Table of Contents
This animation serves as an example of environmental patterning, as seen within clouds. Note that humans have perceptual fluency toward natural fracals such as these, which are the same fractals seen during psychedelic experiences.
1. General Overview
“One of [the schizophrenics I befriended], more introspective than the others, remarked that the delusions and confusion is typically accompanied by a “eureka moment”. He said that this made it very difficult to ignore the nonsense because they felt, beyond a doubt, like good, right ideas. They felt like truth in the way that only truth can (its chemical manifestation, at least).The same sort of dopamine-ping (which is a reinforcer more than it is a motivator—important distinction) is present when manic people drift into psychosis. One too many dopamine pings, one too many errant thoughts integrated as valid-beyond-a-doubt.Same with amphetamine psychosis. Dopamine goes apeshit. Everything feels meaningful so people become a slavering wreck as their brain continuously reinforces neural pathways that serve no purpose or have no value.”
Psychedelics work differently from other drugs in that they don't induce any particular feeling. For instance, cocaine increases dopamine, which makes anyone who takes it feel awake, motivated, euphoric, etc. Valium increases GABA, producing relaxing effects and slowing neuronal firing. On the other hand, psychedelics have a more general impact on the functioning and connectivity of the brain.
I imagine that the usage of I's corresponds to general self awareness, relating to introspection, relating to rumination; which is of course the whirlpool that fuels the engine of self-destruction.
And from the psychonaut Wiki:
The mechanism behind [psilocybin's antidepressant effects] is not known as of yet, but researchers have suggested that psilocin's deactivation [a brain part that is strongly associated with depression and] with trait rumination.[33]
Ego dissolution experiences often occur in the context of mystical states in which the ordinary sense of self is replaced by a sense of union with an ultimate reality underlying all of manifest existence—the famous ‘cosmic consciousness’ experience. [...] The propensity of psychedelics to occasion such experiences goes some way to explaining their history of religious use. Indeed, intellectuals such as Watts and Aldous Huxley were initially drawn to psychedelics due to a prior interest in mysticism. With respect to ego dissolution, it is worth noting that apprehending the non-existence of the individual self is a central goal of Buddhist meditation (Albahari 2014). There is evidence that mystical states are important for the therapeutic effects of psychedelics (Garcia-Romeu et al. 2016) so explaining the ego dissolution experience is a crucial step in theorizing the mechanisms of psychedelic treatment.
As we mature, we learn to respond to life’s stimuli in a patterned way, developing habitual pathways of communication between brain regions. Over time, communication solidifies and becomes confined to specific pathways, meaning that our brain becomes more ‘constrained’ as we develop. It is these constrained paths of communication between brain regions that quite literally come to constitute our ‘default mode’ of operating in the world, colouring the way we perceive reality.
Evolutionarily speaking, it has been hypothesised that the DMN plays a major role in our survival, helping us form a continuous sense of self, differentiating ourselves from the world around us.
This is how psychedelics change the connectivity of the brain: by increasing communication between brain regions that are normally compartmentalised (Carhart-Harris et. al, 2014). This is thought to explain anecdotal claims that one can “communicate” with their subconscious/unconscious on high-enough doses of psychedelics, especially magic mushrooms and ayahuasca (E.g. the article: Psilocybin Mushrooms: The Window into My Subconscious).
1.2 The Dangers of Ego Death
Buddhist teachers and teachers from many other contemplative traditions have long argued, on close investigation there doesn’t appear to be any deeper “you” in there running the show. “You” are just a flimsy identification process, built on the fly by your grasping mind — your organism is but the molecules from the Earth aranged in such a way that consciousness emerges, and these molecules inevitably disintegrate back into the Earth.
The classic result of a successful Buddhist practices is to permanently recognise the impermanence (anicca) and the selflessness (anatta) of all experience. For most people this shift is the most profoundly positive experience of their lives.
As Alan Watts put it:
“I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time—a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment only to vanish forever. Under such conditioning it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that myself does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body. At this level of existence “I” am immeasurably old; my forms are infinite and their comings and goings are simply the pulses or vibrations of a single and eternal flow of energy.”
