Chapter 7 – Psychedelics
Chemically induced alterations
Psychoactive drugs – chemicals that have psychological effects
Illicit drugs – illegal drugs
Major psychedelics– LCD
Minor psychedelics – marijuana
28 of pills tested at laboratory to be MDMA – 15 contained MDMA or related drugs, 3 contained no drugs at all,
and 10 contained unrelated drugs
Invention of LSD and the proliferation of psychedelics in 1960s
Modern Beginnings
1938 – Albert Hoffman, produced a new chemical: the 25 in a series of lysergic acid compounds known as
“LSD-25”
o April 16, 2943 – last stage of synthesis was feeling drowsy so went home
While closing is eyes, he found his imagination to be stimulated for 2 hours and “perceived an
uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic lay
of colors”
Thought the LSD was absorbed through fingertips
o Three days letter – took large dose – had more intense hallucinations
John Lilly – injected himself with 100 micrograms before climbing into an isolation tank
o While in the tank, time had ceased to exists, so that he was in an eternal place with eternal processes
generated by beings far greater than himself
Different names have been proposed for classifying lysergic acid diethylamide
o 1947 – phatasticum in first article
o When used in drug laws and medical research – hallucinogens – drugs that produce hallucinations
What is actually occurring is not a hallucination, rather a illusionogenic – alternative to
hallucinogenic, in which there are distortions of ordinary perceptions of the environment
Psychedelics are psychotropic – being mind-altering
Psycholytic – mind-dissolving: mind-loosing or mind-freeing, which refers to the release of emotional and
cognitive inhibitions
Psychodysleptic – mind- disrupting
Psychotomimetic – mimicking or inducing psychosis
Psychotropic – moving a person closer to a normal state of mind can be used to indicate beneficial effects
Psychedelic – mind manifesting or soul revealing
o Coined in 1956 by Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond
Entheogens – can be called this because sometimes they appear to awaken or generate mystical experiences
1960s – Timothy Leary – “turn on, tune in, and drop out”
o Leary had deepest religious experience of his life when taking psychedelic drugs for the first time
o Awakening from a long ontological sleep – process known as ‘turning on’ (similar to alien abductions)
o ‘turning in’ – harnessing one’s internal revelations to the external world
o ‘dropping out’ – gracefully detach oneself from the social commitments to which one was addicted
Leary and Richard Alpert – think group sessions that resembled a cross between religious convocations and wild
parties were more beneficial when evaluating psychedelics
Leary – people’s lives consisted of playing games of which they were unconscious but from which they could be
liberated by the psychedelics
Late 1960’s – psychedelic drugs had spawned a counterculture
o People who used LSD charged with being ‘sick and dangerous’
o Medical personnel and lawmakers were prohibiting the liberating psychedelics
Until 1963, in the US psychedelic drugs were freely available to physicians, then restrictions were placed
1966 – laws against possession were enacted and laws against manufacturing and sale of these drugs came into
effect
1968 – possession become illegal throughout US “Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970”
o Many drugs became ‘Schedule 1 Controlled Drugs’ – designation that indicated lack of safety even in
medically supervised use, high abuse potential, and no current accepted medical use
1990 questionnaire survey of Tibetan Buddhist – 77% of 64 respondents reported previous experience with
major psychedelics, and 32% claimed that major psychedelics were attracting them to Tibetan Buddhism
1990s – research resumed of psychedelics
Varieties of Psychedelics
LSD – most potent drugs known
10 microgram dosage – produces mild euphoria, loosening of inhibitions, and empathic feeling
Psychedelic effects begin 50 to 100 micrograms and increase up to 400 to 500 micrograms
Typical dose: 50 to 150 micrograms
Effects begin 45 to 60 minutes and ending 5 to 12 hours after ingestion
Psychological effects: increased heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature, dilated pupils and ‘mild
dizziness’
The psychological effects of psychoactive drugs depend on the set and setting
o Set – expectations that a person has at the time of taking a drug
o Setting – physical, social, and cultural environment in which a drug is taken
LSD produces an intensification of mental processes with vivid perceptions, magnified feelings, and profound
introspective thoughts
o Perceptual changes – intensification and distortion of sensory impressions, synesthesia
With eyes closed: presence of geometric patterns, fantastic landscapes, and symbols
o Visualize herself as a participant in an imaginary drama
Anthropologist – had interest in animal metamorphosis rites – took 500 micrograms of LSD with expectation
that metamorphosis would happen
