This seemed worth sharing.
If anyone’s hears the interview, I’d be curious of your opinions.
Fresh Air for May 15, 2018: Michael Pollan On The 'New Science' Of Psychedelics
www npr org/programs/fresh-air
Heck of an interesting interview.
There's also an added 40 minutes, that didn't fit into the show.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/15/611225541/reluctant-psychonaut-michael-pollan-embraces-the-new-science-of-psychedelics
On how psychedelics can help change the stories we tell about ourselves
The drugs foster new perspectives on old problems. One of the things our mind does is tell stories about ourselves. If you're depressed, you're being told a story perhaps that you're worthless, that no one could possibly love you, you're not worthy of love, that life will not get better. And these stories — which are enforced by our egos really — trap us in these ruminative loops that are very hard to get out of. They're very destructive patterns of thought.
What the drugs appear to do is disable for a period of time the part of the brain where the self talks to itself. It's called the default mode network, and it's a group of structures that connect parts of the cortex — the evolutionarily most recent part of the brain — to deeper levels where emotion and memory reside. ...
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One thing leads to another. Quite the surprising twist to AA.
Author reveals Bill Wilson's acid theory, but his experiments upset other Alcoholics Anonymous members
Amelia Hill - August 23, 1012
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/23/lsd-help-alcoholics-theory
The discovery that Wilson considered using the drug as an aid to recovery for addicts was made by Don Lattin, author of a book to be published in October by the University of California Press, entitled Distilled Spirits.
Lattin found letters and documents revealing that Wilson at first struggled with the idea that one drug could be used to overcome addiction to another. LSD, which was first synthesised in 1938, is a non-addictive drug that alters thought processes and can inspire spiritual experiences. Wilson thought initially the substance could help others understand the alcohol-induced hallucinations experienced by addicts, and that it might terrify drinkers into changing their ways.
But after his first acid trip, at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in Los Angeles on 29 August 1956, Wilson began to believe it was insight, not terror, that could help alcoholics recover.
LSD, by mimicking insanity, could help alcoholics achieve a central tenet of the Twelve Step programme proposed by AA, he believed. It was a matter of finding "a power greater than ourselves" that "could restore us to sanity". He warned: "I don't believe [LSD] has any miraculous property of transforming spiritually and emotionally sick people into healthy ones overnight. It can set up a shining goal on the positive side, after all it is only a temporary ego-reducer."
But Wilson added: "The vision and insights given by LSD could create a large incentive – at least in a considerable number of people."
His words were found in a late 50s letter to Father Ed Dowling, a Catholic priest and member of an experimental group he had formed in New York to explore the spiritual potential of LSD. ...
I’d recommend checking out the writings and history of Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert). He was one of the two academics spearheading the LSD research at Harvard in the 1960s. After that, he followed a spiritual path and reflects on his experiences with psychedelic substances and advanced meditation.
I’ll check that out CC. I did hear the Sam Harris interview with him, which was excellent. Maybe more revealing than the more mainstream NPR?
He covers this, and I think it’s important, for these drugs to work as psychological healers, you need someone who is with you and understands what you’re going through. Just taking one and going outside to see what happens could result in something worse than you already have.
There are professionals who work with folks using psilocybin. I don’t know how you would go about finding one who is credible (not a nut job). I suppose you would need to do a lot of due diligence on the person’s qualifications and history working with the process.
I have tried LSD a couple of times. And I have tried psilocybin a couple of times. From that, I would say that psylocibin is not as intense as LSD, but then it could be a matter of dosage.
My ex was an Eastern Orthodox priest & a hospital chaplain. Prior to that, in his teen years, he was an acidhead. He estimates he dropped acid several times a week during his senior year (and still graduated with a 4.0 because he was one of those people.) By the time I met him he had been clean and in 12-step programs for like 15 years. But he was deeply into mysticism and esoteric stuff, and valued things he’d experienced on acid.
Probably a decade ago, as part of his work at University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics, he took part in a weekend workshop on hallucinogens in psychiatric medicine. While he, himself, no longer did drugs, he absolutely supported their use in therapeutic healing. I have since met a couple psych professionals that are part of the program.
For a few years, when I was losing my faith and acutely suicidal, I really, really wanted to try acid to try to talk to god.
LSD effects can be jarring, if you have not experienced it before. There is a state of intensity that lasts for several hours whether you want it to or not. I’m guessing that being suicidal and simultaneously taking acid, is not a good combo. You could have wound up talking to God at his place.
What an interesting and vitally important subject. Thank you citizenchallenge for commenting on this topic. There is no doubt that the use of psychedelic therapy will become mainstream policy in the future. This approach has been proven to be effective. In the late 1950’s in Western Canada a government sponsored program to treat alcoholism was established using LSD as the primary agent of therapy. The results were stunning, 75 percent of patients undergoing this novel form of treatment were cured of this crippling addiction, a phenomenally high rate of success. Follow up studies confirmed they were still alcohol free after one year. A DVD was made called “Hoffman’s Potion” (commercially available) documented the story. Psychedelic therapy holds the potential for treating a number psychological conditions including opioid addiction, depression, PTSD, rape trauma and more.
The reason this promising form of therapy is not practiced is because doctors, pharmaceutical corporations and dumb ass conservatives in congress who take their bribes to keep this form of therapy suppressed care more about lining their pockets then relieving the suffering of those who would benefit from using these miraculous natural agents. I’ve ingested LSD and other psychedelics hundreds of times and have benefited immensely from the experience