I tried LSD in the '60s. The best thing it did was make me realize how much I prefer reality and being in control.
However, if therapy using these drugs can help people solve their problems and live better lives, so be it.
1
I believe if I were dying of cancer or some other terminal malady I would seek any aid to improve my perspective and attitude toward my imminent demise. That would seem to be the ultimate palliative.
3
Not to be political but Donald Trump and his advisors at Fox News might benefit from such an experience, and thus the rest of us.
5
I attended and spoke at a MAPS conference a few years ago - not because I am involved with delivering psychedelic therapy, but because I have grave concerns about the misuse of it. As both Pollan and other posters have noted, in the wrong hands - and frankly, there were quite a few 'wrong hands' at that conference - these substances can open people up to increased suggestibility and control. My own research field is autism, and the fact that MAPS had solicited contributions based on the past history of psychedelic research in autism was what propelled me forward. It's an absolutely horrific history of unethical forced administration of drugs almost always without the patient's knowledge, for foolish, unclear or negative goals, often to institutionalised children. I do know people with autism who have found personal benefit from these substances, but not in the context of a doctor telling them they need 'fixing.' All human beings can probably benefit from self-exploration. But as long as there is a massive power differential in psychology and psychiatry, I can't see responsible clinical use with vulnerable people being a reality. Also, learning that that the Mercers are funding MAPS is absolutely chilling - for what reason, one might ask...
3
my acquaintance and use of psychoactive drugs was decades ago in the 1970s. one of the salient points i recall vividly is the suggestibility of one's somewhat fractured mental state while under the influence. that there were people at the time more than willing to manipulate and exploit that suggestibility was obvious which is why, if i used the drugs i did so alone or with a cadre of very trusted friends. a "guided" experience seems like opening a door ( thank you Aldous ) to a dicey situation. it comes down to how much faith you have in the abilities and professionalism of those you are dealing with...something that is open to question anywhere you go. no thanks, you may have my appointment.
1
Thank you, Michael Pollan for focusing our attention on the ideas in the article and book - the psychedelics are compelling and your experiences and the descriptions of the experiences of others in the book are beautiful, but the ideas of achieving egolessness, etc. are equally interesting. I believe there are ways other than drugs to get to that place, but getting there and what you see and learn and bring back to daily life, are so peripheral to contemporary mainstream American culture; if we can bring those ideas into the conversation (and maybe you have!), into the goals of raising our children into more whole human beings who desire and work for meaningful lives and relationships, we might all be better off.
5
Where do I sign up? Asking for a friend.
8
Fascinating read. I self dosed psychedelics (both ‘shrooms and acid) as a teen and into my mid 20’s. I sincerely feel it opened my mind enough to become the person I am today some 40 years later. Even the 2 bad trips were of use. At 30 I stopped all alcohol and drug (except caffeine) usage. Now in my early 60’s I find myself still very engaged, no bitterness. And have always had an underlying belief that my generally joyous outlook on life was facilitated by my use of psychedelics. (This is not to say I have not had any down/depressing days.) I’m now wondering how much more beneficial would a guided experience be to my mental health.
11
A couple of years ago, I had an experience analogous to that of the author described mid-article. The substance in my case was a square of mary jane chocolate. I don't do drugs, but I was reading a book about MJ, and a friend offered this square.
Like the author, "I" disappeared during the experience, but "I" didn't become paint or music. Instead "I" became a group of infinitely wise people -- men and women, dead and still alive, nameless and faceless -- floating above what was left of "my" limp body.
As with the author, the overriding message was: "nothing matters, everything is beautiful exactly as it is".
I suspect that if I was a Christian, my experience might have included some characters from the New Testament.
The reason I didn't need a guide, I believe, was that I'm deep into the Enneagram theory of personality. Under that theory, my temperament is just a mask, or a coat I wear.
During this experience, this coat or mask melted, leaving behind .... precisely nothing! I experienced the sensation that "I" am a walking, talking myth.
Bottom line is that I didn't really learn anything new, expect that I actually lived what I had been reading about.
2
Fascinating and useful. I would love to see a mass trial with addicts -- in prison, homeless camps, and at home but barely living. One question: with all the people that did LSD way back when, and all the people doing meditation, why is the world not a better place? Why aren't egos dissolving?
3
Many people have experienced transformation as a result of these medicines. The world is a better place.
3
Psychedelics are incredibly powerful. Great description of listening to Bach because the difference in how you perceive music everyday as opposed to on a psychedelic is as vast as the difference you'd perceive between a 14" black and white TV and a 120" 4K TV you'd buy today. You hear notes and hear them in a way that you simply never have before. Just amazing, an altogether beautiful experience and impossible to put into words.
9
Perhaps this is the wrong analogy, but it strikes me that the arguments in the comments section are similar to those surrounding the use of opioids. They are extremely dangerous when used without supervision, yet extremely useful in controlling pain (though I only speak from the perspective of taking them after breaking bones). It is possible to argue that there are other, equally effective ways of achieving the desired result, or that the potential for abuse outweighs the benefits of the drug. But it isn't necessarily true that because Oxycodone and psilocybin (for example) can be used as a recreational drugs, they therefore have no valid clinical application.
Each of us create our own life choices and experiences as we try to find our fulfillment and the best way to live. Personally I wish that we would stop telling each other how to accomplish this and accept each other's journeys.
At a crucial moment in my life suffering from cancer and depression I traveled to Peru and experienced two weeks of ayahuaska under the guidance of a Brazilian trained doctor who deeply studied shamanism and that moment was profoundly moving and I should say life changing. But I have also meditated, practiced Buddhism and deeply appreciated the scientific method and it approach to the world.
