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Exploring Psychedelics & Sports: The Quest for a Higher Frontier

by Microdose Psychedelic Insights | MICRODOSE | 10 Nov 2021

“LSD can increase your reflex time to lightning speed, improve your balance to the point of perfection, increase your concentration…and make you impervious to weakness or pain.” – James Oroc, renowned athlete and author of Tryptamine Palace

Psychedelic drugs have played a powerful and permeating role in mainstream society–and the world of professional sports is no exception. Not only do psychedelics offer robust therapeutic benefits that athletes can greatly benefit from today, but they also have the potential to be uniquely used as “performance enhancers”. Indeed, the infamous “acid-fueled no-hitter” pulled off by the legendary Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis highlights this sentiment incredibly well. As we prepare to launch our bold new series, Psychedelics &, this review will explore the dynamic impact psychedelics have on the exciting world of professional sports.





The current state of play surrounding pain management in professional sports

When it comes to the fast-paced world of professional sports, the issue of pain management is a significant one. This is particularly true for high-impact sports, such as football, where players are constantly getting physically battered out on the field. This has led to the increased need of pain management for these professional athletes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has resulted in widespread overprescribing of opioids in the NFL, as described by former Ravens left tackle, Eugene Monroe. Given the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic, it is clear that the need for new pain management solutions extends to professional athletes as well. Interestingly enough, psychedelic drugs may be a novel solution in the treatment of difficult to manage pain.

Beyond opioids: Shifting the modern pain management paradigm

The risk for injury in professional sports is undoubtedly high and current pain management treatments, which rely heavily on opioids, are seriously falling short. Groundbreaking new clinical research has shown small amounts of LSD can reduce pain perception to a similar degree as opiates. Considering the safety profile of LSD is remarkably greater than that of opioids, these findings are instrumental in establishing a new, more successful paradigm for pain management. Additionally, the dissociative anesthetic ketamine has shown significant promise in the treatment of acute pain. In fact, researchers are starting to observe that patients who utilize ketamine for acute postoperative pain are significantly less likely to graduate to “chronic pain” afterwards–another dramatic discovery. When it comes to facilitating physical recovery for professional athletes, psychedelic medicine stands to make a major impact.

Microdose is pleased to announce Universal Ibogaine will be our event sponsor for Psychedelics & Sports. We had the fortune of connecting with their CEO, Dr. Jeremy Weate, for this piece. Their dedicated efforts to providing ibogaine assisted therapy for addiction, particularly to opioids, is an important endeavor in the space. Here’s what Jeremy had to say about the current state of play regarding professional sports:​

“The shadow side of many elite contact sports, such as the NHL and the NFL, is encouraged and excessive use of opioid pain medication in order to ride through the inevitable injuries. There’s a hidden epidemic of addiction among these athletes that is only now coming to light. Universal Ibogaine will be working with professional sports and player associations to raise awareness of the issue and provide information about ibogaine therapy as the only form of detox that is free from withdrawal symptoms in most cases.” ​

A radically different type of “performance enhancer”

When people think of performance enhancing drugs and professional sports, one may, for instance, envision the classic major league baseball player using steroids. However, while it may come as a surprise to many, the “hallucinatory” compounds known as psychedelics have played an integral role in sports culture as “performance enhancers”. For instance, on June 12th, 1970, Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis accomplished the seemingly impossible: he threw a no-hitter against the Padres high as a kite on lysergic acid diethylamide, otherwise known as LSD or “acid”. The celebrated MLB player went on to work in anti-drug programs in his hometown of Los Angeles–an admirable addition to this historic tale.

The history of LSD & extreme sports

As unbelievable as it may seem, many individuals have in fact accomplished extraordinary physical feats under the influence of psychedelic drugs. In particular, the secret history of LSD and extreme sports is surprisingly rich in tales of humans pulling off truly monumental achievements whilst tripping. In an insightful newsletter by (MAPS), humans under the influence of LSD are described as having scaled the greatest walls in Yosemite, heli-skied first descents off Alaskan peaks, competed in world-class snowboarding competitions, raced motocross bikes, surfed enormous Hawaiian waves, flown hang-gliders above 18,000 feet, and even climbed some of the biggest mountains in the world–all on LSD! Indeed, the MAPS newsletter goes on to state that patrons at any ski town bar will gladly regale many “fine tales” about sporting feats accomplished on psychedelics–truly remarkable. From the epic tales of Dock Ellis and his “acid-fuelled no-hitter” to the extreme sports players that perform while tripping, there certainly seems to be something uniquely “performance enhancing” about psychedelic drugs.

The benefits of microdosing for professional athletes

Outside of full-blown tripping while playing sports, there is also a very interesting and relevant point to be made about the potential benefits of microdosing for professional athletes. Considering the incredibly positive results reported by microdosing Silicon Valley techies in terms of focus, creativity and energy alone, it’s no surprise to think microdosing magic mushrooms or LSD could stand to seriously benefit athletes. Indeed, as discussed earlier in this piece, new research has shown microdosing LSD can be effective to manage pain as well. Furthermore, the ability of drugs like magic mushrooms and LSD to induce neuroplastic changes at their full doses, bodes well for potential therapeutic mechanisms at microdose levels. Given the level of physical trauma many athletes subject their body to, such medicines could be instrumental in facilitating their recovery off the field in addition to enhancing their performance on it.

Looking ahead to the intersection between psychedelics & professional sports

As the psychedelic renaissance continues to unravel the myriad therapeutic benefits of this powerful medicine, it’s impact on various facets of mainstream culture are undeniably fascinating. In the world of professional sports, psychedelics have and likely continue to play a significant role. Furthermore, the revival of psychedelic science stands to greatly benefit professional athletes in their recovery and maintaining good health even after they’re no longer still professionally playing. As the cultural stigma around these drugs continues to dissolve, it is quite likely more riveting tales of psychedelics will be offered up by sports icons of our time.

Exploring Psychedelics and Sports: A Higher Frontier

This review will explore the profound intersection between psychedelics and professional sports, from a rich history to new possibilities.

microdose.buzz

 

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Athletes and Psychedelics: Mental Health and Performance​

by Emily Jarvie | Truffle Report | 21 Jan 2022

Any discussion of athletes and psychedelics should be preceded by a conversation on mental health, and the physical and psychological effects of high-performance sport. One of the most memorable moments from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in July and August of 2021, wasn’t a sporting triumph at all. It was when American gymnast Simone Biles, who is widely considered the GOAT (Great of All Time) in gymnastics, chose to withdraw from the team competition in order to focus on her mental health.

Biles is not the first athlete to speak up about the stress and mental health struggles associated with being a professional athlete. Given the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy to address various mental health conditions, these substances once pigeonholed and stigmatized as recreational psychedelic drugs are being considered as a possible way for top performers to improve their mental health and, in turn, performance.

Truffle Report previously spoke to two-time Stanley Cup Champion Daniel Carcillo, former professional hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks and current CEO of Wesana Health, about the therapeutic value of psychedelics, their effects on athletes, and potential to use psychedelic therapies in the treatment of head trauma resulting in traumatic brain injury, not to mention its related mental health conditions.

Recently, we had the chance to sit down with former Philadelphia Flyer Riley Cote to continue the discussion into the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics in professional sports.​

Athletes and Psychedelics: Mental Health and Lifestyle in Professional Sports​

A 2020 research paper titled ‘Advancing elite athlete mental health treatment with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy’ published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology was the first paper to outline psychedelic drugs’ therapeutic potential on athletes’ mental health. Researchers concluded that, “the field of sports psychology and psychiatry would be well advised to take note of this promising research area, and to begin a dialogue on how to best address the challenge and explore the opportunities of psychedelic medicine for elite athletes.”

A former National Hockey League (NHL) enforcer for the Philadelphia Flyers, Riley Cote agrees that experiences with psychedelics — specifically psilocybin, the primary compound in magic mushrooms — could play a massive role in the bubble of professional sports. He tells Truffle Report: “This could revolutionize the way athletes function, perform, and recover.”

Cote, who retired from the league in 2010 at age 28 after taking part in more than 200 hockey fights, turned to plant medicine, yoga, and nutrition to improve his mental and physical health. “My career took its toll mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually,” he tells Truffle Report. “As hard as I was going on the ice, I was going off the ice with partying, drinking, and living unsustainably. Not a lot of mindfulness and a lot of ego. I wasn’t feeling aligned, and I was living my childhood dream at the time.”



When he decided to retire, Cote says he hung his hat on holistic healing and made significant changes in his life. “I was using psilocybin mindfully as a meditative agent, sitting in stillness by myself and making sense of it all,” he explains. Cote is now an advisor at psilocybin production and research company Wake Network, working on its neurological health research and expanding its athlete and veteran arm with the benefit of his own experiences. He also co-founded Athletes for Care — a non-profit empowering athletes to advocate for health and other issues..

Cote tells Truffle Report that the potential benefits of psychedelics can manifest for athletes in two ways: through macrodosing and microdosing. “Macrodosing brings an obvious awareness of your environment, being, and behavior, and spiritual realizations can happen in the deeper dives,” he says. “It’s super beneficial for everybody, but for athletes, it can help elevate performance by optimizing the brain, bringing about creativity, and finding ways to manage the noise, stress, and pressure a bit better.”

He says many athletes also use psilocybin microdosing agents as performance tools on game days because of perceived positive effects. “They are trying to find the flow state — get out of their head and into the heart,” he explains. “It’s like yoga, which teaches you how to get out of the head, how to get out of the thinking mind and into the feeling body. These two pathways (macrodosing and microdosing) could complement each other, and they both have a direct impact on finding flow.”​

Enhancing Performance: Dock Ellis Experiences the LSD No-hitter​

While we are still waiting on formal science, there is anecdotal evidence that psychedelics can be used to enhance athletic performance.

One highly publicized example is that of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis’s well-reported acid trip. Ellis famously threw a no-hitter during a 1970 game while tripping on lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. According to an essay by James Oroc, LSD has also fuelled many achievements in the world of extreme sports, including heli-skiing off of Alaskan peaks, motorbike racing, surfing, and mountain climbing above 8,000 meters in the Himalayas. Ibogaine was also reportedly used as a stimulant by athletes from the 1930s until the 1960s when it was banned. Should LSD and other psychedelics be considered performance-enhancing drugs?

Cote tells Truffle Report that psychedelics can indirectly improve athletic performance, but implies that this likely has more to do with overall mindfulness and better quality of life. “I’m not sure you could say microdosing directly affects, for example, speed, but it affects focus, concentration, and training, which in turn would correlate to improved speed or stamina,” he says. “All performance increases when you are more present and able to focus and concentrate on something.”

He adds that it’s often the mind that gets in the way of athletic success. “I’ve been on both sides of the fence, as a player and a coach, and I’ve seen so many guys with so much talent never make it or make it for a bit then disappear,” he says. “They overthink, they overstress, they panic from too much pressure.”

Could a psychedelic experience be helpful?

“Think about how much money and time people spend on the physical body to become a supreme, elite athlete. As physical specimens, we can’t really get much faster than the way athletes are today — it’s the mind that we’ve forgotten about. We have the ability to train the mind. And there’s this whole world outside of sports of human optimization, for musicians, creators, and everyday people.”​

Reducing Athlete Opioid Use: Is Psychedelic Therapy the Answer to Chronic Pain and Concussions in Pro Sports?​

Cote tells Truffle Report he hopes to see psilocybin become an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs such as opioids for athletes in organizations and leagues. According to a 2020 review, anywhere between 4.4% and 4.7% of professional athletes at any given time are using opioids. Over a National Football League career, opioid use rises to 53%, and high school athletes have lifetime opioid use rates ranging from 28% to 46%.

Sadly, these drugs are habit-forming, and an estimated 3% to 19% of people taking prescription pain medications develop some form of addiction or dependence on them, contributing to the broad effects of the opioid crisis.