Get a better idea by watching this animation by the creators of South Park over one of Alan Wats' lectures:
Psychedelics can be a 'shortcut' to achieve these insights. When achieved, users report feeling like pure awareness, having a feeling of oneness with all, and experience of unity with ultimate reality. In the scientific literature this is called the mystical-type experience, which is responsible for most of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics (Sessa et al., 2020). ME' have been shown in previous research (e.g., Griffiths, Richards, McCann, & Jesse, 2006) to be related to long-term positive personal change. More on this in section 4: macrodose LINK.
However, there is a risk. The sense of selflessness or 'ego death' accompanied by psychedelics is the main cause of the long-term negative consequences. Consider that in meditative practices, the user slowly trains themselves to observe their thoughts and decrease activity in the DMN until the state of ego death occurs organically. Even then, Shinzen Young, an American Buddhist teacher, has pointed at the difficulty of integrating the experience of no-self. He calls this “the Dark Night”, or:
... "falling into the Pit of the Void." It entails an authentic and irreversible insight into Emptiness and No Self. What makes it problematic is that the person interprets it as a bad trip. Instead of being empowering and fulfilling, the way Buddhist literature claims it will be, it turns into the opposite. In a sense, it's Enlightenment's Evil Twin.
Dr Britton is conducting research on such phenomena which may occur during meditation, in a research program called “The Dark Night of the Soul.” She has also searched texts from various traditions to find descriptions of difficult periods on the spiritual path. Britton found one main demographic is at a risk for this: young men between 18-30 who go for intensive meditation retreats, practising for many more hours a day than recommended, and chasing the ego death without the necessary patience and preparation.
Within meditative traditions, classic texts talk about the “dukkha ñanas” – challenging stages that are actually a sign of progress. These are a natural response to the layer of mind being stripped away and exposed. However, with the right guidance, the practioner can move through their 'Dark Night' shortly with acceptance.
Shinzen Young also writes:
“It is certainly the case that almost everyone who gets anywhere with meditation will pass through periods of negative emotion, confusion, disorientation, and heightened sensitivity to internal and external arisings. The same thing can happen in psychotherapy and other growth modalities. For the great majority of people, the nature, intensity, and duration of these kinds of challenges is quite manageable.”
(See: Enlightenment's Evil Twin - Psychology Tomorrow Magazine)
When it comes to the psychedelic experience, this so called Dark Night is more likely to happen given the individual is given a push towards ego death by the substance. Oftentimes individuals experience something like depersonalisation; a perpetual feeling of self-dissolution where one's body no longer feels organically like themselves, but more like a meat suit which consciousness inhabits (See: The DP Manual: What Is DePersonalization?).
DP/DR AVOIDED BY HAVING A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE --NOT A BAD TRIP, WHICH WILL ASSOCIATE THE FEELING WITH DREAD! SEE SECTION 4: SAFETY
ABSTRACT
However, just as with meditation, the remedy for this dreadful Dark Night experience is often surrender and acceptance.
From Aday et al's (2021) Predicting Reactions to Psychedelic Drugs: A Systematic Review of States and Traits Related to Acute Drug Effects:
Individuals high in the traits of absorption, openness, and acceptance as well as a state of surrender were far more likely to have positive and mystical-type experiences, whereas those low in openness and surrender or in preoccupied, apprehensive, or confused psychological states were more likely to experience acute adverse reactions.
[...] Thus, absorption, openness, and acceptance may represent a set of related personality traits that prime individuals to fully immersive themselves in, and be more accepting of, a nonordinary state.
In a similar Study, Russell and colleagues found that the difference between a dreadful Dark-Night type experience and a beneficial, mystical-type experience is simply "a state of surrender at the start of the psilocybin session", (Russell et al., XXX)
acceptance, that is, by making individuals more susceptible to immersing themselves in the experience and “letting go” of previous self-narratives or attitudes.
Learning to let go: A cognitive-behavioral model of how psychedelic therapy promotes acceptance. Frontiers in Psychiatry (Wolff et al., 2020)
Clear intentions were also predictive of mysticaltype experiences
surrender: religious conversion characterized by “passivity, not activity; relaxation, not intentness,” a readiness to “give up the feeling of responsibility, let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all” (p. 67). This is supported in the extensive analysis of qualitative records of transformative ME conducted by Miller and C’De Baca (2001).
