Research Topics
Curated entry points into the library, grouped by compound, condition, practice, and idea. Each gathers the evidence and study facts in one place.
Compounds
- Ayahuasca A traditional Amazonian brew combining DMT with monoamine oxidase inhibitors, studied in both ceremonial and clinical contexts.
- Cannabis A widely used plant studied across pain, anxiety, sleep, and its interactions with mental health.
- DMT A short-acting psychedelic studied for its acute effects on perception and its therapeutic potential.
- Ibogaine A psychoactive alkaloid researched chiefly for its potential to interrupt opioid and stimulant dependence.
- Ketamine A dissociative anesthetic with rapid-acting antidepressant effects, now an approved treatment for treatment-resistant depression.
- LSD A classic serotonergic psychedelic used in early and contemporary research on anxiety, cluster headache, and models of consciousness.
- MDMA An entactogen investigated primarily as an adjunct to psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Mescaline A classic psychedelic phenethylamine found in several cacti and central to long-standing ceremonial traditions.
- Psilocybin The primary psychoactive compound in psilocybin mushrooms, studied most heavily as an assisted therapy for depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Conditions
- Addiction Studies of how psychedelics, medications, and behavioral approaches affect substance dependence and craving.
- Anxiety Research spanning pharmacological, contemplative, and psychedelic-assisted approaches to pathological anxiety.
- Depression One of the most-studied indications in psychedelic and consciousness research, from antidepressant mechanisms to assisted-therapy trials.
- End-of-life distress Research on easing psychological and existential suffering near the end of life, a landmark area for psilocybin therapy.
- PTSD A central target for MDMA-assisted therapy and related trauma-focused interventions.
Practices
- Breathwork Breathing techniques used to alter arousal and consciousness, from clinical to non-ordinary-state contexts.
- Meditation Contemplative training studied for its effects on attention, emotion regulation, and the structure of experience.
- Microdosing The practice of taking sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics, and the evidence on whether measurable effects follow.
- Psychedelic-assisted therapy The clinical model pairing a psychedelic session with structured psychological support.
Experiences
- Altered states of consciousness The broad landscape of consciousness that departs from ordinary waking awareness, however induced.
- Dreaming Dreams as experience: content, phenomenology, recall, nightmares, and the threshold states at the edges of sleep.
- Lucid dreaming Awareness of dreaming while asleep, studied as a window into consciousness and metacognition.
- Mystical experience Profound states of unity and self-transcendence, and their measured role as mediators of therapeutic outcomes.
Traditions & thought
- Buddhism Buddhist thought and practice as they intersect with psychology, neuroscience, and the study of mind.
- Chaos magick A contemporary esoteric practice built on induced altered states and belief as a deliberate instrument, studied by religious-studies and psychology scholarship.
- Mysticism The study of mystical traditions and their accounts of union, transcendence, and unknowing across religions and eras.
- Philosophy of mind Philosophical inquiry into consciousness, subjectivity, and the mind-body relationship.
- Shamanism Traditional and cross-cultural practices working with non-ordinary states for healing and meaning.
- Tulpamancy The practice of cultivating autonomous imagined companions, connecting to research on voluntary hallucination, agency, and plurality of self.
Mechanisms
- Default mode network A brain network linked to self-referential thought whose modulation is associated with psychedelic and meditative states.
- Neuroplasticity The brain's capacity to reorganize, a leading candidate mechanism for the lasting effects of psychedelics and learning.
- Serotonin The neurotransmitter system central to the action of classic psychedelics and many antidepressants.