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History

LSD experiments by the United States Army

July 1, 2017 / History, LSD, Other subjects, Papers, Psychiatry / By /

Abstract

Extensive LSD testing was conducted by the US Army at Edgewood Arsenal and other locations from 1955 to 1967. A number of different reports have been produced describing the health effects of this testing, including the Veterans Health Initiative Report in 2003. By and large, these reports gloss over and minimize the short and long-term side effects and complications of this testing. However, the reports themselves document frequent, severe complications of the LSD. These side effects were regarded by the Army as having been directly caused by the LSD exposure. In view of the current resurgence of interest in hallucinogens within psychiatry, the sanitized version of the effects of LSD exposure on US soldiers needs to be replaced with a more accurate account.
Ross, C. A. (2017). LSD experiments by the United States Army. History of Psychiatry, 0957154X17717678.
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“Too Hot to Handle”: LSD, Medical Activism, and the Spring Grove Studies

May 1, 2017 / History, LSD, Other subjects, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

In the early 1950s, medical researchers across the United States began investigating the use of the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as a facilitating agent in psychotherapy. Despite great promise, crisis struck this young field when, in the early 1960s, the federal government began tightening regulations on LSD—this being a result of public and political anxieties about increasing recreational use of the drug, as well as changing clinical trial standards. Scholars maintain that psychedelic researchers unilaterally responded to the crisis by abandoning the field, fearing that their continued association with the drug would wreak havoc on their careers and personal lives. However, a close examination of the proceedings at the Spring Grove State Hospital, located in Catonsville, Maryland, tells a different story. Drawing on archival material from Purdue’s Psychoactive Substances Research Collection, this thesis explores the Spring Grove research team’s effort to midwife a more favorable view of this defamed drug. In doing so, this analysis provides a new perspective on psychedelic researchers’ response to the LSD crisis.
Haslem, L. N. (2017). ” Too Hot to Handle”: LSD, Medical Activism, and the Spring Grove Studies.
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"Too Hot to Handle": LSD, Medical Activism, and the Spring Grove Studies

May 1, 2017 / History, LSD, Other subjects, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

In the early 1950s, medical researchers across the United States began investigating the use of the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as a facilitating agent in psychotherapy. Despite great promise, crisis struck this young field when, in the early 1960s, the federal government began tightening regulations on LSD—this being a result of public and political anxieties about increasing recreational use of the drug, as well as changing clinical trial standards. Scholars maintain that psychedelic researchers unilaterally responded to the crisis by abandoning the field, fearing that their continued association with the drug would wreak havoc on their careers and personal lives. However, a close examination of the proceedings at the Spring Grove State Hospital, located in Catonsville, Maryland, tells a different story. Drawing on archival material from Purdue’s Psychoactive Substances Research Collection, this thesis explores the Spring Grove research team’s effort to midwife a more favorable view of this defamed drug. In doing so, this analysis provides a new perspective on psychedelic researchers’ response to the LSD crisis.
Haslem, L. N. (2017). ” Too Hot to Handle”: LSD, Medical Activism, and the Spring Grove Studies.
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Science, spirituality, and ayahuasca: The problem of consciousness and spiritual ontologies in the academy

February 12, 2017 / Ayahuasca, History, Papers, Publications, Religious studies, Spirituality / By /

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew from Amazonas, popularized in the last decades in part through transnational religious networks, but also due to interest in exploring spirituality through altered states of consciousness among academic schools and scientific researchers. In this article, the author analyzes the relation between science and religion proposing that the “demarcation problem” between the two arises from the relations among consciousness, intentionality, and spirituality. The analysis starts at the beginning of modern science, continues through the nineteenth century, and then examines the appearance of new schools in psychology and anthropology in the countercultural milieu of the 1960s. The author analyzes the case of ayahuasca against this historical background, first, in the general context of ayahuasca studies in the academic field. Second, he briefly describes three cases from Spain. Finally, he discusses the permeability of science to “spiritual ontologies” from an interdisciplinary perspective, using insights from social and cognitive sciences.

Apud, I. (2017). Science, spirituality, and ayahuasca: The problem of consciousness and spiritual ontologies in the academy. Zygon®, 52(1), 100-123. 10.1111/zygo.12315
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New Studies on Hallucinogenic Mushrooms: History, Diversity, and Applications in Psychiatry

November 1, 2016 / History, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Other subjects, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

This paper is a review of the new studies or new explanations of the hallucinogenic mushrooms, regarding their diversity, history, traditions, and problems in their recreational use, new taxonomic studies, and their modern applications in medicine, all of them since the 1970s to the present.

