5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) is a naturally occurring, short-acting psychedelic tryptamine, produced by a variety of plant and animal species. Plants containing 5-MeO-DMT have been used throughout history for ritual and spiritual purposes. The aim of this article is to review the available literature about 5-MeO-DMT and inform subsequent clinical development. We searched PubMed...
Abstract Serotonergic psychedelic drugs, such as psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), profoundly alter the quality of consciousness through mechanisms which are incompletely understood. Growing evidence suggests that a single psychedelic experience can positively impact long-term psychological well-being, with relevance for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including depression. A...
This editorial discusses the function of COVID as what the Indigenous scholar and psychologist, Eduardo Duran, describes as a ?great teacher.? The author engages with the opportunities of learning that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided, especially in the realm of anthropological studies of consciousness. The author encourages both scholars and practitioners to use the current pandemic as an...
The newspapers were full of details about her untimely death. A court case heard that she had died of an overdose of cocaine that had been supplied by her dress designer and partner Reggie de Veulle and that she had been using cocaine and opium heavily for some time. In the first decades of the twentieth century, cocaine sniffing and opium parties were fashionable in literary and theatrical...
RATIONALE: Studies have suggested mental health improvements following the use of the psychotropic plant concoction ayahuasca in non-clinical and clinical samples. OBJECTIVES: The present observational study assessed depressive symptomatology in 20 clinically depressed patients (symptom score > 13 on the Beck's Depression Inventory) before attendance of an ayahuasca ceremony and 1 month and 1...
Different religious traditions, beliefs, and experiences claim to have epistemic contact with the ultimate source of reality. However, this epistemic claim has encountered one of its most significant obstacles in the initial incompatibility of its multiple accounts. I argue that from the ecology of knowledges, the idea that intentions, body, and physical and social environments are constitutive...
Psychedelic medicine is an emerging field that examines entheogens, psychoactive substances that produce non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC). 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is currently in phase-3 FDA clinical trials in the United States (US) and Canada to treat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA is used in conjunction with manualized therapy, because...
Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that spontaneous brain activity exhibits rich spatiotemporal structure that can be characterized as the exploration of a repertoire of spatially distributed patterns that recur over time. The repertoire of brain states may reflect the capacity for consciousness, since general anesthetics suppress and psychedelic drugs enhance such dynamics. However,...
A BSTRACT . In both literature and science, descriptions abound of so-called “self-transcendent” experiences, which seem to deeply alter the boundaries between oneself and the rest of the world. The subjects of these experiences often report that they feel extended to the world, united with it, or on the contrary retracted from it, as if they were tiny or insignifcant. Sometimes, they report...
The Bonny method guided imagery and music (GIM) is a depth approach to therapy that uses music to support letting go of cognitive control to explore different levels of consciousness. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a third-wave behavior therapy focusing on using mindfulness, acceptance, and spirituality to support clients in increasing psychological flexibility. While on the surface...