“Sports leagues claim to take care of their players and care about their health, yet they are giving them a toolbox that’s half empty, or whatever is in there is poison,” Cote says. “On the other hand, psilocybin or cannabis or anything else that is non-addictive has a lower threshold for abuse than opioids, sleeping pills, or even alcohol. I would like to get to a point where we’d no longer see an opioid or sleeping pill in the locker room.”

But Cote is optimistic about athletes and psychedelics in general, and the role of psychedelics in addressing this issue, having noticed how the level of consciousness around these substances and their therapeutic effects has increased in the time since he retired from the NHL. “Not too long ago, there were players using methamphetamines, yellow jackets (a dietary supplement containing the stimulant ephedra), and cocaine to jack themselves up — now we are talking about microdosing psilocybin mushrooms to find flow state,” he says. “The level of consciousness in the last 15 to 20 years, in hockey specifically, has increased dramatically.”

Athletes and Psychedelics: Mental Health and Performance

Athletes and psychedelics: Truffle Report explores the role of psychedelics in sport with comment from former NHL player Riley Cote.

www.truffle.report

 

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​

“Taking the leap” on plant medicines, with former NHL enforcer Riley Cote*

by Psychedelic Spotlight on December 12, 2021

In today’s Psychedelic Spotlight episode, we see David Flores and Riley Cote discuss psychedelics and healing trauma. Riley Cote is a former NHL enforcer and is currently an advocate of plant medicines and psychedelics.

TimeStamps:
00:00- Intro and Cannabis 3.0
2:03- Riley Cote’s experience with trauma, addiction, mental health, and healing with psychedelics
4:34- Addressing trauma in society with plant medicines and psychedelics
7:04- Men being vulnerable, honest with themselves, and sharing their emotions
8:55- Cote’s work with Wake: Treating trauma with psilocybin

After years of fighting in the NHL, Cote was dealing with addiction, PTSD, and head trauma issues. Upon leaving the NHL, Cote realized that cannabis and psilocybin helped him heal.

Importantly, once he used psilocybin with intention, he began to become a better person. He was an ego-centric athlete in the past, and psychedelics and plant medicine helped jump-start his spiritual practices such as meditation.

He now teaches nutrition and yoga, which would have never happened if he didn’t discover psilocybin.

When he was still fighting in the NHL, he would often feel major stress knowing that he would have to be involved in violent combat that night. Now, he realizes that everyone has trauma, and he wants to help address this with honest conversations.

Psilocybin is still very misunderstood, and Cote is making it his mission to change the conversation. In part through his collaboration with Wake, Cote is working on treating concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury with psilocybin

*From the article here :

"Taking the leap" on Plant Medicines and Psilocybin with Formed NHL Enforcer Riley Cote | Psychedelic Spotlight

In today’s Psychedelic Spotlight episode, we see David Flores and Riley Cote discuss psychedelics and healing trauma. Riley Cote is a former NHL enforcer and is currently an advocate of plant medicines and psychedelics. TimeStamps: 00:00- Intro and Cannabis 3.0 2:03- Riley Cote’s experience with...

psychedelicspotlight.com

 

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Psychedelics and Endurance Sports

by Sophie Saint Thomas

When one thinks of psychedelic medicine, images of an ayahuasca circle and spiritual insight come to mind. However, increasingly, the use of psychedelics for performance enhancement has become popular. Taking psychedelics, in particular, through the form of microdosing, is popular in the tech world for cognitive performance enhancement. Artists are another group who benefit professionally from the creativity-encouraging voice of psychedelics. But could psychedelics also enhance physical performance? While there is not really any direct research on psychedelics and physical performance enhancement, modern-day endurance athletes and historical precedences say yes.​

How do psychedelics increase performance?​

The Pygmy tribes of equatorial west Africa used the iboga plant, which contains ibogaine, ceremonially for millennia. Iboga caught the eye of French explorers, in particular, the naval physician Gabon Marie-Théophile Griffon du Bellay during the 19th Century. He brought the psychedelic medicine back to France, where it was isolated and sold as Lambarène, as a stimulant and a mental and physical performance enhancement drug, during the 1930s to 1960s. Notably, it was used by World War II athletes before it became illegal in 1966. In the late 19660s, The World Health Assembly classified ibogaine as a “substance likely to cause dependency or endanger human health,” the FDA changed it to a Schedule I substance, and the International Olympic Committee banned it as a doping agent.

While at high doses, ibogaine produces a trip so powerful that one usually wants to lie down for the experience, a 1998 rodent study shows it can have stimulant effects at low doses. A 2020 study on microdosing LSD and psilocybin suggests that both can have a positive function on cognitive effects in low doses.

Dr. David Nichols of the University of North Carolina, the author of a 2016 overview of psychedelic science, and one of the most published psychedelic researchers and chemists, echoes this research by noting how psychedelics can affect brain function, visual perception, and time perception. But as Psychedelic Science Review notes, nothing on endurance. In an email to the publication, while stressing that he is unaware of research to date on physical endurance and psychedelics in humans, he did note animal research suggesting dopamine is responsible for increased energy and stamina.

“Psychedelics can turn off inhibitory GABA pathways that suppress dopaminergic tone. So dopaminergic activity is disinhibited, and the effect is similar to what happens if you take an amphetamine,” Dr. Nichols wrote.​

But can psychedelics increase physical performance?​

As noted, there is currently no solid research providing a direct link between endurance sports or physical performance and psychedelics. But the internet is awash with anecdotal reports. “I find that I’m more focused, and have better body awareness and just can go for longer, that nagging voice to stop isn’t there, yet at the same time I feel that I find it easier to listen to my body and I’m more compelled to pay attention to my running form,” writes a Reddit user on microdosing LSD for a half-marathon. “The only drawback I found is that it raises my body temperature a little. Not as bad as with caffeine, but it’s noticeable.”

On the same thread, another athlete describes completing a Spartan race on a microdose of LSD. “I found the obstacles a physical challenge, but mentally was able to zone in…Monkey bars were actually fun!”

Such anecdotal reports suggest that microdosing psychedelics for endurance sports could help for more than the added stamina created by stimulating one’s dopamine receptors. The same cognitive benefits that tech entrepreneurs report can come in handy, especially during endurance sports such as running, swimming, or cycling, by helping an athlete remain focused under stress.

While there are no direct studies on endurance sports and psychedelics, a 2006 sports medicine study on fatigue may contain valuable insight. It suggests that an increase in the central ratio of serotonin to dopamine accelerates the onset of fatigue, as backed by evidence on the role of dopamine in amphetamine use.

If Dr. Nichols is correct in comparing dopaminergic activity in psychedelics to that of amphetamine, it could explain why some endurance athletes report increase performance.​

Is taking psychedelics for endurance sports dangerous?​

It would be irresponsible not to mention that while it’s exciting to consider psychedelics for positive physical performance, they have side effects that could make strenuous physical activity dangerous. As Dr. Nichols writes in his 2016 study, while classic psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, or mescaline) have not been directly responsible for causing death, they have produced effects that could be dangerous for one engaging in endurance sports such as long-distance swimming, running, or cycling.

“Users may believe that they are invincible or possess superpowers and may do things they would not normally consider, such as believing they can fly, jumping from buildings, or incurring severe ocular damage by prolonged staring at the sun,” he writes of taking psychedelics in an unsupervised setting. Obviously, someone in the middle of a steep and precarious mountain should not attempt to fly. A safe setting for a psychedelic trip is at home, or a safe place in nature, with a guide or sitter. Microdosing usually comes with less concern, but one should still make sure their setting is safe and supervised before microdosing for physical performance enhancement.

While classic psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin, are considered physically safe, one should always use them with caution. There is no direct evidence at this time regarding a connection between endurance sports and psychedelic medicine. However, if one is able to use them in a safe setting away from hazardous conditions or heavy weights, and at a low dose, it appears relatively safe, in particular in compassion to other performance-enhancing drugs, to try psychedelic medicine under the supervision of a therapist or doctor.​

*From the article here :

Psychedelics and Endurance Sports: Friend or Foe?

When one thinks of psychedelic medicine, images of an ayahuasca circle and spiritual insight come to mind. However, increasingly, the use of psychedelics

psychable.com

 

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Using psychedelics to increase performance*

NEUROHACKER Collective

In a previous post, we discussed the value of nootropics as a tool in the neurohacker’s toolbox. They can help get us dialed in with laser focus and get things done. They can aid with concentration, learning, and memory. But productivity isn’t the only context for the human experience, and it would be sad if we shaped ourselves solely for the purpose of being more effective cogs in a machine. Neurohacking is just as interested in getting better at asking “why” and “what” as in building capacity around “how.”

Enter, psychedelics, empathogens, entheogens and ‘plant medicines.’ Though many of these chemicals are currently schedule-1 drugs in many countries, humans have been using them for thousands of years for healing, self-inquiry and visioning into the nature of reality. In fact, some propose that the evolution of human consciousness itself was catalyzed by the use of mind-expanding substances discovered or concocted by early man. If neurohacking is about upgrading the hardware our consciousness runs on, we would be remiss not to mention these technologies of altered states.

The rose tinted days of “tune in, turn on” are long past. Contemporary Neurohackers are exploring these chemicals for everything from accelerated learning to healing major trauma, reprogramming underlying associations that lead to habitual behavioral or thought patterns, shadow work, paradigm engineering, and, of course, the continued exploration of the nature of reality itself.

Below are some introductions to the ways these substances are being used in the neurohacking community.

But first, check out this short video by Jason Silva introducing MAPS, and the concept of programming the psychedelic experience for therapeutic purposes.

Microdosing and performance enhancement

Defined as being both both sub-hallucinogenic and sub-perceptual, microdoses of psychedelics are being used by some neurohackers as part of a weekly routine to access higher levels of creativity, increased focus, and improvements in stamina, response time, and physical acuity.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs looking for a creative edge, as well as extreme sports enthusiasts wanting to enhance athletic prowess, have reported experiencing these benefits without feeling negatively “altered.” Users have also reported success with microdosing to alleviate depression, cluster headaches, smoking cessation, and ADD/ADHD.

Dr. James Fadiman, Ph.D., is one of the leading researchers in microdosing today. After collecting and reviewing user reports since 2010, he’s found that the overwhelming majority of people have reported overall enhancement of well-being, emotional balance, and spiritual awareness. His research to date has been synthesized in The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, which provides guidelines for experimenting with microdosing. While further research is sorely needed, the potential is there for microdosing to become an alternative to addictive prescription antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications and mood stabilizers.

Psychedelics and reframing the past

Some of the foundational work done on the psychotherapeutic benefits of psychedelics for trauma healing comes from Stanislov Grof. He pioneered LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the 60s, showing how the appropriate conjunction of therapy with psychedelics could accelerate the rate of healing. He did a lot of early neurohacking experimentation as well, like using strobe light entrainment and psychedelics together to induce mystical experiences.

One version of therapy he developed concerns “reframing work” on past psychological traumas. Neuroscience has shown us that we don’t remember original data or events so much as we remember the way we remember it. And every time we recall something from the past, we actually change the memory. The idea of “reframing” is to take advantage of this fact and to deliberately go in and change the way we remember some event.

Visualize some event from your past, go into the feeling of that moment, and then visualize yourself doing it differently. For example, standing up for yourself when you hadn’t, saying no, etc. The more intensely you can recollect the event and the more real your visualization, the more powerfully you can rewire your brain. Psychedelics can dramatically increase the intensity of your recollection - can bring the event right back into the present and give you authorship over how you want to respond to those events. You can’t change an event from the past - but you can change the meaning of that event for your present.

Empathogens and changing habits

For better and worse, one of the principle tools of the mind is habituation. As we proceed through life, our brain is constantly compressing complex behaviours and relationships into simple habits that require little to no conscious thought. This is true whether those habits and unconscious associations are healthy and desirable or not. If some event in your past connected feelings of embarrassment, shame or disgust to some thing or situation, you will find yourself hard-wired to avoid that thing or situation - even if you consciously want to go there.

