Psychology

Using psychedelics to increase performance and reprogram the mind/brain interface

“The rose tinted days of “tune in, turn on” are long past. Contemporary neurohackers are exploring these chemicals for everything from accelerated learning to healing major trauma, reprogramming underlying associations that lead to habitual behavioral or thought patterns, shadow work, paradigm engineering, and, of course, the continued exploration of the nature of reality itself. ”…

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Psychology

LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change

“Personality is known to be relatively stable throughout adulthood. Nevertheless, it has been shown that major life events with high personal significance, including experiences engendered by psychedelic drugs, can have an enduring impact on some core facets of personality.” Overall, LSD had a pronounced global effect on brain entropy, increasing it in both sensory and…

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Psychology

Seeing opportunity in psychedelic drugs

New research into LSD and psilocybin makes a powerful argument against prohibition. ‘This study assures us that there were not widespread “acid casualties in the 1960s,” Charles Grob, a pediatric psychiatrist at UCLA, told Nature.’ Over 30 million U.S. adults have tried psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of health problems,” the author…

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Psychology

Hallucinogen therapy is coming

“If hallucinogens prove effective in treating substance abuse, they would address a massive unmet need. They’d also possibly force a change in how we think about the dysfunction that underlies these conditions.” In the past, addiction was cast as a moral failing. Today it’s variously seen as a psychiatric condition, a learning disorder, or a…

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Psychology

LSD Makes Your Brain More Like A Thesaurus

“Scientists found the drug actually elevates an innate language ability.” Family and her colleagues asked 10 volunteers to come into the lab twice and complete a picture-naming task. In one session, participants received a dose of LSD, while in the other they got a placebo. The dose of LSD was enough to cause psychedelic effects…

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Psychology

The drug of choice for the age of kale

“Leanna Standish, a researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine, estimated that “on any given night in Manhattan, there are a hundred ayahuasca ‘circles’ going on.” The self-help guru Tim Ferriss told me that the drug is everywhere in San Francisco, where he lives. “Ayahuasca is like having a cup of coffee here,”…

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Psychology

Worth the trip: psychedelics as an emerging tool for psychotherapy

Thirty minutes ago you were given a controlled dose of a highly potent, and highly illegal, hallucinogenic compound—all in the name of science. Unlike psychedelics, drugs of abuse such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and nicotine strongly stimulate the brain’s dopamine system, which is critical for their habit-forming potential. Neuroscientists have recently studied the effects of psilocybin…

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Psychology

Mind your body: the shroom shift

Now rigorously designed experiments confirm that while recreational use can be dangerous hallucinogens can actually change people for the better—often permanently. What’s remarkable about the recent psilocybin experiments is not just their dramatic effects but the time frame. Personality shifts tend to be slow and gradual in adulthood, barring a sudden trauma, says University of…

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Psychology

A Psychedelic can cure heroin withdrawal

After an ibogaine trip, users tend to describe experiences with a powerful other who describes to them how the world works, including the steps they must take to align themselves to their true paths. Like many other hallucinogens, ibogaine—the psychoactive compound derived from the roots of the iboga tree—induces several hours of awe, insight, and…

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