Category Archives: Psychedelics

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Psychedelics Being Tested For Use In Treating Various Conditions CBS Local PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Psychedelic drugs have been illegal for decades, but now some doctors and patients are exploring psychedelics as a therapeutic agent for a range of medical conditions and psychological traumas. Scientists say psychedelics are ...

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Psychedelics Being Tested For Use In Treating Various Conditions - CBS Local

SAN FRANCISCO In the 1950s and 60s, psychedelic drugs including LSD and MDMA were considered promising treatments for psychiatric conditions. But scientists involved in the U.S.-approved studies at the time said that as millions of young people experimented with the drugs, the federal government yanked permission to study psychedelics and imposed a ban on the substances.

Now,CBS San Francisco station KPIX reports that a new generation of doctors and patients is exploring psychedelics as a therapeutic agent for a range of medical conditions and psychological traumas, including cancer patients and military troops suffering from PTSD.

In Marin County, patients gathered recently to talk about their legal experiences with an otherwise illegal psychedelic drug.

I went into the first real session and it just blew me away, breast cancer patient Wendy Donner told KPIX.

In Berkeley, a former public defender and Cal Law professor turned best-selling author described her experience with a different psychedelic, also illegal.

I was very pleasantly surprised that all I felt was good! said Ayelet Waldman, who has written about her struggles with a mood disorder and severe depression.

Then, in a home in El Cerrito, the husband of a cancer patient recalled the experience of his late wife, who was part of a clinical trial authorized to use a different illegal psychedelic.

I just thought this is like a miracle, exclaimed Richard Vaughn.

After decades of disregard, scientists said once again psychedelics are showing great promise as a therapeutic tool.

It opens you up to yourself, said cancer patient Andy Gold.

With permission from the FDA, California researchers are studying psychedelics in patients with life-threatening conditions, such as cancer.

Patients with cancer, particularly advanced cancer, have significant levels of anxiety, depression, and demoralization, explained UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Charles Grob.

One such patient was Annie Levy, who stopped enjoying her life when her ovarian cancer came back and she realized how her lifespan would be shortened.

It just seemed like it was a nightmare, her husband Richard said.

Before she died, Annie enrolled in a pivotal pilot study at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

Along with 11 other patients, she used psilocybin, a psychedelic found in so-called magic mushrooms.

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The hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, the active ingredient in certain mushrooms, is being used to reduce anxiety and depression in cancer patients...

After a single dose, her anxiety and depression disappeared.

It was like someone had lit up a lightbulb in Annes head. She was a totally different person, Richard told KPIX.

No one had a bad trip, said Dr. Grob.

Grob headed up the UCLA study. The goal: to explore the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in patients with advanced-stage cancer and reactive anxiety.

The study was funded by the Heffter Research Institute of New Mexico. The Institute helps to design, review, and fund psilocybin research at prominent research institutions such as UCLA.

Grob, who is on the board of the Institute, said the study was very successful. It was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. All the patients were monitored before and during the treatment sessions. Each patient received a placebo and the active ingredient randomly assigned to be administered on different days.

Grob said that while the psilocybin wears off in a few hours, the benefit lasted for up to six months; a single dose of the drug led to sustained improvement in mood and outlook.

The positive effects seems to sustain over a significant period of time, explained Grob.

This pilot study has now led to two other clinical trials at NYU Langone Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University.

In total, 92 participants were involved: all demonstrated statistically significant improvements with enduring positive effects for months after the single psilocybin treatment sessions ended,CBS San Franciscoreports. Researchers at the Heffter Institute expect to start the final FDA Phase 3 study sometime in 2017.

In Marin, in a different trial, psychiatrist Dr. Phil Wolfson legally administered a moderate dose of a different psychedelic known as MDMA to a different group of patients.

Its not addictive and weve never had a freak-out, Wolfson said. Wolfson is the principal investigator of the trial thats funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS for short.

Use of MDMA, sometimes called ecstasy, was combined with psychotherapy sessions.

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The FDA has approved large-scale test trials of MDMA to help PTSD patients. CBSN's Jamie Yuccas has the latest on the controversial drug.

All of the patients who spoke to KPIX agreed: They experienced a profound benefit and emerged better able to cope.

With MDMA, everything opened up, said Wendy.

You start seeing things very, very clearly, said patient John Saul, whos been diagnosed with scleroderma.

It just gives you a view into yourself that I never had before, added another patient, Andy.

As to how psychedelics work, brain scans from healthy volunteers who took LSD may shed some light. The investigation was headed up by Dr. David Nutt, a British psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist, now at Imperial College London.

Each volunteer took a sugar pill, and at a later date, took a common dose of LSD. Researchers then looked at the effect in the brain, using a functional MRI.

The brain under the influence of the LSD lit up like a proverbial Christmas tree.

With the hallucinogen, scientists believe disparate regions of brain communicate with each other when they normally dont do so. Psychedelics may indeed free your mind.

Our psychological defenses often suppress material that is too painful, that we dont want to deal with, and psychedelics bring that to the surface, said Rick Doblin, the founder and Executive Director of MAPS, a nonprofit group based in Santa Cruz.

What were really trying to do is legitimize psychedelic therapy, said Doblin.

Doblin envisions a time when psychotherapists can legally access a toolbox full of psychedelics.

I think a lot of them will start out with MDMA, which is the most gentle of the psychedelics, and then it may move to more classic psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin or mescaline he said.

But some individuals arent waiting for the medical community they are experimenting by self-medicating, like writer Ayelet Waldman.

I thought if anyone in the world is going to have a bad trip, its going to be me. I mean I can have a bad trip in a Pilates class, joked Waldman.

Waldman has a mood disorder. She fell into a terrible depression. Her prescription medication stopped working.

Out of desperation, for one month only, she took tiny micro doses of LSD.

Its possible that I experienced the mother of all placebo effects, she observed, but I had a very good month.

Waldman wrote about her experiences in a new memoir entitled A Really Good Day.