Guzmán, G. (2015). New Studies on Hallucinogenic Mushrooms: History, Diversity, and Applications in Psychiatry. International journal of medicinal mushrooms, 17(11). 10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.v17.i11.10
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Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and mystical experiences

October 1, 2016 / History, LSD, Mystical experiences, Other substances, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

The term psychedelic (“mind-manifesting”) was coined by British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in 1956 to refer to a unique class of mind-altering chemicals with distinctive effects that set them apart from other drugs with hallucinogenic properties. Some psychedelics come from natural sources that have been traditionally featured in religious, ritual, and healing practices of indigenous cultures of the Americas (Anderson, 1980; Hofmann, 1983; Salak, 2007; Smith, 2000); such drugs include mescaline (from peyote and San Pedro cacti), psilocybin and psilocin (from Psilocybe mushrooms), and dimethyltryptamine or DMT (from the leaves of Psychotria viridis). Many other psychedelics have partly or wholly synthetic origins. The most potent psychedelic agent yet discovered is the semisynthetic ergot derivative lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which has distinctive effects at the microscopic dose of 25 μg; a typical psychedelic dose ranges from 50 to 200 μg. There are also a number of purely synthetic psychedelics, many of which are chemically related to both amphetamine and mescaline (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1991). One of the most potent of these is dimethoxymethylamphetamine, or DOM, which was known as “STP” when introduced to the hippie subculture of San Francisco in the late 1960s. More familiar today is methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy), which has only mild or partial psychedelic effects as opposed to full psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline; MDMA is thus sometimes described as an “entactogen,” meaning “touch within” (Bravo, 2001; Smith, 2000), as opposed to full psychedelics or “entheogens,” meaning “God within.” A newer, extremely potent synthetic psychedelic, 2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][(2-methoxyphenyl)methyl] ethanamine (2CI-NBOMe, or “N-Bomb”), was invented in 2003 and is useful as a laboratory tool to map brain serotonin receptors (Ettrup et al., 2010). The threshold dose is several hundred micrograms, making this psychedelic second in potency only to LSD. Media reports indicate that 2CI-NBOMe has been sold to drug users on pieces of blotter paper, like LSD, and often misrepresented as the latter drug. Unfortunately 2CI-NBOMe has a much lower therapeutic index than LSD, hence several highly publicized deaths appear to have been caused by this drug (e.g., Hastings, 2013; Poklis et al., 2014) and, in some cases, possibly misattributed to LSD. Some of the deaths resulted from drug-induced seizures, whereas in other cases the individuals killed themselves accidentally or purposefully in a drug-induced psychotic or delirious state. By contrast, fatal reactions are extremely uncommon with the “classic” psychedelics LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline.

Lyvers, M. (2016). Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and mystical experiences. 10.1016/B978-0-12-800212-4.00078-9
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The Entheogen Reformation

October 1, 2016 / Ayahuasca, Cacti / Mescaline, Consciousness, History, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Mystical experiences, Papers, Personal development, Psychiatry, Psychology, Publications, Religious studies, Spirituality / By /

Abstract

In addition to promising leads for treating PTSD, addictions, depression, and death anxiety, 21st Century research at medical schools finds that with careful screening, insightful attention to the variables of set, setting, and dosage, psychedelic drug administration often facilitates significant spiritual experiences, meaningfulness, altruism, well-being, and similar prospiritual effects. This article calls for theologians, professors of religious studies, philosophy, sociology, and psychology to update their courses. It challenges leaders of religious organizations, ‘‘How can your institution incorporate these practices and benefit from them?’’

Roberts, T. B. (2016). THE ENTHEOGEN REFORMATION. Association for Transpersonal Psychology, 26.

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Abraham Maslow’s Interest in Psychedelic Research: A Tribute

September 29, 2016 / History, Other subjects, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

In this brief tribute to Abraham Maslow, a founder of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, his interests in psychedelic research are described by the author who served as his research assistant from 1966 to 1967.
Richards, W. A. (2016). Abraham Maslow’s Interest in Psychedelic Research: A Tribute. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 0022167816670997.
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Acid Brothers: Henry Beecher, Timothy Leary, and the psychedelic of the century

August 1, 2016 / History, LSD, Other subjects, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Henry Knowles Beecher, an icon of human research ethics, and Timothy Francis Leary, a guru of the counterculture, are bound together in history by the synthetic hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Both were associated with Harvard University during a critical period in their careers and of drastic social change. To all appearances the first was a paragon of the establishment and a constructive if complex hero, the second a rebel and a criminal, a rogue and a scoundrel. Although there is no evidence they ever met, Beecher’s indirect struggle with Leary over control of the 20th century’s most celebrated psychedelic was at the very heart of his views about the legitimate, responsible investigator. That struggle also proves to be a revealing bellwether of the increasingly formalized scrutiny of human experiments that was then taking shape.

Moreno, J. D. (2016). Acid Brothers: Henry Beecher, Timothy Leary, and the psychedelic of the century. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 59(1), 107-121. 10.1353/pbm.2016.0019

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14 May - Psychedelics & Psychosis with Phoebe Friesen, Dirk Corstens and Chelsea Rose

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