Open Your Mind to the New Psychedelic Science

Fringe or frontier?

As many are aware, a good crop of psychedelic therapy studies are underway...if Phase I/II trials look good in terms of safety and efficacy, one can hope that NIH/NIMH will come around to the idea of funding some of these studies in the not-too-distant future.

Here's a more complete list of recent/ongoing studies:

Ayahuasca
- Depression: Brazil (upcoming)
Psilocybin
- End-of-life anxiety: UCLA (completed), NYU (ongoing), Hopkins (ongoing)
- Smoking cessation: Johns Hopkins (ongoing)
- Alcoholism: U of NM (ongoing), NYU (pending)
- Enhancing meditation/spiritual practice: Hopkins (ongoing)
- Depression: UK (pending)
MDMA
- PTSD: Switzerland (completed), Spain (completed), Israel (ongoing), University of Colorado (ongoing), South Carolina (completed and ongoing), Canada (pending)
LSD
- End-of-life anxiety: Switzerland (completed)
Ibogaine
- Addiction: Mexico, New Zealand (ongoing)

 

it's quite obvious that the writers' opening statements are strongly worded, even excessive, to grab the readers' attention, but it wasn't meant to scrutinize the man to the very core of his being; simply to illustrate the fact that this compound has never been afforded the proper clinical research it clearly deserves. something so powerful could have been handled a little more carefully, i think we all can agree, especially in such times of public outrage & societal fear. LSD was never given the full potential to be utilized for something great (like every other drug in this country) - and this can be attributed in part to the less-than-cautiously handled LSD craze of that era. it's natural that we must attach a face to it, if at the end of the day it caught the readers' attention or sold a publication - then sadly it will be considered a successful, if not unscrupulous piece of writing.

we all have our faults.

I can agree with this, it is unfortunate he gets the blame. My undying question will always be this... Would LSD have spread as much as it did and gotten into the hands it needed to get to, for instance the scientist today that are conducting clinical research, patients of cluster headaches or the terminally ill, or perhaps just maybe if it wasn't for the radicals or "crazed" types like Leary who gave there entire life to making sure this drug was distributed as much as possible, would LSD have ever been as popular as it was/is or would it have been looked over and forgotten?

I'm going to become a Journalist just so I can write this article-

" Thankfully our earth was blessed with T. Leary "

Leary wanted everyone to see what he saw, he did not want this to go behind closed doors. That man was brave and fought for what he believed, I don't think LSD could have made its journey throughout the people and our earth in any other way.

Greg Miller Please learn more about a topic before using and opener like this "Timothy Leary really screwed things up for science", that is infact false and all I can say is " Greg Miller Really screwed things up for this article "

Reasonable article - I skimmed it though - it seemed to just state the obvious. I skimmed it due to how it starts - Timothy Leary is an easy scapegoat.

Drugs that alter the mind away from the status quo, the hive mind, the sheep mentality of being a busy worker ant, trapped as part of many heirachies have been getting banned by the establishment for fucking ages.

Maybe Timothy Leary was a bit careless, but this would've happened anyway. It happened at the right time, so that careful clandestine research has been done until the time when we can finally effect positive change, universally.

The blame falls on every single careless trip taker, just as much as it did Leary.

Perfectly worded I agree 100% with this statement

 

Although to add a bit of perspective, Leary-bashing is so common in our culture that it seems like a cliche. Like this from Fear and Loathing:

We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

I tried 25cnbome the other dayand i still feel fried, i think the drugs in this class that have already been documented in humans and have been around for decades should be given top research priority over these crazy new analogues that just side step the law, and especially bc there is hardly any data on them. I still have 2 750mcg blotters left, im sure as hell not taking that stuff again. Soooo strong on the serotonin receptors. I know serotonin receptors because i get migraines and it feels like ive had a dulll one since i tried that crap. Its getting better tho.

 

interesting, but deinately something scientists should proceed to use wih caution (thinking of CIA use of psychs like lsd for "mind control" for instance and how some people just went loopy or worse)

 

I'm glad that this blossomed into somewhat of a Leary discussion. He's one of my personal heroes actually. I would highly recommend flashbacks his autobiography

 

Ketamine helps hero on addicts kick. I have used it when in oxy WD and it almost erases all cravings. Also ketamine is
Regularly used in hospitals as a local or IV anesthetic.
Yes there is human k and not just "cat" k. But the old
Fort Dodge yellow animal k is tons better than human grade k.
Idk why.

XTC was once a legal pharma drug prescribed by
Psychiatrists to help people experience emotions they
Couldn't conquer such as LOVE and FEAR!

Quaaludes were also legal at one point! lemon 714!

Lastly all know that cocaine was in the OG formula of coca colA
And
Most old 1910? Maybe OTC drugs contained HERION as the
Main ingredient. No wonder people felt better !!!!

 

but this article is pretty harsh on Timothy Leary, don't ye have any respect for the dead? it's not like he singlehandedly fucked over the world he got fired from harvard and pretty much just tried to be a celebrity/philosopher.

The more hedonistic approach he took to LSD, and the counterculture he helped spawn, did no favors to those wanting to explore LSD in a more serious research context.

But then again, Shulgin (and the psychiatrists he and others introduced it to) tried to keep MDMA under wraps for a while. They did not succeed.

Also, it would be just as (ironically) fair to blame the CIA for the LSD counterculture. (As Project MKULTRA spawned Ken Kesey.)

 

By abandoning the scientific method for a mystical embrace

The scientific method needs to open it's mind to a full-on mystical embrace of the ongoing wow, or else they could cause mystical research to be pushed back by 25 years or less. Why is there subliminal advertising for Apple Macintosh?

Another trial underway in South Carolina is testing the therapy in military veterans, police and firefighters, and Doblin says MAPS has been talking with the Pentagon about a study involving active duty soldiers with PTSD. MAPS is willing to pay for it if the Pentagon will allow the soldiers to participate. “We were there about a month ago, and we got a very good reception,” he said.

Does the 'new psychedelic science' involve paying the Pentagon (wtf?) to treat people who are suffering from existential guilt for having killed human beings? Here's your 'good reception':
[video=youtube;oE0sDfukvso]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE0sDfukvso[/video]

Too bad Leary ruined it all, and even more people started taking LSD illegally without the concent of government and military advisers.