The non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids such as codeine is of increasing public health concern. The aim of the study was to describe codeine intoxication experiences amongst recreational drug users, as posted on public Internet forums. Internet searches were carried out by using the specific key word 'codeine' and in combination with 'experience', 'report', 'trip' and 'forum'. 96 Trip...
A remarkable array of people have been called shamans, while the phenomena identified as shamanism continues to proliferate. This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Shamanism contains with examples from antiquity up to today, and from Siberia (where the term “shaman” originated) to Amazonia, South Africa, Chicago and many other places. Many claims about shamans and shamanism are...
We argue that "non-local" events require further descriptors for us to understand the degree of non-locality, what the framework of the observer describing it is, and where we humans are located relative to the ostensible non-locality. This suggests three critical factors: Relative to, from the framework of, and a hierarchy of "to what degree?" "Non-locality" without the prefix "relative"...
Clinical Toxicology2015Michael A Downes, Ingrid L Berling, Ahmed Mostafa et al.
Toxicity from recreational substances marketed for other purposes is a well-documented clinical entity. We present two cases of phenibut toxicity procured via the internet. A 20-year-old female presented to the emergency department (ED) having used phenibut the prior day. The main finding was a decreased level of consciousness, however when roused she became delirious. Supportive care only was...
This thesis illuminates the core values within Santo Daime communities and how these are transmitted and practiced during rituals. Santo Daime, a Brazilian Ayahuasca Religion originating in the western Amazon state of Acre, is practiced both inside and outside its urban Amazonian roots, including most Brazilian states and smaller communities in a handful of Western countries, such as the United...
Recent brain imaging studies in Psychedelic Brain Science are breaking new ground in our understanding of neurological substrate of biological consciousness in humans. The emerging field of inner experience and neuroscience is particularly well suited to the reexamination of the actions of psychedelics on subjective conscious experience. This approach is best understood as neurophenomenology....
In a big yawn of death life is extinguished, ennui of existence comes to an end. The implacable pain evokes a cascade of emotions so does the idea of death and dying. Pain is not always somatic, but would also signify loss of dignity, incontinence, disfigurement, cognitive impairment, nutritional deprivation and immobility. Palliative care is a neglected aspect of cancer care. There are just a...
The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious purposes. The archaeological, ethno-historical and ethnographic evidence of the use of hallucinogenic substances in Mesoamerica is reviewed. Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of...
Purpose of review: The experience of ourselves as an embodied agent with a first-person perspective is referred to as 'bodily self'. We present a selective overview of relevant clinical and experimental studies. Recent findings: Sharing multisensory body space with others can be observed in patients with structurally altered bodies (amputations, congenital absence of limbs), with altered...
Both written under pseudonym, Constance Newland’s My Self and I (1962) and Jane Dunlap’s Exploring Inner Space (1961) are firsthand accounts of psychedelic drug use taken in therapeutic research settings that demonstrate how women’s access to discursive legitimacy was negotiated in mid-twentieth-century life-writing. Newland and Dunlap use realism to connect readers to their psychedelic...