And all of this has taught me one thing, that there is not one road to happiness or finding your way. Viva la difference.
7
try prayer and meditation. i may not see shifting colors and get god to answer the red phone, but i am learning how to regulate, how to let the terrible demons march on, and importantly, i am getting what i need to be an effective listener and an engaged and positive partner in all my personal and professional affairs...
4
As a Catholic child in the 50's, it was time for my first Holy Communion.
Jesus said, Take and eat for this is my flesh.................The Sacrament.
I prepared for it, fasted, wore a white suit, solemnly partook of the Eucharist.
Nothing happened.
Fast forward to 1966 (LSD Still legal) and the realization that something had been missing way back then; Having read about the Native American's Peyote, ie; God's Flesh. Also, The Mazatec's Sacred Mushroom, ie: Flesh of God, and the very similar, but longer lasting LSD. Something told me "That's what was missing"!
A trip to Greenwich village to procure a red blotter, vibrating with the molecules of Lysergic Acid.
Nothing had ever been as spiritual and indelible of the reality of God as "Everything".
Witnessed as the walls of ego dissolved and your whole brain lights up as it was when newborn. Then, as years go by, to be molded into an ego, a small and restrictive part of your brain, unable to see the reality from whence you came.
The sacrament's ego dissolution is a process bringing total Deja Vu that you remember as dying. You have been here before, countless times. But now, due to the grace of some unfathomable love, you experience it without physically dying, and can change your ways before it is too late, and you are put in the grave again.
Re; Beatles
Tomorrow Never Knows
Within You Without You
It's All Too Much
Bring On the Lucie (John Lennon)
13
Nice work Michael, to the editors please stop using these busy graphics the are distracting and annoying not to mention demeaning to the content of this particular subject matter.
42
I completely agree.
8
"I couldn’t resist peeking out"
Hard to trust an article that so plainly reveals childish undertones.
2
I do not like the way he describes his spiritual guide's "high cheekbones." If she had been a man, would he have put this objectifying detail in the article?
3
Oh, come on, it's just a simple physical descriptor. Nothing objectifying about it that I can see.
18
Thank you. I completely agree.
1
Jeff Sessions wants to outlaw cannabis! Do you think he's going to sit back and watch the FDA approve "Hallucinogens" for therapeutic reasons! DOUBT IT!
5
You were right, you sound hokey. It's called "tripping" and it's really fun. Psychedelics are awesome at a Grateful Dead or Phish show, and pretty much anything else you want to experience very intensely - but it's not therapy, it's doing drugs. No judgement - I personally do lots of drugs - but please, don't pretend like it's spiritual, or religious, or psychological therapy: It's tripping.
3
I've talked with a number of people who, like yourself, experienced psychedelics as fun. For myself, and many others I've shared stories with, each trip is intensely spiritual, and the results are often long-lasting. It's hard for me to imagine how someone can take these drugs and *not* have a spiritual experience. It may be something as simple as "you get what you want".
5
What color would a squash-colored loft be? Yellow? Green? Orange? Or would the colors magically change when the blond guide transformed into a Mexican Indian?
The graphics on this article are supposed to be illustrative of the open mind, the trippy feeling, or whatever-- but they can also induce seizures and flashbacks into the people whose neuro-chemistry might benefit from the information contained in this article. I can't decide if this is tone-deaf and ableist, or just ignorant. Please make the change to static image headers.
13
Ironically, the person who has the most authority to determine the future of these substance, Jeff Sessions, is also the most in need. He's probably spent his entire life sitting on these mushrooms without ever suspecting their benefits.
3
Looking forward to the day when the phrase "laced with cultural appropriation" seems as dated and silly to our ears as the slogan “turn on, tune in and drop out.”
3
This article is end result of a journalist reporting on pseudoscience, drug and religious beliefs as though he were reporting on actual science, painstakingly studied by real scientists and reported in reputable journals. No wonder so much of the public is confused as how to discover what is real when cultishness is touted by journalists as science.
How does one pee while hallucinating? Did the guide help aim? I do believe that we all need to let go of our egos. I wouldn't mind trying the trip myself but I think I would want it in a padded room with no windows and the door locked!
2
psychedelics rock is the hall mark of the Hippe culture. Songs like In Trance and Fly to the Rainbow by the Scorpions, Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, and Purple Rain by Jimi Hendrix. While the west was tornby two satans in Vietnam one testing Military Hardware the other was the Hippe counter culture. USA as an petri dish for the experimentalist had these Indian Gurus impoted eventually driving Rolls Royces as the third satan. The Pinnacle of whom is the Osho.
While I have visited many Hindu Mutts[ Spiritual retreats and mouslems of so called Hindu Saints]. It is my recent awakening that this age is not actually the age of Spirtitual realization.
The number of cranky old hippies on this thread is funny. "Back in my day, sonny, we took the brown acid... and I'll never do it again. Clean livin', climbing mountains, and meditation... Now that's the ticket."
I believe Michael Pollen could have been one of you, but wasn't. Instead, he brings us an incredibly well-wrought sense of the state of the art... today... in 2018. I thank him.
5
After reading this article, I felt, this was not about the drug, the experience or the shaman. This was like hypnotism, meeting someone who might suggest something that you agree to follow. No different that gurus who lead and brainwash folks in their cults. Why would troubled people need it? I guess it's because one is not naturally open mentally or physically to suggestions. Best to paralyze not just one's body, but one's mind too then get told that they can heal......extreme, weird and perfectly suited to the CIA. I am sure it will be a much more friendly way to get those incarcerated to blurt out everything trapped by their minds.
