7 ms·

Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects

250 points by lainon 8y ago

empath75 8y ago
This is a fantastic article and I intend to spend more time reading it in detail. Articles about psychedelics tend to be either dismissive or full of woo and this takes them seriously as tools to better understand the physical basis of human consciousness. A major thing I took away from my experience with lsd and mdma was how impossible it seemed that such a small amount of material could so utterly transform my experience of the world. Anything that does that seems like it must be a powerful tool for understanding what the brain does. I’m glad that scientists and the establishment are finally taking it seriously. I think the first and second waves of scientific research (as he calls them) ran aground after the early pioneers couldn’t resist evangelizing. The current generation seems to have learned the dangers of becoming another Timothy Leary and have remained clinical and detached in their descriptions.
- rootw0rm 8y ago
  I'm not sure about that (re: evangelizing). Dr. Shulgin was pretty enthusiastic. I have every book of theirs, autographed. Dr. Nichols is fairly clinical though. I don't know who the up and comers are in the field, but they'll have some huge shoes to fill.
- WillReplyfFood 8y ago
  Thats what drugs do, they overwrite the brain patterns to recommend a one size-fits all solution to all problems - more drug - or more drug research. Its called psychological addiction - the you ceases to be, and the it becomes me. Have i told you how great mdma is. Everyone should try it. I never would have expected that overriding my reward system would reveal my normal life to be such a bland mess and ilusion.
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  Alcohol is actually quite unique in how it requires such a large dose in order to have an effect. An active dose of ethanol for an average person is somewhere in the realm of 10-50 grams (depending a lot on the size of the person and their tolerance). Most drugs have an active dose in the <100 mg dose, LSD is particularly low, at <100µg.
- blkhp19 8y ago
  As someone who recently tried MDMA, I second this. Marijuana gives me intense anxiety, so I was very nervous to take something “hard” like MDMA. I couldn’t be happier that I took the risk and tried it. I suspect that my first time “rolling” permanently changed pathways in my brain in one of the best ways possible; on MDMA, I experienced what it felt like to feel unconditional love for complete strangers around me. I genuinely felt like I cared and wanted to connect with everyone. I saw beauty in people I wouldn’t even notice in my normal, routine life. This, of course, was an artificially created and temporary feeling, but 6 months later, I still feel the affects from that night. After trying MDMA, I’m convinced that the fastest way to change yourself is through drugs. Neuroplasticity goes down as you get older, but it seems like certain drugs can accelerate changes to your brain anyways. I have yet to try psychedelics, but can understand how they would have similar, mind altering affects. I recognize a lot of this is pseudoscience and needs to be better understood, so I’m happy to see research is being done. Drugs can be a very dangerous thing, but they can also have some extremely positive affects. Figuring out how to maximize benefits while reducing risk is something that I believe will benefit many people.
  - collyw 8y ago
    Politicians ban this. The world would be a better place if the people in control took some.
    - eqdw 8y ago
      I guarantee you that they are taking some. The hypocrisy is infuriating
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
oneman 8y ago
Abstract: In all theories, psychedelic drugs are mind revealing.
sunyataishere 8y ago
seeing the terms 'ego-disolution' and 'filtration-theory' makes me think the author really did his homework
rgrieselhuber 8y ago
Check out Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Metaprogramming-Human-Biocomputer-Experiments/dp/0692217894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527471365&sr=8-1&keywords=programming+and+metaprogramming https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Metaprogramming-Human-Bio...
bwang29 8y ago
It seems like the filtration theory still produced by far the most significant impact to our current understanding of psychedelic effects. What I was surprised to learn was most research in this domain clearly distinguish adult and non-adult, and the filtration theory implies that kids or younger adults are more creative, have more imaginary freedom, and less emotionally stable - meaning they're naturally more "on drug" - make me wonder if 1 year old really feel like sky-high everyday.
- dlwdlw 8y ago
  Also may explain why they can be damaging to younger people. Like disturbing plants before their root system (filtration system) takes root tends to kill or damage the plants entire lifespan.
  - akvadrako 8y ago
    Why do you think psychedelics are damaging for younger people? I doubt this has been studied.
    - virtualwhys 8y ago
      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 may be.
      - collyw 8y ago
        Marijuana isn't generally considered a psychedelic.
        titzer 8y ago
        lmgtfy: http://psychedelics.com/thc/is-marijuana-a-psychedelic/ http://psychedelics.com/thc/is-marijuana-a-psychedelic/
walru 8y ago
It's too important in life to challenge yourself completely. That comes in many many forms. Allowing your brain to travel to places you're not determining is among/probably the most enlightening.
sova 8y ago
“Extremely low doses, known as microdoses, have been anecdotally associated with improvements in cognitive performance (Waldman, 2017; Wong, 2017) 'a claim that urgently requires empirical verification through controlled research' (Carhart-Harris and Nutt, 2017, p. 1103). Theoretical attempts to account for the reported effects of microdosing have yet to emerge in the literature and therefore present an important opportunity to future theoretical endeavors.”
omar3550 8y ago
Whoever is doing an experiment in a controlled environment (e.g. lab) and is seeking test subjects in the bay area, please let me know.
alexandercrohde 8y ago
I haven't tried any of the drugs described in this piece, and intend to keep it thus. That said, overall, I think this is a fascinating approach to reverse-engineering the most impressive machine in existence: the human brain. This particular article though feels hand-waivy by the end. Until we can validate these theories of mechanics [e.g. entropic brain theory] (e.g. by stimulating certain brain networks directly), they seem beyond speculative.
- collyw 8y ago
  You should try.