Now she wants scientists to seriously study microdosing for mood disorders.

Until we have more research, double-blind studies, using clinically evaluated LSD, were not going to understand this drug, explained Waldman.

Fifty years ago, Timothy Leary advocated the use of psychedelics and told folks to turn on, tune in and drop out. But now growing evidence is suggesting that under a doctors supervision, rather than dropping out, the drugs may help you get better.

The FDA just approved the Phase 3 trial for MDMA. MAPS officials hope the drug will be approved as a prescription medication for therapy by 2021. Researchers will begin screening applicants later this year for this last-stage trial.

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Psychedelic drug therapy including magic mushrooms, LSD and ... - CBS News

IT is perhaps the one thing every fitness and bodybuilding fanatic fears most; the disintegration of the man in the mirror once training and steroids stop.

Today, the gym world is huge. Muscles are being built to boost the missing chromosome of self-esteem and performance-enhancing drugs are so accessible that it is as simple as ordering a CD from Amazon.

But at BAFTA in Piccadilly on Thursday night, one man emerged from the shadows again to confirm that he is perhaps the most unique former bodybuilder ever.

I never had that worry [about losing my physique], said former six-time Mr Olympia Dorian Yates at the world premiere of the London Real documentary Dorian Yates: Inside the Shadow.

He was asked by a member of the audience about body dismorphia. How the threat of spiralling into depression when the god-like feeling of super-human strength and a physique to match gradually disappears before your eyes.

Maybe Im unusual. I was removed. Like I was working on this statue, that I was working on this product and the way to build the product was through self-discipline and mastery over yourself and over your instincts.

Dorian Yates

I never started bodybuilding because I thought Im not big enough, Im not strong enough. If you look back at my earliest photos, they would probably do well in a fitness contest now, so I probably came from a different point of view.

A lot of people, especially the young guys, ask me, When you look back at those photos, dont you feel like man I wish I looked like that now? Not at all, that doesnt apply to what I am doing now. I need a functional body that can cycle up hills. Before, I could lift 600lbs in squats and all incredible stuff in the gym but if I walked a couple of miles Id probably get out of breath. So its just not practical for me now, thats the way I look at it.

As long as Im in good physical shape, thats a passion for me, to be physically fit. Thats the main thing now, the look is secondary. But I think I look OK, not too bad for a 55 year old.

But if you start training and building your body because you feel inadequate or not confident then your whole confidence is tied up with having that physique then of course its very hard to let go of it because you feel now Im bigger and stronger and people respect me more and I feel more confident and people dont want to give that up.

I mentioned that with the whole steroid thing; once you get on the merry-go-round, if your self-esteem is tied up with having big muscles youre not going to want to let go of that.

Inside the Shadows

The documentary followed Yates rise to 260-pound, three-per-cent-bodyfat behemoth, to his clinical depression, use of psychedelics and cannabis where he wiped out the crew of London Real, who spent three hours lying on a Marbella beach after two puffs of one of his joints meditation and yoga. That the once-titan-like Yates fell over after failing to hold his balance on his first attempt at holding a yoga pose will be an image the gym world will find hard to illustrate.

I thought theyd been working hard and deserved a break, said Yates of the London Real crew he shared cannabis with having spent a few days in Spain filming the documentary. I didnt exactly hold them down. They did it [smoked] voluntarily.

It was the last day and I said if you want to smoke then no more than two puffs each. Then I said lets all go and have a nice dinner together and we can all relax. So me and my wife and my friend were in the restaurant and we were like, wheres Brian [Rose, front man for London Real], wheres the crew? Im trying to call Brian, Im trying to Whatsapp him and Im getting nothing. And Gal [Yates wife] said to me, dont you realise whats happened? I was like, what? You just fxxxxd them all up. No surely not, they had two puffs, come on. But apparently they were lying on the beach for two hours.

This movie was not just bodybuilding. Far from it. It was the transformation of a man who had been at the top of his game before his body gave out.

Inside the Shadow

Im not telling people they should do what I do, said Yates. They should absolutely follow their own path. I dont have ambitions to be a movie star or multi-millionaire. My challenges are more spiritual; to try and understand and develop that side of myself and to help other people. Thats what its all about, thats why I did the interview with Brian and thats why I did the movie.

Im not making any money, Im not being paid. Im not doing it to become a teacher or a guru but hopefully give that tip, a little hope to people and wake up that thing thats inside all of us. That little spark, that little light. Its inside of everybody. In some people its very faint and thats all Im trying to do.

So we will see what people think of this film. If they want to hear more we will do more if they dont want to hear anything I will go back to my shadow.

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Dorian Yates reveals all on steroids, body dysmorphia, psychedelics, cannabis and yoga - Express.co.uk

Abstract

Psychedelics (serotonergic hallucinogens) are powerful psychoactive substances that alter perception and mood and affect numerous cognitive processes. They are generally considered physiologically safe and do not lead to dependence or addiction. Their origin predates written history, and they were employed by early cultures in many sociocultural and ritual contexts. After the virtually contemporaneous discovery of (5R,8R)-(+)-lysergic acid-N,N-diethylamide (LSD)-25 and the identification of serotonin in the brain, early research focused intensively on the possibility that LSD and other psychedelics had a serotonergic basis for their action. Today there is a consensus that psychedelics are agonists or partial agonists at brain serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptors, with particular importance on those expressed on apical dendrites of neocortical pyramidal cells in layer V. Several useful rodent models have been developed over the years to help unravel the neurochemical correlates of serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor activation in the brain, and a variety of imaging techniques have been employed to identify key brain areas that are directly affected by psychedelics. Recent and exciting developments in the field have occurred in clinical research, where several double-blind placebo-controlled phase 2 studies of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in patients with cancer-related psychosocial distress have demonstrated unprecedented positive relief of anxiety and depression. Two small pilot studies of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy also have shown positive benefit in treating both alcohol and nicotine addiction. Recently, blood oxygen leveldependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography have been employed for in vivo brain imaging in humans after administration of a psychedelic, and results indicate that intravenously administered psilocybin and LSD produce decreases in oscillatory power in areas of the brains default mode network.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse [Grant R01DA-02189] and the Robert C. and Charlotte P. Anderson endowment.

dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.115.011478.

