Modern Culture

Why tripping at raves can be just as healing as ceremony

I’d argue that a more spontaneous strategy in the consumption of psychedelic drugs can aid in reducing anxiety and provide more fulfilling experiences without intrinsically increasing the risks of social or neurological consequences. A mindless approach to psychedelics not only transformed my relationship with the drugs themselves, but finally gave me the emotional, philosophical, and…

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Science

…social… with psychedelics…

…we are planning a study right now using a citizen-scientist approach, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist at UC Riverside. We’re going to ask people to get together with a friend and have a deep conversation. We’re going to have a placebo, which may be either a lower dose of the drug, or it could be…

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Anthropology

Psychedelic research and the real world

The problem is that in the real world… people with characteristics that would have excluded them from the psilocybin trial are common… exclusion criteria are not the only problematic aspect… of psychedelics, however. Another is the psychotherapeutic component of the treatment, which is currently variable, time-consuming and extensive. In the psilocybin trial mentioned… two therapists…

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Science

Psychedelic drugs… brain’s dynamic landscape

…LSD and psilocybin activate serotonin receptors on brain cells in a way that reduces the energy needed for the brain to switch between different activity states, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers… “Serotonin 2a receptors have a spatial distribution in the brain that appears to be optimized for lowering these state…

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