Image: Photograph by James Worrell
In Brief
- Hundreds of research reports on hallucinogens appeared during the 1950s and 1960s. Illicit use resulted in outlawing of the drugs. Restrictions on research, moreover, brought studies to a halt.
- Hints from the early set of studies suggesting that these chemicals might help treat patients with various psychiatric disorders were not pursued because of strictures on research.
- A new wave of studies on hallucinogens, primarily psilocybin, has begun to address whether the drugs can effectively treat the anxiety of cancer patients or help addicts kick their habits.
- Early results from new trials point to the promise of these therapies, with some patients reporting profound spiritual experiences and, hence, the ability to make important life changes.
Sandy Lundahl, a 50-year-old health educator, reported to the behavioral biology research center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine one spring morning in 2004. She had volunteered to become a subject in one of the first studies of hallucinogenic drugs in the U.S. in more than three decades. She completed questionnaires, chatted with the two monitors who would be with her throughout the eight hours ahead, and settled herself in the comfortable, living-room-like space where the session would take place. She then swallowed two blue capsules and reclined on a couch. To help her relax and focus inward, she donned eyeshades and headphones, through which a program of specially selected classical music played.
The capsules contained a high dose of psilocybin, the principal constituent of “magic” mushrooms, which, like LSD and mescaline, produces changes in mood and perception yet only very rarely actual hallucinations. At the end of the session, when the psilocybin effects had dissipated, Lundahl, who had never before taken a hallucinogen, completed more questionnaires. Her responses indicated that during the time spent in the session room she had gone through a profound mystical-like experience similar to those reported by spiritual seekers in many cultures and across the ages—one characterized by a sense of interconnectedness with all people and things, accompanied by the feeling of transcending time and space, and of sacredness and joy.
This article was originally published with the title Hallucinogens as Medicine.
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17 Comments
Add CommentWhy is no evidence presented here? At least an anecdote concerning induced "profound psychological realignments" would have been nice. A joyous experience is not necessarily a "take-away". It could be the setting up for an even harder fall. And this- "patients reporting profound spiritual experiences and, hence, the ability to make important life changes." And hence?? Details are needed. Long term changes? Stable changes? Why waste so much space on the superficial precursor effects, of which every hippy is well aware?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCome on SA, why are you starting to read like USA Today?
phil,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe the article was written in hopes that research of these drugs could be taken up again in full force. I highly doubt that it is a theses or medical paper by intent. There MAY be therapeutic sides to psilocybin. God knows there are enough folks out there dealing with depression, feelings of detachment and negativity. I can tell you that hallucinogenics do not have a "come down" like amphetamines or other narcotics. Being in a calm atmosphere such as where one would meditate facilitates a calm experience, and having an experienced person is of great importance as well to guide. I would say my few experiences have added a sense of being part of a larger spiritual whole, an amazement at creation and my part in all of it. I like that feeling, I could say that I have lost any need for an omnipotent "God" in order to feel that connection to the universe.
And that right there may be why it was made illegal in the first place. Because it sure isn't any more deadly than alcohol, it is uplifting when experienced with an open mind.
And there are far, far more who aren't losers. Of the tens of millions of doses of LSD, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin that have been taken, almost everybody who has used them has gone on to productive life. Often, it is a very productive life. Watson used LSD when he figured out the double helix. A great many scientists have used psychedelics. Our modern world owes major aspects of its culture (largely unacknowledged) to them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProblems do happen, but they are quite rare to have persist. I have been a collector of psychedelic disasters, and such things are very rare. They are generally related to problems the person had to begin with.
As a general rule, the older a person is, the safer it is for them to use LSD, psilocybin, or mescaline. Risk of a bad reaction goes down exponentially with age. After 50, it's virtually nil.
And there are plenty of drinkers who are losers too. Far, far more by percentage. It is also incorrect to lump psychedelics together with cannabis. They are very different. One can run from problems with cannabis, but that doesn't tend to work with psychedelics.
I think we have failed to think about the challenges that would be posed in effectively administrating hallucinogens.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCreating a "setting" which would allow for the patient to have a "good trip" is a deeply subjective and intuitive process--- not a scientific one. But if we are unable to provide effective terms for administering hallucinogens, then they will likely do more harm than they will good.