o Listened to some ritual music and found himself evolved to animalistic sensuality
o Found himself on hands and knees in front of mirror confronted by a tiger
o Felt himself having a tigers body and reacted to the tiger in mirror as it was another tiger he
encountered
o Returned to human consciousness in graduations, discovered he wasn’t very happy as a tiger
o Tiger represented some valid essential aspect of what or who he was
Psilocybin
McKenna walking in meadow in Columbia and found single large specimen – mushrooms Stropharia cubensis
He ate it and after a while felt that things stood out with a new presence and significance
90 mushroom species contain psilocybin or psilocin
Hofmann – 1958 – identified and named this after examining Psilocybe Mexicana mushrooms
Psilocybin is the more stable of two compounds that gets converted into psilocin when ingested
15mg or more ingested can result in a trip that lasts from 2 to 5 hours
Physiological effects are like LSD but gentler and the psychological effects are similar but are more visual, less
intense, and less dysphoric
Mescaline
Peyote cactus contains more than 30 psychoactive substances
One of a number of cacti with psychedelic effects that have been used by native people from northern Mexico
and the southwestern US
Ingest it by cutting and drying the tops of the cactus to form buttons that can be eaten
o Have a bitter taste and can cause vomiting, headaches, and nausea
Effective dose 200 mg, or about three to give buttons that have lasting effects from 8 to 12 hours
Drug produces more intense physiological arousal and results in a more sensual, perceptual, and stable trip that
LSD
Huston Smith – took mescaline – drug acted as a psychological prism o Multiple layers of the mind
o Layers were all real that ranged in importance
DMT
Chemical compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) has been found in the natural living world including brain
but can also be synthesized
50 mg or more are smoked or injected – similar effects to LSD begin immediately and end after 30 mins
Woman was told she would see GOD and was injected with DMT
o Saw a cosmic diamond cat that moved in rhythmic spasms accompanied by a shrill voice telling her
things
High dosages of DMT led to reports of experiences that are similar to alien abduction experiences
Differences between alien contacts under the influence of DMT and spontaneous alien experiences
o Rick Strassman – volunteers injected and clowns, reptiles, mantises, bees, spiders, cacti, and stick figures
were encountered but no greys
Ayahuasca
Amazon in South America native people drink a psychedelic cocktail called ayahauasca or yage
Made by pounding and cooking in water the woody Banisteriopsis vines, and usually adding other plants to
‘lengthen and heighten the intoxication’
Banisteriopsis contains a number of psychoactive ingredients such as the beta-carbolines
o 200 mg of hamine and hamaline are needed for a 4- to 8- hour trio
Inclusion of Psychotria viridis adds DMT to ayahuasca
o Usually broken down by stomach but the beta-carbolines inhibit the action of monoamine oxydase so
that DMT remains active
o Adding DMT makes better and brighter vision
Induces vomiting and diarrhea
Physiological effects: increase in blood pressure and cardiac rate, profuse sweating, tremors, pricking feeling in
the skin, and a buzzing sound in the ears
Psychological effects: a sense of flying, images of colored lights, geometric patterns, and visitos of spirit helpers,
demons, deities, and distant events
Dreamlike sequences are longer and more realistic than those produced by LSD or mescaline
Paranormal abilities can be attributed to the ingestion of ayahuasca
Banisteriopsis used t ob called telepathines because to reflect the alleged extrasensory empowerment that they
provided
Benny Shannon – studied this for 2 years in S.A. – interviews and took the brew about 130 times
o Under the influence – experience rate of flow of time may change so that more time appears to have
passed than actually has and there can be confusion with the order of events
o Temporal indeterminacy is intertwined with uncertainty as to which cognitive events are memories
More intense cases the drinker can see herself as displaced from the present, observing a sequence events from
another time period – observing the events from a point of view
Drinkers have reported that under intoxication they have experienced eternity
The Neuropharmacology of Psychedelics
Tolerance – the need for increased amounts of a substance in order to achieve a desired effect of a markedly
diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance
For LSD – tolerance developed with two to three days and disappears quickly
Cross-tolerance – intoxication with one of them will inhibit the effectiveness of a second one if taken shortly
after the first (LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline – all have common effects on the brain)
Psychedelic effects result from the medication of serotonergic neural pathways in the brain
o LSD, DMT, and psilocybin increase
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