State of surrender (SoS). The state of surrender is defined as a readiness to accept whatever was, whether good or bad, without resisting or fighting or struggling. The final 10-item scale included “I had stopped resisting and was ready to give up control” and “I’d felt a release from the need to think so hard.” Cronbach’s alpha in this sample was .91. See Table T3 in the online supplemental materials.
“Psilocybin is non-addictive, does not cause brain damage, and has an extremely low toxicity relative to dose. Similar to other psychedelic drugs, there are relatively few physical side effects associated with acute psilocin exposure. Various studies have shown that in reasonable doses in a careful context, it presents extremely little to no negative cognitive, psychiatric or toxic physical consequences.”
Harm reduction:
https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Harm_reduction_practices#HallucinogensFrom the research company Global Drug Survey.
The GDS runs the biggest drug surveys in the world.
From the paper Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis
Criteria of harm:
Different harms by the drugs:
"The highest and lowest overall harm scores in the ISCD [Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs] study are 72 for alcohol and 5 for mushrooms, which is a ratio of about 14:1."
"The highest and lowest scores for the Dutch individual ratings ( were 2·63 for crack cocaine and 0·40 for mushrooms, which is a ratio of 6·6:1"
"The correlations between the Dutch addiction medicine expert group2 and ISCD results are higher: 0·80 for individual total scores and 0·84 for population total scores"
In summary, the risk of taking magic mushrooms is almost entirely attributed to problems in set, setting and dosage (See the study Psychedelics and the essential importance of context and the article How to have a safe psychedelic trip). People who take extremely high doses in a bad state of mind and environment can end up hurting themselves and/or developing PTSD.
PTSD with psychedelics works like any other traumatic event. Anxiety and flashbacks occur, sometimes leading to depersonalization, but always subside with time and treatment (Lancaster, Teeters & Gros, 2016).
Data from population surveys in the United States challenge public fears that psychedelic drugs such as LSD can lead to psychosis and other mental-health conditions and to increased risk of suicide.
The findings are likely to raise eyebrows. Fears that psychedelics can lead to psychosis date to the 1960s, with widespread reports of “acid casualties” in the mainstream news. But Krebs says that because psychotic disorders are relatively prevalent, affecting about one in 50 people, correlations can often be mistaken for causations. “Psychedelics are psychologically intense, and many people will blame anything that happens for the rest of their lives on a psychedelic experience.”
Of all psychedelic drugs, psilocybin [the active chemical in magic mushrooms] is reported to have the most favorable safety profile [13]. Despite the lack of studies investigating the comparative efficacies of psilocybin and psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, the vast evidence-based data that exist for psilocybin alone suggest that psilocybin may be the most efficacious psychedelic drug for treating such disorders.
3. Use in Ancient Cultures
History
[edit]
Early[edit]
Prehistoric rock art near Villar del Humo in Spain, suggests that Psilocybe hispanica was used in religious rituals 6,000 years ago.[4]
The hallucinogenic[5] species of the Psilocybe genus have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times to the present day.[6] Mushroom stones and motifs have been found in Guatemala.[7] A statuette dating from ca. 200 CE. depicting a mushroom strongly resembling Psilocybe mexicana was found in the west Mexican state of Colima in a shaft and chamber tomb. A Psilocybe species known to the Aztecs as teōnanācatl (literally "divine mushroom": agglutinative form of teōtl (god, sacred) and nanācatl (mushroom) in Náhuatl) was reportedly served at the coronation of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in 1502. Aztecs and Mazatecs referred to psilocybin mushrooms as genius mushrooms, divinatory mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms, when translated into English.[8] Bernardino de Sahagún reported the ritualistic use of teonanácatl by the Aztecs when he traveled to Central America after the expedition of Hernán Cortés.[9]
After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the cultural tradition of the Aztecs, dismissing the Aztecs as idolaters, and the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, together with other pre-Christian traditions, was quickly suppressed.[7] The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with demons. Despite this history the use of teonanácatl has persisted in some remote areas .[3]
A growing body of evidence suggests that psychoactive mushrooms have been used by humans in religious ceremonies for thousands of years.