If poorly administered they could induce severe trauma. A bad hallucinogenic experience could be compared to an eight hour panic attack further aggravated by hostile hallucinations. Such experiences, once had, cannot be "unhad."
Hallucinogens can fundamentally change an individual's perspective and even character. Luldahl changed for the better, but a traumatic experience could change another individual for the worse. This is a responsibility, and a liability, that physicians would have to take very seriously.
I believe there is promise in the medicinal use of hallucinogens. But I also think the question of their effectiveness as a treatment option is far more complex. However, until there is more concrete scientific research, the jury is still out.
I entered a comment to this article yesterday. Why don't I see it? It was here yesterday. There was nothing untoward about my comment!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould someone be awesome enough to write a one paragraph summary on this article?!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe this misreads your comment, SherryS, (and thanks for it), but it seems to me to be posing a 'on the one hand, on the other hand' expectation summary of results, suggesting that clinical psilocybin treatments are about a fifty-fifty coin flip of desired efficacious results versus awful permanent psychotrauma.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIffy fifty-fifty results doesn't seem to square with John_Toradze's account of "tens of millions" of (self-)administered doses of psychedelics which did not cause 'fives of millions' of individual cases (reported) 'changed for the worse.' Would you discount the figure (tens of millions)?, or, how do you square an either/or balanced probability of outcomes with a 1000-to-1 (?) empirical statistic of improvement -to- injured outcomes?
For whatever the worth of anecdote, I experienced approx 2000 doses of various psychedelic agents during about a 10-year interval, say four decades ago, and my condition ('high-anxiety nerdness', if you'll allow that diagnosis), was considerably relieved, in a socially agreeable manner, and marriage, and healthy bright-eyed children now quite accomplished in their pursued interests. Also in my estimation I wrote my most and best computer software back in those times and while 'entranced.'
Anecdote 2: I have direct personal knowledge of the computer programmer of the Apollo 13 flight path; and when the craft lost unknown mass while outbound to the Moon, '1-take Chuckie' stayed on site 72-hours, 'on' mescaline, rewriting code with Mass as a variable (replacing where it was figured as a constant) value, and set that space puppy down on Earth less than 5 nautical miles off-target. Maybe you saw the movie; but you never saw mention of the flight path programmer. The day after recovery his manager fired him (for 'illegal substances') and Houston never saw him again, either.
I suggest to you, SherryS, that the presence and beneficial effects of 'psychedelics' in humankind thought and the world around you is more prevalent than some ('inexperienced' per Jimi Hendrix) now suspect.
It's pretty saddening to see such unscientific comments as Bop's little hate-filled blurb here. Unfortunately good medicine (psilocybin, cannabis) continues to be withheld from patients who could benefit from it because of closed-minded prejudiced people like Bops who prefer to just project their hatred of certain social groups about whom they harbor outdated and hateful stereotypes rather than looking at the good, solid objective scientific evidence of medical benefit of these substances.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBops, did you know that virtually any substance which is psychoactive can be abused? Xanax, other benzodiazepenes, opiates, stimulants such as ritalin, diet medications, etc.? The fact is, if something acts on the mind, then obviously it is a tool that could have many different uses. These uses could be purely recreational (what you would hatefully term "loser abuse"), or medical, in which the characteristics of the substance which act on the mind are used in a professional setting with a therapeutic goal in mind. That's the logic behind morphine for pain control, xanax for anxiety/panic attacks, amphetamines for narcolepsy, cannabis for nausea, and the mis-named "hallucinogens" for obsessive compulsive disorders and other disorders for which they have shown therapeutic promise.
However, I dont think Bops is interested in the scientific evidence. Bops is too focused on "hippie-hating".
Yeah but usually those were the kids that screwed around in school to begin with. I'm sure there are exceptions but it's rare to find out that Mr. Most Likely to Succeed is living in a dumpster smoking crack; not so rare to hear that your doctor, stock broker, and yes scientists have done shrooms at some point (and still smoke pot on occaision)!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a beleaguered veteran of hundreds of psychedelic trips in the sixties and seventies, I can tell you that I have had many short transcendent experiences, and quite a few profoundly disturbing ones as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a recovering alcoholic in his late fifties I can tell you that spiritual experiences and a spiritual life are two different things. You can find the former in a bottle or a line or a pill or a plant. But those experiences are cheap, ephemeral, and often dangerous.