Using empathogens, we can deliberately rewire these associations. By taking a chemical that combines neuroplasticity with pleasure and then thinking about or engaging with things you have negative associations with, you can permanently change your associative state.

One of the places this was pioneered was MDMA-assisted shadow work. A person recalls an event in their past that makes them feel some strong negative emotion every time it comes to mind. They take MDMA, an empathogen that decreases aversion/fear responses and increases emotional openness and empathy, and can experience the memory with a different understanding. The next time they remember that event, they find that they simply don’t feel the same way, and that some psychological and emotional damage has been healed. This technique is so powerful that MAPS has demonstrated that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is perhaps the best current treatment for the deep trauma of PTSD.

But this kind of hack isn’t just for deep trauma. Thoughtful Neurohackers have used it to edit habits as prosaic as procrastination and fear of public speaking. Always procrastinate around cleaning your house? Terrified of public speaking? It is currently possible (and someday it might be legal) to choose to take an empathogen, associate the resulting highly positive state with cleaning or speaking, and permanently reduce or eliminate the anxiety you used to associate with that activity.

Conclusion

Psychedelics are powerful tools for transformation, and when used appropriately, can be powerful tools for good. But if you’ve been reading all of this skeptically and noting all of the potential for harm - accidental or purposeful - that these powerful chemicals can deliver, you are right. These are extremely potent tools and are not to be taken lightly. We’ve all heard the horror stories of bad trips, where things get too intense and without the right guidance or help, bad things happen. With great power comes great responsibility.

Unfortunately, for five decades society has chosen to try to avoid, ignore and repress these tools - rather than learn how to use them responsibly. Things are starting to turn around, but we are still waiting for society to catch up and for more rigorous (and legal) research to be allowed to happen.

In the meantime, here are some organizations and individuals doing great work in understanding how to safely and effectively use these tools in conjunction with psychotherapies to probe one’s patterns, heal traumas and overcome fears that prevent us from getting the most out of our short time in this life.

*From the article here :

Using Psychedelics to Increase Performance and Reprogram the Mind/Brain Interface

If neurohacking is about upgrading the hardware our consciousness runs on, we would be remiss not to mention these technologies of altered states.

neurohacker.com

 

[mr peabody]

Psychedelics for Brain Injury: A Mini-Review

Shariq Mansoor Khan(1), Gregory T. Carter(2), Sunil K. Aggarwal(3), Julie Holland(4)

1Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
2Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute, Spokane, WA, United States
3Advanced Integrative Medical Sciences Institute, Seattle, WA, United States
4Private Practitioner, New York, NY, United States

Objective: Stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are among the leading causes of disability. Even after engaging in rehabilitation, nearly half of patients with severe TBI requiring hospitalization are left with major disability. Despite decades of investigation, pharmacologic treatment of brain injury is still a field in its infancy. Recent clinical trials have begun into the use of psychedelic therapeutics for treatment of brain injury. This brief review aims to summarize the current state of the science's relevance to neurorehabilitation, and may act as a resource for those seeking to understand the precedence for these ongoing clinical trials.
Methods: Narrative mini-review of studies published related to psychedelic therapeutics and brain injury.
Results: Recent in vitro, in vivo, and case report studies suggest psychedelic pharmacotherapies may influence the future of brain injury treatment through modulation of neuroinflammation, hippocampal neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, and brain complexity.
Conclusions: Historical data on the safety of some of these substances could serve in effect as phase 0 and phase I studies. Further phase II trials will illuminate how these drugs may treat brain injury, particularly TBI and reperfusion injury from stroke.
​

Introduction​

Despite millennia of historical use around the world, research into medical uses of psychedelic drugs has been stymied for years by stigma. “Classical” psychedelic drugs refer to the most well studied and culturally significant psychedelics, including mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Though having a wide range of molecular structures and target receptors, psychedelics are unified by their ability to produce marked alterations in sensory perception, consciousness, distortion of time, and perception of reality. Evidence suggests that activation of 5-HT2A receptors (a class of excitatory receptors of serotonin or 5-HT), is the common mechanism for the psychological experience of classical psychedelics, though these compounds are known to act at other receptors.

Currently, however, psychedelics are experiencing a scientific renaissance due to advances in research methodology and changes in the regulation of these substances. Trials of psilocybin for disorders of consciousness, and DMT for stroke, are in discussion to begin in coming years. In vitro and in vivo studies suggest psychedelics may influence the future of brain injury treatment in both the acute and chronic phases through a variety of mechanisms including modulation of neuroinflammation, neuroplasticity, hippocampal neurogenesis, and increases in brain complexity.​

Methods​

We conducted a literature search of articles relevant to psychedelic therapeutics for brain injury using PubMed. The search terms are available in the Appendix. Bibliographies of the main review papers were also used to detect other relevant articles. Studies were selected with emphasis to their relevance to psychedelics' purported neuroregenerative and neuroprotective potential, rather than their psychotherapeutic properties. A narrative mini-review format was employed with the intention of providing a brief overview for readers seeking to understand the scientific basis for anticipated clinical trials.​

Neuroinflammation​

Within the brain, depression, addiction, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's all appear to be linked to neuroinflammatory states. There are currently three main classes of anti-inflammatory drugs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids such as prednisone, and biologics which act like sponges to “soak up” inflammatory cytokines. Psychedelics may represent a fourth class of anti-inflammatory drug.

Neuroinflammation after stroke is responsible for both infarct expansion as well as remodeling and repair. Modulation of this inflammation is currently a target for new therapies. The inflammatory response to ischemic stroke is thought to derive largely from reperfusion injury. In general, there are no conventional medical therapies addressing reperfusion injury after stroke, with the exception of edavarone in Japan, which is only modestly effective.

After stroke, immune cells invade the injured tissue, interacting with microglia and neurons. Modulating this inflammatory response, particularly through tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and IL-10, may be the next frontier in stroke recovery. However, it should be expected that the cytokine response to brain injury has both beneficial and harmful effects to the recovering patient. In contrast to steroids, which cause generalized systemic immunosuppression, psychedelics produce a unique pattern of cytokine expression favoring anti-allergic conditions. In other words, psychedelics may target many of the pathologic immune responses without exposing the body to the risks of total immune suppression (e.g., serious infection) or potential side effects of existing biologics (e.g., malignancy and cardiovascular disease). Instead, careful regulation of the inflammatory response, rather than blunt reduction of the response, or “single-target” approaches, is critical to improved outcomes.

Mizuma and Yenari argue that immunomodulatory therapies have previously not shown efficacy in clinical trials because they largely took place before the use of revascularization techniques. Because reperfusion injury is thought to be the inciting event for much of the neuroinflammatory response, they argue that combining revascularization with immunomodulation may hold promise for stroke treatment. Indeed, Jickling et al.'s review of neutrophil modulation as treatment for stroke notes the contrast seen in the efficacy of these treatments in animal models is dependent on whether reperfusion is induced.

Classical psychedelics act principally on the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors (5-HTRs) to produce their psychological effects, specifically the 5-HT2a receptor. These same receptors are well-known to have the potential to regulate inflammation within the central nervous system and peripherally. In fact, the 5-HT2a receptor is the most widely expressed serotonin receptor throughout the human body. It is present on nearly all tissue and cell types, including all major immune-related cell types. However, the highest density of 5-HT2a receptors is found in the brain. Though peripheral immunomodulation has been documented with other psychedelics like LSD, MDMA, and DOI, DMT has been especially well-studied with regards to its effects on neuroinflammation and reperfusion injury.

DMT is a psychedelic which is endogenously produced by the human brain, particularly the pineal gland, likely in local concentrations comparable to other monoamine neurotransmitters. Though it has been known for at least 40 years that DMT is an endogenously produced hallucinogen, its physiologic function remains elusive. The lack of consensus may be due in part to a paradigm in which the scientific community has assumed DMT can only be, or primarily acts as, a hallucinogen, which keeps research focus on its psychologic effects at 5-HTRs, rather than its non-hallucinogenic effects. Recent experiments have shown that an additional receptor, S1R, is critical in the immunomodulating response of DMT.

S1R dysfunction is known to be involved in a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, ALS, and TBI. S1R agonists produce neuroprotective effects via regulation of intracellular calcium, reducing expression of pro-apoptotic genes, and inhibiting anti-apoptotic activity by the Bcl-2 gene. Specifically, DMT's action at S1Rs has been shown in murine models to modulate inflammation by reducing IL-1b, IL-6, TNFa, and IL-8, while increasing the secretion of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, and by inhibiting activation of Th1 (T Helper cell type 1) and Th17 (T Helper cell type 17) subsets. In mice, S1R is known to play an important role in the endoplasmic reticulum stress response, including oxidative stress, probably by up-regulating antioxidants, quinine oxidoreductase 1 and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Being present in reactive astrocytes, microglia, and neurons, it has also been shown to regulate neuritic outgrowth, myelination, synaptogenesis, and neuro-regeneration. It should be noted that S1R is now known to have multiple endogenous agonists, such as progesterone. However, with no clear alternative explanation, it may be reasonable to hypothesize that DMT has some, or all, of these neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory physiologic functions as well. The only clinical trial of a selective S1R agonist for treatment of stroke showed statistically significant functional recovery in post-hoc analysis of moderately-to-severely affected patients.

DMT has been shown to reduce ischemic brain injury after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) through S1R dependent activity in murine models. Nardai et al. documented a significant reduction of the infarct core volume in rats at 24 h post MCAO with administration of DMT, as well as enhanced functional regeneration of the affected limb at 30 days post MCAO. These results are consistent with other in vitro studies showing cytoprotective effects of DMT against reperfusion injury. Furthermore, similar effects have been documented in human-specific models including human cerebral organoids. Dakic et al. were the first to document that a closely related congener of DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, found in high concentrations of the toxin of Incilius alvarius (Colorado River Toad), favorably altered the cerebral proteome with regard to factors involved with plasticity and neuroprotection including long-term potentiation, apoptosis, morphogenesis/maturation of dendritic spines, and T-lymphocyte differentiation, while inhibiting factors involved in neurodegeneration and cell death. The authors note that other dimethyltryptamines may have similar effects, but their results show that the mechanisms may be different and that each deserves careful study. Previous studies in monolayer neuronal cultures did not show the same effects, suggesting a more complex circuitry is required for these effects.​

Hippocampal Neurogenesis​

TBI and stroke alter hippocampal neurogenesis in murine models. Though hippocampal neurogenesis is recognized as an important component of cognitive recovery from TBI and stroke, there is not a direct correlation between increased neurogenesis and recovery. Complicating factors include the nature of the injury, the timing of intervention, how the cells integrate into the hippocampal circuits, and whether the target of intervention is either increased neuronal proliferation or increased survival. While hippocampal neurogenesis after TBI is implicated in improved cognition, relief from depressed mood, and encoding of episodic memory, it is also associated with pro-epileptogenic changes and spatial memory impairment.

Though many factors are implicated in hippocampal neurogenesis, one of the most important is 5HTR stimulation. Acute administration of psilocybin to mice alters hippocampal neurogenesis in a non-linear fashion. Low doses lead to increased neurogenesis while higher doses inhibit it. However, increased neurogenesis has also been seen when high dose psilocybin was administered once-per-week, avoiding the issue of rapid tolerance buildup via 5HTR downregulation. Targeting hippocampal neurogenesis for treatment of brain injury and other psychiatric and neurologic disorders is an emerging area of research.​

Neuroplasticity​

Novel interventional approaches hold promise to improve functional outcomes after brain injury by inducing neural plasticity. However, like targeting inflammation and hippocampal neurogenesis, targeting neuroplasticity is a double-edged sword. Ischemia induced plasticity may be responsible for recovery of function, but also drive complications such as epilepsy and memory disturbance. A full discussion on ischemia induced plasticity is available elsewhere.

Functional recovery due to post-stroke plasticity is currently most effectively recruited through intensive physical therapy. However, both non-invasive techniques for inducing neuroplasticity such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and direct current stimulation, as well as invasive techniques such as deep brain stimulation, show promising results for stroke recovery.

