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A Psychedelic Renaissance

philanthropy.com

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Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#101

Post by vokep »

Chris2048 wrote: post #90
netcan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a Hegelian-esque pendulum to it. Discretionary uses of mind-altering drugs, especially those that have been prominent in youth culture, pop culture and party culture face massive resistance. Look how long cannabis is taking to reach legalization. Look at the barriers to medical scientists who want to study psychedelics. In that sort of environment, it's near inevitable that the remaining "torch bearer…

What is "spiritual use"?

Probably use that is intended as general self-improvement and finding better perspective on life in general, as opposed to the same but for something going wrong (therapeutic) or for fun (recreational). Really it could fit under therapeutic use.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#102

Post by filoeleven »

blendo wrote: post #33
tlb wrote: post #2

The funding discussed here is for scientific studies. But it's not clear what important question is still open and needs further study. From what I've read [1, 2, 3, 4], the psychological benefits are well-established and powerful if used in the right mindset, and the health risks are also well-established and rare or minor if used carefully. So science seems to have answered the questions it can answer. The obstacle…

Here's one scientific question I'd like to see answered: If a patient is currently taking anti-depressants (or other meds) for the treatment of PTSD, depression, or addiction, and if a physician thinks a psychedelic treatment might help, how should they understand the interaction between the psych meds and the hallucinogen? Since we're dealing with ill people, a larger amount of care is warranted.

It depends on the meds. MAOIs have a strengthening effect with every psychedelic, as far as I’ve read.

Anyone going for an ayahuasca treatment needs to know that an MAOI is part of that brew, so they’d have to stop their medication some weeks beforehand or risk potential death if already taking one.

The places running medical studies like Johns Hopkins probably have good info on interactions, unless they’re turning away study participants who take medication. Since they’re specifically looking at treating depression, anxiety, addiction, I suspect they’re accepting people who are already on a variety of medications.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#103

Post by blotter_paper »

_carl_jung wrote: post #65
blotter_paper wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of overselling the benefits and downplaying the risk, I'll say this: even the trips I've had that were hell in the moment have (at least seemed to) teach me something about myself, and I don't regret them in the least. This isn't to say that a bad trip is something to be sought after, and you should definitely read up on set and setting before tripping (I would recommend being outdoors in the country on p…

Just to add my own experience. I am an experienced user of psychedelics with a lot of trips under my belt. The last time I took LSD I wound up thinking that my existence on earth was part of a universe that I myself had generated as the totality of subjective consciousness and thought I had control over it. In a fit of excitable mania I ran around my sitter's home and leapt off their second story balcony. I'm still r…

That's an interesting perspective, and I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you. I was under the impression that those "jumping out of a window" stories were urban legends. I've definitely had psychedelics affect my beliefs about the universe in crazy ways (I briefly believed in god during a mushroom trip), and seen it in other people (a friend who normally has very down-to-earth beliefs about the universe once believed he could communicate with me psychically), but never in any dangerous ways.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#104

Post by blotter_paper »

kenneth wrote: post #61
mirimir wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I wasn't going to share this again. But now I must. So I'd introduced a friend to LSD. They liked it a lot, and wanted to trip again the next day. I advised against it, because tolerance would reduce effects. But no, it had to be. So we took maybe twice as much, and it was still disappointing. And then, being a total dumbass, I suggested that we smoke some marijuana. Now my friend was impressed. Indeed, they were…

I've experienced that exact bad trip, at it was horrible enough that I have never done psychedelics since. The one time in my life I thought I was dead. Not worth the risk to try again. Plenty of other drugs that have real benefits without as much potential for a bad trip. MDMA is much more my speed.

MDMA is a lovely drug, but has it's own risks. I honestly don't think I would have gotten into programming if a friend hadn't suggested it while I was under the effects of MDMA (he had suggested it many times before without me taking the suggestion seriously, but I ordered a copy of Think Python the next day). I'm very thankful for the impact that drug has had on my life. The friend who prompted me to start programming had two months of severe anxiety after that bean drop. He had previously taken MDA about a week prior, which is something of an analog; my understanding is that they both dump your built-up serotonin, and if you dump too much serotonin at once you can have a rough time of life once the bliss wears off. Also, the literature seems to be mixed concerning the neurotoxicity of MDMA IIRC.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#105

Post by blotter_paper »

puranjay wrote: post #59
tomhoward wrote: post #49

This recent interview [1] with Jamie Wheal, co-author of Stealing Fire [2] is worth watching if you're interested in this topic. He's observed the psychedelic "revolution" in recent years, and has both positive and negative things to say about it, but on the whole he's deeply pessimistic about where it seems to be going. His observations about fashion-driven, Instagram-performative "enlightenment", and the propensity…

