The Effects Of Psychedelics

7 of my patients who experienced depression made more improvement with E, than with years of therapy and other anti-depressive drugs." (British Medical Journal by Dr. Green Hancock). Drugs are harmful to the human mind, and body in many ways, it is also capable of preventing the body, and mind in fully developing. There are many types of drugs, there are drugs that slow you down, drugs that speed you up, and hallucinogens. Hallucinogenic drugs are substances that distort the perception of objective reality. The most well-known hallucinogens include phencyclidine, otherwise know as PCP, lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD or acid, and psilocybin, or "magic" mushrooms. Under the influence of hallucinogens, the senses of direction, distance, and time become disoriented. You see sound and hear light. These drugs can produce unpredictable, erratic, and violent behavior in users that sometimes leads to serious injuries or death. Drowning's, burns, falls, and automobile crashes have also been reported. Some physical risks include mangled, and unclear speech, decreased awareness of touch and pain, convulsion, coma, heart, and lung failure. Psychological risks associated with using hallucinogens is depression, anxiety, paranoia, confusion, loss of control, and flashbacks. Marijuana is chemotherapeutic drug. This means that it can be used to treat certain types of cancer. The point of these past sentences is to make

In Michael Pollan’s article “The Trip Treatment”, Pollan mentions how magic mushrooms first came to the attention of Western medicine as a hallucinogen with “therapeutic potential” (39). They were introduced to R. Gordon Wasson, vice president of J.P. Morgan, by an indigenous “curandera”, or while in southern Mexico (39). This reminds me my own forms my remedios passed down to me. In Pollan’s article, patients explore the spiritual use of psychedelics, like psilocybin, and claim to have had “among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives” (40). Having two forms of healing that I practice, I enjoy how my traditional Mexican healing involves a spiritual aspect as well as a health aspect. However instead of magic mushrooms, I have a cultural use of sage burning to cleanse and purify my soul of negative energy. Burning sage in spaces also helps clear the negative energy present. Along with enjoying the natural aspect of burning such, much like magic mushrooms containing psilocybin, they both “produce persisting positive change in attitudes, moods, and

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or LSD is a hallucinogenic drug that can be taken orally, injected or even absorbed through the skin. Once LSD has entered the body, it starts to take effects on the levels of serotonin in the brain which can cause; hallucinations, mood change, and even sensory distortion. After taking LSD, the effects on the brain usually last from 6 to 9 hours depending on multiple factors; the dosage of LSD taken, the subject taking LSD, and even the user 's mood can affect the duration of LSD use. LSD is a non-lethal, non-addictive, and a non-habit forming drug that has little to no effect on the long-term health of an individual. However, LSD has been illegal since the 1960 's. Not only did availability of LSD become scarce with the criminalization of the substance, but the legislation also put a halt on the research of the chemical as well. Much of the way LSD interacts with the brain has been left unknown. This derivative from the rye fungus Ergot has been the source of controversy that has left many people wondering why LSD has been classified as a drug that is just as dangerous to use as heroin. It becomes difficult for an individual to understand how legislation could criminalize a chemical without completely understanding how it functions and affects people. LSD should be legalized for scientific, medical and recreational usage.

Chapter six talks about stimulants, like coffee (caffeine containing plants for the most part), cocaine, tobacco, and amphetamines. Many people would not consider coffee a drug, but those are usually the people that cannot go a day without it. Chapter seven talks about depressants, like alcohol, sleeping pills, narcotics, general anesthetics, and antianxiety drugs. Like coffee, many people would not consider alcohol a drug; it may be because it is legal but, when it is abused it has potential to cause more damage than many other drugs to one’s self and outsiders. Depressants depress the nervous system, reducing sensitivity to outside stimulation but in small doses they tend to make people relaxed and happy. The eighth chapter is about psychedelics, which are claimed to have the lowest potential for abuse of any of the psychoactive drugs. This chapter discusses drugs like LSD, morning-glory seeds, mushrooms, ibogaine, DMT, peyote, and ecstasy. People have been using hallucinogens since the beginning of time and most of these plants are concentrated in North and South America. The ninth chapter covers one drug only, marijuana. It is not a depressant or stimulant but has features of both, and some people even consider it a light psychedelic. The experienced high from marijuana can differ from person to person.

Since the 20th century, many medical professionals and researchers have been attempting to utilize psychedelic drugs in psychological illnesses treatments. In many testing cases, these psychedelic drugs were having hallucination effects on the patients. For examples, psychedelic drugs such as LSD and methoxamine are capable of changing a person’s moods, feelings, or even behaviors in either positive or negative ways. However, after decades of restriction on psychedelic drugs in 1960s, hallucinogens have been researched constantly in order to find a proper ways to utilize them in medicine. In other words, medical experts have been testing these drugs occasionally on patients, raising questions about medical ethics as a result. For instance, various patients reported to experience drug addiction, violent or suicidal thoughts, and physical syndromes such as coma, seizures, or loss of muscular coordination. Therefore, not only the testing of psychedelic drugs causes ethical debates, but the use of these drugs in general also questions whether they should be used in medicine at all.

“Psychoactive substances exert their their effects by modifying biochemical or physiological processes in the brain.” Psychedelics are taken out of context to be for recreational use only, when they can be taken to enhance spiritual journeys.

