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Scienitific Discipline

ayahuasca, a plea for the decolonization of psychedelic studies

October 22, 2024 / Anthropology & Sociology, Ayahuasca, Scienitific Discipline / By /

“We told people that it was in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son, but in reality it is in the name of the Sun, the Moon and the Tiger…”

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While the potential benefits of psychedelic plant medicines to society still remain largely unrealised, contemporary psychedelic studies risk replicating harmful colonial practices within the territories and communities in which the use of psychedelic plants originate. 

After decades of prohibition, the so-called “psychedelic renaissance” is undertaking a  state-of-the-art exploration of the psychology, neurology and medical approaches associated with the effects and benefits of psychedelics.  The field runs the risk, however, of privileging the voices of mainstream western male researchers over those of the indigenous practitioners whose ancestral knowledge of psychedelics roots back to their origins (George et al, 2020). 

A decolonial approach is essential to the success of the current psychedelic renaissance, as failing to recognize indigenous perspectives as equally valuable to the discussion in the appropriate use of these substances only contributes to deepening the colonial wound within which usage of the plants is interwoven. As academia reconsiders previously taboo subjects (such as mind-altering substances), it has the duty to reconsider also the re-enactment of colonial epistemicide (the killing off of existing systems of knowledge), and give indigenous expertise the space it deserves in scientific research. 

The very old relationship between humanity and the ritual alteration of consciousness is, in indigenous communities, deeply linked to systems of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, in the West, practices associated with mind-altering substances have faced decades of strong political opposition and, as the renaissance unfolds, there are other, more subtle threats being held at bay, specifically the peril inherent in silencing other voices because of their culturally diverse backgrounds. 

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In the upcoming ICPR 2024, leading experts and cutting-edge research around Ayahuasca will be presented.

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Ayahuasca’s history and its critical entanglement with colonization: 

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Ayahuasca, or yagé, is a traditional brew from the Amazon rainforest that contains the classic psychedelic compound DMT. It has a long history of use by indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin, where it is mainly used for ritual and healing purposes, usually in ceremonial settings led by a shaman or curandero. 

Ayahuasca is a particularly complex substance that relies on two intersecting components to deliver its psychedelic effects. Psychotria viridis, or chacruna, is a shrub, the leaves of which contain the DMT. Banisteriopsis caapi is a vine that contains monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, which prevent MAO enzymes in the stomach from breaking down the DMT as they’d normally do, thus allowing the body to actively absorb it when it is consumed orally. Taking into account the improbability of discovering the function of this particular combination of a shrub and a vine amongst the the tens of thousands of different plant species in the Amazon, along with the preparatory process needed to coax out its psychoactive properties, ayahuasca can be considered an invention, a piece of technology developed by the Amazonian people.  

The indigenous people of the Amazon relate to their surrounding environment in a way that lends itself to developing a great body of ethnobotanical knowledge. Much of the knowledge that has been produced by indigenous people has, however, been the subject of appropriation and biopiracy, as the history of the rainforest cannot be grasped separately from the history of the colonization of the Americas.

One can go back to Western explorers and botanists to trace historically how ayahuasca came to be known outside the jungle, Richard Spruce and Richard Evans Schultes, for instance, were some of the first outsiders to report on indigenous plant medicines. But, by telling and re-telling the story in such a way, a colonial version of history is reinforced where indigenous peoples and their knowledge are passively discovered by Western institutions, their own contribution, skill, and subjectivity neglected, minimized, or reduced to naturalistic fact. 

The history of the Amazon has been shaped by the way that the Western European imagination has interacted with this territory: from the mythic quests to find rivers of gold in the 16th century as the Spanish conquistadors mapped the Amazon river in the search for El Dorado, to the rubber barons of the 20th century who exploited and enslaved hundreds of thousands of indigenous people as they strove to realize enormous profits. The Amazon is a territory that has been perceived as a well of treasures to be extracted and appropriated. 

Today’s deforestation crisis, related to the extraction of precious timber and the clearing of trees for cattle, are an inheritance of old relationships with this land that still conceives of the Amazon as an uninhabited space full of natural wealth and resources. The rainforest has been historically included in the world’s economy only in terms of exploitation, and indigenous communities as well as their knowledge have been objectified in the same way as their land. 

Ayahuasca, curiously, was used during colonial times as a way of resisting and contesting the settler invasion. As the conquistador’s culture demonized indigenous ritual and traditional medicine, ayahuasca was used as a way of exercising and preserving indigenous identity, and was perceived as a repository of cultural memory for the peoples of the Amazon (Leyva, 1991).

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At ICPR 2020, Olivia Marcus, David Dupuis, Bia Labate and Daniela Peluso discussed the globlisation of ayahuasca

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Other versions of history; Ayahuasca/Yagé and its traditional users:

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To trace historically the movement of ayahuasca and other plant medicines one need not rely entirely on the Western explorers and botanists who explored the Amazon and taxonomized its species. Ayahuasca traveled outside of the Amazon via old shamanic networks that for centuries wove an exchange of knowledge and ritual technologies (Pinzón et al., 2004). For instance, the Putumayo department, located in southwest Colombia, is divided into three sub regions: The Upper Putumayo (Andes mountain range), Middle Putumayo (Amazon foothills) and Lower Putumayo (Amazon basin). The Sibundoy Valley which is famous for being home of prominent ayahuasca shamans in Colombia, is located in the Upper Putumayo, a geographical node between the Andes and the Amazon. People who inhabit the area are both settlers and indigenous people who belong to two ethnic groups, the Inga and the Kamentsá. 

Relations – including shamanic ones – have existed for centuries between the Upper Putumayo (Andes) and the Lower Putumayo (Amazon). The Cofán, Siona and Coreguajes, who are known to be powerful shamans, live at lower elevations where rainforest vegetation flourishes. As ayahuasca cannot grow outside of the tropical forest, shamans from the Upper Putumayo have long traveled down to acquire the brew and, in doing so, maintained a cross-pollinating network that exchanges plants, ritual and healing technologies, and cosmological knowledge (Pinzón et al., 2004). 

In their travels to the Amazon basin, Ingas from the Upper Putumayo learnt the uses and powers of shamanic plants and engaged in shamanic apprenticeships (Pinzón et al., 2004) with the help of shamans from this area. They then transported plants and other ritual devices, including ayahuasca, from the low tropical forest to Sibundoy. The memory of the botanical relationship between shamans was retained in their respective gardens, disseminating and preserving thus the interchange of knowledge between the Amazon and the Andes. 

