On the 19th of April of 1938, the swiss chemist Albert Hofmann decided to ingest 250 micrograms of a substance called LSD. The consequences were dramatic: “My surroundings had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms. They were in continuous motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness. However, the neighbour was no longer Mrs R., but a malevolent, insidious witch with a coloured mask.”, he said. Then, Holdmann slept. He woke up, several hours later, with a “sensation of renewal and well-being”.
On the 19th of April of 1938, the swiss chemist Albert Hofmann decided to ingest 250 micrograms of a substance called LSD. The consequences were dramatic: “My surroundings had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms. They were in continuous motion, animated as if driven by an inner restlessness. However, the neighbor was no longer Mrs. R., but a malevolent, insidious witch with a coloured mask.”, he said. Then, Holdmann slept. He woke up, several hours later, with a “sensation of renewal and well-being”.
The ethnobotanical Terence McKenna (1946-2000) enjoyed taking mushrooms with psilocybin [an indole alkaloid of the group of hallucinogenic tryptamines], alone, in the dark, with his eyes closed. He believed that, when taking them this way, it would be possible to enter a profound visionary experience in which the mushrooms were a transcending force that contributed to the evolution of the Earth. For McKenna, psychedelics had the potential of helping people connect emotionally, building community, feeling spiritually in union with nature, and helping create a healthier society. Author of True Hallucinations (1989), Food of the Gods (1992), Sacred Mushrooms and the Law (1997), the explorer, philosopher and enthusiast of medical plants contributed on a mass scale to the development of the imagination of the second generation of investigators inspired by the potential of psychedelics for cure and personal development. “The performance of psychedelics can be explained from several points of view - by neuroscience, by psychology, by anthropology. There is even a dimension of this explanation that touches on spirituality. Now, psychedelics, chemically, are a group of psychoactive psychoactive substances (such as LSD, psilocybin, among psilocybin, among others), which fall into the category of serotonergic hallucinogens. This is a complicated expression to say that they provoke an experience that alters the perception of reality and that they act in a very similar way to neurotransmitters that are naturally produced in the brain. It seems that, under the influence of these substances, the experiences we have are not always exclusively recreational, stimulating, or merely altering the perception of the environment because of the effect they have on the five senses. Besides this, we can also come into contact with a part of our consciousness that we don't often access. In this space may be information that may cause suffering and that we unconsciously transform into symptoms (such as anxiety and depression). Access to this information which psychedelics provoke is, potentially, quite immediate and vivid. There are many forms of therapy that never achieve, or are very late in achieving, such an encounter with these most painful or traumatic experiences. It is because of this opportunity that the potential of psychedelics to 'resolve trauma' is spoken of, although it is very important to reach this point.” These words reach us through Maria Carmo Carvalho, assistant professor at the Porto’s Catholic University and coordinator of the emergency psychological service at Boom Festival.
The use of psychedelics to treat depressed people has been studied throughout the world. This is because scientific evidence has risen about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, LSD, MDMA and Ayahuasca - who are known as classics in the world of psychedelics - in the treatment of depression resistant to traditional pharmaceutical drugs, the famous anxiolytics and antidepressants. In Portugal, ketamine is being used in at least two hospitals - Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures, and the Hospital Júlio de Matos, or the Central Psychiatric Hospital of Lisbon -, to treat depression. The substance is seen as highly promising. Used as anesthesia in horses, ketamine is a medicine used as a party drug, having very similar effects to LSD. Ketamine generates, in the moment of its use, as much hallucination as anaesthesia. The substance induces an alternate state of conscious, vulgar trance, leading to pain relief, sedation, and memory loss. Other uses include the alleviation of chronic pain, sedation in intensive care, and it was approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in 2019, for use in patients with refractory depression (when the patient is resistant to treatment). A study published in September 2022 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry suggests that the anesthetic significantly reduces the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts in 424 patients treated with ketamine in Virginia, USA. “I think it's important to emphasize that a healing process is always a long path. We have many reasons, and very encouraging ones, to want psychedelics to be a lighthouse in this road. But it is a mistake to consider that a cure depends on a pair of good experiences with a substance, independently of how much care is given to its preparation”, reassures Maria Carmo Carvalho. She continues: “When we are using substances (psychedelics or other types), in a context which, like in Portugal, its purchase is illegal, we are always subject to the problems which the illegal market of drugs suffers. This results in serious risks for the users which are very difficult to eliminate. This is the case in the adulteration of substances - when they are mixed with dangerous products or their effect is very different from the expectation of the person who consumes them; in this case, too, overdose, which is when a substance presents a potency and concentration which many times is above what you’d expect to find in a medium dose.” In sum, whenever we are using substances that aren’t produced in controlled conditions, or that weren’t subject to a chemical analysis, we are putting ourselves at risk. But there’s more: the substances shouldn’t be consumed between each other, for example. According to Maria Carmo, recreational use implies, with frequency, the polyose of products with very different effects on the brain, which is a problem.
