Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs | Sam Harris, Michael Pollan & more

Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs
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Having been repressed in the 1960s for their ties to the counterculture, psychedelics are currently experiencing a scientific resurgence. In this video, Michael Pollan, Sam Harris, Jason Silva and Ben Goertzel discuss the history of psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, acknowledge key figures including Timothy Leary and Albert Hoffman, share what the experience of therapeutic tripping can entail, and explain why these substances are important to the future of mental health.

There is a stigma surrounding psychedelic drugs that some scientists and researchers argue is undeserved. Several experiments over the past decades have shown that, when used correctly, drugs like psilocybin and LSD can have positive effects on the lives of those take them. How they work is not completely understood, but the empirical evidence shows promise in the fields of curbing depression, anxiety, obsession, and even addiction to other substances.

"There's a tremendous amount of insight that can be plumbed using these various substances. There's also a lot of risks there, as with most valuable things," says artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel. He and others believe that by making psychedelics illegal, modern governments are getting in the way of meaningful research and the development of "cultural institutions to guide people in really productive use of these substances."

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TRANSCRIPT:

MICHAEL POLLAN: How do these psychedelics work? Well, the honest answer is we don't entirely know, but we know a few things. One is they fit a certain receptor site: the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. And they look a lot like serotonin if you look at the molecular models of them and, in fact, LSD fits that receptor site even better than serotonin does and it stays there longer. And that's why the LSD trip can last 12 hours. What happens after that we don't really know. It's an agonist to that receptor. So it increases its activity. And this, you know the neuroscientists say lead to a cascade of effects which is shorthand for don't really know what happens next. But one thing we do know, or we think we know, is that it appears that one particular brain network is deactivated or quieted. And that is the default mode network. This was discovered not very long ago by a researcher in England named Robin Carhart-Harris who was dosing people with psilocybin and LSD and then sliding them into an MRI machine, to take an FMRI a functional magnetic resonance image. The expectation I think was that people would see an excitation of many different networks in the brain. You know, that's what the kind of mental fireworks sort of foretold, but he was very surprised to discover that one particular network was down-regulated and that was this default mode network.

So what is that? Well, it's a tightly linked set of structures connecting the prefrontal cortex to the posterior cingulate cortex, to the deeper older centers of emotion and memory. It appears to be involved in things like self-reflection, theory of mind, the ability to impute mental states to others, mental time travel, the ability to project forward in time and back, which is central to creating an identity, right? You don't have an identity without a memory and the so-called autobiographical memory, the function by which we construct the story of who we are by taking the things that happened to us and folding them into that narrative. And that appears to take place in the posterior cingulate cortex. So, you know, to the extent the ego can be said to have a location in the brain it appears to be this, the default mode network. It's active when you're doing nothing. When your mind is wandering. It can be very self-critical, it's where self-talk takes place. And that goes quiet. And when that goes quiet, the brain is sort of as one of the neuroscientists put it, let off the leash, because those ego functions, that self idea is a regulator of all mental activity and kind of, you know, the brain is a hierarchical system and the default mode network appears to be at the top. It's kind of the orchestra conductor or corporate executive. And you take that out of the picture, and suddenly you have this uprising from other parts of the brain and you have networks that don't ordinarily communicate with one another suddenly striking up...

[bigthink]

Would you try therapeutic psychedelics?

[Robertvaquero]

Psilocybin, LSD, shrooms and ketamine are absolutely life changing substances that have so much potential to help people with mental health issues

[infantryblack]

Mushrooms saved my life. After Afghanistan I was diagnosed 100% disabled with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. I had a very spiritual shift and saw life in a meaningful way again.

[dchyga]

shrooms truly helped me realize that i’m simply loved by the universe. it felt like i was being taught such an important lesson by a parent/mentor. before doing shrooms, it was so hard for me to see that i always had people around me that cared. after two trips i started to actually clean my room and keep it clean for the first time in 4 years. this was a huge step for me thanks to psychedelics.

[lucassredzinski]

I can’t imagine being stuck in an MRI while tripping off shrooms

[MrKFNeverGiveUp]

The people I know of who use psychedelics are nicer and more open-minded people than the people who have never used psychedelics. Those who use the damaging alcohol drug are usually the ones who are close-minded and supercilious, and they tend to laugh at and ridicule those who moderately use magic mushrooms, LSD, DMT, and cannabis.

