It's been well over a decade since I've dabbled in this. My viewpoint is that while psychedelics are mostly harmless, there is a small chance for some latent psychological "damage" if you will.
There's not much evidence that psychedelics cause any physical harm to the body or risk of death/overdose, but there is evidence that psychedelics can have lasting psychological effects. I think most of the time (as in my case, personally) the effects are generally positive. However, I think that excessive use (which is uncommon due to the nature of these substances being generally non-addictive) can increase the chance of adverse effects.
Anecdotally, a friend of mine had to be temporarily hospitalized for a week or so due to a "psychotic break" that occurred after a year or two of fairly heavy psychedelic drug use. He had been otherwise mentally sound and physically healthy leading up to that point, and to this day he believes that the psychedelic drug use either directly contributed to the meltdown or otherwised exacerbated some previous unknown condition. Thankfully he's been mostly fine ever since.
I don't think that this evidence is reason enough to ban psychedelics. I think there is some genuine benefit that they can provide, and that more research should be done so the positive and negative effects can be better determined.
While it sounds like your friend did actually run afoul of these substances...
How would you distinguish between lasting psychological effects from psychedelics, and lasting effects from other impactful experiences? (World travel, adventure tourism, cults, psychiatry...)
In other words, do you have any ideas about to distinguish between the lasting effects of the chemical versus lasting effects of the experience?
Interesting point you bring up. I don't know if we know enough about how these substances work that we can make those distinctions.
I will say that I personally think the experiences themselves are powerful enough psychologically on their own to have lasting effects, similar to the effects you would get from other worldly experiences. Psychedelics do differ from "real" experiences in that they are comparatively brief, more intense, and have other unique characteristics (such as ego loss). I think that the intensity of those experiences, if repeated enough times, definitely has the potential to permanently change you psychologically (and potentially negatively). Fortunately, that intensity also has built in anti-addictive properties, so most users would not be endangering themselves in that way.
While I do agree with you that there are differences unique to psychedelic experiences versions "real" experiences, your enumeration isn't quite accurate - Most psychedelics last 1-12 hours, intensity is almost entirely dependent on dosage, and most meditation exercises are also about ego loss. And that's before you get into things like sensory deprivation or binaural beats, although for this discussion I'd put them on the psychedelic side of the line because they do similar things in the brain.
It's actually a pretty common comment from experienced "psychonauts": that you can have the same experience without the substances, it just takes years or decades of training and quite a bit of per-experience preparation. This is also because, on a chemical level, a number of psychedelics actually just get your brain to do something it'll normally (but rarely) do - the substance you take doesn't actually create the experience, the substance your brain releases/creates/doesn't absorb due to what you've taken does the work.
That all said? In a normal life, by a normal person? Yeah, those three you mention are what I'd expect to seriously differentiate the psychedelic and non-psychedelic experiences.
Regarding the comment about intensity: I agree that the intensity is dosage dependent. What I was getting at was that with a sufficient dosage, psychedelics can provide a level of intensity that is for the most part not matched by "real" experiences that most people would encounter. Also, the peak effects of most psychedelics last only a few hours at most. I imagine a 12 hour peak would be rather uncomfortable.
I think my response is colored by my relative lack of life experience. I agree with you that it is likely possible to achieve a similarly intense experience via activities like skilled meditation, though I haven't done it myself.
In my humble anecdotal opinion, HPPD is not a real phenomenon.
I experienced lots of such sensory disturbances before trying psychedelics. E.g., I clearly remember myself seeing halos around my teacher in elementary school when playing to keep my eyes still (I was really bored) and when discussing such phenomenons with my peers they suddenly noticed them too (and reported not to have noticed them before).
I just think not a lot of people pay attention before trying psychedelics, and after the experience they notice those subtleties and link them to the substances.
Also: self-reported phenomenons such as HPPD are unrealiable. I noticed lots of people are willing (and looking forward to) experience HPPD.
I used to take a lot of psychadelics, I don't anymore as there's nothing left to learn from them in my humble opinion, for myself anyway. I experienced sensory disturbances for a couple years afterwards, only every now and then -- but I then remember experiencing those same disturbances as a teenager in various circumstances. I agree, taking psychadelics can make you more aware of your mind and senses, and this is what I experienced.
Comments
It's been well over a decade since I've dabbled in this. My viewpoint is that while psychedelics are mostly harmless, there is a small chance for some latent psychological "damage" if you will.
