While indigenous people have used psychoactive plants for millennia to attain heightened mental states, the contemporary psychedelic era kicked off in 1943. That’s when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann ingested an ergot derivative called LSD he had developed for industrial use — also it sent him on a psychedelic trip.
Hofmann described LSD in an effort to access “the mystical experience with a deeper, comprehensive reality.”
A wave of LSD therapies for depression, anxiety, along with other psychological issues quickly followed. One of its most prominent beneficiaries was screen icon Cary Grant. “During my LSD sessions, I would learn a good deal,” Grant once told an interviewer. “And the result was a rebirth. I finally got where I wanted to go.”
Yet by the 1960s, psychedelics were regarded by much of the scientific establishment as dangerous — a route to mental illness. And, until recently, that was more or less the consensus among physicians.
Today, a brand new wave of research is exploring how natural and artificial psychedelics affect the brain. This trend may be the focus of journalist Michael Pollan’s 2021 bestseller How you can Change Your Mind.
One study at Imperial College London began from the hypothesis that psilocybin, a psychedelic compound produced by certain mushrooms, would increase brain activity, given the vivid thoughts and sensory experience users describe.
Yet scans revealed an unexpected: Test subjects’ brain activity actually decreased, especially in the default-mode network, a region associated with the ego or feeling of self. Activity in this network seems to abate in the brains of expert meditators.
Exploring the potential for psychedelic drugs to rewire the brain has suggested a number of therapeutic benefits, designed for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Johns Hopkins University launched its Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research in 2021 to review these substances; it has already collated data linking psychedelics to positive clinical outcomes for smoking cessation and for depression and anxiety in cancer patients.
Johns Hopkins scientists also discovered that study subjects reported feeling more open to experience after using psychedelics.
A 2021 study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, based on voluntary reporting, suggested a hyperlink between LSD use and reduced drinking in a small population of problem drinkers. A 2021 survey polled a lot more than 190,000 Americans and concluded that psychedelic use may reduce suicidal impulses.
For the time being, the legal administration of psychedelics is restricted to controlled medical settings, where trained researchers and therapists might help support positive therapeutic results.
Still, this growing body of evidence suggests psychedelics might eventually be an important tool to support more integrated thinking processes and improved mental health, one which may eventually be more widely accustomed to treat a range of conditions.
This article originally appeared in “How you can Change Your Brain” in the June 2021 issue of Experience Life.