This article more than anything else highlights that a good shroom is better than any number of psychiatrists, psychologists and that genre of hokum practicioners. Bring on the research but make prescription possible by folks in the realm of science, not the art of twisting minds. Shamans are cool, at least they provide entertainment while paralyzing you.
One may not always get to decide for oneself whether an hallucinogenic drug is to be administered. Ketamine (a horse tranquilizer and anaesthesic = the party drug "Special K") is being evaluated (it has been given two levels of accelerated approval dispensation) for preventing imminent suicide (and serious depression.)
Horses (lovers of Locoweed) on Ketamine are likely not anaesthesized, but so high they don't care what Dr. Pol is doing. Their owners are not being impoverished by the ~10$ dose against the $500 - $2000 per dose for study participants or private off-label patients.
The idea that powerful auditory, visual, touch and trip-style hallucinations would prevent a suicide is, because just plain silly, very dangerous. But the potential profits for Johnson & Johnson, study directors, doctors and pharmacies are so great that "absurdity" ain't in it.
There may be patients who would give up on suicide after such a derailing of their consciousness, or find new meaning in a life where they can speak one on one with Stanley Kubrick or their dead mother on jungle islands floating in air. But the physicians, neurologists and psychiatrists involved are not able to decide which few those are, because for example, they have little understanding of the mechanisms involved (we know as much about consciousness as we did 2000 years ago, a fortiori...) . And likely no deep understanding of the person who has arrived in the emergency room for help.
Follow the money.
1
The best illustrations!
1
Do drugs. Not too much. Mostly plants.
13
Insightful and beautifully expressed. Great writing.
4
As a teacher & parent of a young adult who experienced marijuana-induced psychosis, this scares me. My students get their "facts" about marijuana/other drugs online. Some are true, but students bring their own mental sets to the info they gather- focusing on the benefits & ignoring potential, very real, risks. They read about therapeutic uses of marijuana, & now, I'm afraid, psychedelics, & decide these substances are harmless. I mean even some valedictorians get high!
On the way to therapy, my child expressed hope the therapist would convince the Dr. to prescribe marijuana. Luckily my now adult child allowed me in to a later Dr's appointment. "It's my understanding marijuana would be really bad, and alcohol is also bad but not as bad in this case."
"Yes," replied the Dr who specializes in treating young people in their first psychotic break, "a couple drinks wouldn't be so bad, but binge drinking is bad. I worked on a study of a medication you (my child) are taking. Every patient, who had an onset of psychosis at an abnormally young age, was a marijuana smoker"
We seem to have convinced my child, who was consuming large doses of edibles multiple times a day, to forego marijuana, at least until their brain has time to mature. But I pray every day they can continue.
I tell my psych classes I think drugs have different effects, based on genetic/biochemical makeup. Family history of bipolar or schizophrenia-avoid hallucinogens (including marijuana). Alcoholism-avoid alcohol.
3
I have a different question. Practically every commenter, whether pro or con, seems to agree on the value of "having a spiritual experience." I've never taken any of these drugs, and wonder what effects atheists have? Does one have to be seeking a spiritual experience? Without doubting all the sincere spiritual seekers, I can't help suspecting some people mainly want an excuse to have some crazy wild fun - a break from dull daily life - and feel it must be justified as a "spiritual experience." Also, hey, does anyone ever take a trip in the opposite direction? Does a devout religious person ever take a psychedelic trip and come back convinced that there's no God after all - feeling freed of religious delusions? Just wondering.
Interesting question. I last tripped in the 1980s, when I was nominally a Catholic. I'm now atheist, if anything. (I say "if anything," because there are so many definitions.)
My experience is best summed up by John Cleese eulogizing Graham Chapman, in which he offered this about shocking humor:
"It is magnificent, isn’t it? You see, the thing about shock… is not that it upsets some people, I think; I think that it gives others a momentary joy of liberation, as we realised in that instant that the social rules that constrict our lives so terribly are not actually very important."
The ego being shed is part of that. I'm a fully functioning husband, parent, homeowner and all those things. But I feel like I took away something important. I wish I could articulate it better. The atheist thing is part of that. I'm not troubled by the lack of evidence for a god; I'll find out soon enough. Meantime I'm going to live my best life and help everyone I can.
Very interesting! But this other "I": how does it get privileged over the ego-driven one? Because one has not encountered it before does that make it superior? Why does it need to be so? Seems like that "I" has its own ego, of a kind.
Experiences like these will be ridiculed by people who have never had them and dismissed as "just a drug," but I would urge those folks to look at the results of these studies. Lives are being changed for the better.
Keep in mind, psychedelic experiences aren't about fleeting pleasure, or seeing funny visuals, or watching a movie in your head. They are about seeing your life, your relationships, your self-beliefs and your self-delusions, in the cold light of day. They will show you your behaviors that don't line up with who you wish you were. They will show you the difference between the identity you've carefully constructed and the person you feel yourself to be, deep down. This can be troubling, it can be scary, and it can also change your life.
I experienced suicidal ideation from age 13 to 27, told no one about it, assumed this was just who I was. That it would never change. One mushroom trip later, and I gained a love for myself, a compassion for others, and a will to survive that goes much deeper than words. The change has persisted for years, not just because of the drug but because of the work I've put into maintaining that state of mind.
I rarely think of suicide now. When I do, I have the psychological tools to deal with those negative thoughts, to accept them, and to recognize they are a part of me that once served an important purpose in my life but must be released.
8
Let's hope Jeff Sessions does not mess up the long overdue legalization pathway, something tells me he will.
2
"...it is not the molecules by themselves that can help patients change their minds." With all due respect to the traditions of the Mexicans and Native Americans, if we really hope to broaden acceptance to the therapeutic effects of hallucinogens, interested observers should be diligent about separating their true physiological effects from the shamanistic social effects of "healers" and "guides."