The search for pharmacologic agents which stimulate neuroplasticity after brain injury, including amphetamines, dopaminergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, and cholinergic agents, has thus far been inconclusive. To our knowledge, the effect of psychedelics on neuroplasticity has not been tested in brains subjected to injury such as stroke. However, recent reports demonstrate that psychedelics promote both structural and functional neuroplasticity in non-injured brains. The persistent symptom improvement in psychiatric disorders with administration of psychedelics has been proposed to be driven by this neuroplastic adaptation. Ly et al. found that some psychedelics were more efficacious (e.g., MDMA) or more potent (e.g., LSD) than ketamine in promoting plasticity. These results were demonstrated in vivo in both non-human vertebrates and invertebrates, suggesting that these mechanisms are evolutionarily conserved.

One hypothesized mechanism for psychedelics' beneficial effect on neuroplasticity in brain injury is via Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is well-known to be implicated in both neuritogenesis and spinogenesis. In Ly et al.'s experiments, they found that many psychedelics rivaled administration of pure BDNF in their ability to induce plasticity. At least one randomized control trial has demonstrated increases in serum BDNF in volunteers with administration of a DMT containing tisane, ayahuasca, which persisted for 48 h. Importantly, ayahuasca, a traditional South American ceremonial brew, contains not only DMT, but also β-carbolines which act as reversible monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) potentiating and prolonging the effects of DMT. However, it should be noted that many other non-psychedelic drugs have failed to alter the course of brain injury through induction of BDNF.

However, there is also evidence to suggest that S1R is an important part of the plasticity response to stroke. For example, Ruscher et al. found that delivery of a synthetic S1R agonist enhanced plasticity-mediated recovery of lost sensorimotor function in rats, even when initiation of therapy was started up to 2 days after MCAO, possibly expanding the currently very narrow therapeutic window for acute stroke.

Mirror visual-feedback (MVF) has been shown to enhance key features of neuroplasticity including cross-modal cortical reorganization and learning. In patients <12 months post stroke, MVF therapy enhances functional recovery of lower limbs and hands. Psilocybin combined with mirror visual-feedback has been shown in a case report to have a dose-dependent reduction in phantom limb associated pain, hypothesized to be due to facilitating MVF's ability to “unlearn” paralysis via 5HTR-dependent changes in neuroplasticity. Clinical trials for use of psilocybin in phantom limb pain are currently underway.​

Increase in Brain Complexity​

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) can arise from a variety of brain injuries including trauma, hypoglycemia, anoxia, and stroke. Between 4 and 38% of stroke patients will experience a DOC. Though many therapies have been proposed for patients with DOC, including pharmacologic (e.g., amantadine, D-amphetamine, levodopa, modafinil, and zolpidem), invasive and non-invasive stimulation (e.g., transcranial direct current stimulation), benefits for functional recovery are usually modest and current evidence supporting their use is inconsistent. Other stimulants acting on dopamine including apomorphine may hold promise.

Scott and Carhart-Harris have proposed an experimental protocol for testing the capacity of psilocybin to increase conscious awareness in patients with DOC. They hypothesize psychedelics increase brain activity complexity and conscious content, in contrast to current stimulant drugs that increase arousal. However, to our knowledge there are no studies of brain complexity measures in DOC patients given stimulants. Their hypothesis relies on findings that psilocybin increases brain complexity, and that these particular measures of complexity, namely perturbational complexity index and the closely related Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC), reliably predict conscious level. They argue that psychedelic-related elevations in LZC reflect an increased richness of conscious experience, and that targeting increases in conscious content, rather than arousal, as with stimulants, may be key to increasing conscious awareness in DOC patients.

In human subjects, increases in LZC have been observed in excess of those seen in normal wakefulness with administration of psilocybin, LSD, and ketamine at psychedelic doses. This increase in complexity has also been demonstrated via other measures including electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Psychedelics are thought to increase brain complexity primarily through 5HTRs. As previously discussed, 5HTR agonism is associated with increased neuroplasticity, while antagonism is associated with reduced cognitive flexibility and increased slow-wave sleep and sedation. These receptors are most densely expressed in the cortical areas belonging to the default-mode network (DMN). The DMN is known to be implicated in conscious processing as well as the subjective experience of psychedelic states. Strength of DMN connectivity is significantly decreased in stroke patients with DOCs, and is highly correlated with Glasgow Coma Scale scores. Secondarily, 5HTRs have been shown to play an important role in the control of thalamo-frontal connectivity, known to be important for consciousness.​

Conclusions​

Psychedelics may play a future role in treatment of brain injury through a variety of mechanisms. Though these are a novel class of drugs deserving close study, more data are necessary to prove their efficacy for treatment of brain injury, as historically many compounds have seemed promising in vitro, including likely hundreds of compounds thought to facilitate neuroplasticity and neuroprotection, but have not borne out in clinical trials. There is already mixed evidence to suggest the use of non-classical psychedelics ketamine, as well as THC and cannabidiol, as neuroprotectants after TBI and stroke. Presence of THC on urine drug screen is associated with decreased mortality in adult patients sustaining TBI. However, randomized control trials of a non-psychoactive cannabinoid analog, dexanabinol, administered once after TBI has failed to show benefit over placebo in increasing Glasgow Coma Scores at 6 months post-injury. One explanation for this discrepancy may be the lack of “entourage” effect whereby various cannabinoids and cannabis phytochemicals are clinically more efficacious when working synergistically compared to administration of a single cannabinoid in isolation, though the existence of such an effect with cannabis is contentious with mixed evidence for its existence. Of note, an “entourage” effect has been demonstrated with psychedelic mushrooms in which whole mushroom extracts are on the order of 10 times more potent than purified psilocin administered alone in neurobehavioral rat models.

Another possible explanation is that the subjective hallucinogenic effects are necessary for some, or all, of psychedelics' therapeutic effects. This remains a fundamental research question and strong evidence exists on both sides of the debate. Few human trials on the therapeutic effects of psychedelics at sub-behavioral “micro-” doses have been completed, but results from animal and cell studies for their use as anti-inflammatories are promising. In contrast, studies on the psychological effects of micro-dosing psychedelics seem to be explained by placebo effect. Extrapolating from animal studies, the doses required at least for the anti-inflammatory effects of psychedelics are predicted to be magnitudes less than threshold for hallucinations. Furthermore, recent studies treating rat models of asthma with 2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (2C-H) which is a non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2a agonist structurally related to MDMA, suggest that psychedelics' behavioral and anti-inflammatory effects may have separate, but related, underlying mechanisms. A non-hallucinogenic analog of ibogaine has been shown to induce structural neuroplasticity, as well as reduce depression, alcohol-, and heroin-seeking behavior in rodents, similarly to its hallucinogenic variant. In contrast, Brouwer and Carhart-Harris have introduced a construct known as the “pivotal mental state” to explain the evolutionary function that 5-HT2a receptor agonism has in inducing neurologic hyper-plasticity and psychological adaptation when the body is exposed to subjective acute stress (e.g., hallucinations, intense spiritual experience, psychosis, trauma). They hypothesize that “psychedelics hijack a system that has evolved to mediate rapid and deep learning” to provide a psychological “fresh start” or “rebirth.” It is likely that some, but not all, of the psychological therapeutic benefits of psychedelics is dependent on the subjective experience, but whether the same can be said for their use in brain injury is unclear.

Classical psychedelics have millennia of historical use, do not have significant risk of dependence, and are safe to use under close medical supervision. Though there should be caution in over-interpreting the relevance of the aforementioned animal studies' relevance to human pathological states, this historical data should serve in effect as phase 0 and phase I studies. However, presumably much of this historical data is based on intermittent, infrequent dosing, so trial safety data may need to be repeated with continuous, regular doses. Further phase II trials will illuminate how these drugs may treat brain injury, particularly TBI and reperfusion injury from stroke.

Further study and design of non-psychoactive analogs may answer fundamental questions regarding the interplay of hallucinations with other properties of psychedelic therapy, as well as facilitate more practical use in acute hospital settings. The subjective hallucinogenic effects of psychedelics, with clinical psychological support, may also prove valuable in fostering recovery from brain injury from a trauma recovery rehabilitation psychology standpoint due to their anti-PTSD and anti-depression effects that are now well-documented. Depression and PTSD significantly hinder recovery from stroke and TBI. Psychedelics' use in this area may be more immediately clinically relevant in this area than in the neuroprotection and neuro-regeneration, where comparatively less is known. Further research is needed to determine the optimal timing after injury and route of administration for neuroprotective effects. All the compounds discussed in this paper have reasonable oral absorption. Route of administration would impact the degree and timeliness of the pharmacological effects yet there are not enough studies specifically on this aspect to make recommendations. The emerging use of intranasal route of administration may afford rapid induction into the central nervous system and could be a promising future option.

*From the article (including regerences) here :

Frontiers | Psychedelics for Brain Injury: A Mini-Review

Objective: Stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are among the leading causes of disability. Even after engaging in rehabilitation, nearly half of patients...

www.frontiersin.org

 

[mr peabody]

Can Psychedelics Propel Athletes to New Heights?*

by Kiki Dy | Psychedelic Spotlight | 10 Oct 2021​

While scientific literature on athleticism and psychedelics is still in its embryonic stages, there’s a deep well of anecdotal evidence suggesting that psychedelics could bring athletes to new peaks of performance.

On the heels of sprawling cannabis legalization throughout North America, all eyes are hungrily hooked on the slow but certain legalization of psilocybin. No self-improvement trend has ever captivated every corner of the internet the way microdosing has.

The echoing accounts of those supplementing studious, sportive, and career-climbing endeavors with psychedelics have induced mania in the everymen. All groups, from existentially-exhausted mothers to weekend-warrior endurance athletes to university students, are eager to microdose their way to enhanced cognition.

Or, as Dr. Fey, a Western New York physical therapist and psychonaut, phrases it for Psychedelic Spotlight, “experimental success-seekers are using small amounts of psychedelics to propel them to unprecedented pinnacles of ability, and it’s working.”

Here we focus on a newly-researched niche: athletic performance and psychedelics.

A No-Hitter on LSD

Where should we start? With the infamous, LSD-fueled no-hitter, of course.

The century-spanning chronicles of baseball are charged with oddities and accomplishments, but few are as iconic as when a 25-year-old right-handed starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates named Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter while tripping on LSD.

Dock Ellis recounted the drugged-out day in great detail to NPR before his death, and No Mas used the audio from the interview to create a fascinating short film (below). The story begins with Ellis partying with his friends the day before the game. The holy trinity –– alcohol, acid, and marijuana –– were involved. Ellis passed out and, upon waking up from his nap, took more acid, confusedly believing it was still the same day. He recalls thinking he was in the clear before a friend informed him that he had to pitch in just hours. So, he hopped on a plane and fulfilled his obligation with LSD lighting up his senses.

“I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire,” Ellis recounted in an interview years later. “And once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate.”

The film and story are incredibly entertaining, but like most tales that seem too fantastical to be true –– there’s just one lingering question: did it actually happen?

Well, that depends who you ask.

Bob Smizik, who covered the Pirates from 1972-77 for the Pittsburgh Press, is a believer. While he didn’t cover the game, he was the first writer to break the legend of the LSD no-hitter.

In the story, Smizik even included a quote from a Pittsburgh-area psychologist, Dr. Maurice Cerul, to lend the story a dash of credibility:

“If he had a good trip, he could have done his task without problems. As a matter of fact, he could have performed even better. It’s within the realm of possibility. But LSD should not be used to enhance one’s athletic ability.”

However, that quote was given decades ago, when psychedelic use was still a big no-no and counterculture activity. Now, researchers are abandoning their hesitancy to proclaim that using psychedelics to enhance athletic performance exists in a good or bad binary.

Psychedelics and Endurance Sports

When the topic of performance-enhancing drugs rears its head, the usual suspects—steroids, stimulants, etc.—are always mentioned. Psychedelics, meanwhile, are often overlooked.

