So, here's an idea that I'm finding pretty intriguing right now. Recently, in a conversation with my sister, she brought up
stereotypy. For those of you who don't know, the term refers to the stereotypical repetitive, obsessive behaviors associated with autism, like body rocking, hand flapping, or fidgeting with objects. Stereotypy is sometimes referred to as "stimming", under the hypothesis that it serves the purpose of self-stimulation. This makes perfect sense to me. The practice of meditation seems likely to have relaxing and therapeutic effects by virtue of fixating the attention on some arbitrary point (like the breath). Given that autism and anxiety are correlated, I can totally see stereotypy as a way to create an immediate locus for attention, and thereby soothe anxiety.
Here's what I'm thinking... I've noticed that psychedelics which tend to produce more motor stimulation tend to have a uniquely powerful therapeutic effect for me. The prime example of this is LSD, which is perhaps the most physically stimulating psychedelic I've taken, and despite being quite psychologically powerful and at times disorienting, I find it to have a very distinct, notable soothing effect that is present in other psychedelics, but never quite to the same degree. In a similar vein, I find that the 2C-X phenethylamines tend to produce significantly more motor stimulation for me than their DOX counterparts, and I also find the 2C-X series to be perceptibly more therapeutic in an "LSD-like" way.
Could the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics be at least partly mediated simply by activating a sort of chemically-induced stereotypy?