The healers would find it antithetical to the spirit of the treatment, I'm sure, but not doing so is an open invitation to eye rolls and skepticism from critics and the medical community at large—not to mention charlatans and wannabe practitioners of hallucinogenic medicine who present a challenge to mainstream adoption of the substance they are trying to herald.
Here's to hoping for the expedient clinical trials they deserve.
'The Role of the Guide is crucial."
Nonsense, but if you're making money as a self-proclaimed 'guide', sure, that's going to be your raison d'etre. In the 60's and 70's 'tripping' was widespread and the only guide required was the one residing within us all. Of course, for some people, these drugs are very dangerous and should only be ingested with someone you trust and who has experience with them.
I was Stan Grof’s cameraman for British TV in the early 1970’s when he conducted a clinical trial of giving a psychedelic (LSD?) to a dying cancer patient in Baltimore.
It was a disaster. The patient was terrified.
This line struck me, "To be admitted to the program, an applicant must have a professional medical or therapy license of some kind, and most of the trainees — whose average age looked to be about 45 and whose number included nine psychologists, nine psychiatrists and four oncologists." In my neighborhood there are dozens of "Rehab houses". You don't have to be a doctor to open a Rehab House, or be a medical professional to treat patients for addiction. Recently, a millionaire who owned 10 Rehab Houses was arrested for patient abuse. His previous job was a pool cleaner, and he has a criminal record.
2
I never felt a need for psychotherapy after first taking LSD and wandering the ancient streets of Old Jerusalem all night with two tripping English friends in 1970. Then and several times more in my youth were some of the highlights of my life, and while I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, I would for those not afraid to let their minds roam. Though I'm not sure I'd risk it again now in my near-dotage.
1
Oh, and yes, this: "The whole scene must sound ridiculously hokey" - Yup. That's my other question. That whole hoopla would put me off big time. Why is all this necessary? As I've said, I never used these drugs, but I "babysat" friends who were using them, and I don't recall they felt a need for altars or incense or smudge sticks. The way I recall it, they blocked out plenty of time - say, a long weekend - and stocked up on food and planned not to leave the house (or at least, to stay close). That sort of thing. It was practical. The whole Native American pretense strikes me as just that ... pretense. Not so much cultural appropriation as just, well, silly. If you want to take a psychedelic trip, why does it have to have all this pretentious justification?
2
1. Researchers have known for decades that "set and setting," along with mindset and expectations, contribute as much - or at least, almost as much - to the psychedelic experience as the psychedelic drug itself.
2. Researchers have established, at least in the past 20 years, the medication plus psychotherapy is superior to either medication or therapy alone even for the most severe depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, ADHD and many other disorders.
So, when will the broken mental health system put things in place to assure the the entire mental health field **consistently** integrates set, setting, mindset and expectations in all mental health treatment?
"setting" includes social support, which has been shown (when sufficient!) in many cases to be superior to medication or therapy alone.
The best thing is, this won't necessarily cost a dime more. It will involve enormous amounts of time and energy on the part of mental health practitioners in order to create integrated settings which will foster the kind of healing which Pollan's work tells us is possible.
3
Sounds like a 'bad trip' to me. Although I haven't had an opportunity to take these psychedelics for over 40 years, when I lived in CA in my youth we took these products pretty regularly and never had a bad experience. In my humble opinion, the dosage for a novice was way too high, no pun intended.
It gave me an inner joy, an open mindedness, a gratefulness, open eyes and an internal sensitivity for the miracles of creation.... I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD. It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be. ”
— Albert Hofmann, Speech on 100th birthday
Albert Hofmann discovered LSD.
Someone should point out that MDA and LSD are completely different from one another. MDA is not a psychedelic.
1
Pollan's desire to use psychedelics to get "less hung up," is antithetical to the stated purpose of the clinicians he describes. If the objective is to help victims of PTSD and those who suffer from debilitating depression and anxiety, then by all means pursue research. But to simply "tune in?" Pollan has not approached his subject in a serious way. His anecdotal experience and his dismissal of induced psychosis "if any," is careless and reminds me of magazine articles from the '60s where elated 20-somethings told everyone what a great trip they'd had. If we as a society embrace hallucinogens, we should make sure that those who use them are protected from any adverse outcomes. In other words, are we willing to pay for a lifetime of medical and psychiatric treatment for people who just want to "get less hung up" on themselves?
2
Neurology and neurochemistry have made such impressive and horizon-expanding strides in the last decades, yet as a species we have only scratched the surface of our cerebral capacities for self-knowledge and implementation of cooperative strategies for peace. You want to go to Mars with some guy who makes electric cars? Be my guest. I hope increasing numbers of thoughtful readers will prefer to donate to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as mentioned in Michael Pollan's excellent piece, as I have done for years. The truly accessible-to-all, democratic frontiers lie inside our brains.
2
A fascinating article and the artwork appropriately hits the points he makes. Like Michael Pollan, I am a near normal, late middle age person who avoided the lure of magic mushrooms and acid in the '70s mostly due to fears of the paranoia and anxiety that a bad trip could produce. At that time, friends and acquaintances were doing it to get high and to have fun. I always thought it should have been more meaningful but I was fearful of losing control. This article makes me wonder if I could open my mind to an experience of wonder and ego-less being ( much as mindful meditation generates a sense of observation of what "i" am thinking- what is the me that is observing the mind at work?) Is there a role for psychedelics for a middle class guy who does not need to fix a psychiatric problem? Is a search for meaning enough?
