Griffiths was the driving force behind mainstream acceptance of psychedelic medicine with his work at Johns Hopkins. He showed that psilocybin was not only effective but was the most effective treatment for terminal psychiatric care and addiction, and he did it all within the mode of academic medical research. I hope his death was painless. A great scientist deserves no less.
Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
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Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#12How is this different from escaping problems through drug use?
Psychedelics are so different from alcohol and narcotics, idk how to explain. Instead of being distracted or numbed from your problems, you may concentrate on them deeply and from new angles.
But delusions can occur too. Ymmv.
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#13This is not mentioned in the article, but upon learning about his prognosis Griffith worked on establishing an endowment to support the continued research on psychedelics and "secular spirituality and well-being".
I recommend watching Griffith's video message [0] where he talks about the research and reflects on his condition. I also recommend the conversation with Sam Harris that someone else shared in a comment.
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#14I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…
What do psychedelics achieve here that ordinary meditation as in e.g. vipassana does not? They seem like a pointless shortcut, and potentially a problematic one. If the hallucinatory dynamic is specifically what you care about, that's also typical of perfectly ordinary experiences such as dreaming, or even just drifting in and out of sleep. What "treasure" are we gaining by dosing the brain with chemicals, that we co…
This is very similar to "what do antidepressant medications achieve that regular diet and exercise do not? "
Assuming equal efficacy is possible in the first place, and assuming every human is even capable of reaching those levels, there are people who can't spend the sometimes years it takes to practice meditation to a point where they can achieve psychidelic efficacy.
Why not have both available and you can do you?
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#15I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…
Psychdelics can and do kill meaningful amount of people, almost exclusively due to injuries while under their affects.
147 psychedelic deaths over three years - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1523208/
I'll have to find a youtube video but there's a good one with one of the psychdelic guru's describing a trip where had mis-dosed (he didn't realize the mushrooms he was consuming were significantly stronger than anticipated) and he ended up stuck in a "loop" of not being able to start his car.. for three or four hours. His exprience was distressing but not much of an injury, but he then delves into a story about how a similar loop resulted in one of his friends dying from repeatedly falling into cement.
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#16I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…
What do psychedelics achieve here that ordinary meditation as in e.g. vipassana does not? They seem like a pointless shortcut, and potentially a problematic one. If the hallucinatory dynamic is specifically what you care about, that's also typical of perfectly ordinary experiences such as dreaming, or even just drifting in and out of sleep. What "treasure" are we gaining by dosing the brain with chemicals, that we co…
The argument here is that psychedelics are more than "chemicals" and comparing them to drifting in and out of sleep is not a real comparison. Can't argue against them sometimes being problematic though, of course, but the argument here isn't acknowledging the real psychedelic experience. If curious, check out some reports on https://www.youtube.com/@Vivec
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#17I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…
When you say legalize broadly i guess you mean allow doctors to prescribe it to their patients with proper protocols and not just allow anyone to buy it over the counter?
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#18How is this different from escaping problems through drug use?
Is it fair to infer that you have a value judgment on escaping problems through drug use, and think it's wrong or bad?
If so, why?
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#19I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…
When you say legalize broadly i guess you mean allow doctors to prescribe it to their patients with proper protocols and not just allow anyone to buy it over the counter?
When I talk about legalising drugs, I mean being able to buy them with the same level of control as beer or cigarettes.
Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do psychedelics achieve here that ordinary meditation as in e.g. vipassana does not? They seem like a pointless shortcut, and potentially a problematic one. If the hallucinatory dynamic is specifically what you care about, that's also typical of perfectly ordinary experiences such as dreaming, or even just drifting in and out of sleep. What "treasure" are we gaining by dosing the brain with chemicals, that we co…
The argument here is that psychedelics are more than "chemicals" and comparing them to drifting in and out of sleep is not a real comparison. Can't argue against them sometimes being problematic though, of course, but the argument here isn't acknowledging the real psychedelic experience. If curious, check out some reports on https://www.youtube.com/@Vivec
What I compared to drifting in and out of sleep was merely one effect of psychedelics that people tend to be curious about, namely hallucination. Moreover one can very much approach these dreamlike states with a meditation-like, non-judgmental, non self-centered mental posture, and this is going to make their effects even clearer.