The Psychology of Psychedelics: Part I
“LSD was the joker played on America, a chemical trickster that defied any definition and persistently changed the rules of the game. It was a magical well that society looked into, expecting to find its reflection but instead seeing itself unexpectedly and psychedelically transformed.”
- Ido Hartogsohn, American Trip: Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth Century
In today’s newsletter you will learn:
Some theories of consciousness
How psychedelics impact higher order processes of the mind
I received an e-mail to Friday’s newsletter on the psilocybin vs. escitalopram study from an early Tab subscriber, Louis.
“What are your thoughts on the consideration that this study, measuring the effectiveness of psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression is only focused on the end result procured by the chemical and not at all on the psychological processes which the chemicals produce.”
Hey! Louis heads up a great organization called How To Use Psychedelics. Follow him @howpsychedelics
I agree that this is fairly under appreciated point about the psilocybin vs. escitalopram study. Each participant was assigned two mental health professionals who facilitated their dosing and integration sessions. However, the outcomes measured are unable to “see” what might have happened in the heads of the participants during those sessions, how those psychological events differ between the treatments, and the significance of these events for the participant’s long-term mental health.
Of course, the reason it was designed this way is because the underlying goal of this Phase 2 study is psychedelic medicalization, and so it must conform to the standards of regulatory bodies. However, it is important that we the public keep a trained eye on how scientists choose to study the psychedelic experience, seeing as much of it is not well explained science, and therefore unlikely to be considered clinically important.
The Psychology of Psychedelics
Much of what science does not know about the psychedelic experience exists in the realm of psychology. So far on this newsletter, we’ve stuck to the shallows of psychedelic science. It’s easy to understand how a molecule with a defined structure interacts with some bigger molecules attached to the cells in our brains. What is difficult to understand is how that physical process produces our conscious experience. If fact, we don’t even understand how a brain without a psychoactive substance in it produces a conscious experience. Consciousness is the final frontier of biology, and psychedelics are a powerful tool for charting it.
What the F is consciousness
I was falling asleep the other night trying to figure out how I was going to approach this issue of The Tab. Suddenly, I realized that while pondering how to teach consciousness, I was literally in the process of switching conscious states. When we think about our consciousness, we often think about our waking consciousness, which is the one we spend the most time in. However, sleep is sort of a different consciousness state in which we float between being ‘conscious’ in our dreams, and ‘unconscious’ in deep sleep.
Consciousness is a mental phenomenon which we all know we have, but can’t prove each other has. It is somehow related to our sense of “self” and of “being in this world”. Beyond this, the definition debate becomes… colorful. Some philosophers consider consciousness to be an illusion unable to be studied by science. Meanwhile, neuroscientists seek the neural correlates of consciousness, defined as the minimum neural activity required for some conscious experience. Neural correlate data is stitched together into higher order theories such as the Integrated Information Theory and the Global Workspace Theory, each of which has some supporting data, but are rarely compared within a single experiment. Physics Nobel laureate Sir Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist/psychologist Roger Hameroff have even proposed that consciousness emerges from quantum processes involving the microtubules in neurons.
Psychedelic consciousness: What we know1
My guess is there is no end in sight for the consciousness debate, especially if that debate exists solely in the hands of materialist science. Nevertheless, materialist science can give some insight into how the unexplainable properties of the human mind transform under the influence of psychedelic molecules.
Perception
Have you ever suddenly remembered you’ve been wearing sunglasses for a while, and when you take them off, the world looks extremely fresh and colorful? A variety of studies involving surveys and mental tasks performed during and after psychedelic experiences suggest that a similar phenomenon happens. The psychedelic state increases the volume and intensity of incoming sensory information, populating your conscious experiences with not just vivid colors, but dream-like imagery and a permeation of meaning into the people, objects, and environment around you. Interestingly, the subjective experience of color may not be related to increased visual acuity, as some participants in a study who reported color enhancement had an impaired ability to actually discriminate between color hues.
Cognition
Although we are clearly capable of reaching it, the psychedelic state of consciousness did not evolve for us to be in it all of the time. There are significant cognitive and behavioral impairments associated with this state that would have made us easy prey if we didn’t have our practical, filtered-out waking consciousness to fall back into. Individuals in the psychedelic state can remember facts such as their age and names of family members, but are not so great at remembering brief passages, nor mental tasks like counting backwards. Attention and concentration also seem to decrease in this state.
Creativity
Creativity, divergent thinking, the ability to come up with some new shit, has long been a central intention for many psychedelic participators. The relationship between psychedelics and creativity was famously studied by Myron Stolaroff in the sixties until the FDA revoked his research permits. He was able to complete a study on LSD and problem solving which included professionals in a variety of industries including engineering, academia, and design.2 His promising results would tease psychonauts throughout the prohibition years. The implications of his study have now been supported; studies published as recent as this year have demonstrated clear connections between psychedelic molecules and creative thinking, the ability to make remote associations, and the generation of novel ideas.3
Dissolution of Time and Self
Finally, the dissolving of time and of the boundaries between self and other are hallmark psychological features of the psychedelic state. Reports of time slowing or stopping are common, and studies run with humans and mice have demonstrated an impaired ability for an individual in a psychedelic state to reproduce or match a timed stimulus interval. Ego dissolution is an experience in which ones “self” ceases to be distinct from their environment.4 A feeling of unity and eternity permeates ones conscious experience, and one may even find themselves connected to people, animals, objets, or events separated from them in space and time. Dr. Stanislav Grof discusses his experiences with these events throughout his many books, which offer titillating evidence that these phenomena are more than machinations of the mind.
I will write more on Dr. Stan Grof, Non-Ordinary & Holotropic States of Consciousness, and Transpersonal Psychology in Psychology of Psychedelics: Part 2. For now, just know that there is a deep ocean of knowledge waiting to be learned, and every company, research group, and person is in the shallows of it, including me and you. ✌🏽
From around the psychosphere
☮️ Culture
Check out the upcoming Jewish Psychedelic Summit and why you don’t need to be Jewish to attend.
📈 Industry
MindMed will become the second psychedelic company to trade on NASDAQ this Tuesday, April 27 2021
🏥 Harm Reduction
Check out How To Use Psychedelics, a learning platform and community based around using psychedelics safely and for maximum personal benefit. This organization was founded by Tab subscriber Louis.
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Tunes for your next flow state:
🔥 ENØS live for VSNZ
🍯 Adam Young - Voyager 1
🧪 See you Friday for Journal Club #7! 🧠
Bayne, T. & Carter, O. Dimensions of consciousness and the psychedelic state. Neurosci. Conscious. 2018, 1–8 (2018).
Harman, W. W., McKim, R. H., Mogar, R. E., Fadiman, J. & Stolaroff, M. J. Psychedelic agents in creative problem-solving: a pilot study. Psychol. Rep. 19, 211–227 (1966).
Mason, N. L. et al. Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure. Transl. Psychiatry11, (2021).
Lebedev, A. V. et al. Finding the self by losing the self: Neural correlates of ego-dissolution under psilocybin. Hum. Brain Mapp. 36, 3137–3153 (2015).