11
A search for a «meaning” could be more than enough. Maybe just the need to ask a question like that qualifies? Many years ago I had only the “drug experience”. But even back then I was overwhelmed by the power of the drug and how important for the outcome of the experience the setting, the location and my company was. It would be a whole another experience if one could be guided by a competent “guide”/therapist like Mary. I am convinced psychedelic therapy would help a lot of people. But of course, such strong drugs requires demands of strong quality of competency by the therapists like Mary and hers alike. The society will require a way to control that competency and a control that only such therapists are able to use such psychedelics
1
With a long retreat, particularly one that utilizes a framework based generally around the alchemical principles of solve and coagulae (dissolution and re-formation) as practiced by Sufis and certain of the Christian mystics, you can do the same thing with somewhat minimal risk. An experienced guide, likewise, is indispensable. It takes longer - generally a week to 10 days - but both the dissolution and coming together are gentler, more conscious, deliberate, and purposeful. Integration, still, is essential, but it's not quite as much of a jolt, isn't illegal, doesn't require a medical license, and is available if you are curious enough to look and diligent enough to commit to the practices.
8
Unlike other posters so far, my comments are restricted to observations relating people I know who use MDMA and ayahuasca - not as a user. I'll be upfront and say that my observations have led me to conclude that I will never use either drug.
There are much safer, more effective and better integrating therapies out there, readily available to anyone - but they take time, commitment and long-term support, three ingredients necessary for any true change to take place. I'm thinking of the vast number of excellent energy therapies, talk therapies and forms of meditation and prayer.
I fear that ayahuasca in particular, with its messy quasi-religious ceremonies, currently offers at best a kind of junk-food spirituality which can be toxic in some cases. I've had friends who experienced it as a one-off that signified nothing; I've also had friends lost to a sort of addiction to the feeling of godlike omniscience induced - instead of opening to a universal spiritual reality, they really just go up into their own egos, and become insufferable ayahuasca bores, more-enlightened-than-thou, unable to relate to the world outside their own drug experiences.
We live in a world in which outside agents, including current pharmaceutical drugs, are valued more than the development of a healthy interior life. If these drugs can hasten the wellbeing of struggling people, and obviate the need for psychopharmacological drugs, then, great. But there is no substitute for time and effort.
17
Well said! I am someone who has had positive experiences with psychedelics and support some of the research into very targeted/specific use......and yet have had experiences with people that have led me to THE EXACT SAME concerns/reservations/reflections that you have. A good read is "Cleansing the Doors of Perception" by Huston Smith---he talks about much of the same and is well written!
7
Thanks, Kevin, I will check it out!
I think the point we agree on is, these drugs are tools, a means to an end. The example of using psilocybin for oncology patients is particularly poignant, and no one with a heart would be anything other than encouraging. I personally don't mind if people want to use these drugs recreationally, either, as long as they are honest about it. But - as to using them to induce spiritual awakening - it's all in the goals, and all in the processing, no matter what psychotherapeutic tools you use. And some people seem to lose sight of the fact that their experiences are THEIR experiences, for THEM to learn from. Use of these drugs do not, in themselves, automatically elevate people to the top of the spiritual hierarchies of consciousness ;) Anyway, thanks for your insights!
3
The potential of these substances to help people with any number of mental illnesses is indeed encouraging--there is so much suffering in our society, and no shortage of false cures. However, the skeptic in me sees this becoming yet one more genuine human impulse for the silicon valley techno-utopians to exploit for profit. These substances offer the beginning of a path of life to be undertaken, not the end of one.
5
One year ago, under the close consultation of a trusted therapeutic guide, I took a journey with mushrooms that to this day remains seminal in my emotional/psychological/neurological healing. I was 49 years old. I had "tripped" at a few Dead shows and had had a couple of very fun rich experiences with college friends in my 20s. But nothing even remotely as profound and psychologically healing as this last time, with a therapeutic guide. The emotional depths were seismic, the crying truly cathartic, deeply cleansing, ancient. Over a year later and I am still so grateful for having given myself this experience and intend to continue. I can only say, from my own personal journey that the opportunity to experience a connection to what language might call Cosmic, Infinite, Universal, and to feel one's soul in concert with that enormity was cellularly comforting and healing for the me that spends the vast majority of time identifying as 'me'. Thank you Michael. Your work is essential.
37
As my grandfather was a pharmacist, I had a healthy respect for drugs in my youth. Acid and other psychedelics were common at art school in the late '60s but, thanks to my background, I didn't sample the acid and magic mushrooms floating about the school. That said, I understand that the trippers I knew from the era had very successful lives. Some stuck with their education, and with drugs as well, and graduated with PhDs. I came away believing the scare stories were just that "scare stories." (And one scare story became a recognized lie. No group of LSD users ever lost their sight because they all, as a group, stared at the sun.) Now, to go and enjoy a glass of Bordeaux.
5
"It quickly became clear that the reason most of the people in the room were willing to devote the time (five weekends and one full week over nine months) and the money ($7,800) to be certified..."
As long as they're certified - it's all good.
I wonder if there is ever anyone who ponies up the 7.8 large who fails to become certified.
3
I have taken psychedelics several times both with friends and alone. Some times were for entertainment, some were therapeutic. I consider these to be some of the most profound experiences of my life. I suffer no debilitating mental or terminal illness.
When experienced with friends, a bonding occurs that is extremely difficult to replicate. Group activities are fun and hilarious, while you feel vulnerable but still comfortable and trusting. The "debriefing" that occurs afterwards is equally rewarding.
When I decided to try them alone, I chose to listen to Dr. Bill Richard's playlist in its entirety, referenced here in the article. This is a highly recommended experience. Each concierto is an ode to human beauty, struggle, life, and death that becomes part of what feels like a lesson in how to live on Earth as a human being. A sense of the great beauty of existence occurs throughout.
