Thursday, February 9, 2012
Studies suggest that the psychedelic anesthetic ketamine may have potent antidepressant properties.
A number of recent studies have demonstrated the potent, quick-acting and long-lasting antidepressant effects of the dissociative anesthetic ketamine, a legal prescription drug that has been approved by the FDA as a surgical anesthetic. Ketamine is also popular as a recreational drug, due to its euphoric and psychedelic properties. New studies by Carlos Zarate, M.D. of the National Institute of Mental Health have shown that a single infusion of ketamine can relieve symptoms of severe, even suicidal, depression in some patients within a few hours, and that relief generally persists for several days. Four studies have now demonstrated ketamine’s powerful and enduring antidepressant effects. In one of the studies, subjects received the …
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Many people who suffer from autism have reported lasting improvements after taking MDMA or “ecstasy,” and clinical research into MDMA as a possible treatment for this perplexing medical disorder is now on the horizon.
Autism is a largely mysterious neurodevelopmental disorder that usually manifests in children before the age of 3 as delays in their ability to socially interact and communicate. There are actually several types of autism, which are referred to as “autism spectrum disorders.” All these disorders are characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills and social interactions, and by restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Autistic children usually appear to completely lack interest in other people and seem to have enormous difficulty learning basic social skills. Signs of the disorder are often apparent in the first few months of life, as many autistic children seem indifferent to other people, not …
Monday, December 5, 2011
Psychedelic-inspired visionary art is breaking through conventional barriers and establishing whole new trends in the art world.
Every creative person who has ever taken a psychedelic drug or plant yearns to express the experience. Among the many astonishing things that psychedelic substances do to the human nervous system, they have a most extraordinary effect on visual perception, the imagination, and the optical cortex of the brain. Visual art that is reminiscent of the kinds of perceptual changes that psychedelics bestow upon our view of the world, and the extraordinary visions that one sees with closed eyes during a psychedelic brain state--ever-morphing, intricately-detailed, brightly-colored, otherworldly, complex, geometrically organized, and imbued with personal meaning--is often referred to as “psychedelic” or “visionary” art. Psychedelic art is not …
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies will be celebrating 25 years of research and education, from December 8-12 in Oakland.
Everywhere I look, it seems, there are signs that the human species is becoming more and more comfortable with psychedelic mind states. While a lot of music and visionary art has long been influenced by psychedelics, and many artists and musicians have greatly valued the experience, the recently awakened acceptance of these forbidden fruits in respected cultural terrains, such as academia, medicine, and spirituality, is now, finally, seeping its way into the mainstream culture. A worldwide renaissance is presently underway, as medical studies with psychedelics are producing extraordinary results in treating a variety of mental illnesses. Positive articles about the potential benefits of psychedelic drugs have been featured in virtually …
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Ibogaine, a derivative of the African plant iboga, can offer enormous hope for people with severe drug addiction problems.
Psychedelic drugs and plants have a proud history of helping troubled people overcome alcohol and drug addictions. Some of the first LSD studies demonstrated that the powerful psychedelic drug had enormous efficacy in treating alcoholism, when administered in the proper environment. In fact, Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, even suggested an LSD journey as the 13th step in his well-known 12-Step program for alcoholism recovery. Addictive drug and alcohol use has also been shown to be diminished by ayahuasca and peyote ceremonies among indigenous peoples in the Amazon and Central America. In light of this understanding, it’s such a sad irony that psychedelic drugs and plants have been legally classified with dangerously …
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is being sued by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies for upholding a monopoly on research marijuana and for blocking medical marijuana studies.
The Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) will be taking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to federal court for upholding a monopoly on research marijuana, and for blocking valuable medical research into the benefits of the herb that could save many lives. On August 15, the DEA issued its final order, rejecting the 2007 recommendation from their own Administrative Law Judge, Mary Ellen Bittner, that it would be in the public interest to grant University of Massachusetts Professor Lyle Craker a license to grow marijuana for federally-regulated medical research. This misguided action by the DEA, which came after four long years of waiting, preserves an unconstitutional monopoly held by the …
Friday, August 19, 2011
Simon Posford from Shpongle talks with David Jay Brown about how his psychedelic experiences have positively influenced his music performance.
Arguably, not since The Grateful Dead, has a brand of popular music been so lovingly associated with psychedelics as the electronica music project known as Shpongle. Psychedelics have played a huge role in the creation, performance and experience of Shpongle’s music, which is extremely popular among members of the psychedelic community. Shpongle’s unique music style combines Eastern ethnic instruments, flute riffs and vocals, with contemporary Western synthesizer-based electronic music, hyperdimensional alien space acoustics and sound clips from television shows and spoken words. Synthetic rhythms and complexly layered melodies are combined with high tempo flute riffs and acoustic textures that are reminiscent of how the brain processes …
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Underground psychedelic psychotherapy vastly improved the final days of a remarkable young woman’s battle with colon cancer.
The pain involved in losing a child is arguably the most difficult experience that a human being can face, as it seems to go against the flow of nature. Although we all must face our own death eventually, being confronted with life’s impermanence at an early age can be far more difficult than at the end of a full life span, and watching helplessly as one’s child loses their embodied form is devastating beyond what words can express. This is why, out of love and compassion, we will all do almost anything to help ease the suffering of our children when they are dying--including giving them illegal drugs. The Santa Cruz Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)--which supports medical research into the therapeutic potential…
Friday, May 27, 2011
The final subject in the first clinical LSD study since 1972 just completed his last treatment.
The first clinical LSD study on the planet in more than 35 years is almost complete. The Santa Cruz Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is sponsoring this research, which began in 2008, when Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser, M.D., became the first medical researcher in the world to obtain government approval to do therapeutic research with LSD since 1972. Before 1972, nearly 700 studies with LSD and other psychedelic drugs were conducted. This research suggested that LSD has remarkable medical potential. LSD-assisted psychotherapy was shown to reduce the anxiety of terminal cancer patients, the drinking of alcoholics and the symptoms of many difficult-to-treat psychiatric illnesses. For example, early LSD studies …
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Santa Cruz Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies just received permission from the FDA to study the effects of cannabis on posttraumatic stress disorder.
Several months ago, I reported on how the Santa Cruz Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) was beginning the first experimental sessions in their second MDMA study on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an extremely difficult medical condition to treat, and it currently effects around 7.8 percent of Americans. It is caused by exposure to dangerous and highly stressful situations, which can result in lasting symptoms that include disturbing flashbacks, distressful emotions, panic attacks, and nightmares. On April 28th the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted MAPS' protocol design for their study of cannabis as a treatment for symptoms of PTSD in war veterans. This approval from the FDA …
frobert
7:53 am on Monday, February 20, 2012
You make this drug sound so harmless and innocent. Search "Ketamine abuse". Is this data fictitious? more ›