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Such movement helped inform the transformation of indigenous practices which came into contact with Catholic missionaries and the general mestizo culture of the rest of the Colombian territory. As we can read in the next excerpt from an interview with a shaman from the Sibundoy Valley:

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When I was born, the first thing they gave me was three drops of yagé (ayahuasca). We told people that it was in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son, but in reality it is in the name of the Sun, the Moon and the Tiger. That’s how my blood began to be painted.” (Pinzón et al. 146 )

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As the previous passage shows, the ritual use of ayahuasca in this area was influenced by the dominant Catholic religion, while at the same time acting as a mechanism to contest and resist the colonial apparatus. The previous statement beautifully depicts how indigenous ritual practices were disguised using catholic motifs as a way to preserve silently their identity: Giving three drops of ayahuasca in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to conceal it was really given in the name of the Sun, the Moon and the Tiger.  

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“…Two years later Eliseo was back again, by bus all the way across the country to dip once more into what he saw as the Indian well of magical power” – (Taussig, 1986. p 435)

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With this sentence Michael Taussig begins chapter 27 of his book “Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man” (1986) where, “The Indian well of magical power,” was, of course, the Amazon. Since the very first stages of colonization, the Amazon was a screen upon which European minds could project fantastical mirages of imaginary geographies populated by noble, primitive, and superstitious savages. The picture of an ‘Indian well of magical power’ is a reflection of this. A well of vast and mysterious treasures, gold, rubber, magic, and endless resources, where indigenous communities were perceived through a lens of intellectual inferiority.  The Amazon consequently epitomizes and condenses several European fantasies surrounding a mysterious, irrational and exotic Other. 

What Taussig was looking for in that ‘Indian well of magical power’ was ayahuasca shamanism, where the otherness of indigenous knowledge is capable of healing the maladies of the West. It is precisely the same phenomenon seen when the renowned writer William Burroughs went on a journey to find ayahuasca in Colombia, thinking that it might be his ‘final fix’ (Fotiou, 2019).

The same trope is seen with contemporary ayahuasca tourism, where huge numbers of people from all over the world (though predominantly European and American) travel to the Amazon in search of healing through the exotic otherness of ayahuasca (Losonczy & Mesturini, 2010) (Caicedo, 2009). The contemporary medical approaches to ayahuasca and other psychedelic plant medicines follow the same lines, wherein ayahuasca is being researched for its potential to treat some of the most pervasive illnesses of our time, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction (Fotiou 18)(Frecska et al.) (Palhano-Fontes et al.)(Richards) (Watts et al.) (Roseman et al.).

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An interdisciplinary future: 

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As psychedelic plant medicines re-enter Western culture, researchers in this field must be aware of the colonial history behind these plants and the communities from which they come to avoid perpetuating the same type of intellectual violence that underlies the old notion of the “noble savage” and current practices of biopiracy. As we enter a globalized society, it will be critical to give regard to knowledge that comes from different cultural and ethnic sources, bestowing upon them equal validity in the discussion of the adequate use of these substances. Mainstream psychedelic research will need to encourage and actively include researchers from diverse ethnic backgrounds, as a diversity of voices and perspectives can only contribute to the advancement of science. 

Besides giving credit to indigenous knowledge (which kept this technology alive for at least the past millennium) it is necessary to recognize the contribution of people of color, women, and researchers from Latin American in the development of psychedelic research, as well as to create spaces within which their perspectives can be heard and  included. 

Understanding how to use these substances will, in the end, require an interdisciplinary effort. The cutting-edge research being performed on psychedelics in the fields of neurobiology and psychology will see its most fruitful results by working hand-in-hand with the humanities (anthropology, decolonial studies, religious studies, philosophy, etc.) to avoid the pitfalls inherent in the epistemicide of non-western voices. The task at hand for the humanities is to reflect on the body-politics of knowledge, help give voice to traditional and indigenous ethno-medicine systems, and create the foundation for a renaissance free from harmful colonial appropriation and silencing.

In conclusion, ayahuasca has a lot to offer the world, as current scientific studies continue to prove its therapeutic potential. It, along with other psychedelic plant medicines, have enormous possibilities in the ongoing fight to alleviate psychological and spiritual suffering. The real question, then, is what can we give back, to the Amazon, to the people that inhabit it, to the preservation of their systems of knowledge, to their worldview and culture, to the most diverse ecosystem of the Earth?

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What can we give back? 

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References:

1. Caicedo, Alhena. Nuevos chamanismos Nueva Era. 2009, p. 18.
2. Fotiou, Evgenia. ‘The Role of Indigenous Knowledges in Psychedelic Science’. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, Dec. 2019, pp. 16–23. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1556/2054.2019.031
3. Frecska, Ede, et al. ‘The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization’. Frontiers in Pharmacology, vol. 7, Mar. 2016. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.3389/fphar.2016.00035
4. George, Jamilah R., et al. ‘The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Limitations of a White-Dominant Medical Framework: A Call for Indigenous and Ethnic Minority Inclusion’. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, Mar. 2020, pp. 4–15. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1556/2054.2019.015
5. Leiva, A., Guerrero, H., Pardo, M., JUNCOSA, J., & AMODIO, E. (1991). Los espíritus aliados: chamanismo y curación en los pueblos indios de Sudamérica. Ediciones Abya Yala, Quito, (31). p. 47
6. Losonczy, Anne-Marie, and Silvia Mesturini. ‘La Selva Viajera: Rutas del chamanismo ayahuasquero entre Europa y América’. Religião & Sociedade, vol. 30, no. 2, 2010, pp. 164–83. Crossref, doi:10.1590/S0100-85872010000200009
7. Mignolo, Walter D. ‘Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom’. Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 26, no. 7–8, Dec. 2009, pp. 159–81. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/0263276409349275
8. Miller, M. J., Albarracin-Jordan, J., Moore, C., & Capriles, J. M. (2019). Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(23), 11207-11212
9. Palhano-Fontes, Fernanda, et al. ‘The Psychedelic State Induced by Ayahuasca Modulates the Activity and Connectivity of the Default Mode Network’. PLOS ONE, edited by Dewen Hu, vol. 10, no. 2, Feb. 2015, p. e0118143. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118143
10. Pinzón, Carlos, et al. ‘El Jardín de La Ciencia En El Valle de Sibundoy’. Mundos En Red: La Cultura Popular Frente a Los Retos Del Siglo XXI, 2004, pp. 139–99
11. Richards, William A. ‘Psychedelic Psychotherapy: Insights From 25 Years of Research’. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, vol. 57, no. 4, July 2017, pp. 323–37. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/0022167816670996
12. Roseman, Leor, et al. ‘Emotional Breakthrough and Psychedelics: Validation of the Emotional Breakthrough Inventory’. Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 33, no. 9, Sept. 2019, pp. 1076–87. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/0269881119855974
13. Taussig, Michael. Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man. The University of Chicago Press, 1986
14. Watts, Rosalind, et al. ‘Patients’ Accounts of Increased “Connectedness” and “Acceptance” After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression’. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, vol. 57, no. 5, Sept. 2017, pp. 520–64. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/0022167817709585

This Researcher Is Studying the Placebo Effect in Psychedelics with a ‘God Helmet’

August 15, 2022 / Neuroscience / By / ,

Michiel van Elk, an associate professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Leiden, used to be  very anti-drugs after growing up in a conservative Christian community. A psychedelic experience later in life put him on a path towards psychedelic research, and today he has an interdisciplinary approach to studying different aspects of the psychedelic experience – from a religious, neuroscientific, spiritual and cognitive to social scientific. An important part of Van Elk’s current work concerns the role of placebo effects in the psychedelic experience.

