Science


Your Brain on Psychedelic Drugs


What is it about psychedelics that has the power to change lives for the better? The answer might lie in the unique ways that psychedelics interact with the brain.

Psychedelics and Mental Health


Depression. Anxiety. Addiction. Most everyone of us knows somebody who is battling such a condition. Talk therapies may help, but sometimes they don’t. Antidepressants may help, but sometimes they don’t. Some patients are of the opinion that antidepressants are like “Band-Aids” in the way that they never really tackle the underlying issues of their problems.

What’s so controversial about microdosing?


The incredible mainstream press microdosing has received has managed to avoid many discussions.

I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study. It freed me from a childhood of abuse.


MDMA-assisted psychotherapy gave me the ability to feel compassion and empathy for myself.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. An Interview with Iker Puente on Holotropic Breathwork


Holotropic Breathwork is not just a breath technique. It was conceived as a non-drug way of accessing non-ordinary states of consciousness.

How Psychedelic Science Privileges Some, Neglects Others, and Limits Us All


There is an urgent need for cultural humility in psychedelic science in order to prevent it from falling into the same limiting, and often unethical, traps that we see in Western science and medicine.

Psychedelic cluster busting headache medication saves me. And it’s completely illegal


Cluster headaches to me feel like someone has my eyeball in their fist, steadily putting more and more pressure on it until it threatens to pop like a grape.

Meet the professor who self-administered 73 high-dose LSD sessions


I chose to learn Grof’s methods for working therapeutically with LSD and use them in my private life to systematically explore my own mind and the mind of the universe as deeply as possible—73 high-dose sessions over 20 years.

Of Molecules and Minds: The Science of Ayahuasca


There’s a beauty and sense of wonder that comes from knowing how the world works, and the nature of the psychedelic experience dovetails almost perfectly with that awareness.

The latest piece on psychedelic science in the New York Times is dead wrong


First, the entire premise—that Schedule I status is the primary obstacle to research—is flat-out wrong.

We need ecstasy and opioids in place of Prozac and Xanax


Instead of worrying so much about addiction, which tends to correct itself when life becomes tolerable, maybe we should worry more about the sources of emotional suffering.

Dennis McKenna on his ethnopharmacology conference 50 years in the making


It’s been 50 years since the last one. The original idea was to hold followups every 10 years. But the war on drugs came along, and they were never held. It’s time to take another look at the current state of the art.

Psychedelics Can’t be Tested Using Conventional Clinical Trials


Should these drugs become part of medicine cabinets from San Francisco to America’s heartland, it will be high time to develop drug tests that control for the cultural diversity of this country’s doctors and patients.

A Short History of Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Pt. 2


Let’s go forward in time through the government’s ban on psychedelics, and look how it has blossomed into the psychedelic renaissance.

A Short History of Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Pt. 1


Psychotherapy-assisted psychedelic experiences may revolutionize how we treat mental illness. The philosophy and techniques have evolved over the past 50 years.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #3


Part 3 | Dose #3 was the most intense, powerful, horrendous, terrifying, awful experience of my life. In the end, it was all worth it.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #2


Part 2 | This time my dose was 45 mg of pure psilocybin. I took it and waited for the show to begin. There was fear and a sincere hope that this experience would not be as hellish.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #1


A 3-part series on one participant's high dose psilocybin experience in the Pharmacokinetics of Psilocybin in Normal Adult Volunteers study at the University of Wisconsin.

Precautions with Underground Psychedelic Therapy


In underground sessions, you’re taking a huge risk choosing to work with someone who may not have adequately prepared or may have dubious subconscious motivations.

Do psychedelics trigger neurogenesis? Here’s what we know.


What is neurogenesis? Do psychedelics really cause it? If they do, what doors might that open up?

Science


Your Brain on Psychedelic Drugs


What is it about psychedelics that has the power to change lives for the better? The answer might lie in the unique ways that psychedelics interact with the brain.

Psychedelics and Mental Health


Depression. Anxiety. Addiction. Most everyone of us knows somebody who is battling such a condition. Talk therapies may help, but sometimes they don’t. Antidepressants may help, but sometimes they don’t. Some patients are of the opinion that antidepressants are like “Band-Aids” in the way that they never really tackle the underlying issues of their problems.

What’s so controversial about microdosing?


The incredible mainstream press microdosing has received has managed to avoid many discussions.

I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study. It freed me from a childhood of abuse.


MDMA-assisted psychotherapy gave me the ability to feel compassion and empathy for myself.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. An Interview with Iker Puente on Holotropic Breathwork


Holotropic Breathwork is not just a breath technique. It was conceived as a non-drug way of accessing non-ordinary states of consciousness.

How Psychedelic Science Privileges Some, Neglects Others, and Limits Us All


There is an urgent need for cultural humility in psychedelic science in order to prevent it from falling into the same limiting, and often unethical, traps that we see in Western science and medicine.

Psychedelic cluster busting headache medication saves me. And it’s completely illegal


Cluster headaches to me feel like someone has my eyeball in their fist, steadily putting more and more pressure on it until it threatens to pop like a grape.

Meet the professor who self-administered 73 high-dose LSD sessions


I chose to learn Grof’s methods for working therapeutically with LSD and use them in my private life to systematically explore my own mind and the mind of the universe as deeply as possible—73 high-dose sessions over 20 years.

Of Molecules and Minds: The Science of Ayahuasca


There’s a beauty and sense of wonder that comes from knowing how the world works, and the nature of the psychedelic experience dovetails almost perfectly with that awareness.

The latest piece on psychedelic science in the New York Times is dead wrong


First, the entire premise—that Schedule I status is the primary obstacle to research—is flat-out wrong.

We need ecstasy and opioids in place of Prozac and Xanax


Instead of worrying so much about addiction, which tends to correct itself when life becomes tolerable, maybe we should worry more about the sources of emotional suffering.

Dennis McKenna on his ethnopharmacology conference 50 years in the making


It’s been 50 years since the last one. The original idea was to hold followups every 10 years. But the war on drugs came along, and they were never held. It’s time to take another look at the current state of the art.

Psychedelics Can’t be Tested Using Conventional Clinical Trials


Should these drugs become part of medicine cabinets from San Francisco to America’s heartland, it will be high time to develop drug tests that control for the cultural diversity of this country’s doctors and patients.

A Short History of Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Pt. 2


Let’s go forward in time through the government’s ban on psychedelics, and look how it has blossomed into the psychedelic renaissance.

A Short History of Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Pt. 1


Psychotherapy-assisted psychedelic experiences may revolutionize how we treat mental illness. The philosophy and techniques have evolved over the past 50 years.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #3


Part 3 | Dose #3 was the most intense, powerful, horrendous, terrifying, awful experience of my life. In the end, it was all worth it.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #2


Part 2 | This time my dose was 45 mg of pure psilocybin. I took it and waited for the show to begin. There was fear and a sincere hope that this experience would not be as hellish.

I received the largest dose of psilocybin ever administered in a published FDA study. Dose #1


A 3-part series on one participant's high dose psilocybin experience in the Pharmacokinetics of Psilocybin in Normal Adult Volunteers study at the University of Wisconsin.

Precautions with Underground Psychedelic Therapy


In underground sessions, you’re taking a huge risk choosing to work with someone who may not have adequately prepared or may have dubious subconscious motivations.

Do psychedelics trigger neurogenesis? Here’s what we know.


What is neurogenesis? Do psychedelics really cause it? If they do, what doors might that open up?