Michael Pollan eloquently describes the dissolution of the ego, and he is correct in stating that human language does not allow for a full description of the experience.
As difficult experiences can arise, they should be treated with reverence and respect, trying to use these just to "get messed up" and you will very much have a bad time. I suspect people who use them in this way have given them a bad name to the rest of society. It is unfortunate given what individuals and society can gain from their appropriate usage. It is a farce that these substances are classified as Schedule I.
48
There's a charming video from the late 50's of an acid trip administered to the wife of an Air Force pilot. The beauty is that she is innocent of all the hype and misinformation that came in the decades after; there's no religious or shamanic trappings either, just raw experience. I love her response when the physician asks her, "How do you feel inside?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGf2loLAwVE
I used LSD in my teens and college years, and while Mr. Pollan makes a valiant attempt, it's not really possible to describe what you see, hear and feel -- an overwhelming gush of color, sensation and pure amazement. Anxiety can be an early part of the "trip", especially for first timers, and an experienced and trusted guide is a real help.
Some of the street "LSD" available today is, far as I can tell, some kind of horse tranquilizer. The pure stuff, the real deal, should be available to anyone who wants it. Certainly, people that it has already been proven to help therapeutically.
10
Set and setting.
A guide/guard/caretaker helps too.
I don't know about great learnings or insights, but the thoughts, sounds and colors experienced/perceived are still easily recalled and vivid to this day.
This can be a good thing, or poor, depending upon trip. Careful.
I highly recommend a quiet beach and redwood forests.
Good luck Psychonauts. Safe tripping's.
17
I'm surprised that they didn't mention ketamine. It is already an approved therapy for chronic pain, and has been showing great promise in the treatment of depression.
6
tranquilizer. Should they mention opioids as well (fentanyl 80 times stronger)?
1
Who approved ketamine as a therapy for chronic pain? Certainly not the FDA which regulates drugs in this country.
Ketamine treatment is allowed in the US for off-label use for a number of ailments, including chronic pain, depression and anxiety. It is typically given by a physician (usually with a specialty in anesthesia), in an office setting. There is usually no counseling involving deep exploration of the patient's psychedelic experiences while under the influence of the ketamine. The ketamine advocates believe that the physiological effects of the ketamine infusion itself, even without counseling, is sufficient to bring about the desired positive effect. I am taking ketamine treatment myself right now, for my very intense and stubborn anxiety. So far the results look positive for me.
3
It's too bad that these sessions are confined to a room. Nature has its own transcendent beauty and wisdom to impart as a guide in these situations, and one would think especially to Michael Pollan who has already written so lucidly about plants. Ask Mary to take you outside next time, Michael (a whole new book might come from the experience)!
31
So complicated. The potential for fear and joy mixed, and the ambiguities of temporary relief from the demands of ego, and the confusion, make this more complicated than perhaps it should be.
Remember, life itself is complicated, and contains those same elements of fear, joy, ambiguity, and confusion.
We are certainly now enmired in the endgame of extreme ego, to the point of destroying all that we need and all that we love, on our hospitable earth.
I would say the drugs of hatred, violence, and fear are much more dangerous than even a fleeting experience of enlightenment.
I'm glad to see the odd mix of funders: crazy Dr. Bronner, the Mercers, Peter Thiel.
Who'dathunkit!!?
16
Failed to mention my admiration and support for those trying to find a legal path to using this therapy.
20
Dear Susan,
I've always enjoyed your well-informed comments on climate change, packed as they've been with excellent sources and brilliant insights.
For some reason though, I've developed (incorrectly, I see now) an image of you as a hard nosed skeptic who has little interest in "inner" experience.
But to see you write: "We are certainly now enamored in the endgame of extreme ego," I would have thought you were a lifelong student of Jean Gebser, who wrote in the late 1940s of our time (since the so-called "Enlightenment") as one of the "deficient" aspect of the "mental structure" of consciousness.
if you would like to look at a more updated version of this, informed by two decades of astonishingly careful analysis of neuroscientific research, look up Iain McGilchrist's "The Master and His Emissary" (I've been attempting to get Richard Luettgen to look at this for the past year; I doubt he's ever bothered:>))
These two places are, I think, the easiest place to start (though you might be intrigued by his youtube interview with Jordan Peterson):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI (RSA animate)
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI (this one, at the Blake society, is over an hour, but it is one of the most inspired lectures I've ever heard/seen.
I should quickly add, since McGilchrist is famous (infamous) for reviving interest in hemispheric differences, he takes great pains to say he is NOT conveying 70s new age notions
www.remember-to-breathe.org
1
It's interesting and perhaps telling that most commenters here zero in on the drug, often recalling their own experiences. This piece is only half about the psychedelic substance. It's about psychedelic psychotherapy, as Pollan himself emphasizes repeatedly. If approved, the treatment will be drug + trained therapist. This is quite unlike anything the various commentators are referring to. Their experiences -- good and bad -- would fall outside the scope of this treatment, i.e., would still be drug abuse. The role of the therapist seems crucial in what's being proposed here. We need to remind ourselves that the habit of a strict mind-body dualism can be a terrible blinder. Remember, for instance, that effective talk therapy also changes brain functioning and chemistry. Let's get on with this research!
36
Pollan states near the end of the article that oncologists will likely be able to prescribe psilocybin for take-home purposes, although he quotes people who question the wisdom of that approach. In light of this country's commodified pharmaceutical culture, I doubt approval will be limited in the long to therapy sessions, even if that reflects best practices. More likely the drug companies will race to develop anti-abuse technology, novel methods of administration, and find new uses for these drugs that are profitable and patentable, if not necessarily optimal.