In previous research, he used a device ominously called the God Helmet. This helmet is essentially a sham brain-stimulation device: participants were made to believe that the helmet would stimulate their brain – potentially resulting in a mystical experience. In reality, it did nothing at all.

Many participants -indeed- reported having such a mystical experience while carrying the God Helmet. This result creates new questions around the role of the placebo effect in mystical experiences in general, and those induced by psychedelics in particular.

This idea is further supported by the ‘Tripping on Nothing’ study in which researchers made a concerted effort to reproduce the experimental context in which psychedelics tend to be administered, including ambient music, psychedelic paintings and color-changing lights. And there also many participants reported experiences usually associated with a medium to high dose of psilocybin (Olson et al., 2022) – even though they were given a placebo.

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Jasper: What is your perspective on the role of placebo effects in the psychedelic experience?

Michiel: I think that is still very much an open question. One perspective is that the effects of psychedelics are at least partially mediated by placebo effects, because people have expectations about these effects. Another is that psychedelics are essentially super placebos, by making people more suggestible – leading to a stronger placebo response. 

Placebo research is an extensive, established field, including my own research with the God Helmet. We aim to integrate this field of study with research into the psychedelic experience: How do expectations influence the psychedelic experience? And how can psychedelics increase the placebo response?

Jasper:  It seems there is still much to be discovered about the role of placebo effects in the psychedelic experience. Assuming this role is indeed there, do you think the beliefs of the researcher also play a role, in addition to those of the patient?

Michiel: Placebo effects are partially based on the perceived credibility of the experimenter. The experimenter doesn’t need to believe in certain effects himself, in order to be a credible source. 

If I wear the placebo God Helmet myself, not much will happen. But if I give it to a participant and tell them about how it will stimulate their brain, something will happen.

This has to do with authority and suggestibility. What is important is that the participant believes the story, not so much the researcher himself. I do think this also underlies many psychiatric treatments: what matters is the meaning patients attribute to the treatment and their trust in the clinician, rather than the knowledge of the effect of neurotransmitters or SSRI’s. 

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Jasper: How would you research that? Would you provide different information to different participants? Or would you measure existing differences in expectations? 

Michiel: That is indeed one option: to measure individual differences in existing beliefs. Simply asking participants what they think will happen before they take a psychedelic.

We plan to make it explicit by manipulating expectations about the dosage. We could keep the dosage constant but tell them it’s 5 grams one day and 10 grams the other.

Another manipulation is through framing, for example telling people the substance has strong visual effects, or that it induces mystical experiences. This is comparable to what smartshops [legal dispensaries of psychedelic sclerotia in the Netherlands] already do today.

Do people indeed have more ‘philosophical’, self-reflective trips if they take Philosopher’s stones compared to Hawaiian High truffles, if the packaging suggests so?

Jasper: One of the challenges, in my view, is that you can’t control what people read or have already heard about psychedelics – and how that affects people’s expectations. Is there a way to measure those beliefs and use them as a variable?

Michiel: In practice this is very difficult, because to include individual differences such as these, you need humongous sample sizes. In studies with placebo brain stimulation like with the God Helmet –  where we place something on people’s heads that supposedly stimulates their brain, which in reality it does not – we do measure what these participants’ beliefs are regarding ‘brain stimulation’. Whether they believe it really exists, what they’ve read about it, etc. However, nothing consistent was ever found there! 

Recently a paper in Nature argued convincingly that if you are interested in establishing a relationship between brain measure X and an individual difference measure Y – like the relation between personality and cognitive performance – you need thousands of participants to establish such an effect. This basically illustrates that in almost any study that has looked at the brain – behavior correlations are severely underpowered.

Jasper: That highlights the importance of open science practices like data sharing. 

Michiel: Absolutely. What I would like to see more of is collaborative science, where many different institutions adhere to the same protocol and collect data together. Recent clinical trials with psychedelics successfully employed this model for the Phase II studies for example. However, when it comes to fMRI studies, we are currently not even close to this being a reality. Fortunately, recent attempts have been made to share data more, like analysis scripts between different institutions. That is an important and exciting step forwards!

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Jasper: Thank you for offering your thoughts on this topic. Lastly, I would like to ask you: What do you think the status of psychedelics will be in your field of cognitive psychology in the year 2032?

Michiel: Interesting question. I hope different psychedelics will be developed with a more clearly defined mechanism. For example a clearer neurotransmitter profile. Lsd and psilocybin stimulate the 5HT2A receptor but also have many different downstream pharmacological effects, making it difficult to attribute their effects to this receptor alone.

Ketanserin helps a lot already but psychedelics with greater specificity would make this much easier. In this context I also understand why experienced psychopharmacologists are a bit skeptical about psychedelics  – pharmacologically speaking it is not a very ‘clean’ manipulation. However, that makes these substances so interesting at the same time as well!

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Recently, Jasper Lucas talked to Michiel in a wide-ranging conversation wide ranging discussion about issues surrounding the psychedelic science field. This is part two of their conversation. Van Elk runs the PRiSM lab at Leiden University, which studies psychedelic, religious, spiritual and mystical experiences, and has received a prestigious NWO (government) VIDI grant to study the effects of psychedelics. He is the author of the book ‘A sober look at psychedelics’ – available in Dutch – and is also a speaker at our upcoming conference ICPR 2022 . 

How Depression Can Be Treated with a Psychedelic Trip

October 14, 2022 / Depressive Disorders, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience / By / , , ,

If you’re interested in psychedelics, then you might have heard of the work of Robin Carhart-Harris, who conducted much of the most relevant research in the world of psychedelics together with his team at Imperial College in London.

In this look back at ICPR 2016 we will highlight the talk he held about his team’s trials with psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy, where he also showed some beautiful visuals of his team’s brain research, which happened to become some of the most famous psychedelic brain imagery known on the internet. 

