Psychedelic Research: LSD for depression, autism

Wisdom Quarterly, CoasttoCoastAM.com
(Mariesou/Flickr)

Dr. James Fadiman, who has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s, joined Ian Punnett on Sept. 24, 2011 to discuss the newest research into the psychotherapeutic value of visionary drug use.

Psychedelics can be effective at micro-doses that have no intoxicating effects that are nevertheless medicinal. They have the capacity to increase personal awareness, produce spiritual epiphanies, and treat a host of serious medical conditions. Before it was banned LSD was in fact the most researched psychiatric drug on the planet, according to Dr. Fadiman.

Dr. Fadiman on Coast to Coast 9/24/11

The compound, which grows naturally and is derived from ergot fungi on rye, was first synthesized in 1938. It is effective in miniscule doses at only millionths of a gram, he stated, adding that mainstream researchers used LSD therapeutically to treat common neuroses, alcoholism, and even autism before it was banned in 1966.

Among hardcore alcoholics there was a 50% success rate. The efficacy rate was even higher for those with autism, he noted.

• Curiously, according to the doctor, the main effect of LSD occurs after the drug itself has left the body.
  

It is thought to work by opening up one's "awareness capacity." Religious Studies scholar Dr. Huston Smith learned this after taking LSD and having an experience that confirmed what he understood to be at the core of all religious faiths, Fadiman explained.

"Psychedelics give you a kind of a different view of everything... they take you much more into observing your life," he said.

A recent study at UCLA demonstrates how this inner journey can help people diagnosed with terminal cancer. Psilocybin, according to Fadiman, is a drug similar to LSD that has successfully been used to treat anxiety in late-stage cancer patients. Source

"Psychedelics and Freedom"

Psychedelic Explorer's Guide

"This is some of the most thoughtful, wise, heartfelt, and essential instruction for the use of sacred medicine."
- Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, (Spirit Rock) author of A Path with Heart

"Jim Fadiman's manual offers helpful and well-informed guidance for those who seek 'the divine within' through sacred plants and psychedelic substances."
- Daniel Pinchbeck,(Reality Sandwich) author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and Breaking Open the Head


"Transpersonal Conversations"

In search of the world's funniest joke

Wisdom Quarterly (INVESTIGATION)

Monty Python introduces the theoretical consequences if such a joke were ever found before science reveals the answer. "Laughter is the best medicine," of course. And those benefits obtain even if the laughter, at first, is forced. This explains the growing popularity of Laughter Yoga. Prof. Richard Wiseman explains the submission and voting process that collected 40,000 jokes. Buddhism is wonderful because it keeps its sense of humor in the face of all.

Prof. Wiseman explains comedy to comedian Lewis Black (History Channel)

• "The Jerry Seinfeld of Buddhism": Ajahn Brahm
• Wes Nisker's crazy cosmos, the levity in Buddhism
• VIDEO: Arj Barker's "The Sickest Buddhist"
• Comedy Central: Jokes about Buddhists
• BUDDHIST JOKES the Dalai Lama doesn't get
  

Jokes.com
Arj Barker - Sickest Buddhist
comedians.comedycentral.com
Jokes Joke of the Day Funny Jokes

"Mind-reading" experiment highlights brain

"Mind-reading" experiment highlights how brain records emories

(ScienceDaily) It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists.

In a study published in the journal Current Biology they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding that challenges current scientific thinking.

Demis Hassabis and Professor Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have previously studied the role of a small area of the brain known as the hippocampus, which is crucial for navigation, memory recall, and imagining future events.

Now the researchers have shown how the hippocampus records memory.

When we move around, nerve cells (neurons) known as "place cells" located in the hippocampus, activate to tell us where we are.

Hassabis, Maguire, and colleagues used a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, to examine the activity of these places cells as a volunteer navigated around a virtual reality environment. The data were then analyzed by a computer algorithm developed by Demis Hassabis.

"We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," explains Professor Maguire, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow.

"Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories." More

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Psychologists have found that thought patterns used to recall the past and imagine the future are strikingly similar. Using functional magnetic...

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