3
when the nicotine patch was approved for smoking cessation it was done with the expectation that it would be only a single part of a treatment approach which would include psychologically based therapies, too.
The number of people prescribed the patch who actually got this therapy too was minute.
1
It is important to note that this is the author's first experience with psychedelics. I am hopeful he will continue to explore and experiment with tripping away from guides and structure so he can compare the experiences. Anyone who has ever had a psychedelic experience knows that it can only be structured to a certain degree. A guide is a very small part of this experience and can be rendered completely useless and even hostile depending on the nature of the trip. Taking LSD/psilocybin without a guide does not fall under the category of drug abuse. Focusing too much on structure and guidance is akin to taming a wild horse.
I remember waking in the night in a grass hut at the Khumbh Mela at Hardwar in 1972, and under the influence of a marajuana milkshake I had drunk I felt I suddenly knew what this spiritual stuff was all about. Maybe I did, to an extent, but it wasn't the kind of knowledge that persists, and in the morning it was gone.
I think this chemical quick fix is likely to be transitory. If it is stable spiritual knowledge that you want you'd better practice some traditional spiritual path for a while, and with a little luck you will get some. But try to choose a tradition and a teacher that is both genuine and something you enjoy.
10
In the case of PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, and Substance Use Disorder, these medicines are catalysts that can help someone get back to a more "normal" emotional baseline, and from there build a meaningful spiritual practice. People actively suffering from PTSD, MDD, or SUD may not be well enough to create and sustain a spiritual practice. These medicines can help people see, if only for a little while, the beauty in life and in themselves, and that can be profound enough to help them feel hope for the first time in a very long while.
As it stands now, most drugs for those conditions are taken every day - for months, years, or for the rest of someone's life and have significant side effects and spotty efficacy. In psychedelic psychotherapy, the medicines are only used a few times over the course of several months, and in the case of the MAPS clinical trials with MDMA, over 65% remained completely free of PTSD symptoms over 2 years afterward.
I think you're assuming the "crutch" model of drug therapy. The counterexample is the antidepressant (Prozac) model: the drug lifts you out of the behavioral patterns that depression made habitual over the years, so that you can freely learn new patterns. Once those are familiar, the drug becomes, like Wittgenstein's ladder, something you can throw away.
That's not the whole story; some people benefit from perpetual antidepressant medications. And nobody with terminal cancer is going to need a crutch of any kind for very long.
The "moral" counter to antidepressants in the early years was that people with adequate will power shouldn't need them. That proved to be a superstitious point of view and prejudicial to depressives as "weak". I'm happy if tradition and teaching work for you, but the point of psychedelics (as I understand them) is that they take you to a place that is outside your traditional beliefs and everything you've been taught. You learn on your own, for real, with your whole conscious experience.
2
Marijuana is famous for making you think you’ve had the best ideas only to wake in the morning and find it was just the drug. Hallucinogenics like LSD act completely differently.
It’s like saying you got the jitters drinking too much coffee so obviously anti-biotics don’t work.
3
I've gotten to know a number of opioid and other addicts who are unable to stop using or are dead now, despite their having been to numerous treatment centers and hundreds of 12-step meetings, and jails. Most have lost family and friends to overdoses, nearly dying on numerous occasions themselves, they've been homelessness, have prostituted themselves, etc. It's heartbreaking to see these people suffer and so many people die, some barely adults, knowing that if they had what's referred to a spiritual awakening (in 12-step parlance) like I and many others have had--they too could get on the road to recovery and succeed. And if--as AA's co-founder attempted during a clinical trial he participated in and others since then with a high success rate--this awakening can be induced with the carefully controlled use of a pharmaceutical grade psychedelic under qualified supervision, then we should resume these studies on a large scale because the reality is that treatment's overall success rate is appalling. But here we are as a society doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That, as Albert Einstein so eloquently put it, is the very definition of insanity.
21
The problem is that over 50 years studies were performed and found the psychedlics provided at best limited benefits for mental disorders that were far outweighed by the potential side effects of their use.
Why should we expect that if we do the studies again they would now show something different?
1
actually, insanity is doing the same thing over and over, knowing EXACTLY what is going to happen, and doing it anyway. AA works - but the work is in the indepth, dedication to a spiritual process that is imbedded in the steps. the key is to actually DO them, not just look at them on the wall or quote the stupid sayings that go along with them....
It's unfortunate that the majority of the commentators here belittle the significance of a psychedelic experience. I have taken both psilocybin and LSD trips and they remain some of the most meaningful experiences I've ever had. Sitting in a room with a close group of friends during an 8-12 hour trip creates an environment that simply can't be replicated. It allows people to completely remove themselves from the experience of living in a capitalist society and explore (or not explore) the things that make them real people. It can be an overwhelmingly emotional experience for some people but that is not a bad thing. American daily life is bankrupt in a number of ways. We have become little more than cogs in a broken system, striving for a material goal that we will most likely never achieve, and if we are fortunate enough to get to, leave us wanting more. We work ourselves to death in this country and never have time to contemplate meaning. The acceptance and increased use of psychedelics can go a long way in remedying this enormous problem in American life.
88
"We work ourselves to death in this country and never have time to contemplate meaning."
I whole-heartedly agree. But I also believe -- deeply -- that we can change that without drugs.
2
Another option would be to just not work ourselves to death!
@Chris - Thank you for this comment. I wholeheartedly agree with your perspective.