Okay, fair enough, it seems like an easy assumption that psychedelic drugs aren’t performance-enhancing. But as James Oroc explained in his legendary essay, extreme sports and the underground psychedelic scene have a surprising decades-long relationship.

“According to the combined reports of 40 years of use by the extreme sports underground, LSD can increase your reflex time to lightning speed, improve your balance to the point of perfection, increase your concentration until you experience “tunnel vision”, and make you impervious to weakness or pain,” Oroc claims. “LSD’s effects in these regards are in fact legendary, universal, and without dispute.”

More recently, a citizen scientist wrote an extensive self-study for Borealism chronicling the effect of microdosing mushrooms on athletic performance. In his report, he claims, “psilocybin provokes a more immersed engagement with any activity; in this context, it amounted to a much more motivated sense of engagement with swimming and running as it displaced the perception of discomfort, pain, and fatigue.”

While he insists that there appears to be a performance-enhancing outcome, he acknowledges that it’s hard to know how much a placebo effect is in play.

“This [performance-enhancing] effect, as expected, is more psychological than physiological, though it will be argued that there is little need to differentiate between the mind and the body when it comes to improving sportive ability in this sort of context,” the researcher writes.

Moreover, the performance enhancement may only be relevant at the highest echelons of professional sport, where everyone is first-rate, and the difference between winning and losing is a game of millimeters or milliseconds.

Sports psychologist Stan Beecham explains, “The reality is not that top athletes think differently,” in an interview with Forbes. “It’s that they don’t think. It’s the absence of thought. It’s the absence of cognition. It’s the absence of emotion. That really is the advantage.”

The Bottom Line

While the evidence isn’t ironclad, it is accumulating.

With the potential of psilocybin legalization on the horizon, more robust research on psychedelics and exercise performance is promised. Dr. Fey is hopeful, telling Psychedelic Spotlight, “Soon, we’ll get a clearer picture of the broad effects of these psychedelics on performance. Sports have always explored the outer limits of human potential, and as athletes start reaching even higher levels of precision, they’ll search for whatever advantage they can get.”

But for now, urban legend and anecdotal evidence are enough to convince, or at least entertain, many.

Can Psychedelics Propel Athletes to New Heights? | Psychedelic Spotlight

“We’ll get a clearer picture of the broad effects of these psychedelics on performance," a physical therapist tells Psychedelic Spotlight.

psychedelicspotlight.com

 

[mr peabody]

​

Studying Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT for Traumatic Brain Injuries*

by Wesley Thoricatha | Psychedelic Times | 20 Mar 2022

Amber Capone is the co-founder and Executive Director of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), where she and her husband Marcus Capone have led a charge to help special forces veterans connect with psychedelic treatments. Marcus is an ex-Navy SEAL who experienced traumatic brain injury during his time in the military, and was only able to find lasting healing with ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT. Since then, Amber and Marcus have done their best to spread the word and raise money to help other veterans find effective treatments, and more recently, to encourage scientific study of these substances.

Amber, in our last interview you alluded to studies that your organization is involved in. Can you share some more details about that? Do these studies involve both ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT?

Our first goal after Marcus’ therapy was for 12 other veterans to have a similar positive experience, and for those results to last for a 12 month period. That was easy. The second was to help 100 veterans and involve institutional review board (IRB) research. We did that and it was published in July of 2020.

The results were incredible. It was looking at suicidality, depression, substance use, and cognition. It was the first time, to my knowledge, that cognition was measured in a psychedelic study. Psychedelics have historically been researched for other psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and so on, but the cognition piece was really significant to me. I insisted that it be included in the measures, because that was one of the biggest takeaways for me after Marcus’ treatment.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the signature injury of both wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), yet it is not talked about that much because it can be very difficult to diagnose, let alone treat or cure. Generally veterans will get a bandaid PTSD diagnosis, and be prescribed a slew of medications. And in many cases, these medications compound the struggle and make things markedly more difficult for the veteran. Marcus at one point was on upwards of ten medications, and it seemed like as time went on, he would need a new medication to combat one of his existing medications, to combat the side effect of another medication, and so on. He was prescribed something to sleep, something to wake up, something for depression, something for mood- it was a nightmare. He was struggling cognitively to a point where he would forget to take these things, which could create a secondary nightmare because all the timing was off.

The TBI and brain component of veteran struggles is where our focus lies. We definitely believe that there are many veterans struggling with PTSD, and I’m not saying that special forces veterans don’t have PTSD, but we’re just choosing to put more of an emphasis on traumatic brain injury because this was so important for us and it remains largely unexplored. The retrospective study that was released showed a very significant improvement in cognition, and 96% of the participants said it was far better than any previous treatment they had tried.

Wow, that is a profound statistic. It must be so cool to see these things come to fruition after all your hard work.

It is, I was just talking to Marcus about this the other day, all the work and heart that goes into this. For every dollar that we take in there are scores of veterans fighting for it, and my heart breaks at the thought of having to say no to someone in need. It’s not a business, it’s a heart led effort, so it’s very difficult. I’ve given a lot of myself so that we can help more veterans, and I sometimes wonder how that can be more sustainable. We need to add organizational leverage and put the oxygen mask on the org a bit, but as exposure grows, so does demand. So we really need increased fundraising so that we can have more runway.

Absolutely. Are there any other studies that you have coming up?

Yes, so the first one we talked about was a retrospective study, and of course it’s not ideal to solely rely on that kind of research, so we are doing a prospective study of that same combo, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT. We expect that that study will be published sometime in late 2021.

We’re also kicking off a study partnership with Stanford University that is going to be looking at ibogaine for TBI. It will be the first ever study of its kind linking ibogaine to TBI in 30 participants, and the study will involve both FMRI scans of the brain as well as a series of other measures. This data will be collected before the treatment, immediately after treatment, and then a few weeks later. There’s a link to that study at clinicaltrials.gov.

We’re really excited to kick that off because it will have an emphasis on TBI and blast injury, in particular. Interface astroglial scarring and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) are the two phenomena frequently found in veteran’s brains, especially special forces, due to blasts and concussive and subconcussive events, which create microscopic injury and potentially degeneration in the brain. Ibogaine may potentially be useful for treating that. It is the only substance known to produce GDNF in the brain- Glial Derived Neurotrophic Factor- which promotes the growth of new glial cells. Who knows if clinical trials are in the future, but this is a very exciting first step.

*From the article here :

Studying Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT for Traumatic Brain Injuries: Interview with Amber Capone of VETS - Psychedelic Times

VETS is leading the charge to study the effects of Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT on veterans with traumatic brain injuries.

psychedelictimes.com

 

[mr peabody]

How pro surfer Koa Smith overcame depression and trauma with psychedelic mushrooms: ‘I never slipped back’

by Josh Marcus | The Independent | 1 Apr 2022

Pro surfer Koa Smith used psychedelic mushrooms to help recover from a traumatic 2018 head injury on a reef in Indonesia.

Surfing is a sport of frontiers. You enter a wave the exact moment it begins to shift, when it has reached its peak power, just before that energy causes it to fold over itself and collapse. You seek out points on the map where storms thousands of miles away, rolling across the ocean-floor geography, have channeled swells towards land. You experience a departure from the body itself, a feeling of perfect, ego-dissolving synchronization with the rhythms of the ocean—or the three-dimensional chaos of being flipped off a moving tunnel of water and careening in the undersea dark.

These are frontiers that pro surfer Koa Smith knows better than almost anybody.

The Kaui-born surfer has ridden some of the most spectacular waves on Earth, from the North Shore of Oahu to Namibia and back.

After a shock injury on a reef in Indonesia in 2018, he pushed into frontiers that athletes, let alone modern science, are only just beginning to explore.

To heal from a catastrophic head wound, and the depression and trauma he experienced as a result, he began a journey with psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms.
​

Koa Smith surfs Waimea Bay in the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

The experience, chronicled in the new film Resurfacing, changed his life. According to medical experts on the cutting edge of psychedelic research, it could soon change many more.

‘Maybe I was leaving my body’

In 2018, Koa came to the Indonesian island of Nias on a high. He was well on his way to the kind of surfing life he dreamed about as a kid growing up and surfing each day in Kauai: traveling the world, competing in contests, modeling in magazines.

He’d just completed his third trip to Namibia’s Skeleton Bay, where a video went viral of him riding for minutes on a wave with eight separate “barrels,” sections where the surfer is riding inside the open tube of a crashing wave. In a sport where ever the best surfers ride waves that last just seconds, the clip, filmed in the waters off the ochre Namibian desert, is a surfer’s fantasy made real.

Smith — who often woke up before dawn, surfed all day, then partied all night — wanted to keep pushing like he always did, so he hopped on a plane from Hawai’i back across the world a few days later when he saw a big swell was heading towards Indonesia. After driving for hours through the jungle, he reached Nias, a remote village with a beautiful wave like one he grew up surfing.

A few tries into his first session, a rogue set of waves far more powerful that the rest came thundering towards the beach. He decided to go for it anyway.

He lost control — jumped off his board — flipped through the air. His head hit something. Hard. Lights out.

“I heard this crazy, super peaceful violin,” Mr Smith told The Independent in March, sitting on a sun-dappled patio in Los Angeles. “I had one of those moments where I was above the whole bay looking down. I could see my friends in the lineup. I could see the boats in the bay. I could see the mountains. Then all of a sudden I realized that I was actually underwater.”

But he wasn’t afraid.

“I felt maybe I was leaving my body,” he continued. “The weird thing was it was a very comfortable, very loving, euphoric state. There was no fear. It was just like being home.”

That high wouldn’t last. When he came to, there were bloody coral scrapes across his arms and head. He couldn’t remember his own name, where he was staying, or in which direction lay the shore.

Somehow, he made it back to land. A local man who recognised him gave him a ride on a moped back to where the surfer was staying. He was home free, but he wasn’t out of troubled waters yet. He had a severe concussion, which would test him in ways he never expected.

‘Something just broke in me’

After recuperating in Bali for two weeks, he flew to California for the 2018 US Open of Surfing contest. He immediately knew something was off. The whole event was overstimulating: crowds of fans across Huntington Beach. Questions from reporters and sponsors about his injury.

Flashbulbs and the pound of the waves.

“Something just broke in me,” he said. “I couldn’t even function anymore. I ended up losing luckily in the contest. From there I had to spend ten hours a day in my bed in the dark and just kind of figure out what I wanted to do from there.”

Five months, six months, seven months went by and he still couldn’t get in the water. He began wondering if he would ever surf again. A “deep, numbing” feeling came over him.

After a traumatic 2018 head injury, Koa Smith couldn’t surf for months and became deeply depressed.

“My life is good. I had a beautiful girl friend, very loving. I had my family, who was there to support me, very close to me. A beautiful house on the beach. I live in Hawai’i. My life should be amazing,” he said. “But I had this crazy numbness over me, where I couldn’t feel happiness, I couldn’t feel excitement. I was just down, numb, and dead feeling.”

In that depression, he began having scary, recurring thoughts.

“Part of the concussion was I had these repetitive thought processes that I couldn’t control,” he said. “Like a wheel is turning, committing suicide, that just keeps replaying and faster and faster until your brain starts getting getting super hot and melting almost, and I would have to call someone and have conversations with them or go jump in the ice bath or go on a forest walk just to slow that wheel down. It would get so painful and so crazy.”

He tried seeing doctors, but their answers weren’t satisfactory. At the hospital, one condescending specialist said they didn’t want to scan Smith’s brain because if it looked good, the hard-charging surfer would just get back in the water again. A therapist recommended antidepressants, but Smith felt the answers to healing were already inside of him somewhere.

“Growing up so close to nature, in the forest, in the ocean, eating just organic, farm food, I knew what was healing. I knew that my body had the answers unless of course there’s something extreme,” he said. “I knew that it was time to figure something out.”

That’s when he decided to try incorporating psilocybin mushrooms into his healing process.

