By His Grace and Blessings I write
Psychedelics : Types, Assessment of Impact and Other Related Substances.
In this blog of mine I intend to make the reader aware of the impact of psychedelic substances on human brain , the types of psychedelic substances in vogue and their uses and the psychological and physiological impact of these substances in comparison to the other drugs of addictive nature( like heroin, cocaine , cannabis or alcohol etc). I will be sharing some charts /tables and diagrams to bring clarity to what I wish to state.
The Types; According to Mark Haden ,Psychedelics can be broadly classified into 3 categories …
- Classics;- This category includes LSD, Mescaline , DMT , Psilocybin.
This category offers a variety of attributes. They for example are spiritually neutral by which I mean that depending your convictions of God and your belief systems, you under a psychedelic hallucination will meet the kind of God you believe in. Simply stated a devout Christian will meet Jesus while a Buddhist will meet Buddha and an atheist will find a Godless Universe. These substances are excellent for near death experience for patient suffering from terminal illnesses as it completely relieves one from the fear of death. This category also helps in disorientation of ego which is then highly beneficial in treatment of alcoholism.
Substances of this category also increase permeability between unconscious and the conscious mind and thus allow us to have access to inner layers of unconscious mind. We live our lives in Tape Loops that just happen automatically (say while driving car one is usually unaware of his feet movement as it goes automatically through tape loops learned through experience). By accessing the unconscious part of the brain the therapist can reach the root cause of the illness (a bad childhood experience of which you actually unconscious but which affects your day to day life/moods very badly ).
Portal effect of these substances gives a sense of achievement. For example if I failed in an exam that memory haunts me for long. Thus I lose confidence. The portal effect helps me to overcome this lack of confidence by primarily affecting areas of brain that boost confidence.
- Empathogens;- 3 MMC, MDA, MDMA etc. They help in bonding people and increasing empathy. They take away fear and have been found to be highly effective in treatment of people with PTSD( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Take for example soldiers returning from war zones who suffer from PTSD. No psychiatric treatment can help except empathogens .
- General category that includes all others like Ibogaine which incredibly helps in heroin withdrawal and patients with opiate addiction.
Impact Assessment and how they affect Brain….
I will try and clarify this issue with an example of the a classic psychedelic popularly called Ayahuasca . The other classical substances also effect brain more or less in the same manner. The Ayahuasca contains DMT. Now DMT is a substance produced in large quantities by our brains at the time birth and at the time of death. So DMT can rightly be called as Switch on and Switch off button of life. Ayahuasca is a sticky liquid brew which is prepared by mixing the Liana Vines with Chacruna leaves. The most surprising aspect of this mix that may baffle you is that it is only through this particular combination that DMT in these plants becomes digestible by the human body. Now out of more than a lakh variety of plants, how come the Shamans have come to acquire specific knowledge of this combination is a deep mystery. This specific combination has been used by people in Amazon for thousands of years for healing and spiritual experiences with Mother Ayahuasca. The DMT of this brew sticks with the brain neurons and changes the entire neural circuits. The whole neurons lying dormant get activated and thus it breaks down the old patterns of thinking and behaviour.
Ayahuasca also appears to stimulate birth of new cells called neurogens, improving brain plasticity and potentially helping people suffering from dementia and other neuro degenerative diseases .It enhances creative, divergent thinking and it also increase psychological flexibility which may facilitate psycho therapeutic interventions.
Classical psychedelics have been found to reduce the judgmental processing of experiences and inner reactivity. These substances greatly benefit people suffering with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, fear and psychological distress. A study on 19,299 psychedelic users found no significant association between the drugs and mental health problems. In fact, many patients were saved from illnesses and healed to a greater extent.
In the year 2016, researchers looked into the brains of the psychedelic users and found that …
1 Regions/neurons in the brain which usually don’t talk becomes very lively in conversation
2 This leads to rewiring and making new connections out of this inter connectivity.
A researcher on psychedelic says…
Brain is like a snow covered hill and thoughts are like sleds. A path is pressed into the snow. It gets deeper and deeper and soon it’s hard to escape that groove. A psychedelic trip is like a fresh snowfall that lets your sleds explore new paths. It can mean changing ingrained behaviour like an alcohol or cigarette addiction.