1
Ah yes, I remember well the delusion of taking psychedelics and believing we had discovered hidden truths in ourselves, back in the 60's. If someone is really on a journey of self discovery, then drugs of any type are not going to aid in that. People conflate being high with something spiritual, but really that is all it is, an artificial high with an acutely heightened sense of imagination. My most spiritual moments in my life came when I pushed myself to physical and mental limits and any resulting truths I discovered were quite pure and uncluttered. The feeling is far better than anything I had back in the hay day of the 60's.
20
To each his own, junior birdman.
You conflate your past recreational use with guided therapy, which is only for individuals suffering from post traumatic stress, major depression, substance use disorders, etc.
2
Please speak only for yourself Scott. What you take from an experience is impacted by what you bring to it. Apparently you brought your delusional self with a set of beliefs that prevented you from letting go of your reactive mind.
Many of us have found in these experiences something unknown to you.
"If someone is really on a journey of self discovery, then drugs of any type are not going to aid in that."
Seriously? Can you say condescending?
You think you know.
7
This is really old news. I took psychedelics several times in the '60's when I was very young. I thought it was an interesting way to view the world: it allowed me to "see" things I normally can't see such as blood flow in the vessels of my arms. However I decided that taking these chemical trips frequently would make it impossible to engage and function in everyday reality, so I stopped.
5
I grew up with severe child abuse in a nomadic family - went to many schools in multiple countries, and had no durable connections to anyone outside my family to help me overcome what my parents did to me. We moved to California when I was in high school, at the peak of the hippie culture, and I discovered LSD. It turned my black-pit world into a world of intense beauty! I used it frequently for about 3 years until I finally got tired of it because nothing new was happening with it, and I decided to stop. But somehow finding beauty this way in a very dark and grim life made a permanent change in me. I found my inner strength, I found my creativity, worked my way through college, and found a career that would help me help other children in my position. I feel strongly that even though I stumbled onto LSD, it saved my life by shifting my perspective from despair to beauty, from pain to love, from hopelessness to a determination to find a purpose for my life.
120
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
2
The author implies that the reason LSD dropped out of a favor as a potential treatment of mental disorders is because it became associated with the counter culture in the 1960s.
This is untrue. When I was in medical school in the late 1970s, several of the faculty members in psychiatry told us they had been involved in research on it in the 1950s. The reason that it fell out of favor was not its counter culture association but because (1) it was just as likely, if not more likely, to exacerbate mental disorders than to alleviate them and (2) by that time the first effective antipsychotic and antidepressant medications were becoming available. It was not due to some vast government conspiracy to keep effective medications out of the hands of the public.
15
The government wrote laws that protected the sale and profits of antipsychotic and antidepressant medicines and they wrote laws that made LSD illegal. Could that have had any effect on antipsychotic and antidepressant medicines having favor over LSD? The government decided which medicines we could have and which we could not. It was never a fair fight. Big Pharma has much better lobbyists.
I'm always stunned by doctors who talk about "effective" antidepressant medications when virtually all the research shows the best ones to be at best 1 to 2% more effective than placebos (at least, without a thoroughly integrative approach with psychotherapy).
And people here think Trump supporters believe in irrational things!
Doctor -- I think if you prescribed an anti-psychotic without regard to careful patient screening you would have the same result. Also, some drugs might need additional resources, such a trained guide present for what happens during the drug therapy. The irrational witch hunt against the Category 1 drug cannabis is a good microscope through which to view the fate of how society and politics handles a drug depending upon who the former users were.
My immediate and extended genetic family is so stricken by severe, clinical depression that it was the subject of a large public university genetic study in the 1980s. Since then, despite buckets of big-pharma "soloutions" and tens of thousands of dollars in psychiatric and psychopharmacological treatments, not much has changed in the battle of this diseases, at least for my clan.
This avenue should be given above-ground room to breathe and grow in the light of academia and FDA hallways, international and national conferences and extensive research. Why? These are all the things that big-pharma has gotten for 60 plus years, and all we have to show for it is soaring addiction rates, depression as the number one threat to humanity.
Thank you to the NY Times and the author, who did a superb job, for investing in and publishing this story.
75
While the experience is fleeting as it compares to a lifetime, it can open up, or wake up, an awareness that allows for (or even invites) further exploration into those states of consciousness available to all of us through meditation (or even a flash of recognition in the present moment).
Can't imagine it with the eye cover -- nature is my preferred altar. Tho the description of becoming one with the music is enticing, and in truth, many times I have experienced a unity awareness during live concerts, not on any psychedelic substance.
33
There is a reason that Ram Das (Richard Alpert) and others moved on from psychedelics to meditation (and yoga, kirtan, etc.). Psychedelics may open that door for twelve hours at a time but when you come down you are stuck in the same old place, and a small percentage of folks will have a horrifically bad trip. "Re-wiring" your brain through mediation and associated practices is clean, organic and healthy but it takes work; dosing is the easy, lazy way to achieve some sort of "egolessness" but like consuming a MacDonald's Big Mack the pleasure is fleeting and when you are finished you don't really feel that great.
29
I wonder if Mr. Pollan has found his post-mushroom self "stuck in the same old place."
Meanwhile, over 20 veterans commit suicide every day. People suffering from PTSD, major depression, and substance use might not have the ability or the wherewithal to wait for years to experience the equanimity you speak of.
There's a lot more to it than just taking the medicine. Learn more about it here: http://www.maps.org
1
I have no desire to take a trip right now.
But if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, I would definitely consider the use of psilocybin:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment
22
Well just as long as it's published in a leading medical journal like the New Yorker that only publishes results of double blind, controlled studies, what's not to disagree with.
Aldous Huxley took a dose of LSD as he slipped into death from his laryngeal cancer on Nov. 22,1963.
1