The claim has been made that the experience facilitated by psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, can be similar or identical to the experience described by the mystics of all ages, cultures, and religions. This paper will attempt to examine and explain this possibility. There is a long and continuing history of the religious use of plants that contain psychedelic substances...

A single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic and serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonist, may be associated with antidepressant effects. The mechanism behind its antidepressive action is unknown but could linked to increased synaptogenesis down-regulation cerebral 5-HT2AR. Here, we investigate if psilocybin changes synaptic vesicle protein (SV2A) 5-HT2AR density in the pig brain. Twenty-four awak...

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous hallucinogenic compound in the same chemical class as the more common psilocybin and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Despite previous experimental research assessing the subjective effects of DMT (e.g., Strassman et al., 1994), no qualitative studies have been conducted. Consequently, 19 DMT users were asked to provide thorough descriptions of the s...