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Psychedelics | Pharmacological Reviews

THC is the crystalline substance that forms on the outside of the marijuana plant. It is the substance in marijuana responsible for its euphoric effects.

THC is known scientifically as tetrahydrocannabinol and it is the active chemical found in marijuana. THC is the most widely abused drug in the United States and continues to be controversial in both cases of personal consumption and in cases of being appropriate for certain medical uses.

THC comes from the marijuana plant also known as cannabis sativa. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC is the active ingredient in the marijuana plant and the primary ingredient responsible for producing the euphoric effects of the drug.

THC resembles a crystaline that forms on the outside of the buds of the marijuana plant. Some people believe that THC can be used for medical purposes while others believe that there are no known medical uses that are considered safe. Regardless, THC is found in all variations of marijuana though medical marijuana often contains lower or higher levels of THC depending on the preference of the user and why it is being used.

The effects of THC vary from one user to the next but generally include sedation and relaxation. As the THC enters the bloodstream the user will feel the effects of the drug which can last up to 3 hours following the initial onset of effects. If marijuana is not smoked but is rather ingested, the user will feel the effects of THC about thirty minutes after it is consumed and the effects will generally last about 4 hours.

THC causes the dopamine release that takes place in the body to occur more quickly which can lead to heightened euphoria. Many users experience heightened awareness and sensitivity to sound, light and color. Perception of time is normally reduced and the user will feel as if time is taking longer to pass.

Smoking THC will lead to increased thirst and feelings of dehydration. The user will have dry mouth and may experience intense hunger while under the influence of THC. Many people experience heightened anxiety and even panic when under the influence of THC.

Using THC or marijuana can lead to an array of complications for the user. If the drug is regularly smoked, complications include damage to the lungs, susceptibility to infection, lung cancer and other serious side effects. Ingesting THC will not lead to respiratory problems but can still have implications in terms of increasing fear and anxiety, increasing risk of depression and altering appetite.

Sustained marijuana use, even in low doses, will cause the user to feel a lack of coordination and a lack of concentration. Over time, people who abuse marijuana are more likely to experience memory loss, coordination loss and additional problems related to impaired short term memory. Studies have proven that marijuana causes difficulty and impairment for students that can last for up to a full month after the drug is used, in some cases the aftermath will continue for many months after the last use of the drug.

Increased risk of psychosis and schizophrenia has been reported with chronic marijuana use. THC use can cause adverse problems in work, home and school. Social effects include isolation and may lead to depression. Heavy marijuana users suffer great damage to their social status and may require long term counseling in order to fully turn their lives around post marijuana addiction.

Is THC addictive? Yes!

Marijuana is an addictive substance that will lead to erratic drug-seeking behavior and a series of withdrawal symptoms when the user tries to quit. Although the symptoms of marijuana withdrawal are not dangerous or potentially deadly for the user, there are a number of risks associated with marijuana addiction.

Becoming addicted to THC will likely cause problems in the users relationship and may lead to financial implications that make quitting even more difficult. People who regularly smoke pot are likely to suffer an array of consequences including health problems, emotional problems, family and relationship problems, legal trouble, social isolation and individual isolation as a result of their addiction to THC.

The best way to prevent addiction to THC is to not smoke pot. With all of the controversy that is taking place about marijuana and the intended medical uses of the drug, its easy to fall into a mindset in which it would seem like smoking pot is ok to some degree but this can lead to physical and psychological dependence which will result in an array of consequences for the user.

Treatment is often required when a user becomes addicted to THC. Counseling and therapy are the most effective means of treatment but medication may be necessary if dopamine levels have been depleted to a point in which they cannot be restoredthis is yet another reason to avoid smoking pot.

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THC - Psychedelics

Psychedelics and Psychosis: Any links?

No Link Found between Psychedelics and Psychosis?

A large U.S. survey found that users of LSD and similar drugs were no more likely to have mental-health conditions than other respondents

Of those, 14% described themselves as having used at any point in their lives any of the three classic psychedelics: LSD, psilocybin (the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms) and mescaline (found in the peyote and San Pedro cacti).

The researchers found that individuals in this group were not at increased risk of developing 11 indicators of mental-health problems such as schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, anxiety disorders and suicide attempts.

Their paper appears in the March issue of theJournal of Psychopharmacology.

The findings are likely to raise eyebrows.

Fears that psychedelics can lead to psychosis date to the 1960s, with widespread reports of acid casualties in the mainstream news. But Krebs says that because psychotic disorders are relatively prevalent, affecting about one in 50 people, correlations can often be mistaken for causations.

Psychedelics are psychologically intense, and many people will blame anything that happens for the rest of their lives on a psychedelic experience.

The three substances Johansen and Krebs looked at all act through the brains serotonin 2A receptor.

The authors did not include ketamine, PCP, MDMA, fly agaric mushrooms, DMT or other drugs that fall broadly into the category of hallucinogens, because they act on other receptors and have different modes of biochemical action.

Ketamine and PCP, for example, act on the NMDA receptor and are both known to be addictive and to cause severe physical harms, such as damage to the bladder.

Absolutely, people can become addicted to drugs like ketamine or PCP, and the effects can be very destructive. We restricted our study to the classic psychedelics to clarify the findings, says Johansen.

The acid casualty myth This study assures us that there were not widespread acid casualties in the 1960s, says Charles Grob, a paediatric psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has long has advocated the therapeutic use of psychedelics, such as administering psilocybin to treat anxiety in terminal-stage cancer. But he has concerns about Krebs and Johansens overall conclusions, he says, because individual cases of adverse effects use can and do occur.