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Like our upcoming ICPR 2022 near Amsterdam, the edition in 2016 strove to bring together as many relevant studies from psychedelics as possible, and Carhart-Harris’ talk was most certainly a highlight. His research has been cited often and his talk was one of the best-watched from that year’s ICPR on our Youtube channel.

In his talk, Carhart-Harris talks about the results of his research – that psychedelics can cause a rise in cognitive flexibility, neuroplasticity, creative thinking, imaginative suggestibility, emotional lability, positive moods, and optimism. 

He also touches on the idea of depressive realism, a trend he has seen in patients suffering from depression. He describes their depression as a “sort of delusion”, where his patients “don’t see the world as it really is. There is this really quite evident pessimism bias, that is normalised post-treatment with psilocybin.”

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A testimony of one of the participants is featured in the talk:

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26:35 — ‘Although it’s early days yet, the results are amazing. I feel more confident and calm than I have in such a long time. My outlook has changed significantly too, I’m more aware that it’s pointless to get wrapped up in endless negativity. I also feel as if I’ve seen a much clearer picture. [Now] I can enjoy things the way I used to, without the cynicism, without the oppression. At its most basic. I feel like I used to before the depression.”

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Brain Scans

One way to go about investigating psychedelics is by making fMRI brain scans. These scans are made of healthy and depressed individuals before, during and after a psychedelic experience. This way, the brain can be observed for changes.

Through these scans, the team got insights into the inner workings of the brain during psychedelic trips, and how they correlate with described experiences of volunteers, like ego-death. This is a type of experience in which people who are under the influence of psychedelics describe a certain loss of self, and a deeper connection with the wider universe or nature. 

Carhart’s studies have highlighted that the Default Brain Network may be connected with our sense of self – our ego –  and that the lower activity of this network during a psychedelic session may be associated with the occurrence of ego-death.

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Some of the brain scans from the research team at Imperial, from 2012.

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12:40 — “We see quite reliably a relationship between the magnitude of the disintegration and the default brain network. [..] The greater the disintegration of the default mode network, the greater our volunteers’ ratings of ego-dissolution. ”

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During the psychedelic experience induced with psilocybin, the parts of the brain associated with the Default Brain Network show a drastic reduction in activity, often creating the experience of ego-death. The compulsive activity of the Default Brain Network also has been associated with patients that scored higher in depression ratings.

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The Default Brain Network and the Self

Robin Carhart-Harris’s argument is that the Default Brain Network may be the source of what most adult people call the ‘ego’. This network is known as the Default Mode Network because, during our daily lives, this brain network becomes more active when we are idle. 

The Default Mode is actually a really important part of our mental stability. This network is responsible for keeping our routines in check, making sure that our pending matters stay afloat, and that we’re not overlooking anything.

The mental activity generated by the Default Mode Network is usually stable and consistent day after day. This daily consistency in addition to the fact the DMN is the ‘standard’ mental voice, may contribute to the illusion that the Default Mode Network is the self.

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12:58 — [The Default Brain Network is]: “Arguably the best candidate we have for the neural substrates of the self, or the ego, or our identity and personality.” – Robert Carhart-Harris

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By analyzing the brains of participants who consumed psilocybin, Carhart’s team noticed that there was a process of renewal happening within the structure of the brain, almost like a general mind reset. This process of rebirth has been reported many times by psychedelic subjects.

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17:50 — “We can think of the mind or the brain is reset in the same way that you can think of a computer is malfunctioning and throwing up an error message and you are wondering what you can do. And then you press the reset button and it comes back working nice and smooth as it should.”

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In more recent years, Carhart-Harris has worked on building a more unified model of the workings of psychedelics in the brain. He founded the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College in London and focuses on the action of psychedelic drugs in the brain, and their clinical utility as aides to psychotherapy, with a particular focus on depression. He still studies the brain effects of LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and MDMA. 

Robin Carhart-Harris will not be speaking at ICPR 2022, but his colleague and the new head of the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College will: David Nutt. 

Notes about the author: Alexandre Perrella is a writer for Cabbanis!

What are the effects of psychedelics on neuroplasticity?

October 14, 2022 / Neuroscience / By / ,

Psychedelics appear to consistently produce long-lasting behavioural changes in the individuals who use them. Research focus has recently shifted to understand the accompanying changes in brain function and structure, which are hypothesised to occur through neuroplasticity. In this interview, Cato de Vos, MSc, explains what neuroplasticity is, how it can be measured in humans and animals, its importance in brain development, and the mechanisms by which psychedelic compounds and other practices can generate it.


Interviewee: Cato de Vos

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Over the past couple of decades, accumulating evidence has shown that psychedelics consistently produce strong subjective effects, often leaving a perennial imprint on the individuals ingesting them. 

The subjective effects of the acute psychedelic experience are remarkable in and of themselves. At higher doses, they may occasion mystical-type experiences, considered by the individuals who have them as some of the most meaningful experiences of their lives, on par with one’s wedding day or the birth of a child. Perhaps even more remarkable are the sustained effects of these experiences on positive changes in attitudes and behaviours, lasting up to 14 months following the experience in one study.

Other studies have found similar long-lasting effects of these acute psychedelic experiences on depressive symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant depression, on smoking cessation in nicotine-dependent individuals, and on alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent individuals. In each case, the quality of the acute psychedelic experience predicted the long-term changes from 6 to 12 months later. 

It is clear from the available scientific literature that psychedelics have an important therapeutic potential that needs to be investigated, and that therapeutic outcome may be determined by the subjective psychedelic effects. As a neuroscientist however, it is challenging to consider long-term behavioural changes without any accompanying structural or functional brain alterations. These findings pose the following question: do psychedelics affect brain structure and/or function in a way that can lead to long-term changes? And if so, by which processes?

Cato M. H. de Vos holds an MSc in neurobiology at the University of Amsterdam. She currently works as a research-assistant at the mental health organisation 1nP in the Netherlands where she assists Dr. Heval Özgen and Gerard van Kesteren (PhD cand.) in several clinical trials investigating the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy. Soon, she will also start a part-time study in Psychology to become a therapist. In September 2021, she published a systematic review in Frontiers in Psychiatry, with Natasha L. Mason, PhD., and Professor Kim P. C. Kuypers, PhD., from Maastricht University. 

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The aim of the paper was to review the evidence pertaining to psychedelics’ ability to induce molecular and cellular adaptations related to neuroplasticity, and to see whether they paralleled clinical effects. In total, 16 preclinical and 4 clinical studies were reviewed, revealing that a single administration of a psychedelic produced rapid, multi-level changes in plasticity-related mechanisms, including changes in the expression of BDNF, a neurotrophin involved in the growth, maturation, and maintenance of neurons.

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Q&A with Cato de Vos, MSc.

Question 1. What is neuroplasticity? What is its role in brain development?