There's not much evidence that psychedelics cause any physical harm to the body or risk of death/overdose, but there is evidence that psychedelics can have lasting psychological effects. I think most of the time (as in my case, personally) the effects are generally positive. However, I think that excessive use (which is uncommon due to the nature of these substances being generally non-addictive) can increase the chance of adverse effects.
HPPD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_percept...) for example is the occurrence of latent "sensory disturbances" that people can experience years after psychedelic drug use.
Anecdotally, a friend of mine had to be temporarily hospitalized for a week or so due to a "psychotic break" that occurred after a year or two of fairly heavy psychedelic drug use. He had been otherwise mentally sound and physically healthy leading up to that point, and to this day he believes that the psychedelic drug use either directly contributed to the meltdown or otherwised exacerbated some previous unknown condition. Thankfully he's been mostly fine ever since.
I don't think that this evidence is reason enough to ban psychedelics. I think there is some genuine benefit that they can provide, and that more research should be done so the positive and negative effects can be better determined.
While it sounds like your friend did actually run afoul of these substances...
How would you distinguish between lasting psychological effects from psychedelics, and lasting effects from other impactful experiences? (World travel, adventure tourism, cults, psychiatry...)
In other words, do you have any ideas about to distinguish between the lasting effects of the chemical versus lasting effects of the experience?
Interesting point you bring up. I don't know if we know enough about how these substances work that we can make those distinctions.
I will say that I personally think the experiences themselves are powerful enough psychologically on their own to have lasting effects, similar to the effects you would get from other worldly experiences. Psychedelics do differ from "real" experiences in that they are comparatively brief, more intense, and have other unique characteristics (such as ego loss). I think that the intensity of those experiences, if repeated enough times, definitely has the potential to permanently change you psychologically (and potentially negatively). Fortunately, that intensity also has built in anti-addictive properties, so most users would not be endangering themselves in that way.
While I do agree with you that there are differences unique to psychedelic experiences versions "real" experiences, your enumeration isn't quite accurate - Most psychedelics last 1-12 hours, intensity is almost entirely dependent on dosage, and most meditation exercises are also about ego loss. And that's before you get into things like sensory deprivation or binaural beats, although for this discussion I'd put them on the psychedelic side of the line because they do similar things in the brain.
It's actually a pretty common comment from experienced "psychonauts": that you can have the same experience without the substances, it just takes years or decades of training and quite a bit of per-experience preparation. This is also because, on a chemical level, a number of psychedelics actually just get your brain to do something it'll normally (but rarely) do - the substance you take doesn't actually create the experience, the substance your brain releases/creates/doesn't absorb due to what you've taken does the work.
That all said? In a normal life, by a normal person? Yeah, those three you mention are what I'd expect to seriously differentiate the psychedelic and non-psychedelic experiences.
Regarding the comment about intensity: I agree that the intensity is dosage dependent. What I was getting at was that with a sufficient dosage, psychedelics can provide a level of intensity that is for the most part not matched by "real" experiences that most people would encounter. Also, the peak effects of most psychedelics last only a few hours at most. I imagine a 12 hour peak would be rather uncomfortable.
I think my response is colored by my relative lack of life experience. I agree with you that it is likely possible to achieve a similarly intense experience via activities like skilled meditation, though I haven't done it myself.
A 12 hour peak can definitely be described as uncomfortable. It was certainly interesting, at least. The DOX class of drugs are weird.
In my humble anecdotal opinion, HPPD is not a real phenomenon.
I experienced lots of such sensory disturbances before trying psychedelics. E.g., I clearly remember myself seeing halos around my teacher in elementary school when playing to keep my eyes still (I was really bored) and when discussing such phenomenons with my peers they suddenly noticed them too (and reported not to have noticed them before).
I just think not a lot of people pay attention before trying psychedelics, and after the experience they notice those subtleties and link them to the substances.
Also: self-reported phenomenons such as HPPD are unrealiable. I noticed lots of people are willing (and looking forward to) experience HPPD.
I used to take a lot of psychadelics, I don't anymore as there's nothing left to learn from them in my humble opinion, for myself anyway. I experienced sensory disturbances for a couple years afterwards, only every now and then -- but I then remember experiencing those same disturbances as a teenager in various circumstances. I agree, taking psychadelics can make you more aware of your mind and senses, and this is what I experienced.