For example, people may develop hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), a trip that never seems to end, involving incessant distortions in the visual field, shimmering lights and coloured dots. Ive seen a number of people with these symptoms following a psychedelic experience, and it can be a very serious condition, says Grob.

Krebs and Johansen, however, point to studies that have found symptoms of HPPD in people who have never used psychedelics.

The second of the new two studies, also published in theJournal of Psychopharmacology, looked at 190,000 NSDUH respondents from 2008 to 2012.

It also found that the classic psychedelics were not associated with adverse mental-health outcomes. In addition, it found that people who had used LSD and psilocybin had lower lifetime rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts.

We are not claiming that no individuals have ever been harmed by psychedelics, says author Matthew Johnson, an associate professor in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Anecdotes about acid casualties can be very powerfulbut these instances are rare, he says.

At the population level, he says, the data suggest that the harms of psychedelics have been overstated.

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on March 4, 2015.

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Psychedelics | Adonis Diaries

The effects below describe the common physical, mental and emotional effects which comprise the psychedelic experience.

This information has been compiled from two sources: the decades of observation and study by psychiatrists in a clinical setting before LSD and other psychedelics were outlawed in the late 1960s; and books and anecdotal trip reports written by users. See here for a list of sources.

The most important thing to realize is that no two trips are the same. The intensity and effects of a drug like LSD vary dramatically from person to person. If different people take the same amount in the same circumstances, each will have a distinctly different experience. If the same person takes LSD repeatedly, each experience is usually completely different in its flavor and content. (1)

The nature of the psychedelic experience is strongly determined by set and setting. Set is your mindset (how you're feeling, issues in your life, your psychological makeup) when taking the drug; setting is where you are - that includes who you're with and how relaxed you feel. Dosage and previous experience with the drug are also important factors.

Basically, if you take LSD, you will experience some or none of the effects on the following scale:

how you feel before taking a drug

Very mild effect. Relaxation. Giggling. Like being stoned but with enhanced visual perception: colors may seem brighter, patterns recognition enhanced, colors and details more eye-grabbing.

Physically, a feeling of lightness and euphoria, and a slight tingling in the body. Energy. A sense of urgency. Music sounds better.

top

Stronger visual hallucinations. Radiant colors. Objects and surfaces appear to ripple or breathe. Colored patterns behind the eyes are vivid, more active. Moments of reflection and distractive thought patterns. Thoughts and thinking become enhanced. Creative urges. Euphoria. Connection with others, empathy. Ability to talk or interact with others however slightly impaired. Sense of time distorted or lost. Sexual arousal. "Flight of ideas" and "ambitious designs". You're tripping.

Very obvious visual effects. Curved or warped patterns. Familiar objects appear strange as surface details distract the eye. Imagination and 'mind's eye' images vivid, three dimensional. Geometric patterns behind closed eyes. Some confusion of the senses.

Distortion rather than deterioration of mental processes. Some awareness of background brain functioning: such as balance systems or auditory visual perception. Deep store memory becomes accessible. Images or experiences may rise to the fore. Music is powerful and can affect mood. Sense of time lost. Occasional trance states. Paranoia and distortions of body image possible.

Physical symptoms may include: stiffness, cramp, and muscular tension. Nausea, fever, feeling of illness. You're loaded.

top

Lying down. Difficult to interact with other people and 'consensus reality' in general. You should really be somewhere safe.

Very strong hallucinations such as objects morphing into other objects. Tracers, lingering after-images, and visual echoes.

Intense depersonalization. Category enscramblement. The barriers between you and the universe begin to break down. Connection with everything around you. Experiencing contradictory feelings simultaneously. Some loss of reality. Time meaningless. Senses blend into one. Sensations of being born. Multiple splitting of the ego. Powerful awareness of mental processes and senses. Lengthy trances often featuring highly symbolic, often mythical visions when eyes are closed. Powerful, and sometimes brutal psycho-physical reactions described by users as reliving their own birth. Direct experience of group or collective consciousness, ancestral memories, recall of past-lives, and other mystical experiences. Ecstasy.

Music extremely powerful, perhaps overwhelming. Emotionally sensitivity increased (often massively). Crying or laughing, or both simultaneously.

Tremors, twitches, twisting movements, sweating, chills, hot flushes - all common. You're essentially out of it.

A very rare experience. Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. Total loss of self. Transcendental experiences of cosmic unity, merging with space, other objects, or the universe. Out of body experience. Ecstasy. "Entity contact". The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation. Pure white light. Difficult to put into words.

- The Varieties Of Psychedelic Experience, Robert Masters Ph.D & Jean Houston Ph.D (Park Street Press, 2000)

- Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25). A clinical-psychological study. Savage C Amer. J. Psychiat., 1952; 108:896

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LSD - Psychedelic Effects - The Good Drugs Guide

As a Shamanic Practitioner Im often asked to recommend substances that get you high (which is slang for enteringnon-ordinary states of consciousness)legally.

While I encourage people to carefully and mindfully explore the recesses of their minds, unfortunately there are many websites out there that advocate the use of legal psychedelics such as nutmeg, datura and morning glory seeds which all have dangerous side effects and even deadly consequences.

Its this type of misguidance that has lead to so many bad experiences, accidents and such a negative outlook on psychedelicdrugsin society, as though all mind-altering substances are one-and-the-same. Weve come to group paint thinner in the same basket as Ayahuasca but just because something can alter your consciousness doesnt mean it shares the same spiritual value.

However, there is a group of entheogens known as Oneirogens (from the Greek oneiros meaning dream and genmeaning creating), which produce and also enhance dream-like states of consciousness. These herbs and roots have been used for thousands of years for prophetic divination through dreams, out-of-body experiences, and to consciously awaken you during dream states (Lucid Dreaming).

Oneirogens represent only one specific class of entheogens that can be exclusively used for lucid dreaming, but there are many other types and classes of entheogens that can be used for other specific life purposes. I will expand on these other substances in future articles.

