Many terms have been invented to describe different types of hallucinogenic drugs, sometimes based on an analogy with the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as “psychotomimetic” and “phrenotropic.” “Psychedelics” refers to drugs that act as agonists at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the brain; they include psilocybin, 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (tryptamine derivatives),...
Psychedelic drugs produce effects on the mind that manifest as an apparent expansion of consciousness often accompanied by hallucinations. Psychedelics, which act as agonists at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the brain, include psilocybin, 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (tryptamine derivatives), mescaline (a phenethylamine derivative), and lysergic acid diethylamide...
Abstract The aim of the paper is to complement Sartre's concept of enchanted consciousness. The first section of the paper studies the contradictions inherent in Sartre's mescaline experiment and the limits of his phenomenological analysis of hallucination. The second section argues that Benny Shanon's phenomenological cognitive psychology, which is based on the typology of ayahuasca...
The importance of drugs as a theme in the second half of Elsa Morante’s work is rarely emphasized. Beginning with the author’s existential and political turn in the 1960s, a decade that saw her experiment with a series of sedatives and psychedelics, drugs and addiction become omnipresent in the lives of some of the key characters in her novels and short stories. This article focuses on the...
Serotonergic psychedelics, such as lysergic acid diethylamide, and psilocybin, and the entactogen 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine exhibit agonist activity at the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2B receptor, a signalling pathway known to mechanistically mediate drug-induced valvular heart disease. This systematic review evaluates whether chronic or repeated use of psychedelics and...
Classical psychedelics-a broad class of compounds that include psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide, dimethyltryptamine, and mescaline-have shown significant promise for the treatment of mental health conditions in recent clinical trials. Organizations such as the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDCs) can play a pivotal role in uniting researchers and clinicians working in this field...
Abstract Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly consulted by individuals for support during psychedelic experiences ("trip sitting"), yet no framework exists to evaluate whether these models can accurately simulate or safely respond to altered states of consciousness. We aimed to determine if LLMs can be induced to generate narratives resembling human psychedelic experiences and to...
Things to consider: .In the intro: "The so-called magic mushrooms from which psychedelics are extracted were traditionally absorbed by South-American peoples." This is clunky and I suspect it is due to translation errors; consider changing it. .In the intro: "In 1998, Dr. Heffter nally discovered a psychedelic active substance and named it mescaline." This was rst published in 1897, not 1998....
Indigenous Peoples have cultivated and protected natural psychoactive medicines through ceremony, kinship, and spiritual responsibility across generations, yet their long-standing contributions have often been marginalized through extractive research, commercialization, and policy exclusion. It is Indigenous communities that have stewarded and gained expertise working with psychoactive...
Classical psychedelics have regained interest for their potential to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders, and explore neural mechanisms supporting perception, cognition, and mood. Acute psychedelic effects have been linked to increases in brain complexity and entropy, but it is unclear if these changes are specific to psychedelics or reflect more general psychoactive effects. Here, we...