[freddytackos]

did acid once. has been much easier to see the beauty inherent in nature ever since.

[RodriguezGorge]

I started drinking alcohol since my teenage. Spent my whole life fighting alcohol addiction. Also suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my wife recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

[aguschar]

The day I took mushrooms, I felt like no time exist, so connected with nature, love to every one. Was amazing. I didn't take any more. But when I think in those 9 hours of tripping I feel like Im living that moment again and those feelings come to my mind. Ill do it again for sure. But so far I can reconnect with the emotions instantly just with my thoughts. Great content, thanks

[Legouniverse]

First time I did shrooms (a month ago from when this was written) I found so much enjoyment in everything that was around me. It really made me appreciate the world we live on, and that being 19 and completely inexperienced in life was perfectly fine. They showed me that I am who I am, and I have so much going for myself. Big mindset change from the depression I was dealing with; graduating during covid, never feeling good enough, thinking everyone is smarter and better than me. It’s almost like those mushrooms made me look at myself and be like: “why am I down on myself? I am who I am and I like who I am. I’m wasting energy on being sad when I can put it towards something way more important.” I’ve tripped a couple times now, nothing but good to say about them. Just don’t overdo it the first time, you really have no idea what it’s gonna be like

[vencroy]

From one experience with acid and a life long passion for studying psychology (independently) I can tell you it very simply does one thing; It turns your world inside out. What I mean by this requires the presumption that life occurs in the brain. The universe works mentally and it really is all in your head. However there is a barrier between your inner world and your outer world. Psychedelics remove that barrier. This is why you see with your eyes what your brain feels. This is why people who feel scared may see/experience scary visuals & hallucinations (otherwise known as a bad trip) meanwhile on the other hand, people who take the psychedelic with a happy headspace see beautiful things. A good trip can destroy the users illusion of seperation from the universe. We are not separate from the universe but in fact we are the universe experiencing itself limited nobly by our subjectively perception. When people realize that we are all actually little pieces of a beautiful painting there comes a blisful feeling of love & compassion for everything and everyone; this is best demonstrated by the great hippie counter culture). At high doses many believe to encounter divine beings & so these psychedelics have become the staple of many religions.
They've been used by many ancients civilizations all over the world ranging anywhere from the indigenous Americans to the ancient Egyptians. The psychedelic experience surfaces your inner psych and once everything about you is surfaced, you are free to pick and chose which traits about yourself you admire and which you can do without; e.g. completely terminating a life-long smoking addiction from one day to another.
Meditation alone can be said to be psychedelic since breathing releases a natural psychedelic compound called DMT however such a tiny amount of the compound is released that it can, at best, be considered micromanaging (meaning taking a vert small portion of a psychedelic. A portion so mild that you don't experience any visuals or even notice it at all)
Also mediation isn't something that is simply done (at least not according to my book, "A Systemic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga & Kriya" by Swami Satyananda Saraswati) Actual meditation is said to be a state that takes years of practice to reach so meditation isn't something a doctor can simply prescribe to someone who's struggling with mental health & wants a more immediate solution. Meditation can only have similar effects over the course of it's slow perfection which just isn't feasible for the average working class citizen. I do believe that we should all meditate daily, however the majority of us don't have the time. Even though it can be done for only 10 minutes a day, it will be very hard to errode a psychological trauma with such constrains. We just don't have the economic liberty to finance a long therapeutic trip to Brazil like Bruce Banner did in The Incredible Hulk 2008. In the movie, Bruce Banner goes to Brazil and is seen practicing the art of yoga & mediation which eventually allows him to gain control of hulk. It does not happen over night but the movie serves a good metaphor for how meditation can slowly align us to gain control of our life. We first control our breath, then our thoughts & slowly but surely everything else becomes more easily to control in our lives. But a more ideal solution for someone who seeks instant mental health solutions would be to be prescribed a psychedelic by a trained professional who can guide you through the trip. This is seen in yet another superhero movie. In Batman Begins Bruce Wayne has a psychedelic experience while training with The League of Shadows in Himalayan mountains. Fun fact, the hymalayas actually has historic significance to meditation & spirituality as it's a place where the Hindus believe gods go to meditate. Anyway, while in these sacred mountains, there is a scene where Bruce Wayne inhales the fumes of a burning blue flower. Inhaling the blue flower allows Bruce to almost immediately process his deeply rooted fear of bats. He then goes on to become Batman.
The blue flower he used could be a representation of the Blue Lotus flower; a psychedelic drug that is famous for it's depictions in Ancient Egyptian carvings). It's important to notice that we don't even have the technology today that the ancient Egyptians had 2000 years ago so if they worshiped that little psychedelic flower maybe it was for a good reason.
Anyway it seems as though the world is ready to finally give psychedelics the medicinal praise it deserves. Maybe they hold the truth to unfolding our hidden superpowers. By overcoming what we fear most, we can become invincible.
I might make a video going greater in depth on the matter so stay tuned if you're interested

