NeuroQuantology
May 24, 2016
Joseph A. Zamaria
32 citations
Eight adults who had consumed psilocybin-containing mushrooms described how the experience led to lasting positive changes. Through interviews and thematic analysis, three categories emerged: Set (preliminary anxiety and substantial preparation), Experience of Psilocybin Effect (profound shift in attention, unity consciousness, increased introspection, positive emotional state, transcendental experience), and Persisting Aftereffects (short-term reduction in anxiety, persisting insight, assistance with psychological distress, inspired behavioral change). Participants maintained insights long after the substance left their system. The findings suggest that psilocybin's persisting aftereffects may aid psychological healing and growth.
NeuroQuantology
May 31, 2014
H. Umit Sayin
19 citations
Throughout history, many cultures have used psychoactive plants—such as those containing psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, and THC—in religious rituals for purposes including spiritual healing, contacting spirits, and reaching enlightenment. These practices occurred across shamanic, pagan, African, Native American, Aztec, Greek, Hindu, and other traditions. The authors hypothesize that the hallucinations and images experienced during these plant-induced altered states significantly influenced the creation of mythological and religious figures—such as angels, demons, gods, and mythical creatures—in many religions. They argue that this impact has been underestimated by historians and anthropologists due to anti-drug biases in Western societies.
NeuroQuantology
June 1, 2012
Ümit Sayın
17 citations
Altered states of consciousness induced by hallucinogens (H-ASC) remain poorly understood. The diverse psychological effects of LSD, ibogaine, THC, PCP, MDMA, methamphetamine, mescaline, psilocybin, and DMT—including visual, tactile, and auditory hallucinations; synesthesia; perception of fractals and vivid colors; distortions in body perception, time, and ego; euphoria or dysphoria; and mysticomimetic experiences—cannot be explained solely by receptor and neurotransmitter systems (e.g., 5-HT2, glutamate, dopamine, adrenergic, cannabinoid receptors). The effects depend on the person's mood and "set and setting." A hypothetical "holographic brain theory" may offer additional insights. H-ASCs may serve as tools to investigate consciousness and models of psychosis, warranting further research.
NeuroQuantology
October 16, 2015
10 citations
Transpersonal psychotherapy draws on transpersonal psychology, which views the psyche as multidimensional with distinct levels of consciousness, each governed by different laws. It assumes humans have potentials beyond the ego and integrates spiritual experience into understanding the psyche. Altered states of consciousness have long been used therapeutically, with techniques like holotropic breathwork. Neurotechnology now offers alternative ways to induce and measure these states for therapy. This article reviews key neurotechnology concepts and technologies applicable to inducing and measuring altered states for transpersonal psychotherapy.
NeuroQuantology
June 2, 2014
H. Umit Sayin
7 citations
Psychoactive plants have been used in religious rituals for centuries, inducing trance states that reveal geometric forms called entoptic images and phosphenes, which appear in cave art and folkloric designs. These visual patterns may stem from a genetically encoded ancient visual sign language in the human brain, emerging during altered states of consciousness. Such experiences could have shaped archetypal symbols and religious figures—angels, demons, gods—found across mythologies and religions. The article suggests that ancestral information coded in the limbic system, accessed through psychedelic plant journeys, may have influenced the evolution of Homo sapiens and the formation of religious concepts.
NeuroQuantology
March 4, 2011
Stanley Krippner, Joseph Sulla
6 citations
A reliable scoring system originally designed for dream reports can identify content in ayahuasca session reports. The Casto Spirituality Scoring System successfully identified objects, characters, settings, activities, emotions, and experiences in ayahuasca reports taken from existing literature. The system defines spiritual as a focus on, and reverence, openness, and connectedness to something beyond one's full understanding or individual existence. This finding suggests that systematic content analysis is feasible for ayahuasca reports, addressing a gap in rigorous research on the content of ayahuasca sessions despite its tribal use and sacramental role in three Brazilian churches.
NeuroQuantology
November 11, 2010
D. Comings
4 citations
Spirituality—a sense of connection with something greater, such as a supernatural entity, nature, or family—has a neurobiological basis. Factors that alter temporal lobe function, including electrical stimulation, epilepsy, trauma, psychedelic drugs, and severe anoxia, can produce spiritual or mystical experiences. The psychedelic DMT, acting on serotonin receptors in the temporal lobes, convinces even rational subjects that encounters with non-human beings are real, indicating that hippocampal memory cannot always distinguish external from internally induced experiences. Twin studies show a significant genetic component to spirituality, while religion is more cultural. Genes for spirituality likely were selected because social cohesiveness fosters survival. The neurobiology suggests the rational brain occasionally needs to give the spiritual brain space for beliefs that do not always make rational sense.
NeuroQuantology
May 24, 2016
Kaleb R. Smith
1 citation
The ritualistic use of the ancient psychoactive sacrament teonanacatl, or “The Flesh of God,” was integral to pre-colonial Mesoamerican culture and persists in syncretic forms today. This paper provides a brief history of Mexican tribes, especially the Mazatec people of Oaxaca, who use Psilocibe species in shamanic contexts. It applies contemporary cognitive research on psilocybin, specifically its induction of hyperpriming—an indirect semantic priming state with expansive branched hierarchical associative structures—to explain the psychological, linguistic, and perceptual effects reported in the traditional teonanacatl ceremony.