There are also risks resulting from the proper physical and social environments of the parties: controlling hydration, ventilation, offering areas of rest, and reducing the risk of sexual violence, all of these are initiatives which can help reduce the risks of recreational use. The so-called “trip” is, in a general way, the experience that results in the use of substances that alter our perception of reality. These substances are going to amplify, stimulate, and distort the way in which our senses capture information. Some people consider this experience very pleasurable and they look for an association between these effects in party environments. But the alteration of the capture of information isn’t the only sensory effect it makes you feel: “Sometimes, experience is valorized by the impact in the way we communicate with other people that are with us. Sometimes, it can also happen as a type of “internal swim” which places us in contact with certain types of information about ourselves, of which we don’t typically have access to”, sums Maria Carmo. Owner of a scientific and curious mind, McKenna was a strong defender of the exploration of the internal “I”: “Those who experiment should be careful. Preparation is needed for the psychedelic experience. These are bizarre dimensions of extraordinary power and beauty. There is no set rule to avoid being overwhelmed by the psychedelic experience, but proceed with caution, reflect and always try to map out experiences by taking into account the history of humanity and the philosophical and religious achievements of our species. All substances are potentially dangerous and all of them, in sufficient doses or repeated over time involve risks.” he notes. This takes us to the “bad trip”, which is, when a psychedelic trip goes badly. The factors for which this success can be copious: “They would begin by emphasizing the crisis which results from the experience of who used to be very different from the effect which it triggered. Those who look for psychedelics for therapeutic ends are within reach of such ‘encounter’ with themselves, making that dip in a balanced manner and trusting a process driven by others, to access this information, looking for relief from their suffering. Those who use psychedelics at a party, I don’t want to overgeneralize, are looking for fun, it may happen that they are faced with a very different outcome than expected”, explains the professor from the Oporto Catholic University.
There exists, then, several other types of psychedelic crisis: environmental conditions (temperature, overcrowdedness, noise, presence of strangers), individual conditions (vulnerable emotional states, mental health problems), conditions of ingested substances (multi-use, adulteration, excess of dose, among others). These factors can cause an isolated “bad trip” or other varied combinations. The “bad trips” can be very exuberant episodes in which the people are agitated, or, at the same time, scared by the fact that they are alive. Those who accompany them must be able to transmit, in few words, that what is happening will soon be over, that they are safe, and that they can trust the environment they are in to make use of this difficult experience: “The large majority of these situations which we encounter fix themselves if we guarantee that we are in a safe space, but tranquil, if we exhibit a calm presence, if we appeal towards the physical comfort, hydration, and nutrition of the person who is in an altered state. Some cases will require medical attention, which must be made available. But always following these principles” comments Maria Carmo. The website Safe Journey - Psychedelics in Portuguese, dedicated an article explaining how someone should prepare themselves for a psychedelic experience, starting with the question: “Are You Truly Prepared for a Psychedelic Experience?”. This is because the preparation is part of the recommended practices - themes like the establishment of intentions for the experience or having the knowledge of the amplitude of physical or psychological reactions most well known when over the effect of a specific dose, are frequently cited and reasonably consensual in formal contexts of application and use of psychedelics.
It was never talked so much about psychedelics like today, and it isn’t necessary to go very far to manage to. The ayahuasca, for example, is a drink prepared in the depths of the Amazon with a basis of two plants - the Banisteriopsis caapi, vulgo ayahuasca, and the Psychotria virdis, better known as chacruna - there are thousands of years in indigenous areas, physical healing was synonymous to plants, but always aided by a holistic factor. It was believed that drinks ingested in a specific way would allow for a collection with the spirit of the plant. This, in its way, would grant wisdom, knowledge, and the expansion of the consciousness of those who ingested it. Today, plant medicine is also being used as a transpersonal tool for rebirth, for healing of traumas, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The ayahuasca is a plant that cures the mind and spirit, but also the body. It gives us direct access to a profound level in us, the “little drawers” of the unconscious. However, a study raised that contained the drink taken at its origins versus outside of them
noticed that the constitution varied. In places where there are no foreigners - villages that use its most traditional manner -, it was concluded that the concentrations of DMT were much lower than the samples taken in centers founded by foreigners. Today we say that its composition is also questionable. This is a healing tool and the spiritual elevation can be also a lethal weapon if not used with consciousness and knowledge. Therefore, the stronger the intention, but also the good sense, the correct contacts, and even more, the environment, are fundamental for what promises to be a trip to a new beginning and doesn’t transform itself into a nightmare for the rest of life. When we take this type of substance which expands our consciousness and opens portals to other dimensions, and to reality, we understand that we live in a world of illusion. When this perception becomes clear, that, before being a physical body, we are energy, light, and vibration - physics explains this. Our reality is that our vibration attracts what we vibrate. As Maria Carmo told us, nothing is for everyone, always: "The fact that there exists more and more information about the scientific psychedelic opportunities for psychotherapy, or that in fact some people use psychedelics recreationally with large personal gain, it doesn’t become this universal indignation against it. The development of a psychedelic experience, is, to a large extent, impossible to anticipate. It can limit itself a lot to the probability that a less positive experience and if the quality of the products, the dosage, is carefully controlled, ensuring the preparation necessary for the experience, if there is monitoring during the sessions (or if it exists in the care and attention in party settings) if there is a deliberate integration. Even so, the state of our humor (our mindset), the relationship with the place or with the people who share the experience with us - everything floats and can create complications, even if we have had great experiences in very similar conditions”. She also clarifies that it is not necessary to have a diagnosis of a mood disorder or a personality disorder for psychedelics to be contraindicated. If such a diagnosis exists, then the risk is higher, effectively. But any use of psychedelics can surround itself with the attention that our mental state, the situation which its use is going to provide, and the characteristics of the substance. Or, as Albert Hofmann (1906-2008) explained, the suisse scientist most known as the “father” of LSD: “I once produced a substance as a medicine… It's not my fault that people abuse it.”
Translated from the original on The Voyage Issue, published June 2023.Full stories and credits on the print issue.
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