I really wonder if anyone ever really does anything for themselves anymore. Every experience, even the most intimate and introspective ones, seem to be telegraphed and advertised as a part of your "branded identity"

Yeah, people do things for themselves. I have written, drawn, and programmed many things that I've never shared with anyone, and never intended to share. In some cases I've destroyed the work in such a way that I couldn't reproduce it exactly even if I wanted to. You could argue that I'm putting that on display right now, but I could just as well be lying to you, so I don't think that argument would hold up with regard to my motives. Also, my identity here isn't easy to tie to my identity IRL; if it was intended to be, I would have picked a more professional and socially acceptable name than blotter_paper :)

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#106

Post by pmoriarty »

ak39 wrote: post #56
tomhoward wrote: post #49

This recent interview [1] with Jamie Wheal, co-author of Stealing Fire [2] is worth watching if you're interested in this topic. He's observed the psychedelic "revolution" in recent years, and has both positive and negative things to say about it, but on the whole he's deeply pessimistic about where it seems to be going. His observations about fashion-driven, Instagram-performative "enlightenment", and the propensity…

Thank you for the video links. I had never heard of Jamie Wheal before - I enjoyed listening to his thoughts. I also enjoy listening to Terence McKenna and Alan Watts every once in a while ... most of what they say often sounds completely irrational, outrageously verbose, ridiculous and border-line ramblings of "mad men" ... but their words are also powerfully disarming, deeply engaging and resonant and finally emoti…

I'd encourage you to have a listen to Erik Davis' "Expanding Mind" podcast.[1]

Erik Davis is, to my mind, the most interesting and intelligent of the post-McKenna visionaries/psychonauts. He's at the same time much more critical than most of his predecessors, and very open to an interested in extraordinary experiences and what he calls "high weirdness".

[1] - https://techgnosis.com/category/podcast/

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#107

Post by erikpukinskis »

cerealbad wrote: post #55

any link between the melted art visual neural networks produce and the visuals that are reported during various psychedelic sessions? how plausible is the theory that what is occurring is just various networks in the brain deteriorating while the drug is being flushed through the system? a type of audio-visual anesthesia experienced in an otherwise conscious semi-lucid waking state.

I think this is pretty accurate. I think psychedelics are basically like the electrical box in your house, but for your brain. You can flip the breakers and see what happens with different circuits disabled. Since normally everything in your brain operates simultaneously this can be very instructive for learning what's happening.

Once you come back to sobriety, you can then use what you saw to start training yourself to move your attention between those circuits, giving you basically better brain control.

Neural nets are trained on the tiniest tiniest slices of human experiences so their feedback has a similar character to partly disabled brains.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#108

Post by _carl_jung »

blotter_paper wrote: post #103
_carl_jung wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add my own experience. I am an experienced user of psychedelics with a lot of trips under my belt. The last time I took LSD I wound up thinking that my existence on earth was part of a universe that I myself had generated as the totality of subjective consciousness and thought I had control over it. In a fit of excitable mania I ran around my sitter's home and leapt off their second story balcony. I'm still r…

That's an interesting perspective, and I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you. I was under the impression that those "jumping out of a window" stories were urban legends. I've definitely had psychedelics affect my beliefs about the universe in crazy ways (I briefly believed in god during a mushroom trip), and seen it in other people (a friend who normally has very down-to-earth beliefs about the universe once be…

Thanks. I also thought that they were urban legends. I do still think it's rare enough to not worry too much about, but at the same time I think the common narrative among psychedelic proponents that "if anything, it makes you _more_ alert/aware/whatever" is unrealistic.

As a community, though, psychedelic users have a pragmatic mindset about preparation and are generally sensible.

Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance

#109

Post by kostadin »

pmoriarty wrote: post #106
ak39 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the video links. I had never heard of Jamie Wheal before - I enjoyed listening to his thoughts. I also enjoy listening to Terence McKenna and Alan Watts every once in a while ... most of what they say often sounds completely irrational, outrageously verbose, ridiculous and border-line ramblings of "mad men" ... but their words are also powerfully disarming, deeply engaging and resonant and finally emoti…

I'd encourage you to have a listen to Erik Davis' "Expanding Mind" podcast.[1] Erik Davis is, to my mind, the most interesting and intelligent of the post-McKenna visionaries/psychonauts. He's at the same time much more critical than most of his predecessors, and very open to an interested in extraordinary experiences and what he calls "high weirdness". [1] - https://techgnosis.com/category/podcast/

Agreed. Techgnosis was a very influential read for me and Expanding Mind is still a very unique program.

A bit late probably, but for anyone reading this I highly recommend tracking down Davis’s interview with McKenna conducted shortly before he passed. It was probably one of the first things I heard from either and became interested for life in both.

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