The following legal psychedelics can be safely consumed having minimal effect on waking consciousness, and will only exhibit their effects when you fall into a natural state of sleep.

Calea is perhaps the best known of all Dream herbs. The Chontal Indians of Mexico used this shrub traditionally for lucid dreaming. I personally prefer growing mine as the fresher the herb is, the better. Calea can be consumed in tea (the flavor is pungent and bitter) or by smoking the dried leaves. A combination of smoking and drinking an infusion of the herb before bed, setting intention and focusing on ones heartbeat creates the ideal conditions for dream-time spiritual journeying.

Effects: Apart from the intensification of visual imagery during sleep, you may find yourself feeling a sense of well-being, light-headedness and clarity the day after.

Use:Taking at least five grams of this herb is required to be really effective for most people. Drink the herb before bed, keep an intent in mind before falling asleep (e.g. I want to meet my Spirit Guide) and repeat for several nights until lucid dreaming occurs.

Buy: You can buy a nice organic mix to try that includes Calea, click here to check it out.

Mugwort has long been used by many cultures for prophetic dreaming and astral traveling (its Paiute name translates literally to Dream Plant). Smoking the herb directly into the lungs, or burning it as incense in the afternoon, assists with lucid dreaming. Drinking the calming, liver cleansing tea before sleep may also keep you longer in a conscious dream state (REM sleep). This herb often helps one heal while dreaming. Some users report having darker dreams that reveal hidden insights and core wounds, helping them to find closure.

Caution: Avoid this herb if you are pregnant. Mugwort relaxes the uterus in women and should never be drunk, smoked or even touched by expectant mothers. Mugwort is also potentially allergenic to people sensitive to plants in the Asteraceae (daisy) family.

Effects: Apart from the intensification of prophetic visual imagery during sleep, this herb magnifies the brilliance of your dreams and overall duration of your sleep. It is also popular among herbalists to aid in relieving menstrual pains, joint pains and headaches.

Use: 1 teaspoon per cup. Pour boiling water over the herb, cover, and steep for 10 minutes. Drink or smoke before going to bed (Mugwort has a floral taste when smoked).

Buy: You can buy either the organic bleach-free Mugwort teabags, or the pure Mugwort essential oil which does wonders.

This plant was called Sinicuichi (or Sun Opener) by the Aztecs and is still used by Mexican shamans as a trance divination catalyst. This herb is regarded as sacred in that it enables vivid recollection of past distant events. Some users I have worked with have even reported the remembrance of pre-birth events!

Effects: Apart from the intensification of prophetic visual imagery during sleep, Sun Opener causes a yellowing of the vision and altered acoustic perception.

Use:Traditionally, fresh leaves are collected and allowed to wilt. The leaves are then put into a cup or jar, cool water is added, and the mixture is placed in the sun to brew and ferment for at least 24 hours. It is said that during the fermentation process, the knowledge of the sun is embedded into the potion, creating the elixir of the sun (hence the name).

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Buy: You can buy Sun Opener in Raw Dried Herb form, or in a liquid extract.

Celastrus paniculatus is a shrub used in Ayurvedic medicine in India. Celastrus seeds and oil have long been regarded in India as beneficial to the intellect and memory which makes it a wonderful supplement in dream recollection. Apart from its effectiveness as a dream enhancer, Celastrus is a great mental stimulant, ornootropic, that increasesyour mental sharpness.

Effects: Apart from the intensification of visual imagery during sleep, Celastrus is an effective brain tonic.

Use: Take 5-10 seeds one hour before bedtime for 3 to 5 days until vivid dreaming occurs.

Silene is regarded by the Xhosa people of Africa as a sacred plant. Its roots are traditionally used by shamans to promote lucid dream states in healers and other shamans during initiation ceremonies. It is noted as a teaching plant that is considered highly sacred.

Effects: Intensification of visual imagery during sleep.

Use: Mix this herb in small amounts in water and consume prior to sleeping. Silene also makes an interesting tasting tea but it can be bitter, so the extracted shot form is recommended.

Although it is nicknamed the Blue Egyptian Lotus, the Nymphaea Caerulea herb is actually a Water Lilly thatshares no connection to the actual lotus flower. Nymphaea was used as a sacrament in ancient Egypt as a mild sedative. Today, the herb is used by herbalists to treat insomnia, but it has also been reported to induce lucid dreaming.

Effects: Improves quality of sleep and may intensify visual imagery.

Use:This herb is typically consumed in teas, elixir extracts, or by smoking it. If you have trouble dreaming or if you find yourself frequently waking up during dreams, blue lotus is a great supplement to use alongside one of the other substances mentioned in this article.

Buy: Ive heard good results from this Sacred Lotus extract, but I havent tried it myself. Pure Blue Lotus extract is another alternative if you can afford it.

Tian Men Dong is one of the worlds top adaptogens and is also know as the Wild Asparagus Root in English, and Shatawari in Ayurvedic medicine. The Chinese word for wild asparagus root is Tian Men Dong, or heavenly spirit herb, as it was cherished by shamans, monks, and yogis for its heart-opening effects. Chinese Taoist monks placed much value on dream work, nicknaming Wild Aspagarus as The Flying Herb; they found it effective to help one fly through the universe at night, achieving magnificent dreams and moving in alignment with the spirit.

Effects: Improves quality of sleep, induces relaxation and stress relief, serves as a good anti-depressant and stimulates flying dreams.

Use: 1 to 3 grams per day in a concentrated form.

Buy: Asparagus Racemosus is also known as Shatavari, you can get organic Shatavari Powder as well as organic Shatavari capsules.

Traditionally used in African medicine to induce vivid dreams and enable communication with the spirit world, Entada facilitates entry into the dream world, and promotes increased REM awareness.This makes iteasier for the sleeper to realize that they are dreaming and thus gives them an edge in achieving lucidity. Entada contains several active compounds, essential oils and alkaloids.

Effects: Improves sleeping states by increasing depth, length and awareness.

