d-Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produced dose-dependent contractions (EC50, 17.9 +/- 2.1 nM) on isolated ovine uterine artery of late pregnancy, which were competitively antagonized by ketanserin. The maximal contraction to LSD was 51% of the 5-HT response. LSD competitively antagonized (pA2 9.21) contractions produced to 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). The results indicate that LSD is a partial...
Eighteen right handed females reporting 6 or more dreams per week on a home dream and sleep diary (Dream Recallers: DR), and 11 reporting 1 or 0 dreams per week (Non Dream Recallers: NDR) drawn from a sample of 233 college students, were individually tested on two tasks assessing the hemispheric lateralization of visuo-constructive and verbal-semantic functions. NDR showed a significant degree...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional state of the cerebral cortex during Qigong meditation with flash visual evoked potentials (F-VEPs) recorded from the occipital scalp in four groups of adults. The first group included 14 subjects who had exercised in Neiyang Gong for 0.5-5.5 years. The second group was composed of 12 subjects who had practiced Neiyang Gong for only...
Theories of what it is for a mental state to be conscious must answer two questions. We must say how we're conscious of our conscious mental states. And we must explain why we seem to be conscious of them in a way that's immediate. Thomas Natsoulas (1993) distinguishes three strategies for explaining what it is for mental states to be conscious. I show that the differences among those...
An advertisement in an Indian newspaper solicited accounts from people who had come close to death. Of 19 received, 7 reported no experiences, 4 reported dreamlike experiences, and 8 reported near-death experiences (NDEs). These NDEs were comparable to those reported by Raymond Moody, and included tunnels, dark spaces, and bright lights, contrary to previous reports of Indian cases. Many...
The effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC) were studied during performance of a delayed match to sample (DMTS) task in rats. Correlated hippocampal cellular activity was also assessed in terms of the effects of cannabinoids on well characterized task specific changes in firing rate which occurred during various phases of a DMTS trial. Results show a surprising correlation between...
The effects of the cholinergic muscarinic agonist, oxotremorine (0.005, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04 mg/kg), the serotonergic agonist, 5-methoxy-NN-dimethyltriptamine (5-MeODMT) (0.5, 1 and 2 mg/kg), and their combination, were investigated in C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice using a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task, drug treatment being given immediately after the acquisition trial. Post-trial administration...
p-Methylthioamphetamine (MTA), was compared to p-chloroamphetamine (PCA) in a number of pharmacological assays. MTA was about 2-fold more potent than PCA at inhibiting synaptosomal uptake of [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine ([3H]5-HT), and about 7-fold and 10-fold less potent than PCA at inhibiting synaptosomal uptake of [3H]dopamine and [3H]norepinephrine, respectively. In drug discrimination assays,...
A questionnaire was developed to assess adult recall for a range of transpersonal experiences throughout childhood and adolescence (mystical experience, out-of-body experience, lucid dreams, archetypal dreams, ESP), as well as nightmares and night terrors as indicators of more conflicted, negative states. In two exploratory studies this questionnaire was administered to subjects with high...
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed acute effects on human cognition of marijuana smoking involving long or short durations of inhalation and breath holding. During eight test sessions, 48 adult, male volunteers completed standardized, pencil-and-paper tests of educational development and ability, as well as computerized tests of learning, associative processes, abstraction, and...