Monthly Archives: August 2017

Rachaels teenage years were dominated by her addiction to stimulants. It was her fiance at the time who introduced her to psychedelics It was crazy to experience a drug that didnt numb me. Since that first trip, Rachael took psychedelics regularly. After a few years, she had a profound experience that laid out the patterns of behavior that caused much of the pain in her life.

It was then that Rachael realized she needed help for her mental instability. She sought treatment and continued self-medicating with psychedelics to help battle her demons. Now theyre vital to my survival.

Rachaels friends and family were initially skeptical about her use of psychedelics. Many just assumed she was misusing substances again. It was particularly hard to talk to her father, who had helped her recover from her drug addiction. However, she managed to convince people that psychedelics were showing her how to break free of her addictions and showed her that the underlying cause for her substance misuse was an attempt to self medicate a disease she wasnt even aware she had.

Rachael only recently discovered microdosing and was instantly attracted to the idea of psychedelic medicine as an alternative to the prescription medication she was suggested to take. Ive been microdosing for two months now and havent had a severe episode this is unusual for me. Before, Rachael would rely on a high-dose experience every month, which was exhausting. Now, she microdoses 17ug every three days and it reduces her symptoms dramatically. Ive felt generally normal for two months and that hasnt happened to me since I was 12 years old.

Click here to read more about psychedelics and mental health

Rachael hopes that more research will be done on the potential of psychedelics for Bipolar Disorders and Personality Disorders. Everyone Ive spoken to with a mental illness is afraid to use psychedelics. If research can show theyre safe and effective, more people would be willing to take the leap. Even if psychedelics take you somewhere dark, I cant see it going somewhere that wont benefit you. They will show you what you need to see, negative or positive.

Excerpt from:

Can Psychedelics Treat Bipolar Disorder?

In the 1960s, intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley were fascinated by the effects of LSD, but today most professors are far too worried about respectability and tenure to investigate psychedelics themselves. Which is somewhat ironic, given that the field of Western philosophy has a huge debt to psychedelics, according to Peter Sjstedt-H, a philosophy doctoral candidate at University of Exeter who has written a book on the philosophical significance of drugs. In fact, one of Platos most-cited theories may have been a direct result of hallucinogenics.

In Platos Phaedo, the philosopher says he was inspired by the Eleusinian Mysteries, an ancient religious ceremony where participants took kykeon. Its widely believed (thought cannot be definitively proven) that kykeon was a psychoactive substance, which would explain the visions that participants experienced during the ceremony. Sjstedt-H notes that Plato references the Mysteries and seeing that his body is but a shell, which one can escape through these experiences, before he introduces his landmark notion of substance dualism: Namely, the idea that body and soul are distinct.

Under psychedelic experience, you can completely lose the link between you, yourself as a body; and you, yourself as the person that you think you are, including your memories, says Sjstedt-H. Theres this loss to the self, and the self is often associated with the body, so I can certainly see why a psychedelic experience would incline one towards a more dualistic view of the world.

If the Mysteries did indeed involve psychedelics, Sjstedt-H says we can credit them with inspiring some of the greatest and most influential thoughts in history.

[Alfred North] Whitehead famously said, Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. If Plato was inspired by psychedelics, then the whole of the Western canon is unwittingly inspired by these experiences, Sjstedt-H adds.

More than 2000 years later, Sjstedt-H believes that its absolutely essential to understand psychedelic experiences in order to develop a thorough philosophy of how the mind functions. You havent fully explained the mind until youve explained all facets of it, he says.

Psychedelics create a peak type of mind, a peak type of experience and, as such, theyre a valuable consideration in certain philosophical mysteries, like understanding the relationship between the brain and the mind. Research has shown that parts of the brain are less active during psychedelic experiences, which is the inverse of what one might expect for a period of heightened consciousness. This finding highlights the complexities of explaining how the mind and brain relate, which is one of the great philosophical challenges, known as the hard problem of consciousness.

But even among non-philosophers, Sjstedt-H believes that a lifetime without trying psychedelics is unnecessarily narrow. Experientially, it would be a pity to live ones life without having experienced the potentials of the human mind, he says. Its a bit like living in the same country all ones life and not going on holiday, not seeing the rest of the world. Its a loss. By having this experience, one experiences more reality because the mind is part of reality.

He adds that psychedelics can open your mind to new beliefs, increase appreciation for nature, and lead to completely new feelings. As well as being intellectually stimulating, Sjstedt-H says that psychedelics can be a sublime aesthetic experience.

Despite the potential benefits, Sjstedt-H does not believe that everyone should take psychedelics. Nor does he insist, as was common in the 60s, that doing so would lead to world peace. When I told Sjstedt-H that I was too afraid of my own mind to risk exploring its suppressed depths, he agreed that was a valid concern. Bad trips are a serious risk, and more troubling for some than others. Those who are religious (and so would be more profoundly affected by visions of devils, for example), are especially anxious, or have suffered serious traumas, could well find psychedelics to be harmful rather than enlightening.

We have no clear idea of how psychedelics produce their effect; but its thought that changes in brain activity create an altered state of consciousness. For those who are able to have a positive experience on psychedelics, Sjstedt-H says taking the drugs can be as profound as reading Nietzsche. Both the philosopher and the substance lead to questioning ones cultural values and societal rules, he notes.

Arguably, taking psychedelics can also enhance the experience of reading philosophy; Sjstedt-H points to the psychologist and philosopher William James, who claimed to only fully understand Hegel after taking nitrous oxide. (Though drugs havent improved Sjstedt-Hs own reading of Hegel.)

Though other philosophers are interested in hearing about his work and experiences with psychedelics, Sjstedt-H acknowledges that few are prepared to try the drugs, at least for now. Many are worried about the psychological risks, put off by their illegality, or simply dont want to mess with their brains.

But Sjstedt-H hopes that growing acceptance of the drugs will allow for a study of how psychedelics could shape the opinions and outlooks of great contemporary thinkers. They were good enough for Plato, after all.

See the article here:

The foundation of Western philosophy is probably rooted in psychedelics - Quartz