Among volunteers who take ayahuasca for studies, scientists have documented a rise in certain key traits that mirror those of experienced meditators. These changes include increases in openness, optimism, and a particularly powerful ability known as decentering. At the end of a dark earthen trail in the Peruvian Amazon stands a round structure with a…
“Now, those cabinets also include naloxone [an opiate overdose medication], an antidote for people who are overdosing on opioids like heroin. Given as an injection or a nasal spray, naloxone can quickly revive someone who is not breathing. The city keeps it in every nurse’s office, including in its elementary schools.” But the numbers of…
“I don’t need clinical studies to convince me ayahuasca is good medicine, that it’s helping people, but you can publish them [and it’s] a good way to convince skeptical colleagues in biomedicine” Is it ethical to try and take a medicine like this and stuff it into a biomedical research structure? Is that the right…
…[in Brazil] the potion itself was legalised in the 1992, after studies found it had positive effects on religious communities who drink the “tea” as their sacrament. Ayahuasca is also considered a medicine – even “the great medicine” of the Amazon basin. It has intense purgative effects and may work against parasites, as well as…
The church has been licensed as a federally registered branch of the Oklevueha Lakota Sioux Nation Native American Church, which has a religious exemption allowing its members to use psilocybin mushrooms and peyote cactus. Each of the 120 members of the church carries a photo ID that identifies them as protected under this exemption. Last…
J. Hamilton Hudson, a lawyer based in the US, and ayahuasca advocate which is dedicated to protecting those who use the drug for religious reasons, and counsels those who are concerned about crackdowns. Ayahuasca can be used positively when it is used as a sacrament. That is, used for divine communion within the context of…
“Observational studies have also indicated that long-term members of Brazilian ayahuasca religions have apparently recovered from depression, anxiety, and drug dependence (especially alcohol and cocaine).” Recent preliminary, open-label studies, or non placebo-controlled trials, on patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder have been promising. These studies, led by Jaime Hallak from the University of São…
Despite the growing body of research on the potential of psychoactive substances to help with anxiety, depression, drug addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and a variety of other psychiatric conditions, there continues to be a limited number of clinical trials in the US in which people can legally take these drugs. Thus, Americans like Arlet, who…
“The generation gap of the 1960s no longer exists. There are millions of grandparents today who have experimented with LSD. This would have been inconceivable 50 years ago.” In other words, microdosing is not about dropping out and bringing down the system. To the contrary, it’s about being happy within the system and helping it…
“Only high-dose psychedelic drug users were included, as high doses are required to induce mystical states. Low dose usage is popular with people who primarily enjoy the perceptual effects such as enhancement of music during raves.” These findings do suggest that people who use psychedelic drugs consider themselves more spiritual, and perhaps less materialistic, than…
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