbitrarily accurate models of any observable phenomena is without foundation, yet some behave as if it is obviously true. Until we have something like a unified model of physics, there is no reason to believe that statement to be true. (and in fact,…

I question that the scientific method is the most important tool humanity has ever developed.

Maybe numbers and language (especially written) are more important. Oh ya, and fire.

But the scientific method is way up there in important, no argument there.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#237

Post by b6 »

taneq wrote: post #235
b6 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unequivocally bad: Death of a loved one. Imagine how it would be if we didn't die. So is death good or bad? I have a family friend whose first wife died of cancer. After mourning for years, he found another woman and married her. Unlike his first wife, she was insistent on having a baby. When their baby was born, he told us that, having held his child in his arms, he understood now that it would have been a huge mi…

You're being obtuse. If losing a loved one before their time isn't "bad" then your definition of the word "bad" is useless, or at least irrelevant to our current discussion.

What is "their time"? Do you know the correct time for each person to die?

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#238

Post by [deleted] »

gepi79 wrote: post #89
stouset wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your consensus is only general among irresponsible psychonauts that were lucky enough in the past. You're using the words "irresponsible" and "lucky" here to trigger an emotional response that these kinds of risks are anything but rare, which simply isn't supported by any data. I "irresponsibly" crossed the street today. Am I "lucky" I wasn't run over by a bus? > The general consensus is to use psychedelics only as…

Crossing the street is dangerous but mostly under your control. Unlike a trip. Anyway the comparison is lame. The comparison with an exercise program is lame too. Of course an unusual big effort or training load is bad and might harm you or kill you. A bad diet like paleo or keto might lead to an early death as well. The numbers show that many people are prone to mental issues or have them. Not a small percentage but…

[deleted]

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#239

Post by SJWDisagree111 »

bfuller wrote: post #133
wincy wrote: post #15

I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve heard and read it seems like there’s no way to know what will happen until you try it. A certain percentage of the population goes to hell in the most literal sens…

I agree in that psychedelics should be absolutely a last resort. That being said LSD was a miracle for me personally and saved my life.

So you are mentally ill. Yet you feel justified giving advice on the internet.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#240

Post by dang »

SJWDisagree111 wrote: post #239
bfuller wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in that psychedelics should be absolutely a last resort. That being said LSD was a miracle for me personally and saved my life.

So you are mentally ill. Yet you feel justified giving advice on the internet.

We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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