Use: The inner meat of the seed is consumed directly, or the meat is chopped, dried, mixed with other herbs and smoked just before sleep to induce the desired dreams.

If you plan on smoking any of the plants listed in this article, I would highly encourage you to use a vaporizer for your own health. The right herb grinder can also do wonders in making the process easier.

I always recommend that you research very well any substance that you plan to consume and preferably grow them yourself. Keep in mind that the type, quality, age, storage and care of these herbs are all factors that will influence your experience with them.

Not only that, but the set, substance, setting and right dosage, along with creating a strong enough intention are all essential elements that must be carefully considered before exploring the depths of your mind. I plan to explore this topic more in future articles.

Have you ever tried any of the legal psychedelics above, and if so, what has been your experience with them? Let me know in the comments below.

Read the rest here:

8 Mystical Herbs and Legal Psychedelics For Lucid Dreaming

by Amber Lyon

on May 28, 2014

Amber Lyon is an Emmy Award-winning former CNN investigative news correspondent.

I invite you to take a step back and clear your mind of decades of falsepropaganda. Governments worldwide lied to us about the medicinal benefits of marijuana. The public has also been misled about psychedelics.

These non-addictive substances- MDMA, ayahuasca, ibogaine, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and many more- are proven to rapidly and effectively help people heal from trauma, PTSD, anxiety, addiction and depression.

Psychedelicssaved my life.

I was drawn to journalism at a young age by the desire to provide a voice for the little guy. For nearly a decade working as a CNN investigative correspondent and independent journalist, I became a mouthpiece for the oppressed, victimized and marginalized. My path of submersion journalism brought me closest to the plight of my sources, by living the story to get a true understanding of what was happening.

Speaking ata press conference in Lebanon onthehuman rights abuses Iwitnessed while reporting in Bahrain.

After several years of reporting, I realized an unfortunate consequence of my style- I had immersed myself too deeply in the trauma and suffering of the people Id interviewed. I began to have trouble sleeping as their faces appeared in my darkest dreams. I spent too long absorbed in a world of despair and my inability to deflect it allowed the trauma of others to settle inside my mind and being. Combine that with several violent experienceswhile working in the field and I was at my worst. A life reporting on the edge had led me to the brinkof my own sanity.

Because I could not find a way to process my anguish, it grew into a monster, manifesting itself into a constant state of anxiety, short-term memory loss, sleeplessness, and hyper arousal. The heart palpitations made me feel like I was knocking on deaths door.

While at CNN, Iinvestigated human rights and environmental issues.

Prescription medications and antidepressants serve a purpose, butI knew they were not on mypath tohealing after my investigations exposed their sinister side effectsincluding infants being born dependent on the medicinesafter their mothers couldnt kick their addictions. Masking the symptoms of a deeper condition with a pill felt like putting a Band-Aid on bullet wound.

I was made aware of the potential healing powers of psychedelics as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in October 2012. Joe told me psychedelicmushrooms transformed his life and had the potential to changethe course of humanity for the better. My initial reaction was one of amusement and somewhat disbelief, but the seed was planted.

Psychedelics were an odd choice for someone like me. I grew up in the Midwest and was fed 30 years of propaganda explaining how horrible these substances were for my health. You can imagine my jaw-dropping surprise when, after the Rogan podcast, I found articles on the prodigious effects of these substances that behave more like medicines than drugs. Articles like this one, this, this , this, and this. And studies such as this, this, this,this, this and this all gut-wrenching examples of how weve been misled by authorities who classify psychedelics as schedule 1 narcoticsthat have no medicinal value despite dozens of scientific studies proving otherwise.

Having only ever smoked the odd marijuana joint in college, in March 2013 I found myself boarding a plane to Iquitos, Peru to try one of the most powerful psychedelics on earth. I ditched my car at the airport, hastily packed my belongings in a backpack and headed down to the Amazon jungle placing my blind faith in a substance that a week ago I could hardly pronounce: ayahuasca.

Theayahuasca brew is prepared by combining chacruna leaves, that contain the powerful psychedelic DMT, with the ayahuasca vine.

Ayahuasca is a medicinal tea that contains the psychedeliccompound dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. The brewis rapidly spreading around the world after numerous anecdotes have shownthe brew has the power to cureanxiety, PTSD, depression, unexplained pain, and numerous physical and mental health ailments. Studies of long-term ayahuasca drinkersshow they are less likely to face addictions and have elevated levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitterresponsible for happiness.

If I had any reservations, doubts, or disbeliefs, they were quickly expelled shortly after my first ayahuasca experience. The foul-tasting tea vibrated throughmy veins and into my brainas the medicine scanned my body. My field of vision becameengulfed with fiercecolors and geometric patterns. Almost instantly, I saw a vision of a brick wall. The word anxiety was spray painted in large letters on the wall. You must heal your anxiety, the medicine whispered. I entereda dream-like state where traumatic memories were finally dislodged from my subconscious.

It was as if I was viewing a film ofmy entire life, not as the emotional me, but as an objective observer. The vividlyintrospective movie played in my mind asI relived my most painful scenes- my parents divorce when I was just 4 years-old, past relationships, being shot at by policewhile photographing a protest in Anaheim and crushed underneath a crowd while photographing a protest in Chicago. The ayahuasca enabled me to reprocess these events, detaching the fear and emotion from the memories. Theexperience was akin to ten years of therapy in one eight-hour ayahuasca session.

But theexperience, and many psychedelic experiences for that matter, was terrifying at times. Ayahuasca is not for everyone- you have to be willing to revisit some very dark places and surrender to the uncontrollable, fierceflow of the medicine. Ayahuascaalso causesviolent vomiting and diarrhea, which shamans call getting well because youare purging trauma from your body.

After seven ayahuasca sessions in the jungles of Peru, the fog that engulfed my mind lifted. I was able to sleep again and noticedimprovements in my memory and less anxiety. I yearned to absorb as much knowledge as possible about these medicines and spent the next year travelling the world in search of more healers, teachers and experiences through submersion journalism.

