Psychedelic enthusiasm must be more honest about the reality of the risks.

That isn't what I meant, think more like the way certain personality issues like drunkenness alcoholism have arguably been caused by spirit influence.

But it doesn't need to be that direct, it can also just be that whatever realities are out there exposure to them may not be positive to everyone.

This is a real danger. A cautionary account - Thirty Years Among the Dead by Dr. Carl Wickland M.D.

https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-Amon...1907661727

In the 1920s and 1930s psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wickland, with his wife Anna Wickland, who was a trance medium and able to communicate with possessing and influencing entities, treated many patients suffering from mental illness of all kinds. After many years experience Wickland came to the conclusion that a number of patients he treated had "attachments"; by that he meant that spiritual entities had attached themselves to unwitting mortals and influenced them (often) in the worst kind of ways - leading them to alcoholism, madness, and occasionally murder. Wickland stated at the time that spirit obsession is a fact - a perversion of a natural law - and is amply demonstrable. This work was never refuted or debunked - it was genuine.

It would be expected that psychedelic drugs probably open up some persons having weak defences to such influences or "shadowing".

[Ninshub]

Right. This is some messed up behaviour which makes no sense - but as to how the MDMA itself factors in, it's not entirely clear. It does, though, seem plausible to me that the MDMA led her into a state in which she was more vulnerable and more amenable to exploitation by these so-called "therapists".

I completely agree with that reading, Laird. Especially with complex PTSD, with the intensity that this lady has because of her story, I have my reservations. If a fairly previously non-traumatized person experienced a somewhat straightforward small-trauma experience like going through a hold-up and having PTSD symptoms afterwards, maybe that's another story. Personally I'm inclined towards prudence with this stuff anyway.

This is a real danger. A cautionary account - Thirty Years Among the Dead by Dr. Carl Wickland M.D.

https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-Amon...1907661727

In the 1920s and 1930s psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wickland, with his wife Anna Wickland, who was a trance medium and able to communicate with possessing and influencing entities, treated many patients suffering from mental illness of all kinds. After many years experience Wickland came to the conclusion that a number of patients he treated had "attachments"; by that he meant that spiritual entities had attached themselves to unwitting mortals and influenced them (often) in the worst kind of ways - leading them to alcoholism, madness, and occasionally murder. Wickland stated at the time that spirit obsession is a fact - a perversion of a natural law - and is amply demonstrable. This work was never refuted or debunked - it was genuine.

It would be expected that psychedelic drugs probably open up some persons having weak defences to such influences or "shadowing".

Thanks for this, I'm only superficially familiar with the work of the Wicklands so I might have to get this book. The way in which "sub-personalities" seem to [be] spirits themselves is yet another reason I'm skeptical of Super-Psi explanations that demand so heavily on alternate personas.

Is DMT the best new treatment for depression?

Stephen Johnson

“Often in mental illness, people get very stuck in rigid thought. They get stuck with a very negative perception of the world and they ruminate about very difficult persecutory things,” Dr. Sakal said. “But when you take psychedelics, it takes you out of that and it offers you a new way of looking at the world.”

But the benefits of DMT aren’t only experiential. The 2019 brain imaging study that Dr. Sakal participated in was led by Dr. Chris Timmermann, a neuropharmacologist and leading DMT researcher who’s collaborating with Small Pharma in the ongoing clinical trials. His work shows that the brain-wave patterns that emerge during DMT trips resemble those of the dreaming state, and that the drug seems to give rise to radically new kinds of connectivity in the brain.

“The brain becomes diverse, and it becomes diverse and unique in a novel way, in a creative way,” he told Freethink. That’s one of the reasons why Dr. Routledge thinks DMT may effectively “reset” the depressed brain.

“What psychedelics do is that they break that (negative thought-pattern) pathway. They break those neuronal connections, and then they increase neuronal connectivity and synaptic connectivity,” she told Freethink.

All usual warnings about psychedelics apply

=-=-=

Psychedelic experience isn’t just brain chemistry

Ricky Williamson

There is a psychedelic revolution happening. An increasing number of studies are promising a transformation of mental health through their controlled use. What is still unclear is what exactly the nature of that psychedelic experience is, and what makes it so powerful. Sceptics are too quick to dismiss the whole thing as a hallucination, merely a disturbance of the brain’s chemistry. But a closer look at the philosophy of consciousness seems to suggest otherwise, writes Ricky Williamson.

But, now that we know that the scientific materialist picture of the world lies on shaky ground, the idea that the psychedelic experience can be reduced to changes in the physical stuff of the brain lies on equally shaky ground. If consciousness itself cannot be explained by reference to brain chemistry, the psychedelic experience cannot be fully explained by it either. Psychedelic experience is just a different experience with different brain chemistry, but you still can’t reduce one to the other.

“Often in mental illness, people get very stuck in rigid thought. They get stuck with a very negative perception of the world and they ruminate about very difficult persecutory things,” Dr. Sakal said. “But when you take psychedelics, it takes you out of that and it offers you a new way of looking at the world.”

But the benefits of DMT aren’t only experiential. The 2019 brain imaging study that Dr. Sakal participated in was led by Dr. Chris Timmermann, a neuropharmacologist and leading DMT researcher who’s collaborating with Small Pharma in the ongoing clinical trials. His work shows that the brain-wave patterns that emerge during DMT trips resemble those of the dreaming state, and that the drug seems to give rise to radically new kinds of connectivity in the brain.

“The brain becomes diverse, and it becomes diverse and unique in a novel way, in a creative way,” he told Freethink. That’s one of the reasons why Dr. Routledge thinks DMT may effectively “reset” the depressed brain.

“What psychedelics do is that they break that (negative thought-pattern) pathway. They break those neuronal connections, and then they increase neuronal connectivity and synaptic connectivity,” she told Freethink.

I am struck by how utterly vague these findings are - basically IMHO because science doesn't have a clue as to how consciousness works.

It is also interesting to compare these with earlier studies that showed that many parts of the brain became LESS active when treated with psychoactive substances. I wonder if the full article resolves that anomaly.

It may be that in practice psychoactive chemicals can treat depression, and that would be great, but I honestly don't understand how that can be explained in terms of neuroscience.

David

https://smallpharma.com/

Peter Rands, Co-Founder & CIIPO, is a qualified patent attorney in the pharmaceutical industry with a passion for pharmaceutical innovation.

Canterbury Christ Church University

22 years 11 months

Director of Sustainability Development

Jan 2010 - Present13 years 3 months

Canterbury, United Kingdom

https://media.nature.com/original/magazi...0064-4.pdf

Small Pharma is researching DMT analogues, replacing
specific hydrogen atoms with deuterium, which
extends the half-life of the molecule. These novel
forms of DMT (deuterated DMT) have longer
durations than DMT when delivered intravenously
and may even make oral delivery possible. “We
developed a library of deuterated forms and will
be selecting two candidates, that could offer a
short to medium acting orally-delivered psychedelic

https://psychedelicinvest.com/george-tzi...e-officer/

Peter Rands, current CEO and future CIIPO of Small Pharma, added: “I am delighted to be handing the reins of the Company to my colleague, George....

...Prior to joining Small Pharma full-time, George was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs.

https://psychedelicinvest.com/

Psychedelics are set to disrupt the multi billion dollar alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and health & wellness industries.

There is an enormous opportunity for those early investors who are able to look past the historical negative stigma associated with many psychedelics.