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change throughout life. These changes may occur in cell structure, known as structural plasticity, or in the efficacy of synaptic transmission, known as functional plasticity. An example of structural plasticity is dendritogenesis, where dendrites – the receiving end of neurons – expand, and an example of functional plasticity is synaptogenesis, where new synapses – neuronal junctions – are formed, enabling better communication between neurons. 

Structural and functional plasticity are interconnected processes at a molecular and subcellular level, which eventually give rise to changes at the behavioural level. These changes allow your brain to adapt and change, promoting the ability to learn new things, enhancing your existing cognitive capabilities, supporting recovery from strokes and traumatic brain injuries, strengthening brain areas where functionality has been lost or has declined, and boosting brain fitness. However, neuroplasticity is a double-edged sword. Changes in the structure and function of the brain can confer adaptive benefits but can also lead to maladaptive disadvantages. To illustrate, misdirected activation of neuroplasticity can cause forms of severe tinnitus (‘ringing in the ears’) and neuroplasticity in the brain’s reward system induced by repeated use of certain drugs, such as cocaine, leads to more compulsive drug use. So the risk / benefit ratio also depends on the area where neuroplasticity is occurring.

For a long time researchers believed that the brain stopped developing during adolescence, and that there was a fixed number of neurons in the adult brain that could not be replaced when the cells died. In the 1960s, neurobiologist Joseph Altman discovered the creation of new neurons in the brain. His discovery was largely ignored, until the rediscovery of adult neurogenesis by Elizabeth Gould in 1999. Ensuing research on neurogenesis has since shown that the brain can change throughout life. Specifically the hippocampus, that part of the brain involved in spatial memory, learning processes and even emotion, continues to form new neurons throughout life. Thus,  neuroplasticity is the process by which the brain can modify, change and adapt structure and function in response to the environment.

Question 2. How can neuroplasticity be measured?

There are different ways to measure neuroplasticity in animals and in humans, but it really depends on the level you’re looking at. Neuroplasticity occurs at different levels in the brain (molecular and cellular), involves communication between different brain regions (structural and functional), and eventually affects behaviour, so it depends on the particular area that is being studied. When looking at the molecular level, for example, certain protein levels can be measured. If certain proteins are more expressed than others, then you can infer that they play a bigger role in the process, which can be an indication of neuroplasticity, although it’s a fairly indirect measure.

At a cellular level, a microscope can be used to examine dendrites. If you see that neurons have progressively more elaborate dendrites, that they look like a tree with more branches than before, then you can assume dendritogenesis is at work. 

This type of examination can be performed in animals, but is not as easy in humans, whose brains are not as easily available for research. An alternative is measuring the levels of certain proteins – like BDNF –  in the blood and other parts of the body. With humans, unlike with animals, biological and psychological parameters can be combined, which enables you to investigate the relation between biological and behavioural changes. That’s one of the things that is lacking in animal research: you can’t ask a mouse how it’s feeling. 

Question 3. By which mechanisms do psychedelics induce neuroplasticity?

The changes in neuroplasticity induced by psychedelics are believed to result from the neurobiological pathways they activate. Classic psychedelics act on a serotonergic receptor called “2A” (5-HT2AR). When psychedelics activate this receptor, specific pathways – cascades of different proteins communicating and transferring a signal – are activated. These cascades, or pathways, are different to non-psychedelic-induced activations of the same receptor. 

Following the activation of these cascades, two neurotransmitter systems are activated: the inhibitory serotonergic system, and the excitatory glutamatergic system. The activation of these systems leads to the release of both serotonin and glutamate and subsequently, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a direct indicator of neuroplasticity. Indeed, high levels of BDNF in the brain are associated with increased neuroplasticity. Psychedelics also influence neuroplasticity indirectly, by affecting the transcription of plasticity-related genes and proteins, which modulates the expression of other genes and proteins involved in neuroplasticity. 

Not every study shows that psychedelic administration necessarily stimulates neuroplasticity. It’s therefore not possible to say that it always happens, but there are some good indications that it does. There is also a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the molecular mechanisms I mentioned because measuring molecular cascades is very challenging, so more research is needed to draw definite conclusions.

Question 4. Have the clinical findings in humans mirrored the preclinical findings in animals so far ?

It’s hard to compare the two. Since different techniques are used to investigate humans and animals, making any comparison is like comparing apples and oranges. They both have their pros and cons. 

Clinical research can investigate both the biological and psychological parameters, which is good because you can then investigate correlations between the two. I believe the psychological state is important if you want to be able to observe improvements in the state of a patient, but it’s more difficult to measure direct biological parameters such as cerebrospinal fluid BDNF, like you can in animals. There are many translational issues, which is why we need to keep combining clinical and pre-clinical research, and be mindful of these limitations.

Question 5. Can neuroplasticity alone be therapeutic? What are your thoughts on psychedelic-inspired, neuroplasticity-inducing compounds like TBG, that lack the subjective effects of classic psychedelics?

Personally I am somewhat sceptical about not having the hallucinogenic effects in the context of therapy, but I think it really depends on the reason for psychedelic therapy, because there is a difference between using it for cluster headaches, or PTSD and depression. I believe you need to look at the origin and underlying layers or deep processes within yourself, within your system, that could cause these pathologies which are different in each of these cases. Cluster headaches might be solved with non-hallucinogenic neuroplasticity-inducing compounds, but for the psychiatric disorders – PTSD and depression for example – which are often accompanied by deep-rooted psychological issues, the hallucinogenic effects may be very important. In those cases the peak subjective experience might be necessary, as has already been shown in some studies: the stronger the psychedelic experience, the better the therapeutic outcome. 

That said, I believe that everything is connected – mind and body – and we’re so conditioned to be in our heads and not be aware of what’s going on in our bodies. I feel that psychedelics can restore some of this connection, on a psychological level. Perhaps the hallucinogenic effects may also have a positive impact on cluster headaches. David Olson’s work with TGB is great in that  he is making psychedelics accessible to a bigger audience. A lot of people are excluded from clinical trials because they have a history or family history of certain conditions, and they don’t have access to therapy at all, so this could be a very good thing.

Question 6. Any additional thoughts on neuroplasticity and psychedelics ?

Bear in mind that neuroplasticity can be stimulated by other means, such as taking good care of yourself, engaging in physical activity, meditation, eating healthy food and getting enough sleep. All these can be beneficial and contribute to positive treatment outcomes. We also want to be cautious here, because we don’t know when neuroplasticity stops being a good thing. I believe everything is about balance, so it is good to remain critical. As my colleague Erwin Krediet once said to me: “A plant doesn’t survive when you give it fertiliser every day, it’s too much.”

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References:

1. Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268–292.

2. Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2011). Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Psychopharmacology, 218(4), 649–665.

3. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Bolstridge, M., Day, C., Rucker, J., Watts, R., Erritzoe, D. E., Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Bloomfield, M., Pilling, S., Rickard, J. A., Forbes, B., Feilding, A., Taylor, D., Curran, H. V., & Nutt, D. J. (2018). Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six-month follow-up. Psychopharmacology, 235(2), 399–408.

4. Johnson, M. W., Garcia-Romeu, A., & Griffiths, R. R. (2017). Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation. The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 43(1), 55–60.

5. Bogenschutz, M. P., Forcehimes, A. A., Pommy, J. A., Wilcox, C. E., Barbosa, P. C., & Strassman, R. J. (2015). Psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol dependence: a proof-of-concept study. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 29(3), 289–299.

6. de Vos, C., Mason, N. L., & Kuypers, K. (2021). Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity: A Systematic Review Unraveling the Biological Underpinnings of Psychedelics. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 724606.

Illustration modified version of Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

The Netherlands should be ‘at forefront’ of psychedelic research, says Dutch government

October 22, 2024 / Anxiety Disorders / PTSD, MDMA, Policy, Law & Economics, Scienitific Discipline, Substance, Therapeutic Application / By /

‘The Netherlands can play a pioneering role in developing the right frameworks, limiting potential risks, and designing training programs,’ the Dutch health minister said.

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Ernst Kuipers, the new Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare, and Sports, has given his green light to more research in psychedelic therapy, citing “promising results” for typically difficult-to-treat mental illnesses through psychedelics-assisted therapy. His endorsement came in response to questions from three members of parliament from the Dutch political party D66. Kuipers summed up his stance on psychedelic research in a letter directed to the Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, and its content is factual and amenable to recent scientific results.

This is a departure for the Dutch government, which in recent years produced more prohibition-focused or avoidant language when it came to issues surrounding psychedelics. The new government has also announced that a state committee will look into the medical use of MDMA – a political compromise arising from the ongoing discussion in the Netherlands about the possible legalisation of MDMA for recreational use.

The new government’s health minister demonstrated conviction about the prominence psychedelic therapy will gain in global healthcare in the coming years, and envisions how the Netherlands could become a leader at the forefront of psychedelic research: “It is paramount that these and other potentially innovative treatments are safely accessible to the target population,” the minister writes. “The Netherlands is one of the leading countries in research into psychedelics in mental health care. In addition, the Netherlands can play a pioneering role in developing the right frameworks, limiting potential risks, and designing training programs for therapists. I am in favour of sharing earned knowledge with parties in the field across different countries.”

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The Netherlands at the forefront of psychedelic research

Apart from MDMA, other psychedelic substances – such as psilocybin1 and ketamine2 – have also demonstrated promise. Kuipers strikes a more cautious tone when speaking about these compounds, affirming the need for more research due to the preliminary nature of current results: “Most of these substances are still in the investigative phase of research. […] It is up to the relevant field parties to follow up on these results. This concerns conducting the necessary research, completing the step-by-step registration process for approval of the substance, and the development of guidelines and protocols necessary for treatment.”

Kuipers further stresses the need for extensive education, the training of psychedelic therapists, and the need to better understand individuals engaged in self-experimentation. He adds that he is “willing to play a facilitating and advising role” in implementing psychedelic research and that his ministry has recently conducted exploratory meetings with researchers and mental healthcare institutions.

He envisions the Netherlands as playing a major role internationally in the coordination and promulgation of psychedelic research, writing that “[t]he Netherlands can stimulate cooperation in a European and international context. In addition, the Netherlands can draw attention to removing barriers in conducting research. In the framework of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, I continue to advocate for the removal of barriers to therapeutic use and research into substances on United Nations drug convention lists.”

New Research

According to Kuipers, an estimated 1.2 million Dutch citizens currently seek curative mental healthcare each year. Another 215,000 citizens suffer from severe psychiatric illness, a segment of the patient population that is very difficult to treat with current therapies. Kuipers has announced he will allocate 35 million euros to mental healthcare research over the next four years, made available through the Dutch grant organisation ZonMw. Grants will support multidisciplinary studies focused primarily on clinical applied research.

The availability of these funds presents psychedelic researchers with a rare opportunity. Results from these new studies could further elucidate the therapeutic mechanisms by which psychedelics function, thereby putting their clinical application on firmer scientific footing.  Ultimately, Kuiper’s initiative offers the promise of advancing the field beyond its “investigative phase” and imagines a not-too-distant future in which psychedelics are used as legitimate therapeutic agents in clinical contexts, offering hope to the millions who suffer from severe psychiatric illness around the globe.

Barriers to breakthrough therapy status

The three representatives of D66 asked further questions surrounding the current “breakthrough therapy status” of certain psychedelics in the United States. A breakthrough therapy designation is granted to a drug that treats a serious or life-threatening condition, where preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug might demonstrate substantial improvement on clinically significant endpoints over available therapies.

Recently, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted ‘breakthrough therapy status’ to psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and to MDMA for PTSD. Kuipers explains that a similar status within the Netherlands and other countries in Europe can be attained through organisations such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The minister acknowledges the barriers that still exist for psychedelic research, like “a lack of financial resources for doing the necessary clinical research and developing an approved product for the patient. In addition, psychedelics are substances that are generally non patentable and thus do not fit the ordinary development and revenue model. The potential high costs for the therapeutic treatment with these substances (due to the large amount of hours therapists dedicate to patients during treatment) might also impede incorporating psychedelics as a standard treatment.” 

The issue of the relative expense of psychedelic therapy bears further scrutiny. How, for instance, would the cost of psychedelic therapy compare to that of treatment as usual (TUA) if we take into account factors such as the economic burden of different psychiatric illnesses and/or disability-adjusted life years (i.e,. the number of years lost due to an illness)? To resolve the issue of financial expenditure, cost-effectiveness analyses of psychedelic therapy should be conducted, such as that performed in 20203. This study found that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy versus TUA per 1,000 patients produced savings of up to $103.2 million over 30 years including costs, and surmised that “third-party payers are likely to save money within three years by covering this form of therapy [MDMA].” This, however, is just the conclusion of one study, and the issue of financing deserves further investigation.

Central management and the Netherlands

Kuipers acknowledges the risks involved in the lack of central management of psychedelics. Possible risks include personal experimental use of psychedelics and the development of  commercially exploitative practices that fail to the interests of patients first. Kuipers emphasises the urgency with which these questions need to be answered, and references the Dutch researchers and clinicians who authored Therapeutic use of psychedelics4: “[…] they can develop a framework for this new form of treatment by means of high quality guidelines, standards, and protocols.”