I was drawn totry psilocybin mushrooms after reading how they reduced anxiety in terminal cancer patients. The ayahuasca showed me my main ailmentwas anxiety, and I knew I still had work to do to fix it. Psilocybinmushroomsare not neurotoxic, nonaddictive, and studies show they reduce anxiety, depression, and even lead to neurogenesis, or the regrowth of brain cells. Why would governments worldwide keep such a profound fungiout of the reach of their people?

The curandera blesses me as Iconsume a leaf full of psilocybin mushrooms for the healing ceremony.

After Peru, I visited curanderas, or healers, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Mazatecs have used psilocybinmushrooms as a sacrament and medicinally for hundreds of years. Curandera Dona Augustine served me a leaf full of mushrooms during a beautiful ceremony before a Catholic alter. As she sang thousand year-old songs, I watched the sunset over the mountainous landscape in Oaxaca and a deep sense of connectivity washed over my whole being. The innate beauty had me at a loss for words; a sudden outpouring of emotion had me in tears. I cried through the night and with each tear a small part of my trauma trickled down my cheek and dissolved onto the forest floor, freeing me from its toxic energy.

Psilocybin mushrooms are not neurotoxic, non-addictive, and a study from University of Southern Florida shows they can repair brain damage from trauma.

Perhaps most astounding, the mushrooms silenced the self-critical part of my mind long enough for me to reprocess memories without fear or emotion. The mushrooms enabled me to remember one of the most terrifying moments of my career: when I wasdetained at gunpoint in Bahrain while filming a documentary for CNN. I had lost any detailedrecollection of that daywhen masked men pointed guns at our heads andforced my crew and I onto the ground. Fora good half an hour, I did not know whether we were going to survive.

I spent many sleepless nights desperately searching for memories of that day, but they were locked inmy subconscious. Iknew the memoriesstill haunted me becauseanytime I would see PTSD triggers, such as loud noises, helicopters, soldiers, or guns, a rush of anxiety and panic would flood my body.

The psilocybin was the key to unlock the trauma, enabling me to relive the detainmentmoment to moment, from outside of my body, as an emotionless, objective observer. I peered into the CNNvan and saw my former selfsitting in the backseat, loud helicopters overhead. My producer Taryn was sitting to theright of me frantically trying to close the van door as we tried to make an escape. I heardTaryn screamguns! as armedmasked men jumpedout of the security vehicles surroundingthe van. I watched as Ifrantically dug through a backpack on the floor, grabbing my CNN ID card and jumpingout of thevan. I saw myself land on the groundin childs pose, dust covering mybody and face. Iwatched as I threw myhand with the CNN badge in the air above myhead yelling CNN, CNN, dont shoot!!

I saw the pain in my face as the security forces threw human rights activist and dear friend Nabeel Rajab against a security car and began to harass him. I saw the terror in my faceas I glanced down at my shirt, arms in the air, prayingthe video cardsconcealed on my body wouldnt fall onto the ground.

During the ceremony the psilocybin unlocks traumatic memories stored deep in my subconscious so I can process them and heal. The experience is intensely introspective.

As I relived each moment of the detainment, I reprocessed each memory moving it from the fear folder to its new permanent home in the safe folder in my brains hard drive.

Five ceremonies with psilocybin mushrooms cured my anxiety and PTSD symptoms. The butterflies that had a constant home in my stomach have flown away.

Psychedelics are not the be-all and end-all. For me, theywere the key that openedthe door to healing. I still have to work to maintain the healing with the use of floatationtanks, meditation, and yoga. For psychedelics to be effective, its essential they are taken with the right mindset in a quiet, relaxed setting conducive to healing, and that all potential prescription drug interactions are carefully researched. Itcan be fatalif Ayahuasca is mixed with prescription antidepressants.

I was blessed with an inquisitive nature and a stubbornness to always question authority. Had I opted for a doctors script and resigned myself in the hope that things would just get better, I never would have discovered the outer reaches of my mind and heart. Had I drunk the Kool-Aid and believed that all drugs are evil and have no healing value, I may still be in the midst of a battle with PTSD.

This very world that glamorizes war, violence, commercialism, environmental destruction, and suffering has outlawed some of the most profound keys to inner peace. The War on Drugs is not based on science. If it was, two of the most deadly drugs on earth-alcohol and tobacco- would be illegal. Those suffering from trauma have become victims of this failed war and have lost one of the most effective ways to heal.

Humanity has gone mad as a result.

Lyon and a scientist cut open a fish stomach to inspect for plastic litter while filming a documentary on excessive ocean plastic pollution.

I spent ten years witnessing the collective insanity as a journalist on the frontlines- wars, bloodshed, environmental destruction, sex slavery, lies, addiction, anger, fear.

But I had it all wrong journalistically. I had beenfocusing on the symptoms of an ill society, rather than attacking the root cause: unprocessed trauma.

We all have trauma. Trauma rests in the violent criminal, the cheating spouse, the corrupt politician, those suffering from mental illness, addictions, inside those too fearful to take risks and reach their full potential.

If its not adequately processed and purged, trauma becomes cemented onto the hard drive of the mind, growing into a dark parasite that rears its ugly head throughout a persons entire life. The wounds keep us locked in a grid of fear, trapped behind a personality not true to the soul, working a mundane job rather than following a passion, repeating a cycle of abuse, destroying the environment, harming one another. The most common and severe suffering is inflicted during childhood and hijacks the drivers seat into adulthood, steering an individual down a road deprived ofhappiness. Renowned addiction expertGabor Mate says, The major cause of severe substance addiction is always childhood trauma.

We live in a world full of wounds and when left untreated, theyre unceremoniously handed from one generation to the next, so the cycle of trauma continues in all its destructive brutality.

But theres hope. We can transform the course of humanity by collectively purging our grief and healing at the individual level, with the help of psychedelic medicines. Once we collectively heal atthe individual level, we will see dramatic positive transformation in society as a whole.

