Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Psychedelics and higher selves

Psychedelics and consciousness:
How can altered consciousness be used to facilitate personal growth?

Since the usage of peyote and psilocybin in Shamanic ceremonies to a tab of acid placed on someone's tongue at a party; psychedelics have always been a controversy in the medicinal field. As we progress further into the 21st century, there's been a paradigm shift within the psychopharmacological community towards the use of psychedelics for therapy.

We shall explore the usage of psychedelics as facilitators of growth.

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Historical usage of psychedelics

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5000 BC - Early evidence in the Tassili n' Ajjer Plateau

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    Fig 1. Artistic representation of Tassili n ' Ajjer rock paintings
    Rock paintings of mushroom-holding Shamans
  • Could symbolize a lost religion based on hallucinogenic mushrooms


Peyote in Native American tribes

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  • Found in the Shumla cave no.5 on the Rio Grande, Texas dating back to 3780-3660 BC
  • Alkaloid extraction led to identification of mescaline in two samples


Mysteries of Soma and Kykeon

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  • Ancient psychedelic drink called Soma was mentioned in the Rig Veda
  • Use of ergot in brewing the potion called Kykeon in the Greek Elusinian Mysteries
  • Ergot also used to synthesise LSD

  Interesting fact: Ergot is a fungus that grows on the seeds of rye/morning glory. Psilocybin, the psychoactive substance within 'magic mushrooms' has a similar chemical structure to ergot.

Stoned ape theory

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Entheogenic origins of consciousness

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  •  
    Figure 2. The evolution of the brain from apes to humans
    File:Stoned ape.jpg
    Fig 2. Stoned ape
    Terrence McKenna's argument on consciousness and language being emergent properties through the consumption of psilocybin by Homo erectus
  • Entheogenic origins of consciousness common around many indigenous tribes

Criticism

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  • Carhart-Harris states that psilocybin inhibits the activity in areas of the human brain that are involved in cognitive and symbolic changes
  • No evidence of Psylocybin cubensis mushrooms a million years ago in the sub-Saharan dessert

Entropic brain hypothesis

  • How it ties into the stoned ape theory and the expansion of the mind just between the "tipping point" of order and chaos

Shamanic roots of psychedelics

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Traditional ceremonies

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  • Entheogenic/psychoactive compounds such as peyote, psilocybe mushrooms, iboga, and their significance with shamanic ceremonies
  • Role of curandera or healer

Current clinical studies on shamanistic rituals

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  • Perception of non-material spirits or entities and access to hidden knowledge - significance in self development

Psilocybin

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Fig 3. Metabolism of psilocybin

Mechanism of activating 5-HT2A receptors in prefrontal cortex

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  • Metabolism of psilocybin to psilocin
  • Increased neural connectivity and deactivation of default mode network




Therapeutic usage of psilocybin

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  • Treatment of depression through clinical administration of psilocybin
  • Treatment of opioid, alcohol and nicotine addiction





Limitations of studies

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  • Self reported cross-sectional studies don't provide concrete causal inferences

Ayahuasca and DMT

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Fig 5. 2D Structure of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine

N,N- Dimethyltryptamine

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  • Indole alkaloid found in plants and animals
  • Released during birth and death - implications?
  • Shortest but most intense psychedelic experience

Ayahuasca in indigenous ceremonies

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  • Amazonian origins
 
Fig 6. Brewing of ayahuasca
  • Decoction prepared from Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, importance of dieta
  • Qualitative field studies conducted in Peru on overcoming substance abuse
  • Changes in neuroticism (Weiss, B., Miller, J. D., Carter, N. T., & Keith Campbell, W.,2021)



Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)

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  •  
    Fig 7. LSD molecular structure
    Similar effects to psilocybin on 5HT2A receptors (Dolder, P. C., Schmid, Y., Müller, F., Borgwardt, S., & Liechti, M. E., 2016)

Effects on cognition and emotions

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  • Impairment of recognising negative emotions and increased empathy
  • Increase of fractal dimensions in temporal and spatial domains

1 Ayahuasca contains ergot:

True
False

2 Psilocybin affects the reuptake of serotonin:

True
False


Studies on psychedelic-assisted therapy

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Increasing prominence of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)

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  • Mood elevating effects
  • Treatment of depression and PTSD

Ketamine

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Psilocybin

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Altered states of consciousness and the self

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  • Connection to a larger collective consciousness
  • Implications for fostering a sense of community and wellbeing


See also

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References

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Loizaga-Velder, A., & Verres, R. (2014). Therapeutic Effects of Ritual Ayahuasca Use in the Treatment of Substance Dependence—Qualitative Results. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 46(1), 63–72. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1080/02791072.2013.873157

  Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Hellyer, P. J., Shanahan, M., Feilding, A., Tagliazucchi, E., Chialvo, D. R., & Nutt, D. (2014). The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 20–20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00020

 Lebedev, A. V., Lövdén, M., Rosenthal, G., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2015). Finding the self by losing the self: Neural correlates of ego-dissolution under psilocybin. Human Brain Mapping, 36(8), 3137–3153. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22833


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