Science

What LSD tells us about human nature

‘The Higgs boson of neuroscience’… Not all drugs are created equal, and I would never encourage anyone to soothe their existential discomfort with heroin or amphetamine, both of which I have taken. But psychedelics have a value I can’t help but admire. And now we understand more about how they do what they do. A…

READ MORE
Science

Psychedelic drugs might actually tap into a higher power

Just this month, scientists applied cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to find out what exactly LSD does to the human brain, in hopes that research on the drug will regain credence in the scientific community that Hofmann himself proudly represented. The stigma leftover from the 1960s remains hard to shake, but LSD has slowly been undergoing a…

READ MORE
Science

DMT found in the pineal gland of live rats

“Research at the University of Wisconsin has recently demonstrated the presence of the DMT-synthesizing enzyme as well as activity of the gene responsible for the enzyme in pineal (and retina). Our new data now establish that the enzyme actively produces DMT in the pineal.” The next step is to determine the presence of DMT in…

READ MORE
Science

Why an LSD high lasts for so long

“By freezing an LSD molecule bound to a single brain cell receptor as a crystal in a lab, researchers were able to get a 3-D x-ray image of the drug and the protein locked together…It is the first 3-D image of a psychedelic bound to a brain receptor, Roth says.” “My lab has been trying…

READ MORE
Science

Why psychedelic drugs are having a medical renaissance

“Years of pills and talk therapy failed to help his post-traumatic stress disorder. So, he turned to a surprising alternative at the center of a revolution in neuroscience and medicine.” I was fascinated that, how could this have been such a big part of a psychiatry and that I never heard about it, completely buried…

READ MORE
Science

The future of psychedelic medicine

“With each study we do, the extraordinary benefits of psychedelics become clearer, and we gain a better understanding of how a single experience can have such long- lasting effects. Most medicines must be taken regularly and repeatedly, in order to maintain their effect, while psychedelics seem unique in their ability to produce enduring results after…

READ MORE