Finally, the new government of the Netherlands has called for more research into MDMA and the possible legalisation of it in the near future. Kuipers mentions that there will be a state committee specifically for MDMA. The state committee will “investigate the status of MDMA in the context of public health and provide advice surrounding the pros and cons of medicinal use by adhering to a multidisciplinary analysis, which takes into account potential risks for health, prevention, and the European context and its relevant treaties.” Kuipers expects to inform the House of Representatives of the committee’s findings in the second quarter of this year.

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References:

1. Davis, A. K., Barrett, F. S., May, D. G., Cosimano, M. P., Sepeda, N. D., Johnson, M. W., … & Griffiths, R. R. (2021). Effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy on major depressive disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA psychiatry, 78(5), 481-489.

2. Nieuwsuur (2022). Keta kan ‘revolutionair’ middel zijn tegen depressie, maar er zijn ook zorgen.  Consulted on 27 March 2022.

3. Marseille, E., Kahn, J. G., Yazar-Klosinski, B., & Doblin, R. (2020). The cost-effectiveness of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. PloS one, 15(10), e0239997.

4. Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen. Manifest therapeutische gebruik van psychedelica. Retreived March 20, 2022.

’Psychedelic professors’ on the rise as universities expand courses on psychedelics

October 22, 2024 / Scienitific Discipline / By / , , ,

If you attended university or college and didn’t have an option to take a course on psychedelics – that was because they were practically nonexistent until very recently. Up to the beginning of this century, getting educated about psychedelics meant researching on your own, learning from elders, attending the few conferences that existed, reading available journal articles and books, or maybe joining secret psychedelic societies (in person or on the internet).

But today we are simultaneously experiencing a rise in international psychedelic research and an international acceptance of this field as a genuine, revived field of science. As a result, there is an emergence of university courses. And not just in a few places, but in some very prominent universities.

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The psychedelic professors

The relative novelty of this educational endeavor spiked our interest: What are the types of courses offered? How are they organized and taught? What type of students are taking them? And what are the biggest challenges in teaching about psychedelics? We’ve interviewed three professors of current psychedelic courses at prominent research universities, who can rightfully call themselves psychedelic professors: Kim Kuypers (Maastricht, NL), Gianni Glick (Stanford University CA, USA), and Brian Pace (Ohio State University, OH) 

Kim Kuypers, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dr. Kuypers focuses on “Me We Biology”, trying to understand the biology of mental well-being. She researches psychedelics and their effects on cognition, creativity, hormones, and the mechanisms underlying these effects. Dr. Kuypers will be a speaker at this year’s ICPR conference. 

Giancarlo “Gianni” Glick, MD, is a 3rd-year psychiatry resident at Stanford whose psychiatric focus is on the interdependence of emotional and physical well-being for his patients. He is also the organizer of the Stanford Psychedelic Science Group.  

Brian Pace, PhD, is an affiliate scholar with the Centre for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education in the College of Social Work and a lecturer in the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University. Trained as an evolutionary ecologist, Brian studied agroecology, climate change, and ethnobotany. He is the Politics and Ecology Editor at the 501c3 psychedelic watchdog Psymposia and is currently a part of the team organizing Psychedemia, an interdisciplinary psychedelics conference scheduled for August of 2022 at Ohio State.

Here is what they teach, how they teach it, and why it is important they do it. 

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Q: Which courses on psychedelics do you teach?

A: Kuypers (Maastricht) “Psychedelic Medicine” is an 8-week long elective course for third-year bachelor’s students which is housed in Maastricht’s department of psychology. I also teach a first-year elective course in the same department, called “Drugs in the Brain”. This is for first-year students and is only 4 weeks long. This helps to serve as good preparation for those who will take the psychedelics class. 

A: Glick (Stanford) “Introduction to Psychedelic Medicine” is a 10-week course, housed in the department of psychiatry at Stanford Medical School. This semester we have 187 students enrolled. It is an elective course and the make-up is about 70% undergraduates and the rest are graduates of all kinds. We also have many auditors ranging from neuroscience postdocs to attending psychiatrists. This makes for a huge range of expertise and familiarity with psychiatry. 

A: Pace (Ohio State) “Psychedelic Studies: Neurobiology, Plants, Fungi, and Society” is a 14-week/one-semester course and it is through the Department of Plant Pathology. The course is for undergraduate bachelor’s students, without any prerequisites, but I frequently have graduate students as well. The majority are third and fourth-year students. There is also a new course being taught in our department called “Psychedelic Bioethics,” taught by my colleague, Dr. Neşe Devenot.  

Kim Kuypers teaches “Psychedelic Medicine” at Maastricht University to third-year bachelor’s students. She is also a speaker at ICPR 2022.

Q: What are the key learning outcomes for your students?

A: Kuypers (Maastricht) I want the students to know about the rich history of psychedelics and to be educated on both the positive and negative aspects of these substances. I place a major focus on how to properly read a scientific article: reviewing the research methodology, analyzing the results, and having a critical mind about it.  I see this course as really the first way of getting the students acquainted with psychedelics and from here they should be able to navigate the future research that comes out with a better eye, and maybe also be inclined to get into the research and/or work in psychedelic-assisted therapies themselves. 

A: Glick (Stanford) This question keeps me up at night, but I hope for a good cause – there are so many decisions about what to present, how to engage, what sequence of information makes the most sense. Ultimately, I want to prepare students to critically interact with everything they hear in the media and in the scientific literature about psychedelics. This course covers the foundational principles, history, and context for these students to then ask more questions and hopefully contribute to the field of psychedelics, themselves. I think one of the first questions we try to ask is: What does it even mean to call psychedelics medicines? And in doing so understand that we are applying a particular frame to it, specific to this pre-FDA-approval moment in time and space. While it’s nicer pedagogically to stay focused on psychedelics as a medicine, we also tell them that psychedelics can be many other things: sacraments, recreation, and so on. But for this course, we focus on them as medicines.

A: Pace (Ohio State) As the instructor of a course on psychedelics it is my job to prepare students to engage intellectually, become better communicators, and to have better conversations around a controversial topic that is rapidly taking center stage. Frankly, there are a lot of grifters in the psychedelic space, people who are attempting to own the space, and so part of my responsibility is to provide students with tools to critically evaluate psychedelic science and health claims, the job market they may enter, and to hopefully have these students make informed choices.

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Q: What is the greatest challenge in teaching your course on psychedelics? 

A: Kuypers (Maastricht) I haven’t had too many difficulties in teaching this material. I did have an incident where I was teaching about animal research that was done with MDMA to investigate neuronal death, and in doing these studies I discussed the methodology which included decapitation to further look at their brains. As a result of saying so I had a student who left the room because they could not bear to hear this type of work. Though not directly related to in-class learning itself, I have had emails sent to me from parents of children who have abused drugs who question whether I am being too positive about these compounds, even going so far as calling me the devil. But in the 4 years of teaching this course, I have not faced many challenges from students. 