‘I never slipped back into that numbness’

In search of a peaceful and nourishing setting for their journey, Koa and his brothers headed into the jungle on Kauai, until they reached a freshwater pond fed by a very cold stream. They sat in the sun, naked, practising breathing techniques from Wim Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete whose breath work techniques have helped him perform astounding feats like climbing snowy Mount Kilimanjaro in just shorts.

Koa was again outside of himself. This time, instead of violins, he heard a voice, first speaking, then screaming at him until he got the message.

“This voice came to me and reminded me of who I was,” he said. “It took me back to my childhood, that fire inside me as a child. It reminded me that I was a good person and that I was here to do good in this world. It reminded me that I should use my head injury as a guide to healing.”

Koa Smith traveled into the jungles of Kauai for a psychedelic mushroom experience as part of his healing process.

For the first time in a long time, he felt connected to himself and his body again. For the first time in a long time, he loved that person he was connecting to.

“That was the moment that brought me back from depression,” he said. “I never slipped back into that numbness again.”

Two weeks later, he started surfing again, and he hasn’t stopped since.

These moments of radical shifts in perspective hold immense promise for the treatment of mental health issues, PTSD, substance abuse disorders, and other ailments, according to scientists. Thanks to recent changes in research policy, we are now in the midst of a “psychedelic renaissance,” where experts are trying to unpack just what makes people like Koa have such profound experiences of healing on psychedelics — and how to bring it to the masses safely and without fear of prosecution from the government.

A reset of the brain’s historical patterns

Indigenous peoples the world over have been using psychoactive plants for millennia for healing and ceremonies, but scientific research on these medicines has been stonewalled for decades in the US.

Amid a rising backlash to the counterculture, mushrooms and other compounds were moved into Schedule I by the Food and Drug Administration, meaning the government considered them to have no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse. Only recently have authorities begun considering rescheduling psychedelics.

In the mid-2000s, a pioneering group of researchers including those from Johns Hopkins University began to change things, rigorously studying the use of mushrooms and its potential applications.

Two decades later, we’re in the midst of a new flourishing, with places like Oregon and Oakland, California, decriminalising psychedelics, and researchers examining the potential to use such compounds for medical ailments ranging from depression to alcoholism. It’s a developing field, and experts caution people not to treat these drugs as proven cure-alls, or something to be explored without in-depth medical and spiritual guidance. Still, many are hoping that thousands of people might have a similar experience to the one Koa had.

Studies suggest mushrooms can reduce the activity of the default mode network, a part of the brain involved in identity formation and self-perception, according to Dorna Pourang, a drug development researcher who has helped lead psychedelic trials for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and an adviser to MUD\WTR, the supplement and health food company which produced Resurfacing.

“When that activity is dampened, we’re not so tied to these things that create our identity and who we are,” she said. "Instead," she continued, "we shift into interconnectedness."

Researchers often liken the impact of psilocybin to a fresh coat of snow on a sledding hill: it fills in the rutted mental pathways that guide one’s normal thought process, and people are free to chart new courses through the fresh powder of their mind.

This new openness and perspective can be a powerful complement to traditional therapy, according to Karina Sergi, a licensed psychotherapist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, who has worked on using ketamine for treatment-resistant mental health conditions and psilocybin in clinical trials.

“It can lead to a kind of recalibration or a reset of the brain’s historical patterns,” she said. “This kind of primes a person to benefit from the psychotherapeutic process.”

Psilocybin can also illicit a deep reconnection with the body, adds Alex Cardenas, a California-based community psychiatrist and co-executive director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Assocation (APPA), an organisation working to create standards of care, public education, and greater acceptance within the healthcare system surrounding psychedelic medicine.

"That reconnection with the physical could be especially vital for people like athletes," he says, for whom a close relationship with the body is at the core of what they do.

“Helping people recover from trauma, part and parcel of that is helping them connect to their body,” Mr Cardenas said, noting his opinions are personal and don’t necessarily reflect those of the APPA. “I do think these medicines can help people connect to their bodies. For people who live in their body, helping them be more aware of their relationship with their body could have all sorts of effects beyond helping with trauma.”

More than just these effects, many who use psychedelics report experiences similar to Koa’s, where they feel they’ve received a great piece of wisdom about themselves, or their place in the larger scheme of the world.

According to Ms Sergi, this mystical experience sometimes allows people to hold “conflicting truths” at the same time that help in their healing.

“A person might say something like, I’ve died several times but I’ve never felt so alive and ready to live my life,” she said. “I am simultaneously a speck in the universe but so powerful as to be able to create change in my world…The idea that they can be depressed but powerful. We can start to use that in the therapeutic process.”

‘There’s a lot of stigma that has to be overturned’

Still, despite these findings, and ongoing, scientifically sound research at prestigious institutions like Johns Hopkins, New York University, and University of California Berkeley, there’s still loads of stigma against psychedelics, left over from the War on Drugs and even earlier prejudices about medicines and rituals outside of the Western canon.

“There’s a lot of stigma that has to be overturned within the medical community,” according to Ms Pourang, the researcher. “If you’re working within the psychedelic community, everybody is really excited about it, but when you’re trying to bridge into the modern medical system, you’re going to come up against people whose doubts and reservations from the propaganda of the drug war that substances are not safe and have a lot more risk than the scientific data says they actually do.”

Both researchers and Koa himself warn to treat psychedelics lightly.

They’ve only been under serious study for a few decades, and scientists are still working out which conditions they might be most useful for, what sorts of supports and therapies are necessary for a safe and positive experience. They’re also trying to tackle some of the deeper physiological and philosophical questions surrounding psychedelics.

“From a research perspective, the questions are things like, for whom and for what disorders can these treatments be helpful? Questions like, is this purely a chemical reaction? Is this more of a psychological or spiritual experience? For whom and at what level is concurrent therapy necessary?” adds Mr Cardenas, the APPA psychiatrist.

It’s not all pretty visuals or mystical experiences, either. The mental unboundedness of a mushroom experience can be intense or traumatic in its own right, as people face parts of their mind or memories they’re unprepared to.

There’s no such thing as perfect medicine. It’s all in how they’re used.

“Psychedelics need to be respected. I don’t want to just encourage kids to go eat a handful of mushrooms. I feel like psychedelics are so wise and need to be treated with respect. You need to be ready. You need to have a guide so that you’re comfortable, so that you can let the layers go,” adds Koa Smith. “They need to be used for healing.”

The surfer hasn’t stopped chasing the best waves in the world, but his psychedelic journey inspired him to slow down, focus on holistic wellness, and share his story with others. In the adrenaline-fueled world of pro surfing, these themes are not always top of mind.

“I’ve already had so many people reach out to me with similar stories and just being very excited that I told this story,” he said. “This is going to be a big moment for me to help people. Just me being vulnerable and telling my story. I’m excited to see where I go next. I’m excited to keep my story out there.”

Four years on, he still feels like he’s healing from his crash in Nias, but with a new perspective.

“I’m stoked to just continue the healing process,” he said.

For people like Koa, who push the physical limits of what is possible every day, some of the toughest and most satisfying journeys are the ones that occur within.

How pro surfer Koa Smith overcame depression and trauma with psychedelic mushrooms

Studies show promising effects on depression and PTSD, writes Josh Marcus

www.independent.co.uk

 

[mr peabody]

Psychedelics and Endurance Sports: Increased Energy and Reduced Fatigue?

One mechanism of action may be similar to taking amphetamines.

by Nate Seltenrich | Psychedelic Science Review | 15 May 2020

While anecdotal reports indicate psychedelics are useful in artistic and meditative pursuits, users have also reported them beneficial for physical activities dependent on alertness, awareness, and the rapid processing of sensory data — everything from climbing rock pitches to pitching in pro baseball, it seems.

But in recent years, accounts have surfaced on internet forums of psychedelics offering a different sort of benefit for exercise: increased energy and reduced fatigue during endurance sports like cycling and running.

While the scientific literature is lacking in empirical studies examining the effects of psychedelics on aerobic exercise, experts suggest there are several possible mechanisms — including the placebo effect — that may describe these users’ experiences.

What the experts are saying

In his comprehensive and widely cited 2016 overview of psychedelic science in the journal Pharmacological Reviews, researcher Dr. David Nichols of the University of North Carolina addresses the effects of psychedelics on brain function, sleep, time perception, and visual perception — but nothing related to endurance.

By email, Nichols confirmed he was unaware of any studies to date focused on this research question in humans. He did, however, suggest a potential mechanism for increased energy and stamina based on previous findings in animal models: dopamine.

“Locomotor activity in rodents is generally a product of increased activity in dopaminergic areas of the brain,” Nichols said.
​

Psychedelics can turn off inhibitory GABA pathways that suppress dopaminergic tone. So dopaminergic activity is disinhibited, and the effect is similar to what happens if you take an amphetamine.​

More generally, research in sports physiology has shown that perceived effort, fatigue, and energy levels — especially in endurance sports — are tightly metered and mediated by the brain. Performance isn’t as closely linked to purely physiological parameters such as VO2 max and lactate threshold as researchers once thought.

In his 2018 book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, journalist and author Alex Hutchinson argues that runners and cyclists are far more beholden to brain chemistry than they often acknowledge.10 For example, even elite athletes during serious competition have been shown to accelerate — not slow, as expected — toward the end of a race, suggesting they were subconsciously holding back until the effort was almost over.

Hutchinson cites the work of researchers like Romain Meeusen, a professor of human physiology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, who has shown that brain chemistry is involved in the regulation of fatigue during prolonged exercise — with the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine (mimicked by “classic” psychedelics and mescaline, respectively) both playing important roles.

“There’s no doubt that perception of effort is mediated by the brain, even though many of the inputs — temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels, and so on — are coming from elsewhere in the body,” Hutchinson wrote in an email. “And in endurance sports, if you can change perception of effort, you can change your performance. So the idea that psychedelics might boost performance isn’t totally outlandish.”

Meeusen’s team has tried — unsuccessfully, it seems — to improve physical performance during exercise through nutritional manipulation of neurotransmitter systems.13,14 But he hasn’t tested psychedelics yet, he acknowledged when contacted by Psychedelic Science Review.

Possible role of the Default Mode Network

There is a yet another potential mechanism more germane to psychedelics that could be involved, at least in theory. Extensive research has shown that activity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain is reduced after ingestion or injection of psychedelic drugs. The DMN, as we now know, is associated with introspective and self-reflective thought. Additionally, activity in the DMN is often inversely correlated with that of nearby networks geared toward task completion.

If the DMN is tamped down by a psychedelic during exercise, and task-oriented networks amplified, could the result be an athlete who is less likely to dwell on discomfort or self-doubt and more likely to be laser-focused on the job at hand — all while being energized or at least distracted by a heightened sensory experience?

In her 2019 book The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage, author Kelly McGonigal notes that studies have shown that exercise (particularly in green spaces like parks) can reduce activity in the DMN, just like psychedelics.

“If you focus on what is unique about green exercise, the class of drugs it most closely resembles is the entheogen, a category that includes psilocybin, ayahuasca, and LSD,” McGonigal writes in her book. “Like green exercise, these drugs alter consciousness by temporarily reorganizing the default state.” So perhaps there is some synergy in play.

Is it the Placebo Effect?

Or could all this be the result of the placebo effect — more cynically, an imaginary phenomenon — engendered by some people’s desire to perform better, or at least to feel better, after taking a small dose of a psychedelic? Even given all the potential mechanisms seemingly available to explain away claims on internet message boards, Hutchinson wouldn’t rule that out. At least until some treadmill tests have been run.

“There’s a difference between saying something is theoretically possible and showing something is actually true. And to make that jump requires more than anecdotes and subjective impressions,” he writes. “So to me, until proven otherwise, psychedelics are in the same category as all the supplements and wearable gadgets that I get press releases about: it’s an interesting idea, but nothing more until proven otherwise.”

