When I use a word . . . The psychedelic mind’s eye

Aldous Huxley, who had aphantasia (the absence of a mind's eye), described a disappointing experience with mescaline in his essay The Doors of Perception. His lack of visual imagery and non-hallucinogenic response suggests that people with aphantasia may not respond as dramatically to psychedelic drugs, which act as agonists at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors. However, anecdotal reports indicate that some aphantasiacs have developed mental imagery after recreational use. Whether psychedelics should be used in aphantasiacs could be tested in formal, controlled studies of their therapeutic actions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Psychedelic drugs produce effects on the mind that manifest as an apparent expansion of consciousness often accompanied by hallucinations. Psychedelics, which act as agonists at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the brain, include psilocybin, 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (tryptamine derivatives), mescaline (a phenethylamine derivative), and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, a lysergamide). In his long essay The Doors of Perception Aldous Huxley stated that he had always been a poor visualiser and that words did not evoke pictures in his mind. That was consistent with a diagnosis of aphantasia, the absence of a mind’s eye. His description of his disappointing experience with mescaline was also consistent with this. When the psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond, who in 1953 had supplied Huxley with the mescaline and had supervised his use of it, invented the word “psychedelic” to describe the effects of drugs whose actions mimicked those of certain psychiatric disorders, he wrote to Huxley to tell him about it. The combination of Huxley’s aphantasia and his non-hallucinogenic response to mescaline suggests that those who have aphantasia may not respond as dramatically as others do to the actions of psychedelic drugs. However, there have been a few anecdotal reports that aphantasiacs have developed mental imagery after recreational use of a psychedelic drug. Whether psychedelics should or should not be used in aphantasiacs could be tested in formal studies, under controlled conditions, of the therapeutic actions of psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin and mescaline, in people with the disorders for which they may be beneficial.