ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, the renaissance of interdisciplinary research into psychedelic drugs has challenged the Cartesian notions of subjectivity and identity that have endured throughout modernity. But as work in this field reaches new degrees of complexity, the limitations of verbal and textual language are presenting barriers to conventional...
Abstract The recent revivification of interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelics has had a particular focus on mood disorders and addiction, although there is reason to think these drugs may be effective more widely. After outlining pertinent aspects of psilocybin and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the current review summarizes the evidence indica...
‘Why is psychedelic culture dominated by privileged white men?’ asks historian Mike Jay, referring to a recent study of psychedelic users who are more than likely to be college-educated white males.1 This appears logical, given the figureheads (such as Timothy Leary) who attained cult-like status half a century ago. Many today continue to view psychedelics a...
Psychedelics are back in vogue. In popular culture, political legislation, and scientific research, we appear to be witnessing an early twenty-first century renaissance of the heady acid days of the 1960s. The success of Michael Pollan’s 2018 New York Times bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, the decriminalization of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Denve...
Background and aims Given the enormous global burden of depressive illness, there is an urgent need to develop novel and more effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD). Recent findings have suggested that psychedelic drugs may have a role in the treatment of depressive symptoms, and a number of groups are in the process of developing protocols...
In light of new historical evidence regarding ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson’s correspondence with art historian Erwin Panofsky, this article provides an in-depth analysis of the presence of entheogenic mushroom images in Christian art within the context of the controversy between Wasson and philologist John Marco Allegro over the identification of a Garde...
This introduction to the special issue reviews research that supports the hypothesis that psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, were central features in the development of religion. The greater response of the human serotonergic system to psychedelics than is the case for chimpanzees’ serotonergic receptors indicates that these substances were environmental...
Clinical research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is rapidly advancing in the USA, with two drugs, psilocybin and MDMA, progressing through a structure of FDA-approved trials on a trajectory toward Drug Enforcement Agency rescheduling for therapeutic use. Researcher's and clinician's personal use of psychedelics was cited as a potential confound in psy...
Earlier this year I joined some friends at a performance by the New York Philharmonic of Verdi’s Requiem Mass. Not one of us was Catholic or professed any creed threatening an afterlife of eternal suffering for the wicked. No perpetual willies over Judgment Day. Nevertheless, when the massed voices of chorus and orchestra unleashed their frenzy in the climac...
This presentation will discuss Stan Grof’s impact on the resurgent field of psychedelic research, particularly in regard to the development of the psilocybin treatment of advanced-cancer anxiety studies that were conducted in the early 2000s. After decades of repression, we are on the threshold of demonstrating that the field Stan and his colleagues courageo...
Since 1990, FDA has been willing to approve research with psychedelic drugs. Currently Phase II studies have been conducted or are underway for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), LSD, psilocybin or MDMA for end-of-life anxiety, MDMA for autistic adults with social anxiety, psilocybin for addiction, psilocybin as an adjunct ...
A large body of historical evidence describes the use of hallucinogenic compounds, such as psilocybin mushrooms, for religious purposes. But few scientific studies have attempted to measure or characterize hallucinogen-occasioned spiritual experiences. The present study examined the factor structure of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), a self-repo...
Anthropologists have studied the use of hallucinogens as a spiritual tool by indigenous populations since the turn of the 20th century. However, literature is sparse in describing use by non-indigenous populations. Using a study population of students from a university in the Southwest United States, the current study investigated the spiritual development a...
Abstract The literatures that touch on synaesthesias-scientific, art-historical, literary, phenomenological, ethnographic, psychodelic-vary widely in their definitions, their interpretations, and their degree of comfort with the first-person, subjective nature of experiential reports. The significances given to synaesthetic experiences are similarly wide-ran...
