Federal drug policy classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance due to its psychoactive effects, leading medical marijuana advocates to downplay these effects when arguing for medicinal use, focusing instead on physical symptom relief. However, interviews with over three dozen seriously and terminally ill medical marijuana patients from a northern California cooperative suggest that the consciousness-altering properties of cannabis may play a significant role in the therapeutic value patients report.
After decades of dormancy, clinical research on hallucinogens in therapy has resumed, with Harvard approving psilocybin trials for terminally ill patients. This article re-evaluates earlier legal research on LSD as a therapeutic element, focusing on three cases: Stanislav Grof's Freudian LSD psychotherapy, Mendota Mental Health Center's psychedelic therapy for alcoholics, and Harriet Whitehead's discussion of Scientology auditing and Piagetian schemata. The article reviews sociological and pharmacological perspectives, discusses 1960s and 1970s LSD therapies, and evaluates this research through developments in cognition. While early enthusiasm was overstated, LSD may still have some utility in therapy when combined with other elements.
This article examines the correspondence and intellectual exchange between Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, and Aldous Huxley, focusing on their discussions of psychedelic drugs and mystical experience. The author traces Merton's evolving views on the distinction between natural and supernatural mysticism, which he later abandoned after correspondence with Marco Pallis. The piece provides historical context on psychedelics, including mescaline's isolation in 1896, its use in Native American Church ceremonies, and government research on hallucinogens. The author argues that psychedelic experiences can be considered genuine mystical experiences, challenging traditional theological distinctions between natural and supernatural religious phenomena.