I founded the websitereset.me, to produce and aggregate journalism on consciousness, natural medicines, and therapies. Psychedelic explorer Terrence McKenna compared taking psychedelics to hitting the reset button on your internal hard drive, clearing out the junk, and starting over. I created reset.me to help connect those who need to hit the reset button in life with journalism covering thetools that enableus to heal.

Its a human rights crisis psychedelics are not accessible to the general population. Its insane that governments worldwide have outlawedthe very medicines that can emancipate our souls from suffering.

Its time westop the madness.

Follow this link:

How Psychedelics Saved My Life - Reset.me

"Psychedelics" redirects here. For other uses, see Psychedelic.

A psychedelic drug is a drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception, typically by agonising serotonin receptors.[2]

Not to be confused with psychoactive drugs, such as stimulants and opioids, which induce familiar states of consciousness, psychedelics tend to affect the mind in ways that result in the experience being qualitatively different from those of ordinary consciousness. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as trance, meditation, yoga, religious ecstasy, dreaming and even near-death experiences. With a few exceptions, most psychedelic drugs fall into one of the three following families of chemical compounds; tryptamines, phenethylamines, and lysergamides.

Many psychedelic drugs are illegal worldwide under the UN conventions unless used in a medical or religious context. Despite these regulations, recreational use of psychedelics is common.

The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words (psyche, "soul, mind") and (delein, "to manifest"), hence "soul-manifesting", the implication being that psychedelics can access the soul and develop unused potentials of the human mind.[3] The word was coined in 1956 by British psychiatrist, Humphry Osmond, the spelling loathed by American ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes, but championed by the American psychologist, Timothy Leary.[4]

Aldous Huxley had suggested to Humphry Osmond in 1956 his own coinage phanerothyme (Greek "phaneroein-" visible + Greek "thymos" soul, thus "visible soul").[5] Recently, the term entheogenic has come into use to denote the use of psychedelic drugs in a religious/spiritual/mystical context.

Psychedelics have a long history of traditional use in medicine and religion, where they are prized for their perceived ability to promote physical and mental healing. In this context, they are often known as entheogens. Native American practitioners using mescaline-containing cacti (most notably peyote, San Pedro, and Peruvian torch) have reported success against alcoholism, and Mazatec practitioners routinely use psilocybin mushrooms for divination and healing. Ayahuasca, which contains the powerful psychedelic DMT, is used in Peru and other parts of South America for spiritual and physical healing as well as in religious festivals.

Classical or serotonergic psychedelics (agonists for the 5-HT2A serotonin receptors) include LSD (also known as "acid"), psilocin (the active constituent of psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as "magic mushrooms" or "shrooms"), mescaline (the active constituent of peyote), and DMT (the active constituent of ayahuasca and an endogenous compound produced in the human body). Salvia divinorum is an atypical psychedelic that has been gaining popularity over the past decade, due to its legality in many US states. It is often compared to DMT due to its short and very intense trip. A few newer synthetics such as 2C-B have also enjoyed some popularity.

This class of psychedelics includes the classical hallucinogens, including the lysergamides like LSD and LSA, tryptamines like psilocybin and DMT, and phenethylamines like mescaline and 2C-B. Many of these psychedelics cause remarkably similar effects, despite their different chemical structure. However, many users report that the three families have subjectively different qualities in the "feel" of the experience, which are difficult to describe. At lower doses, these include sensory alterations, such as the warping of surfaces, shape suggestibility, and color variations. Users often report intense colors that they have not previously experienced, and repetitive geometric shapes are common. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental alterations of sensory perception, such as synesthesia or the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions.[6] Some compounds, such as 2C-B, have extremely tight "dose curves", meaning the difference between a non-event and an overwhelming disconnection from reality can be very slight. There can be very substantial differences between the drugs, however. For instance, 5-MeO-DMT rarely produces the visual effects typical of other psychedelics and ibogaine (a 'complex tryptamine') is also an NMDA receptor antagonist and -opioid receptor agonist in addition to being an agonist for the 5-HT2A receptors, resulting in dissociative effects as well (see dissociatives below).

The empathogen-entactogens are phenethylamines of the MDxx class such as MDMA, MDEA, and MDA. Their effects are characterized by feelings of openness, euphoria, empathy, love, heightened self-awareness, and by mild audio and visual distortions (an overall enhancement of sensory experience is often reported). Their adoption by the rave subculture is probably due to the enhancement of the overall social and musical experience. MDA is atypical to this experience, often causing hallucinations and psychedelic effects in equal profundity to the chemicals in the 5-HT2A agonist category, but with substantially less mental involvement, and is both a serotonin releaser and 5-HT2A receptor agonist.

Certain dissociative drugs acting via NMDA antagonism are known to produce what some might consider psychedelic effects. The main differences between dissociative psychedelics and serotonergic hallucinogens are that the dissociatives cause more intense derealization and depersonalization.[7] For example, ketamine produces sensations of being disconnected from one's body and that the surrounding environment is unreal, as well as perceptual alterations seen with other psychedelics.[8]

Salvia divinorum is a dissociative that is sometimes classified as an atypical psychedelic. The active molecule in the plant, salvinorin A, is a kappa opioid receptor agonist, working on a part of the brain that deals with pain. Activation of this receptor is also linked to the dysphoria sometimes experienced by users of opiates either therapeutically or recreationally. An unusual feature of S. divinorum is its high potency (dosage is in the microgram range) and extremely disorienting effects, which often include "entity contact", complete loss of reality-perception and user's experiencing their consciousness as being housed in different objects e.g. a pane of glass or a pencil.

Despite many psychedelic drugs being non-addictive[9] and there being no evidence to support long term harm on mental health[10] many of these drugs have been declared illegal under the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971. In addition, many countries have analogue acts that automatically forbid any drugs sharing similar chemical structures to common illicit substances regardless of whether they are harmful.

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Psychedelic drug - Wikipedia