The following diagrams of 2 brains one normal and other under psychedelic influence clarifies as to how the brain pathways are far more robust and active in patients with psychedelic use…
Normal Brain Psychedelic Brain
As is very clearly visible, the brain of the person under psychedelic effect is highly activated and connected. All neural circuits seem to light up thus imparting flexibility/creativity to the thinking process. This breaks down the cognitive biases, ego centric identities and helps in unification of a person with others, with nature and with super consciousness in some cases.
According to Mary Cosimane, a professor at John Hopkins, the psychedelic experiences are very long term and permanent in nature. Even if one had undergone only a single session, the experience can last for many many years. People after many years of psychedelic experiences have rated it most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experience of their lifetime. According to Dr Mary psychedelics is like a crash course in investigation of the true nature of mind while meditation is like a long term durable way to understand nature of mind.
Dr Mark Haden who has worked with drug prohibition in US for his entire career has had a first hand experience with the harmful effects of all kinds of narcotic substances. According to him harm from all drugs can be broken down into 3 categories. I have added some more categories to this list for a better understanding. These effects can be explained through the following table…
Dependency Toxicity Behavioural Physiological
Substance
LSD No No Para 1 No effect
All psychedelics No No Para 1 No effect
Alcohol Yes Very High varies Damaging
Heroin, cannabis Yes Yes varies largely withdrawn Highly damaging
Cocaine, opium
Para 1… According to Dr Haden psychedelics have been found and conclusively proved to have no dependency/ addiction or toxicity. All the problems from psychedelic substances lies in the domain of behaviour which is essentially lack of supervision. People should undergo a psychedelic experience only if they are mentally prepared and properly supervised.
The behaviour problem of psychedelic is basically problem of integration into the society . Integration is the most important stage in a psychedelic experience and occurs at last when the person is integrating back in society. The problem can /may arise if there is lack of an expert supervision in case of a person had a fearful experience of psychedelic in earlier stages of therapy. For example psychedelic works like hypnosis and lays bare what lurks in the dark corners of our unconscious mind. Suppose someone has been sexually abused by a close relative or family member in his/her childhood and he/she is made aware of it through psychedelic experience. It will become difficult for this person to reconcile himself in society until there is some expert to guide him through the earlier stages of such a fearful revelation.
CONCLUSION : Psychedelic are largely non addictive in nature and cause very little harm to body. These substances have very strong and positive therapeutic effects and are the greatest natural healers for many kinds of psychiatric illnesses. They have been found to even cure cancers in early stages. At the societal level they can promote a very harmonious social relationship and can help mankind to deal with the most pressing problems of our times like climate change, war, violence and terrorism, disease and virus, bigotry and self centeredness. Psychedelic can bring us face to face with our shadow qualities and breakdown our egotistical state. They can permanently alter the state of human consciousness and take it to far higher planes then human beings have ever realized. It’s time to take another big leap after a hiatus of 40,000 years.
IMAGE : The image featured depicts 2 brains. One of the brain is a normal brain and other on the right side a brain under psychedelic influence. The psychedelic brain is highly activated, all the neurons talk to each other. As per established research in the field of psychology, the neurons that wire together they fire together. More the neurons that communicate, the better is the health of the brain.
DISCLAIMER : The views expressed are personal and the blogger is not qualified to offer any professional advice in the matter. The readers are advised to use their individual discretion and seek proper professional guidance (medical, legal, personal etc) before using these substances as enumerated in the blog. The blogger shall not be held responsible for anything that reader does or plans to do out of his/her individual discretion.
By His Grace and Blessings I write …..
Dr. Seema Chaudhary
2 Responses
The non dependency nature of psychedelics and its positive therapeutic effects should encourage Psychiatrics to use them in their treatment. However, they should not be made available to the public as the over-the-counter (OTC) or non prescription medicines
Thanks Maam for your beautiful insights. Your observations are quite right. the psychiatrist should incorporate psychedelics as an essential part of their treatment therapies. of course these substances require proper environment and guidance of experts and thus they can’t be made available otc..thanks for sharing and guiding with your insightful comments ..