250 points by lainon 8y ago

This is a fantastic article and I intend to spend more time reading it in detail. Articles about psychedelics tend to be either dismissive or full of woo and this takes them seriously as tools to better understand the physical basis of human consciousness. A major thing I took away from my experience with lsd and mdma was how impossible it seemed that such a small amount of material could so utterly transform my experience of the world. Anything that does that seems like it must be a powerful tool for understanding what the brain does. I’m glad that scientists and the establishment are finally taking it seriously. I think the first and second waves of scientific research (as he calls them) ran aground after the early pioneers couldn’t resist evangelizing. The current generation seems to have learned the dangers of becoming another Timothy Leary and have remained clinical and detached in their descriptions.

rootw0rm 8y ago
I'm not sure about that (re: evangelizing). Dr. Shulgin was pretty enthusiastic. I have every book of theirs, autographed. Dr. Nichols is fairly clinical though. I don't know who the up and comers are in the field, but they'll have some huge shoes to fill.
WillReplyfFood 8y ago
Thats what drugs do, they overwrite the brain patterns to recommend a one size-fits all solution to all problems - more drug - or more drug research. Its called psychological addiction - the you ceases to be, and the it becomes me. Have i told you how great mdma is. Everyone should try it. I never would have expected that overriding my reward system would reveal my normal life to be such a bland mess and ilusion.
toomanybeersies 8y ago
Alcohol is actually quite unique in how it requires such a large dose in order to have an effect. An active dose of ethanol for an average person is somewhere in the realm of 10-50 grams (depending a lot on the size of the person and their tolerance). Most drugs have an active dose in the <100 mg dose, LSD is particularly low, at <100µg.
blkhp19 8y ago
As someone who recently tried MDMA, I second this. Marijuana gives me intense anxiety, so I was very nervous to take something “hard” like MDMA. I couldn’t be happier that I took the risk and tried it. I suspect that my first time “rolling” permanently changed pathways in my brain in one of the best ways possible; on MDMA, I experienced what it felt like to feel unconditional love for complete strangers around me. I genuinely felt like I cared and wanted to connect with everyone. I saw beauty in people I wouldn’t even notice in my normal, routine life. This, of course, was an artificially created and temporary feeling, but 6 months later, I still feel the affects from that night. After trying MDMA, I’m convinced that the fastest way to change yourself is through drugs. Neuroplasticity goes down as you get older, but it seems like certain drugs can accelerate changes to your brain anyways. I have yet to try psychedelics, but can understand how they would have similar, mind altering affects. I recognize a lot of this is pseudoscience and needs to be better understood, so I’m happy to see research is being done. Drugs can be a very dangerous thing, but they can also have some extremely positive affects. Figuring out how to maximize benefits while reducing risk is something that I believe will benefit many people.
- collyw 8y ago
  Politicians ban this. The world would be a better place if the people in control took some.
  - eqdw 8y ago
    I guarantee you that they are taking some. The hypocrisy is infuriating

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

oneman 8y ago

Abstract: In all theories, psychedelic drugs are mind revealing.

sunyataishere 8y ago

seeing the terms 'ego-disolution' and 'filtration-theory' makes me think the author really did his homework

rgrieselhuber 8y ago

Check out Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Metaprogramming-Human-Biocomputer-Experiments/dp/0692217894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527471365&sr=8-1&keywords=programming+and+metaprogramming https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Metaprogramming-Human-Bio...

bwang29 8y ago

It seems like the filtration theory still produced by far the most significant impact to our current understanding of psychedelic effects. What I was surprised to learn was most research in this domain clearly distinguish adult and non-adult, and the filtration theory implies that kids or younger adults are more creative, have more imaginary freedom, and less emotionally stable - meaning they're naturally more "on drug" - make me wonder if 1 year old really feel like sky-high everyday.

dlwdlw 8y ago
Also may explain why they can be damaging to younger people. Like disturbing plants before their root system (filtration system) takes root tends to kill or damage the plants entire lifespan.
- akvadrako 8y ago
  Why do you think psychedelics are damaging for younger people? I doubt this has been studied.
  - virtualwhys 8y ago
    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 may be.
    - collyw 8y ago
      Marijuana isn't generally considered a psychedelic.
      - titzer 8y ago
        lmgtfy: http://psychedelics.com/thc/is-marijuana-a-psychedelic/ http://psychedelics.com/thc/is-marijuana-a-psychedelic/

walru 8y ago

It's too important in life to challenge yourself completely. That comes in many many forms. Allowing your brain to travel to places you're not determining is among/probably the most enlightening.

sova 8y ago

“Extremely low doses, known as microdoses, have been anecdotally associated with improvements in cognitive performance (Waldman, 2017; Wong, 2017) 'a claim that urgently requires empirical verification through controlled research' (Carhart-Harris and Nutt, 2017, p. 1103). Theoretical attempts to account for the reported effects of microdosing have yet to emerge in the literature and therefore present an important opportunity to future theoretical endeavors.”

omar3550 8y ago

Whoever is doing an experiment in a controlled environment (e.g. lab) and is seeking test subjects in the bay area, please let me know.

alexandercrohde 8y ago

I haven't tried any of the drugs described in this piece, and intend to keep it thus. That said, overall, I think this is a fascinating approach to reverse-engineering the most impressive machine in existence: the human brain. This particular article though feels hand-waivy by the end. Until we can validate these theories of mechanics [e.g. entropic brain theory] (e.g. by stimulating certain brain networks directly), they seem beyond speculative.

collyw 8y ago
You should try.