Based on imagery found in prehistoric rock art, psilocybin mushrooms are thought to have been used by various human cultures since before recorded history. In Mesoamerica, they have been consumed in ritual ceremonies for 3000 years.[2]
In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the mushrooms were called teonanácatl, or "God's flesh". Following the arrival of Spanish explorers to the New World in the 16th century, chroniclers reported the use of mushrooms by the natives for ceremonial and religious purposes. Accounts describe mushrooms being eaten in festivities for the accession of emperors and the celebration of successful business trips by merchants.[7] After the defeat of the Aztecs, the Spanish forbade traditional religious practices and rituals that they considered "pagan idolatry", including ceremonial mushroom use. For the next four centuries, the Indians of Mesoamerica hid their use of entheogens from the Spanish authorities
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/hallucinogenic-plants-and-their-use-traditional-societies
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/4/1/article-p16.xml
Put dmt in here, chemical similarity!!
What's really interesting to me is that the active chemical in magic mushrooms, which has been used by natives throughout the world, is almost identical (and produces extremely similar experiences to) the active chemical in ayahuasca, DMT, which is also used in rituals by natives of the Amazon.
Ayahusca has DMT:
4. Two Routes of Benefit: Microdose and Macrodose
RESEARCH ON MICRODOSING BENEFITS, E.G. CREATIVITY AND MOOD
Research[edit]
Due partly to restrictions of the Controlled Substances Act in the United States, research had been frozen until the early 21st century when psilocybin mushrooms were tested for their potential to treat drug dependence, anxiety and mood disorders.[42] In 2018-19, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for studies of psilocybin in depression disorders.[43]
A study at Johns Hopkins University found that a dose of 20 to 30 mg psilocybin per 70 kg occasioning mystical-type experiences brought lasting positive changes to traits including altruism, gratitude, forgiveness and feeling close to others when it was combined with meditation and an extensive spiritual practice support programme.[44][45] There is scientific evidence for a context- and state-dependent causal effect of psychedelic use on connection with nature.[46]
Dr. Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is a professor of neuroscience, psychiatry, and behavioral science and director of the Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the author of over 400 scientific research publications and has trained more than 50 postdoctoral research fellows. He has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health and numerous pharmaceutical companies in the development of new psychotropic drugs. Dr. Roland Griffiths and I discuss the research with John Hopkins University. We spoke about how he got into psychedelics and convinced ethic committees to approve such research, why he chose the scientific path, specifics about his studies with psilocybin, transformations of cancer patients with family members, the impact of psilocybin in existing institutions, the ongoing studies he is performing with long-time meditators and religious leaders, how the integration of psilocybin into society may look and more.
Macrodose dosage:
Microdosing: creativity, enhanced mood, etc.
Meaningful experience:
High dose: The mystical experience which produces much lower death-anxiety in cancer patients, 80% smoking cessation in addicts, 1 SD increase in openness, etc.
FACTOR ANALYSIS https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3539773/
Factor 1: Mystical
Freedom from the limitations of your personal self and feeling a unity or bond with what was felt to be greater than your personal self.
Experience of pure being and pure awareness (beyond the world of sense impressions).
Experience of oneness in relation to an “inner world” within.
Experience of the fusion of your personal self into a larger whole.
Experience of unity with ultimate reality.
Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity.
Experience of oneness or unity with objects and/or persons perceived in your surroundings.
Experience of the insight that “all is One”.
Awareness of the life or living presence in all things.
Gain of insightful knowledge experienced at an intuitive level.
Certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in the sense of being able to “know” and “see” what is really real at some point during your experience.
You are convinced now, as you look back on your experience, that in it you encountered ultimate reality (i.e., that you “knew” and “saw” what was really real).
Sense of being at a spiritual height.
Sense of reverence.
Feeling that you experienced something profoundly sacred and holy.
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jfkihlstrom/ConsciousnessWeb/Psychedelics/States-of-Consciousness-Questionnaire-and-Pahnke.pdf
Some people report that the "insight" they have after years of meditation or on high enough doses on psychedelics is (1) hilarious and (2) cannot be described. I realised I was experiencing that because what I experienced* was hilarious BECAUSE it escapes words. It was funny to watch my own rational mind try to make sense of it and categorise it when it's blatantly impossible. The only way I got there was by meditating on about 1.5g of mushrooms.
ayahuscas has chemical that slows the release of DMT.