Interviews with ten UC Berkeley students reveal that naturalistic psychedelic use can produce a wide range of experiences, including empathogenic feelings toward peers, connectedness with nature, healing from family trauma, increased authenticity, continued use as a self-directed journey, and improved capacity for presence. Some students also reported adverse reactions such as panic attacks, existential distress, and suicidal ideation. The findings suggest that such use may occasion positive experiences worthy of further investigation.
Consciousness can be studied more holistically by combining neurological data with refined self-reports from individuals trained in awareness, such as experienced Buddhist meditators. Contemplative neuroscience treats attention and emotion as malleable skills. The author practiced Buddhist meditation extensively over several months and reviewed scientific and philosophical literature. The experience highlighted a large difference between the untrained, unaware mind and the trained mind, emphasizing the value of using experienced contemplative practitioners to provide accurate self-reports that reveal subtleties unavailable from untrained subjects. These findings point to a need for refined phenomenological reports to interpret neurological data more accurately.