Although prescribed use of psilocybin is rare nowadays for medicinal purposes; many tests have been done on its medicinal uses in patients with personality disorders. Some tests have shown a noticeable reduction in obsessive compulsive disorder as a result of psilocybin use. Psilocybin has also been tested and is sometimes administered to cancer patients and has been proven to ease mental stress and the emotional baggage caused by cancer by changing the patient’s perspective on his/her situation and life in general. This compound has also been proven to reduce the pain resulting from cluster headaches in 85 % of patients tested and distanced the frequency of the attacks in 96% of patients.

“Between the second World War, when Dr. Albert Hofmann accidentally got high with his invention of LSD, and in the late ’60s there were thousands of studies conducted by medical and psychiatric researchers looking into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs” (Antonia). Hofmann’s experiments had opened the minds of many scientists, making them curious as to what LSD could potentially have in store for the future of medicine. “The extraordinary mental effects of LSD described in 1943 by Hofmann prompted hope in the following two decades that a powerful therapeutic tool was at

Do the mentally ill commonly take psychiatric drugs because the drugs actually work, or do they take them because they believe that these drugs work? Robert Whitaker, the author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, suggests that psychiatric drugs may catalyze or possibly create mental and physical illnesses rather than improve mental health. However, psychedelic drugs, which are also psychoactive agents like psychiatric drugs, may be better alternatives. Aldous Huxley, the author of The Doors of Perception, proposes that psychedelic drugs can help people understand mental illness from a more personal perspective, and that they can also expand the mind. The recreational use of these drugs can uncover a hidden external reality, and in turn, enrich the spirit. But perhaps aside from recreational use, psychedelic drugs should be more widely used instead of psychiatric drugs to treat both the longtime and the newly mentally ill. Under moderated use, psychedelics not only profoundly enhance one’s creative vision but also provide therapeutic mental health benefits.

N,N-dimethyltryptamine(DMT) is a psychoactive chemical in the tryptamine family, which causes intense visuals and strong psychedelic mental affects when smoked, injected, snorted, or when swallowed orally (with an MAOI such as haramaline). DMT was first synthesized in 1931, and demonstrated to be hallucinogenic in 1956. It

     LSD has always been a center of controversy in American society, often times because peoplehave been miseducated about its effects or exposed to media bias. Its physiological effects onthe brain and body have become more and more apparent in the last few decades when research in neuroscience peaked. The psychological effects of LSD have been often difficult to describe and document very well -- they were first discovered on April 16, 1943 by research chemist Albert Hofmann when a small amount of the drug soaked through his fingers during a routine synthesis. He experienced an imaginative dream-like state for a duration of about 2-3 hours. Since then, a great

Dimethyltryptamine is a very simple structure, similar to that of Serotonin, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, and many other naturally occurring chemicals in the brain that cause us to act like we do. The substance’s actual name is 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-N,N-dimethylethanamine, and presents itself as an organic compound that is structurally analogous to Serotonin, and comes in the form of a crystalline solid. “Wikipedia”. DMT is a very peculiar molecule that ebbs and flows through nature as a communicating device between all living things, both in this dimension of manifestation, and others that we cannot perceive. Dimethyltryptamine is hard-wired into the

Throughout the evolution of mankind, psychedelic plants have played a significant role in shaping and influencing the different cultures and traditions around the world. In society today psychedelics have a very negative connotation, they aren’t see as something that can further society. They are viewed as more of a detriment. Children are taught that psychedelic plants are something that can inhibit their growth as a human in society. Most parents put these plants in the same category of drugs such as methamphetamines, heroine, and cocaine. During the 1960s the drug culture engulfed psychedelics and turned them into what some people in society see today as a monster. The rave scene that we see today currently is an offshoot of this, with part goers recreationally using psychedelics to get high or trip for music and art festivals.

Johnson at the John Hopkins School for Medicine took ten men and five women who had been smoking cigarettes for many years and have failed to quit and gave them psilocybin, the psychoactive substance found in a certain type of mushroom. 6 months after taking the mushrooms, 80% of the subjects had quit smoking while 30% of the people reported it as being one of the most important and beneficial experiences they ever had (JHU). In addition to psilocybins ability to help with curing addiction, a study published by the Journal of the Royal Society Interface showed its beneficial effects on people who suffer from depression. M.R.I scans were done on people with depression while under the influence of psilocybin. Parts of the brain that are believed to be responsible for overactivity in those who are depressed were shown to have slown down while other parts of the brain responsible for the release of endorphins were more active. Thus, allowing for the personal evaluation of one's own subconscious mind to work out their issues and look at their disorder while in a positive mindset, helping to improve overall happiness and

Research of Psychedelic studies have been around the 60’s and have been tested in the medical field with individuals that have had negative psychological issues, ranging from addiction solving to patients with the anxiety of mortality by facilitating a spiritual experience. According to Dr. Stanislav Grof, “they initially gave LSD to alcoholic patients with the intention of deterring them further drinking by the horrors of a simulated delirium tremens. Paradoxically, however, it seemed to be the profound positive experiences in LSD sessions that were correlated with good therapeutic results.” (Grof 32). To elaborate, research shows that Lysergic Acid-25 had a positive influence on individuals with addiction to alcohol. This shows that individuals with Addiction to alcohol and other substances have a potential for better wellbeing with the use of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, in a therapeutic environment. As for the spiritual aspect of Psychedelic substances, “They speak about cosmic unity, unio mystica, mysterium, tremendum, cosmic consciousness, union with God, Atman-Braham union, Samadhi, satori, moksha, or the harmony of the spheres. Occasionally, patients even receive direct advice and guidance as to how they can