Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe there have been studies done on the detrimental effects of regular marijuana use on adolescents and resulting (permanently) impaired cognition. Having smoked way too much marijuana in my early life, it seems fairly obvious that regular drug use is potentially damaging to the developing brain (or any brain for that matter), independent of how interesting or intense the experiences while under the influence m…
Marijuana isn't generally considered a psychedelic.
Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
31–40 of 64 posts
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think psychedelics are damaging for younger people? I doubt this has been studied.
I believe there have been studies done on the detrimental effects of regular marijuana use on adolescents and resulting (permanently) impaired cognition. Having smoked way too much marijuana in my early life, it seems fairly obvious that regular drug use is potentially damaging to the developing brain (or any brain for that matter), independent of how interesting or intense the experiences while under the influence m…
I'd like to see this done with good lsd instead of marijuana.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is the theory implies that people with brain damage should experience psychological effects similar to those induced by psychedelic drugs, and we don't see anything like that.
we don't see anything like that Yes we do. For quite some effects seen in patients in psychiatry it's not too hard to come up with a drug which induces similar experiences. Take paranoia for instance. And hallucinations of course. Or, to mention an extreme and very rare example: there are people lacking a certain connection between the low-level visual processing and the parts translating that to known objects (sorry…
If the hypothesis was true, we would expect the effects of brain damage to reliably create a richer and more psychedelic experience for the sufferer. Hallucinations and paranoia are only a tiny subset of the effects experienced by people on psychedelics, so logically the only part of the hypothesis that becomes more probable is that the brain usually filters out hallucinations and paranoia. But I won't accept that either, because neither brain damage or psychedelics reliably produce paranoia, and brain damage does not reliably produce hallucinations.
I don't rule anything out, but the filter hypothesis seems a lot less likely to me given the evidence, than the simpler explanation: That psychedelics just mess up the normal functioning of the brain to create a different experience. This requires less assumptions than the filter hypothesis, which is akin to suggesting that the brain is actually drunk all the time, but alcohol merely removes the filter to allow us to experience the drunk phenomenology.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
we don't see anything like that Yes we do. For quite some effects seen in patients in psychiatry it's not too hard to come up with a drug which induces similar experiences. Take paranoia for instance. And hallucinations of course. Or, to mention an extreme and very rare example: there are people lacking a certain connection between the low-level visual processing and the parts translating that to known objects (sorry…
If the hypothesis was true, we would expect the effects of brain damage to reliably create a richer and more psychedelic experience for the sufferer. Hallucinations and paranoia are only a tiny subset of the effects experienced by people on psychedelics, so logically the only part of the hypothesis that becomes more probable is that the brain usually filters out hallucinations and paranoia. But I won't accept that ei…
Brain trauma is inherently more localized than drugs, so expecting a 1:1 mapping is hardly reasonable.
However, fever lack of sleep and other non localized effects can produce a wide range of Hallucinations.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the hypothesis was true, we would expect the effects of brain damage to reliably create a richer and more psychedelic experience for the sufferer. Hallucinations and paranoia are only a tiny subset of the effects experienced by people on psychedelics, so logically the only part of the hypothesis that becomes more probable is that the brain usually filters out hallucinations and paranoia. But I won't accept that ei…
Brain trauma is inherently more localized than drugs, so expecting a 1:1 mapping is hardly reasonable. However, fever lack of sleep and other non localized effects can produce a wide range of Hallucinations.
I agree that fever and lack of sleep can produce hallucinations, but I'm not convinced that they are non-localized effects in the brain, nor that psychedelic chemicals are non-localized in the brain.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is the theory implies that people with brain damage should experience psychological effects similar to those induced by psychedelic drugs, and we don't see anything like that.
It doesn’t imply that. “Brain damage” usually means gross structural damage, while psychedelics seem to operate at the neurotransmitter level.
Okay so damaging the neurotransmitters (filters) should create a more psychedelic experience for that person. I find that unlikely.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is the theory implies that people with brain damage should experience psychological effects similar to those induced by psychedelic drugs, and we don't see anything like that.
Have you seen "my beautiful broken brain"(2014) ? It's exactly about that happening to one person. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSfpA3AEKmY
No hadn't seen it.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe there have been studies done on the detrimental effects of regular marijuana use on adolescents and resulting (permanently) impaired cognition. Having smoked way too much marijuana in my early life, it seems fairly obvious that regular drug use is potentially damaging to the developing brain (or any brain for that matter), independent of how interesting or intense the experiences while under the influence m…
Marijuana isn't generally considered a psychedelic.
marijuana is definitely a psychedelic. eat a few grams of hash and tell me it's not.
Re: Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
we don't see anything like that Yes we do. For quite some effects seen in patients in psychiatry it's not too hard to come up with a drug which induces similar experiences. Take paranoia for instance. And hallucinations of course. Or, to mention an extreme and very rare example: there are people lacking a certain connection between the low-level visual processing and the parts translating that to known objects (sorry…
If the hypothesis was true, we would expect the effects of brain damage to reliably create a richer and more psychedelic experience for the sufferer. Hallucinations and paranoia are only a tiny subset of the effects experienced by people on psychedelics, so logically the only part of the hypothesis that becomes more probable is that the brain usually filters out hallucinations and paranoia. But I won't accept that ei…
Note I'm not claiming the filtration theory is true or false - I also have doubts about it - I'm just saying your rejection of it based on 'we don't see such effects because of brain damage ergo the theory doesn't hold' isn't exactly sound. Actually I'm not sure you can use brain damage to prove anything here. It's also too general of a term for me. As far as I'm concerned a serious head trauma where part of the brain is removed as well as a lesion applied locally for the purpose of neurophysiological research are both brain damage.
If the hypothesis was true, we would expect the effects of brain damage to reliably create a richer and more psychedelic experience for the sufferer.
Why 'reliably'? Not all brain damage is the same. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the theory but I don't think it argues that, nor is it what happens in reality.
Also, why at all? Why would certain brain damage not be able to create a less rich experience? The theory doesn't say that is impossible I think?