Adherence to a spiritual life is hard work, enduring, and life affirming. A spiritual life is way worth the trouble. Drug use of any kind eventually becomes isolative and self centered.
A spiritual life requires me to be other-centered; I learn how to be in community with other people. That is where I find meaning for my life today. Indeed, what else comes close to the value of authentic relationships?
Although it is merely anecdotal, I will share my experience as a middle aged, former IT executive cum Farm Wife, who is not one who finds the effects of Entheogens such as mushrooms to be even remotely pleasant recreationally, much less a "high" that I would enjoy. I found the experiences to be very challenging and very symbiotic, requiring much of me as a participant, sometimes exhausting and difficult to say the least. I also found after 6 sessions a year ago that I was able to permanently get off of Lexapro for chronic depression after having tried for many years, now have little or no residual depression, and found that major stumbling blocks of conditioning were completely seen through and discarded, and that my life has taken a significantly upward course since then. Are there other contributing factors? Perhaps, but not overtly. In working with the plant, I resolved significant problematic conditioning and also transcended it, meaning I was no longer able to easily be roped into mind made belief systems. Result: Little or no personal suffering.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnecdotal? Yes Compelling? I would say so.
Also, it is important to note that mushrooms are self-regulating. Ingested either clinically or naturally, they are ineffective when taken sequentially. At least a week is needed between doses. So lumping them in with addictive substances such as Benzos and other recreational drugs just keeps the myth going. Most other Entheogens, such as Ayahuasca, Iboga and derivatives such as DMT and 5MeO have built in properties that make them impossible to abuse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDefine "loser" in a way that distances from the dominant paradigm of capitalistic patriarchy. Capitalism defines human beings in terms of their worth to the engine of industry, not in terms of their innate value. Lots of research exists and grows by the days as to the synergistic effect of the environment with genes from the moment of conception. From that moment, the interaction continues, and perhaps, just perhaps, some individuals benefit from such substances, so as to undo the damage. Plus, we're evolutionarily programmed to crave the stuff. Psychotropics helped our ancestors survive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"LSD is a powerful psychedelic that has the potential to cause psychotic reactions in people who have *not* taken it."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Timothy Leary
The most powerful psychedelic drug known to man... is naturally in EVERYONE'S brain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's called DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine).
It's what cause you to dream at night.
It's totally illegal, but yet everyone use it every night, everyone take it for granted, you go to sleep and dream then you wake up and forget about the dreams, they don't know they go through a psychedelic trip while they sleep, you don't reflect very much why you actually dream, how comes your brain works in this strange ways while you sleep?
It's a psychedelic drug.
DMT is thousands and thousands of different plants everywhere, it's in thousands of different animals and also every human being.
It's produced in your brain by your pineal-gland.
You can call me a druggie now, you are one too.
I hope you understand the difference between drugs now.
The most powerful psychedelic drug known to man, you been under it's influence without knowing.
Dreaming is not bad, it's what keep everyone somewhat sane in this crazy world.
The experience from DMT most powerful experience you will ever go through. It will temporarily remove your ego and you will see everything in a way you can't understand until you experience it.
Read the book "the spirit molecule".
Do your own research about DMT.
If you are the lazy person listen to Joe Morgan, he explains it in a ordinary guy way easy for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6RBOIgtzEE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxTc69tuOBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNaDcYGaeI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc12-neTjM
I would have liked to have seen what aspects of panic or anxiety disorders they were trying to target. Also, this particular therapy, if proven effective, may not transfer over well to social phobias. It's not really practical to go out in public while under the influence of psychoactive drugs. Comments?
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTHE FAR OFF LAND, Eugene Seaich discusses the perennially fascinating topic of such mind-altering drugs as mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD, both how they appear in Nature and in the laboratory. This road has been traveled before, but Eugene takes a fascinating detour. He goes back millennia, glimpses the future, and goes deeply within his own psyche leading to a better understanding of the mind and our consciousness. These chemicals can be used as tools to help better lives, cure mental illness, transcend our conciousness and ultimitly to improve humanity . The reader might start reading about this "far off land," thinking that is an exotic destination. But after a few chapters, the engrossing prose will be reminiscent of one's home turf.Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.Co-author DEMYSTIFYING SHAMANS AND THEIR WORLD
http://www.facebook.com/groups/faroff/