Nate Seltenrich is a Bay Area-based independent science journalist covering a wide range of topics including psychedelic and cannabinoid science, environmental health, climate change, and more. His work has appeared in many international, national, regional, and local magazines, newspapers, and websites.

*From the article (including references) here :

Psychedelics and Endurance Sports: Increased Energy and Reduced Fatigue?

In recent years, accounts have surfaced of psychedelics offering increased energy and reduced fatigue during endurance sports like cycling and running.

psychedelicreview.com

 

[mr peabody]

Accessing Flow States: Interview with Sports Psychologist and psilocybin advocate Shane LeMaster

by Sean Lawlor | Psychedelic Times

Shane LeMaster is a Sports and Exercise Psychologist in Fort Collins, CO. With his clients, he focuses on “Human Performance Optimization,” helping them access their peak potential. Through his research in optimal performance, Shane has become well acquainted with the concept of flow, a state of being that elicits a sense of effortlessness in the face of formidable challenge.

On top of helping clients reach optimal performance states, Shane offers psychedelic integration therapy and speaks openly about his use of psychedelics to enhance performance. His knowledge of the psychedelic space has received recognition; on top of appearing on several psychedelic podcasts, Shane was recently appointed Vice President of Denver’s Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, the group responsible for navigating the implementation of the city’s successful decriminalization initiative. Drawing from a diverse body of work on flow state, including popular books such as Stealing Fire and The Rise of Superman, Shane generously offered his knowledge of the subject of flow, its connection to psychedelics, and his pointers on how to access states of optimal performance in daily life.

Thanks for making the time to talk, Shane. Can you explain how you became interested in flow states?

I got a Masters degree in Sport and Exercise psychology, and so that’s where I was first introduced to flow, and how athletes and elite performers reach flow states. Sports psychology helped me tap into the question of what it is about our human psyche that allows us to do that. Then I was exposed to textbooks on flow. The most prominent author on the subject is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I met him at a mindfulness conference once, and he and I had a fascinating conversation about the application of flow during surgery. It piqued my interest, and so most of my interest in sports psychology was about flow. I’ve applied it to my own athletics. I do Jiu-Jitsu professionally, and so I try to elicit flow states and incorporate them.

Could you describe your understanding of flow?

There’s a graph or curve commonly found in the literature that relates to what’s called “optimal zone of functioning.” If you’re not stimulated enough, you’re going to be bored, and the task is going to be easy. If you’re pushed too hard, it’s going to be over-stimulating and out of your reach, beyond your potential. Then there’s your day-to-day level of functioning. Optimal zone of functioning is a thin band that’s just out of your reach, though perhaps you could achieve this task if you have a little help or a little instruction. That’s usually the area where flow occurs. It’s when people push themselves just beyond what they think is possible for them.

But more than anything you can describe by graphs and statistics, it’s a feeling. Flow is this sense where your mind suddenly gets out of your way. We’re so analytical in this Western mindset. We like to use science and reductionism, and that gets in our way, especially when we’re trying to perform something and be in the moment. If you’ve done the task over and over again, you reach a level of proficiency where you can let thoughts go, and you’re in the moment, moving.

In those moments, when we’re in flow, we feel what I describe as superpowers. Increased balance. Hypersensitivity. Time seems to slow down. In Jiu-Jitsu for me, I feel like my opponents are moving slower, and I’m able to react much faster. You experience a runner’s high, a sense that you have all this energy and you could go forever.

So it’s an intense attunement to the direct experience.

That’s exactly what it is. Total focus. You can find flow in meditation. Moments when you’re just zoned in.

How do you understand psychedelics to be connected to flow states?

I find more flow states happen at lower doses than higher doses. Microdoses, or even just a little bigger. I’ve found flow states with psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and with cannabis.

You can find them with a variety of different substances and mindsets. I feel it’s more about the mindset than the chemical, but those certainly help. That’s where I think the tie is between them—psychedelics are really good at turning off that analytical mind and allowing you to function smoothly and efficiently in your present moment, more consistently over the day. In the past, when I’ve taken a microdose, I’ve been in the flow much longer during the day.

Would you liken that analytical mind to ego?

I think it’s a part of ego, or the other way around. I don’t think it’s necessarily the same. Analytical mind is the part of our mind that’s trying to make sense of the world based on what it already knows. Ego is certainly tied to that. But it doesn’t have to be.

Do you think that you can consciously move into a state of flow, or does it just happen?

That’s a widely-debated topic. I think most often, it just happens—and everybody’s experienced flow, they just might not recognize it as flow. Like I said, runners experience flow. Hanging out with family, you can experience flow. When you and your friends are laughing over a board game, that’s flow. There are no external thoughts judging the experience. You’re totally in the moment.

So it happens spontaneously for most people, but in my experience, it is a trainable thing. But the research and the verdict is still out. A lot of people have been trying to figure out what causes flow. Nobody can figure it out. We know different pieces of what contribute to flow, but we don’t know one thing that simply puts you in flow.

Like some stimulus/response thing.

Right. We know athletes and people who find themselves in this state frequently, through training regimens or whatever, can find greater comfort with that space and learn to cultivate it more often. If you experience flow on a daily basis because you’re an athlete, you’re more likely to be able to bring it up when you want it. Somebody who doesn’t experience much flow in their life is going to have a tougher time accessing it on command. But we all have the potential and capability to do it.

How do you cultivate it in your own practice?

Most of my flow cultivation happens in Jiu-Jitsu, mostly because it’s fertile ground. It’s like a training sanctuary for the mind, and I get to do it every day. For me, it’s been about doing what I love, having passion for it, and when I find myself spontaneously in flow states, reflecting on what happened before and how I might recreate it. It’s bringing the analytical mind into the experience after the flow is done and asking, “What was my day like before? Did I meditate? What was my mood and energy like?” Over time, I’ve developed certain routines, certain phrases I say to myself, that have conditioned my psyche to bring up those feelings I have associated with them.

And you find that replicating them from this analytical perspective works?

Not every time. But they certainly improve the amount of times I can get in flow. You see this with all sorts of athletes. They have superstitious routines they’ll do before they step up to the plate. These are little ceremonies, little rituals that set the space in our mind and set the container that we’re in physically to bring about a certain level of performance. That’s how we’re applying flow in this sense. It’s optimal performance. Your mind is out of the way, and you’re operating perfectly.

And the ritual’s repetition over time makes a habit of priming the mind? Like a mental muscle memory that comes through the ritual?

Exactly. So, right before I step on the mat for a tournament, I will feel the mat with my bare feet. I’ll bow, and in my head I’ll say, “Calm, cool, collected.” That’s my mantra. Each one of those terms has two pages worth of meaning behind them, but all I have to do is cue into the word, and my mind goes clear. I step on the mat, and I feel a surge of energy. It happens every single time. How long I can maintain that is a different question, depending on the situation.

There’s a paradox where as you become aware of it, it slips away.

Yeah. Well—

Or, if you think about it.

If you think about it.

You can be aware of it without analyzing it.

Yeah. I’ve been aware I’m in flow as it’s happening. But as soon as you start thinking about the flow state, you’re in a different part of your mind.

Do you use substances to help your training?

Oh yeah. I microdose quite frequently, and I smoke cannabis every single time I roll. That probably helps me get in the flow more often, because I don’t use psychedelics all the time. But quite frequently I’ll train with a microdose and it will vastly help.

Either LSD or mushrooms?

Yeah.

You’re talking a lot about performance and optimization. Is there psychological benefit to flow state other than increased performance?

That’s where it’s seen in most of the literature. But if I could talk neurochemically about the brain, as opposed to mind, flow states tend to synchronize brain function.The brain’s not functioning as hard as it usually is, which tends to de-stress the mind. When I’m in flow, or I just came out of flow, I never feel sad or depressed. It’s like I get a little taste of perfection. It’s very freeing.

It sounds empowering, but not in an egotistical way.

It pushes you to that new challenge level, that thin sliver right outside your comfort zone, and you reach a new personal best every time you get into flow. It feels like you level up, every time. No mental strain at all. I think that’s one of the benefits to either the mind or the brain—whether it’s one or both—the reduced mental effort you have to expend to do this awesome thing.

My most consistent experience with flow is with writing. Sitting there with the page, usually my mind’s spinning about what I should write, and then suddenly I realize I’ve written six pages. I’ve been aware I’m writing, but also not aware. Everything is already there, in this flow.

And time disappears, doesn’t it?

Absolutely. Consistently.

Yeah.

The last thing I’m curious about for this conversation is mystical experiences. Do you think flow and mystical experience are from the same pool, or are they different things?

That’s a good question. I suppose someone could characterize a mystical experience as the ultimate flow state, where you are completely one with everything. I guess that’s the ultimate goal, right? The ultimate flow state.

Egolessness. Total unity.

In every moment. But I think they’re almost cousins. They’re related, but not the same.

Do you work with athletes on flow specifically?

Yeah. I’ll help them identify past times when they were in flow and didn’t know it. Then we’ll recall what that was like, and how they felt. Then they’ll start paying more attention to their everyday life, recognize it more and more, and start to pick apart the conditions leading up to those moments. It’s just like my own analytical process, but I help someone else go through it. You have to be able to recognize the state before you can start to work with it.

I keep thinking about intention—approaching things with intention, instead of on automatic pilot, even something like washing a dish.

I’ve been in flow washing the dishes.

I believe it. It seems that the intention component is built into the ritual, priming the mind.

Absolutely. That’s the fundamental part of ritual, that it has intention.

I feel like I’ve titrated in and out of flow through this conversation.

For sure. Conversations are a great way to experience flow. When you’re really in it, and you’re not thinking about the next thing to say, you’re just listening—it’s that connection you feel. It’s fun to feel flow between two people, as opposed to experiencing it on your own.

I wonder though, because I don’t feel there’s a challenge here that I’m meeting. So is this flow, or something different?

I mean, you’re pushing yourself outside of your knowledge zone right now.

Good way of framing it. Thanks for your perspective. And I appreciate that you’re open about your use of substances. It’s not totally common, even amidst this renaissance.

Most of the time I try to talk about it as past experience and try not to be specific about times, places and people involved. But I think the more people come out and talk about their experiences—the benefits they’ve gotten, and the transformational healing that’s happened—the more things are going to shift. It’s not necessarily the book you read that might change your mind, but your next door neighbor who had a mushroom trip and expressed, “Holy shit. My lifelong depression is gone.” You’re going to hear that story and think, “Wow. This is real.”

More people need to come out and talk about their experiences, because that’s what is going to get the culture as a whole to shift. You were at Denver’s Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Panel. Half the table on the first day identified as having used mushrooms before. In a government building, we’re admitting this, across from the sheriff.

It’s scary to go to that edge and put yourself out there, because in the past, people have gone to jail for what we’ve said. But the only way we’re going to get through this Drug War wall is to be out and open and show them that we’re not crazy people. We’re smart. We’re educated. We want good things for good people.

Accessing Flow States: Interview with Sports Psychologist and Psilocybin Advocate Shane LeMaster - Psychedelic Times

Shane LeMaster speaks on the dynamic relationship between flow states and movement, awareness, concentration, and psychedelic states.

psychedelictimes.com

 

[mr peabody]

Mike Tyson says psychedelics saved his life, now he hopes they can change the world

REUTERS

During his reign as heavyweight champion of the world, no one was more feared than Mike Tyson, who obliterated opponents with ruthless efficiency.

But all the while, the troubled superstar was at war with himself, battling an abusive voice in his battered head that led “Iron Mike” to the brink of suicide.

He said that all changed when he began taking psilocybin mushrooms, more commonly known as “magic mushrooms,” and other similar consciousness-altering substances.

Now the boxing prodigy from Brooklyn is experiencing a career renaissance that he said is the result of psilocybin-powered mental and spiritual exploration.

“Everyone thought I was crazy, I bit this guy’s ear off,” an upbeat Tyson told Reuters, referring to his infamous 1997 fight against Evander Holyfield.

“I did all this stuff, and once I got introduced to the shrooms … my whole life changed.”

