Summary The most potent tryptamine hallucinogens – such as DMT, psilocybin, and LSD – are all active at the 5-HT2A receptor subtype and all produce similar visual perceptual results that are immediately recognizable as uniquely psychedelic. Although it is widely accepted that selective serotonin receptor subtype 2A agonism is directly responsible for producing the distinct hallucinations seen o...

In the 1950s, researchers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan began treating alcoholics with d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and achieved significant rates of recovery. Psychiatrists, including Humphry Osmond who coined the term ‘psychedelic’ while working in Saskatchewan, believed that the successful treatment of alcoholism with biochemical means would scientifically prove that the con...

Seventy detoxified heroin-addicted patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups receiving ketamine psychotherapy (KPT) involving two different doses of ketamine. The patients of the experimental group received existentially oriented psychotherapy in combination with a hallucinogenic ("psychedelic") dose of ketamine (2.0 mg/kg im). The patients of the control group received the same psyc...

Psychedelic agents have a long history of use by humans for their capacity to induce profound modifications in perception, emotion and cognitive processes. Despite increasing knowledge of the neural mechanisms involved in the acute effects of these drugs, the impact of sustained psychedelic use on the human brain remains largely unknown. Molecular pharmacology studies have shown that psychedeli...

Mental health problems are endemic across the globe, and suicide, a strong corollary of poor mental health, is a leading cause of death. Classic psychedelic use may occasion lasting improvements in mental health, but the effects of classic psychedelic use on suicidality are unknown. We evaluated the relationships of classic psychedelic use with psychological distress and suicidality among over ...

pharmacologically related to the prototypical psychedelic, lysergic acid diethylamide. Psychedelic drugs were used extensively in psychotherapy in the 1950s to lower psychological defences and facilitate emotional insight. In cognitive terms, the ‘lowering of defences’ may be thought of as a decrease in top-down emotional control. There are several reports in this literature of spontaneous auto...

As long as a man can talk to himself about himself, he retains some sense of personal identity and separateness. Once he stops talking (self-reflective thinking) and begins to listen "to the song going on within him," all boundaries, internal and external, cease to exist—including the internal-external boundary itself. In some cases, this state is experienced or interpreted as psychotic death; ...

Psilocybin is a classic (serotonergic) hallucinogen ("psychedelic" drug) that may occasion mystical experiences (characterized by a profound feeling of oneness or unity) during acute effects. Such experiences may have therapeutic value. Research and clinical applications of psychedelics usually include music listening during acute drug effects, based on the expectation that music will provide p...

This article investigates the influence of perception that is altered by psychedelic drugs on processes of creativity through a case study of the work of well-known comic artist Robert Crumb. Samples of Crumb's work before, during, and after the period of his use of psychedelic drugs are content analyzed and compared according to the categorization offered by Janiger and Dobkin de Rios (1989). ...