[SensationalBanana]

I have Asperger's with depression and anxiety being a constant companion through my life. It was somehow possible to manage for a long time, and then my dog died... The dog that I got at 13, who was my best friend and teacher, he was MINE, due to family issues I had sole responsibility over his well-being and training.

He passed 13 years later, after getting worse since the age of 10 with a bad hip, hearing loss and prostate problems. We had to rush him to the vet at 11 pm because he was hurting and had lost his quality of life.

We came home around 1 AM, I hung his now forever empty collar on my bedpost, and fell asleep from emotional exhaustion. I woke up the following morning, looked over to his bed, which was empty, looked over to the bedpost, and remembered... After that, my mind is blank. I lost 6 months. People say I was catatonic, I even had a psychiatrist come to my apartment for evaluation of my mental state and I can't remember that person or encounter at all.

Fast-forward 10 years down the line, and here I am. Still no new dog, because whenever I get close and make an effort to get one, once it gets "real" I will have such a panic attack that I cannot overcome it. It will keep going and come back in waves until I've cancelled the dog adoption.

This is likely my brain's attempt to shield me from losing another dog, from going through what I did after Max's death. And I am not helped by medicines, not by therapy, in fact psychologists give up on me because this is not something they can easily fix with exposure therapy like agoraphobia or fear of spiders or even "normal" PTSD. I have CPTSD and a very convoluted, complex phobia... I am on SSRIs and Mirtazapine. I tried to treat my issues with cannabis (illegally grown in my home) because I was desperate, and ended up in the emergency psych ward after 9 months of daily use (am clean now). It did absolutely nothing to help me in the long run.

I am desperate, and I am hoping, PRAYING that Psilocybin becomes accepted and I can access it... I truly believe that it could help me finally deal with my trauma, and teach my brain that despite the grief and pain, I wouldn't have want to skipped out on having Max in my life for all the money in the world.

Please, bring Psilocybin as a treatment to Sweden. We are many, and we are suffering.

[geraldjoseph]

Phsychedelics helped me quit illicit pills addiction, I was messed up I was depressed and a danger to myself. Good videos and help like this should be seen always.

[niyo]

I really like how this psychedelic renaissance is going. A lot more people become aware of their healing purposes and it’s made legal in more and more countries or states
Much love to anyone reading this :D

[starfox]

When I used to do psychedelics with my gf that was one of the best times in my life. So much wonder and mystery, so much fun and unique experiences. Being confronted with the beauty of nature but also with the mercilessness of it at the same time.
I will never forget that time and I am so glad that I got to experience it.

[ralphadams]

Psilocybin mushrooms saved my life honestly. They helped me see the pure beauty in life, and made me realize how dumb it would be to take myself out.

[ismael]

Microdosing has been exposing all the feelings that I been suppressing for years and years. It’s a bit overwhelming but I’m finally becoming more emotionally intelligent .

[geordiemcalister]

I have invested in psychedelic research - a good portion of my net worth after experimenting with psilocybin my self, the positive impact it had on my addiction and depression can’t be overlooked imo

[ytlover]

When the topic is golden and the speakers insightfull a 20min video is no problem...

[SidneyDavis-bbto]

Psychedelics saved me from years of uncontrollable depression, anxiety and illicit pill addiction. Imagine carrying heavy chains for over a decade and then all of a sudden that burden is gone. Believe it or not in a couple years they'll be all over for treatment of mental health related issues.