To be sure, many people have had negative experiences with psilocybin, which can cause disturbing hallucinations, anxiety and panic. Medical professionals studying them warn against self-medicating or using them outside of an approved medical framework.

But Tyson, who turns 55 next month, and impressed in his November exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr, said he has never felt better.

“It’s scary to even say that,” said Tyson, who is also a cannabis entrepreneur and podcast host.

“To think where I was – almost suicidal – to this now. Isn’t life a trip, man? It’s amazing medicine, and people don’t look at it from that perspective.”​

“I AM CURED”​

Humans have been ingesting psychedelics since the earliest days and as stigmas slowly dissolve, it is beginning to be taken seriously as a psychiatric medicine.

There is still much to learn.

Enter former NHL enforcer Daniel Carcillo, who was nicknamed “Car Bomb” for his violent approach to the sport.

After 164 fights, thousands of hits and at least seven concussions, the two-time Stanley Cup champion was forced to retire in 2015 due to repeated head trauma.

Like Tyson, he was at war with himself and struggling to connect with his wife and young children after his retirement at age 30.

He said psilocybin helped him bridge that gap and the experience led him to found Wesana Health, a first-of-its-kind company dedicated to studying its ability to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI) in athletes, veterans and others.

Wesana recently entered into a clinical research project with the World Boxing Council (WBC) to examine the potential of psilocybin to help boost the brain health of boxers, and Carcillo says he is proof that it works.

“I am cured, for sure, of TBI and any related symptoms. 100%,” Carcillo said.

“I do not suffer from slurred speech, headaches, head pressure, insomnia, impulse control issues, anxiety, depression or suicidal ideation,” he said.

“I do not suffer from any of that (anymore).”

Carcillo and his team are hopeful psilocybin will become an FDA-approved drug to treat TBI.​

OPEN TO THE WORLD​

Tyson said he wants to spread word of the benefits of psilocybin as widely as possible, which is why he has partnered with Wesana.

“I believe this is good for the world,” said Tyson, who said he thinks its use could also help create a more empathetic and just society.

“If you put 10 people in a room that don’t like each other and give them some psychedelics, they’ll be taking pictures with each other,” he said.

“Put 10 people in a room who don’t like each other and give them some liquor, and they’ll be shooting everybody. That’s real talk."

“Wesana was on the same level of thinking that I was. They wanted to share this with the world. This is very limited, us doing this in these small ceremonies."

“It needs to be open to the world.”

Mike Tyson says psychedelics saved his life, now he hopes they can change the world

LOS ANGELES - During his reign as heavyweight champion of the world, no one was more feared than Mike Tyson, who obliterated opponents with ruthless efficiency. But all the while, the

sports.inquirer.net

 

[mr peabody]

Athlete's guide to microdosing for performance*

by Maridel Reyes | EQUINOX | 28 May 2022

A growing number of people are taking small amounts LSD, cannabis, and mushrooms to increase athletic performance. Proponents of microdosing claim that taking tiny doses of these substances help them function better, in and out of the gym, without getting high.

"There’s no standard medical definition for microdosing, but it generally means taking 1/10th or 1/20th of a recreational dose. That amount is low enough where you don’t feel the psychoactive effects, so you can continue with your daily routine," says Justin Mager, MD, a San Francisco-based internist and a member of the Equinox Health Advisory Board.

But finding the right dose can be tricky. It’s easy to take too little or too much. That’s why it’s best to microdose under the guidance of a doctor, says Mager. “Safety is obviously a big issue. If you want to explore, work with someone who knows what they’re doing.”

That said, you’re probably curious about what substances people are microdosing and why. Here’s what the experts have to say:

The drug: Cannabis

Used for: Improving sleep and athletic performance

Expert take: THC is the psychoactive component in marijuana that produces the feeling of being high. It can help the body relax, promoting a more restful night of sleep, says Dara Huang, MD, a New York City-based nephrologist and medical cannabis care physician. For some patients who have trouble falling or staying asleep, she prescribes microdoses of cannabis before bedtime. It’s also toutedfor its performance-enhancing benefits in the gym (as well as its ability to reduce post-workout muscle soreness). How much you should microdose depends on the potency of the product and the method of delivery, such as a tincture, capsules, or vape pen, says Huang. “Different products have various peak times of effect and the half-life determines how long it will stay in your body,” she says. “It’s best to consult a medical cannabis physician to keep it from becoming a guessing game.”

The drug: Mushrooms

Used for: Boosting energy, focus, and empathy

Expert take: Many studies use a pharmaceutical-grade version of mushrooms’ active ingredient, psilocybin. Emotionally, it can make you more open and empathetic. Some athletes say that it may help you go into the zone, or a flow state, during exercise. Research also suggests that it can reduce depression, making it easier to go off antidepressants. “But mushrooms have variable amounts of active psilocybin, so their potency is variable,” says Mager, who does not prescribe this to his patients. The most common way people microdose is to grind mushrooms into a powder and take a tiny amount, put it in a capsule, or make a tincture.

The drug: LSD

Used for: Increasing energy, creativity, and a general sense of well-being

Expert take: There’s no scientific evidence on the physical benefits of LSD. But advocates claim that microdosing the psychedelic enhances their function, creativity, and energy. "If that’s the case, these benefits can translate into athletic performance," says Mager. Anecdotal examples date back to the ‘70s when Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis famously threw a no-hitter while high on acid. (It was the first and only no-hitter game of his career.) “He had his peak performance while on a psychedelic,” says Mager. And it’s not just the pros that could feel these effects: “People report peak capacity while on substances,” says Mager. Users usually microdose with around 10 micrograms (mcg) of LSD. They’ll cut a 100mcg paper into 10 strips, or dilute a drop of a 100mcg-per-drop liquid with nine drops of water. As with all unregulated drugs, Mager cautions that microdosing isn’t an exact science. “People should be careful.”

*From the article here:

ATHLETES GUIDE TO LSD DOSE TO BOOST PERFORMANCE - Furthermore

Why High Performers Are Taking Tiny Hits Of LSD, Mushrooms, And Cannabis. Here's What The Experts Have To Say.

furthermore.equinox.com

 

[mr peabody]

Psychedelic drugs to the rescue: Professional sports turn to psychedelics

Psychedelic Stock Watch | 10 Jun 2022​

• Psychedelic drug R&D is rapidly expanding into many of the largest medical treatment markets​
• Concussions (Traumatic Brain Injuries) are rapidly becoming a crisis in many professional sports​
• These two trends are now intersecting​

With the sudden explosion in media coverage of psychedelics, this is a message being received (and accepted) by growing numbers of people. The Mental Health Crisis: stress-related disorders like depression, addiction, anxiety and PTSD.

But mental health issues extend far beyond these stress-related conditions. Dementia is another healthcare crisis, in terms of both increasing numbers of sufferers and a lack of effective treatment options.

There is already advanced psychedelics research targeting this facet of mental health. In other words, psychedelics are also seen as the new hope with respect to cognitive function.

Psychedelic drug R&D moves into TBI research

Then there are head injuries, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), to use the correct medical terminology. These physical injuries can and do often lead to lasting mental health issues.

These mental health problems include both cognitive issues and “behavioral” issues – such as depression and anxiety.

Thus, it is not in any way surprising to see psychedelic drug R&D aggressively moving into TBI research. As Psychedelic Stock Watch observed in a previous article on TBI, six psychedelic drug companies have either already commenced or announced plans for TBI-based research.

It’s not just the efficacy of the drugs that is luring these companies to this research. This is a huge treatment market.

A market report from Data Bridge Research pegged the current size of this treatment market at ~$120 billion, expected to grow to $182 billion by 2027. This makes TBI research the largest individual treatment market targeted by psychedelic drug R&D.

A major part of the reason why this treatment market is growing so quickly is greater awareness and vigilance in diagnosing such head injuries. And this much more proactive attitude toward TBI in the healthcare industry can be traced back directly to professional sports.

The TBI crisis in professional sports

Once upon a time, professional sports largely laughed off a “knock on the head”.

When players were knocked “woozy” by some blow to the head, as soon as the cobwebs cleared and they were steady on their feet, they were cleared to resume playing – even if they continued to experience other symptoms.

Today, modern medicine now looks back on that attitude with horror.

Larger, stronger athletes and more ferocious contact between (in particular) male athletes has led to a dramatic rise in the incidence of TBIs – especially in the full-contact sports like boxing, football and hockey.

More athletes sustaining concussions. More athletes sustaining multiple concussions.

With the much greater frequency of TBIs, there has also been a huge surge in the number of athletes suffering from post-concussion syndrome. Finally and belatedly, the huge toll from these head injuries is being addressed by professional sports.

Enter psychedelic drugs.

Athletes find relief from TBI in psilocybin

The psychedelic drug “industry” is little more than a year old in terms of public companies. And most psychedelic drugs (like psilocybin) remain officially illegal.

As with people using psychedelic drugs to address other mental health issues, the athletes who have already obtained relief from psychedelic drugs have been self-medicating with these substances.

Mixed martial arts may be a relatively new entrant in the realm of sport, but it is (not surprisingly) already experiencing major problems from the debilitating effects of TBIs.

In an industry article for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a former champion and now coach stated that he knew several athletes who were using psilocybin therapeutically, and Muhammad Lawal acknowledged recently trying psilocybin himself.

Former athletes of both the National Football League and National Hockey League have also stepped forward to acknowledge using psilocybin to address their TBI symptoms.

One of these athletes is former NHL player Daniel Carcillo. He was diagnosed with a total of seven concussions over the course of his 12-year career.

Following his retirement, Carcillo spent five years seeking treatment for his own post-concussion symptoms. It was only when Carcillo turned to naturopathic remedies including both psilocybin and functional mushrooms that he obtained relief.

The end result was a clear brain scan, confirming the remission in symptoms that Carcillo was experiencing.

This has motivated Daniel Carcillo to first get involved in nonprofit work relating to mental health and then to become Founder of his own psychedelics company, Wesana Health – which just recently commenced public trading.

Wesana is one of the six companies already advancing its TBI research. Now Wesana (and Carcillo) are formally connecting with professional sports.

World Boxing Council signs new research agreement for psychedelics/TBI

On May 13th, the WBC entered into a multi-year research agreement with Wesana Health, to explore the potential of psychedelics (specifically psilocybin) to address TBI. This will include working with both former and current boxers on diagnosis and rehabilitation connected to TBI.

It’s good for boxing. It’s good for professional sports. And it’s likely just the first in such research partnerships.

Obviously, TBI is a major issue in fighting-based competition like boxing and the UFC. But it’s also reaching crisis proportions in the NFL and NHL.

During the 2017-2018 season alone, 291 NFL players suffered from concussions. In the NHL, a 2014 study showed an average of 64 concussions per season. Recent numbers would almost certainly be worse.

TBI is also an issue in the National Basketball Association, where an average of 17 concussions are reported per season. Even Major League Baseball – generally viewed as a non-contact sport – is seeing issues with concussions.

Having professional sports team up with psychedelic drug companies is also very positive for the psychedelic drug industry.

Professional sports and the athletes that populate them enjoy very high profiles and are among the most effective “influencers” in marketing. Their involvement and support for psychedelic drug R&D should create ripples everywhere from bringing in new investors to increasing political support for normalization of drug laws.

As noted, other companies (public and private) are also involved in psychedelics-based TBI research.

It’s hard to find a mainstream media outlet that hasn’t recently covered the rising excitement over the potential of psychedelic medicine.

It’s getting harder to find a major treatment market where there is not some psychedelics R&D either underway or in the planning stages.

For many professional athletes (and other sufferers of TBIs) this could be their own “miracle.”

Psychedelic Drugs To The Rescue: Professional Sports Turn To Psychedelics | Psychedelic Stock Watch

Traumatic Brain Injury is another major treatment market targeted by psychedelics R&D. TBIs are now a health crisis in ma...

psychedelicstockwatch.com

 

[Ikens]

good articles to read!
thanks!
would also suggest you to read some articles from psk which has similar to yours material.