There is increasing interest in the use of psychedelics for therapeutic and recreational use. Research has been hindered by federal prohibition, put in place in 1970. Despite the regulatory difficulty, research has rapidly expanded in the past decade. Multiple states and cities have drafted their own policies regarding the use of psychedelics. Assuming interest in psychedelics continues to...
Los psicodélicos generalmente provocan un cambio profundo en la conciencia, frecuentemente con disolución del ego, experiencias místicas y una percepción sensorial enriquecida, aunque son médicamente seguros para la mayoría de las personas. La taquifilaxia ocurre tras la administración repetida de psicodélicos, lo que impide la dependencia biológica. El MDMA puede tener cierto potencial de...
Psychedelics generally elicit a profound change in consciousness, often with ego dissolution, mystical experiences, and enriched sensory perception, but are medically safe for most. Tachyphylaxis occurs after repeated psychedelic administration, preventing biological dependence. MDMA may have some abuse potential and less tachyphylaxis compared to LSD/psilocybin. Psychedelics have 5-HT2B...
Psychedelics can induce mystical experiences, with higher Mystical Experience Questionnaire scores correlating with greater therapeutic effects like reduced cravings and anxiety. Psychedelics disrupt the default mode network, which is implicated in psychiatric conditions and sense of self, potentially reducing negative self-referential thinking. Psychedelics may disrupt the claustrum, inducing...
The emergence of cognition requires a framework that bridges evolutionary principles with neurocomputational mechanisms. This paper introduces the novel "thoughtseed" framework, proposing that cognition arises from the dynamic interaction of self-organizing units of embodied knowledge called "thoughtseeds" within the Global Workspace of consciousness. Leveraging foundational concepts from...
Introduction Transcendental cinema, distinguished from slow cinema by Paul Schreader, draws on the philosophy of existentialism and depicts the complexity of the human psyche using psychoanalytic tools. We claim that through the use of special procedures, the projection of transcendental cinema essentially becomes a meditation session in the spirit of mindfulness, which has been proven to...
Introduction While research on drug use motives has primarily focused on widely used substances like alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, understanding the motivations behind MDMA use is crucial for developing targeted therapeutic, preventive, and harm reduction strategies. Objectives The objective of this study is to present the findings of an online survey that evaluates the motives behind the use...
The mystical experiences in various forms are fundamental to major religious traditions. The idea of “mysticism” brings up the concept of the ineffable mysterium, which is seen as the central theme around which religions are based. The comparative studies of Rabia al-Adawiyya and Catherine of Genoa do not intend, as with phenomenological and essentialist approaches to the study of religion, to...
The experiential bias in modern understandings of spirituality has led to readings of the pre-modern texts of Pseudo-Dionysius as referring to “negative experiences” of faith. Denys Turner, Bernard McGinn, and others have outlined the mistaken “spiritual positivism” of such readings and their contrast with the negative dialectics of the classical apophatic tradition. Indeed, the philosophical...
Christ Returns from the Jungle is an anthropological inquiry into the recent expansion from South America to Europe of the ayahuasca-based Santo Daime New Religious Movement (NRM).In it, the author addresses important research questions that could be used as a model for the study of all globalizing NRM's.These include the following: Who are the Europeans that choose to join this movement and...