specialspack
Bluelighter
I think the differences are not major, but are still very significant. For example, 2C-B and 2C-E are worlds apart, there is more different there than similar. It is very difficult for me to imagine that I could not tell them apart.
Now, if you double blind gave me some random psychedelic, and asked me if I could place it? Very unlikely. Could I tell the difference between LSD, mescaline and mushrooms, if I knew it was one of the three? 100% yes, for sure. An irrefutable example is DiPT, which, instead of visual hallucinations, produces extremely wild audio hallucinations, it causes an inner ear movement, it's physical as well as mental. Men's voices sound like frog robots, birds sound like wire tension snapping... it's otherworldly and bizarre. That is a variation on DMT that has drastically different effects. So is it just DiPT that's different and the rest are the same?
I think expectation is part of it, sure. But I've thoroughly explored these things and even if you couldn't tell the difference in a double blind, it doesn't mean there aren't differences. A trip is complex and can pretty much go anywhere. But when you start to notice a trend, when every time one of them is much easier on the body than the other, or one of them is always extremely immersive with music and another isn't... it begins to stretch the imagination that all of that is because I'm telling myself it will be that way. Just because they can all go to the same place doesn't mean they are all identical.
And why is it so hard to believe that differences in receptor activation from different psychedelics wouldn't account for differences in subjective effects? They've mapped out receptor affinities for just about everything now, there is a huge range of differences. The brain and consciousness is so complex, surely differences in receptor activation are likely to lead to differences in subjective effects? Even if minor (or major)?
Anyway hey man nice to see you post.![]()
I'm not saying that there's no difference in subjective effects that are due to different patterns in receptor action. In fact, I'd say there are definitely some differences due to different receptor activation - the question is, what % of the variance is due to those differences, and what % is due to expectation effects - and is it possible for the expectation effects to outweigh (or significantly attenuate) those differences?
Likewise, I feel very certain personally that I could tell the difference between 2C-B and 2C-E. But we know from the scientific literature that often people are very bad at estimating their abilities in lots of areas, and it's very easy to fool the brain under a large number of experimental conditions. And though I have a strong feeling that would have no problem telling 2C-B and 2C-E apart, I just don't totally trust my intuition...
Let's say that for an experienced user, under double-blind conditions, they could tell the difference between 2C-B and 2C-E around 95% of the time. I think that's a fair number, given that there's always some chance they'll get it wrong. Obviously you'd have to calibrate the doses to produce similar effects, and probably the single biggest giveaway would be the duration - so you'd have to be careful about when you asked the question!
Could you then, through experimental manipulation, reduce the %age... to 75%? To 60%? I don't see why not, but remain agnostic until someone actually does the experiment. And if that's possible experimentally, then it's definitely possible for it to happen to individuals "in the wild".
And thanks - it's nice to stick my head in to see what's going on from time to time!
This study just published: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-020-05464-5
Is it possible to have a psychedelic experience from a placebo alone? Most psychedelic studies find few effects in the placebo control group, yet these effects may have been obscured by the study design, setting, or analysis decisions....
There was considerable individual variation in the placebo effects; many participants reported no changes while others showed effects with magnitudes typically associated with moderate or high doses of psilocybin. In addition, the majority (61%) of participants verbally reported some effect of the drug. Several stated that they saw the paintings on the walls “move” or “reshape” themselves, others felt “heavy… as if gravity [had] a stronger hold”, and one had a “come down” before another “wave” hit her.
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