A: Glick (Stanford) Trying to figure out – what are the first principles of psychedelic medicine?  Where do you start?  How to strike a balance between asking big, zoomed-out, philosophical questions of human life and suffering (which I think is what this is really about), while staying in close contact with the data, the practice of medicine, counterpoints to my own views, and a sober take on all of this. How to teach students a kind of big picture schema that new ideas and facts and questions can fit into.

A: Pace (Ohio State) Psychedelics are inherently interdisciplinary. I’m not a psychiatrist. I’m not a social theorist. I’m not a political scientist. Yet these topics are as necessary to address as botanical, mycological, or neurochemical considerations–even though more broadly they may exceed the scope of my expertise. This can be challenging at times, but manageable. What is truly challenging is that issues like colonialism, addiction, and traumatic experiences are discussed in my course, and the reality is that some of the mental health distress faced globally is experienced personally by some of my students. Real injustice never gets easier to talk about, especially with those who are directly impacted by it.

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One early psychedelic professor is Dr. Neşe Devenot – now an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education at Ohio State University.
She advocated for Psychedelic Studies courses for years, formally so in an essay in 2011 entitled “A Declaration of Psychedelic Studies”. Her first class, “Poetic Vision and the Psychedelic Experience,” ran from 2011 to 2012. A later class called Drug Wars had a focus on psychedelics and featured guest lectures from Matt Johnson and others working in the field. Her “Higher Dimensions in Literature” class in 2014 read McKenna and Castaneda. She went on to teach Psychedelic Studies at the University of Puget Sound from 2015 – 2018.

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Q: What pedagogical tools do you use in your course? 

A: Kuypers (Maastricht) For both the “Psychedelic Medicine” 8-week course and the 4-week “Drugs of the Mind” course I use Problem Based Learning (PBL). This pedagogy works by bringing real-world problems to the class which functions as vehicles for students to have to look up things they don’t know, synthesize an answer based on their research and these problems are generally guided, often providing one part of a problem at a time.  An example of the last PBL assignment was a problem evaluating the positive and negative of the field of psychedelic medicine. In terms of course materials, I developed a course manual and we also use recent research articles for the “Psychedelic Medicine” course. In the 1st year course “Drugs of the Mind” course we use David Nutt’s “Drugs Without the Hot Air”.  I do most of the lectures but some of my colleagues help as well. We have a limited amount of time in these courses so we provide additional resources online for students to read and watch on their own. 

A: Glick (Stanford) Two years ago the course started as a lecture series, with a different speaker each week presenting on their area of expertise.  We updated the second iteration (last year) to have a more coherent through-line and progression of topics, with added small group discussion. And this year we tried to improve that further, so we spent the first third laying the foundational principles, the second third hearing from serious experts in the field (Brian Anderson, Jennifer Mitchell, Robin Carhart-Harris), and the final third weaving everything together.  The best session is always the last one when students give 5-minute presentations to the class on any topics or psychedelics subgenres they found interesting.  This year they taught us about psychedelics in China, the Eleusinian mysteries, research in psychotic disorders, and a bunch more.

A: Pace (Ohio State) This is a lecture-based course accompanied by reading articles and watching videos that conclude with 30-minute discussions each class. Since it is a course goal is to get students to have better, evidence-based conversations around psychedelics, students write weekly reading reflections showing that they are considering the material and reflecting on how they feel, and how these topics may connect to their life. Students also do presentations which are evaluated in part by peer review. From day one I am walking students through difficult, yet respectful conversations; you can’t understand psychedelics without touching on topics like consciousness, perception, religious experiences, and criminalization. 

Q: What do you believe is the ROLE of university courses in the psychedelic renaissance? 

A: Kuypers (Maastricht) It is incredibly important to have these available. I get requests from therapists and psychiatrists who did not get these types of courses in the curriculum of their educational training. Some of them also tell me of the cost for psychedelic-assisted therapy training from private institutions that can cost upwards of 20,000-25,000 Euros, which is crazy. Instead, this type of education should be embedded within all levels of university education from bachelor’s, graduate, and medical education. We definitely need psychedelic-assisted training for therapists in the universities (instead of the private organizations). 

A: Glick (Stanford) Similarly to how Johns Hopkins, NYU, and UCLA have stewarded the research through this kind of rigorous academic environment, there is this similar way that universities may offer a credible education, with a kind of peer review process, with a set of checks and balances where you can’t just teach anything. Secondly, doctors should know about this. For medical students and psychiatry residents to be competent about medicines their patients are in some cases already using and that may soon become legal, this should be part of the curriculum.

A: Pace (Ohio State) Psychedelics were abandoned by institutions following the Controlled Substances act in 1970. The new-agey, cultish stuff we see around psychedelics now, with tuning your chakras and merging souls or whatever: that is our fault. That’s an abdication of the responsibility to investigate interesting questions and to chase down data: to find out how things work.  So where we are now is a very timid and late re-entry to the subject, more so for education than research.  Psychedelic research didn’t end when the universities and governments abandoned it. It continued in the underground. The role of the university courses on psychedelics is to identify and evaluate high-quality information on the topic. We have a lot of catching up to do and I think that should be done with humility.

Addendum: The author of this article, Dr. Joey Lichter, is a volunteer for OPEN and ICPR, but also a chemistry professor who teaches a course titled “The Psychedelic Renaissance” at Florida International University in Miami, FL USA, thereby also qualifying as another psychedelic professor.

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead

February 6, 2022 / Humanities & Art / Leave a Comment / By

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. Penguin Books. ISBN: 978-0141189635

The authors process the concepts of death and rebirth presented in Tibetan Book of the Dead as a metaphor for the experience of ego death or depersonalization that is commonly experienced under the influence of psychedelic drugs. The book also describes broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances.

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The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

May 13, 2022 / Humanities & Art, LSD / Leave a Comment / By

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Tom Wolfe. Transworld Publishers. ISBN: 978-0552993661

Wolfe presents a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the US in a colorfully painted school bus became famous for their use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD in order to achieve expansion of their consciousness. This book has long been considered one of the greatest books about the history of the hippie movement.

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LSD, My Problem Child

June 15, 2022 / Humanities & Art, LSD, Pharmacology & Chemistry / Leave a Comment / By

LSD, My Problem Child. Albert Hofmann. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0198840206

In a highly candid and personal account, the father of LSD details the history of his “problem child” and his long and fruitful career as a research chemist. An essential read for anyone wanting to learn about how LSD originated and Hofmann’s view on its transition to recreational use.

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