<story><title>Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA</title><url>https://newatlas.com/science/psilocybin-major-depression-mdd-usona-breakthrough-therapy-fda/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WhompingWindows</author><text>Super placebo is a scientifically incorrect description. These drugs suppress activity of the default mode network of the brain, which is a sort of &amp;quot;conductor&amp;quot; of the brain, which chooses which &amp;quot;instruments&amp;quot; to prioritize and how to allocate the train of thought. All of the different parts of your mind are able to sing out more creatively and independently, forging new paths that they are not accustomed to taking -- this is why it&amp;#x27;s great for mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, alcoholism, smoking -- it allows your mind an incredible flexibility.&lt;p&gt;In my personal experiences with psychedelics, these drugs remove mental heuristics, allowing the mind to think unimpeded by usual thought patterns, simply accepting raw data as it comes in. This was striking in sensory information, if you closed your eyes or just stared at something long enough, you observed incredibly different visual input, geometric patterns, greatly strengthened colors (a strawberry was INCREDIBLY beautiful, I almost felt bad eating such a beautiful entity). There was also an incredible inter-disciplinary thought process, I felt the musical, mathematical, computational, logical, natural, all these parts of my mind mixed together wonderfully.&lt;p&gt;LSD was much longer lasting, around 12 hours, whereas psilocybin was around 6 hours. Psilocybin enhanced my connection with nature, the flying bugs, a handful of berries, and the plants all around me caused an effusion of love and connection. Whereas with LSD, I felt an extremely powerful visual stimulation, the changing fall leaves were extremely vibrant and beautiful, it was akin to 12 hour, mentally-clear cannabis high. I didn&amp;#x27;t experience any &amp;quot;flashbacks&amp;quot; per se, there was a positive glow in my mood and thoughts for around 5 days, and the day after LSD I still had lingering effects...I also wonder if I will evermore look at the surface of ponds and lakes differently, they have an incredible dynamism and vitality that I appreciated even more on first trip.&lt;p&gt;For anyone considering psychedelics, do it thoughtfully and methodically. Read the book mentioned in the parent, practice meditation, explore your mind, and really ensure your mindset (&amp;quot;set&amp;quot;) is positive and open. Further, plan to occupy a peaceful, quiet place, hopefully lacking too many strangers&amp;#x2F;social interaction (&amp;quot;setting&amp;quot;). If set and setting are good, you&amp;#x27;re in for a wonderful time.</text></item><item><author>brenden2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been reading a book called &amp;quot;How to Change Your Mind&amp;quot;[1] which contains a collection of history, anecdotes, trip reports, and some of the science behind these types of drugs. The book mostly discusses psilocybin and LSD, but it also touches on some of the other related drugs. If you&amp;#x27;re curious and want to learn more, it&amp;#x27;s worth a read.&lt;p&gt;The one thing I&amp;#x27;ll say is that it seems like these drugs affect the brain in a way that&amp;#x27;s more akin to a super-placebo, rather than being therapeutic on their own. In other words, you would need to use the drugs in combination with therapy to obtain good results.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;How_to_Change_Your_Mind&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;How_to_Change_Your_Mind&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>corporate_shi11</author><text>I took a strong psychedelic once, and a high dose at that. I tripped for over 12 hours, and by the end of the trip I was seriously considering changing my life in significant ways. For days after the trip I was considering making these changes. My thought patterns and assumptions had made a complete jump from one train of thought to another.&lt;p&gt;This experience made me realize how much of our outlook on things is dominated by whatever mode of thinking we happen to be in, and that mode is more shaped by custom and habit than anything approaching logic and reason.</text></comment>
<story><title>Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA</title><url>https://newatlas.com/science/psilocybin-major-depression-mdd-usona-breakthrough-therapy-fda/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WhompingWindows</author><text>Super placebo is a scientifically incorrect description. These drugs suppress activity of the default mode network of the brain, which is a sort of &amp;quot;conductor&amp;quot; of the brain, which chooses which &amp;quot;instruments&amp;quot; to prioritize and how to allocate the train of thought. All of the different parts of your mind are able to sing out more creatively and independently, forging new paths that they are not accustomed to taking -- this is why it&amp;#x27;s great for mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, alcoholism, smoking -- it allows your mind an incredible flexibility.&lt;p&gt;In my personal experiences with psychedelics, these drugs remove mental heuristics, allowing the mind to think unimpeded by usual thought patterns, simply accepting raw data as it comes in. This was striking in sensory information, if you closed your eyes or just stared at something long enough, you observed incredibly different visual input, geometric patterns, greatly strengthened colors (a strawberry was INCREDIBLY beautiful, I almost felt bad eating such a beautiful entity). There was also an incredible inter-disciplinary thought process, I felt the musical, mathematical, computational, logical, natural, all these parts of my mind mixed together wonderfully.&lt;p&gt;LSD was much longer lasting, around 12 hours, whereas psilocybin was around 6 hours. Psilocybin enhanced my connection with nature, the flying bugs, a handful of berries, and the plants all around me caused an effusion of love and connection. Whereas with LSD, I felt an extremely powerful visual stimulation, the changing fall leaves were extremely vibrant and beautiful, it was akin to 12 hour, mentally-clear cannabis high. I didn&amp;#x27;t experience any &amp;quot;flashbacks&amp;quot; per se, there was a positive glow in my mood and thoughts for around 5 days, and the day after LSD I still had lingering effects...I also wonder if I will evermore look at the surface of ponds and lakes differently, they have an incredible dynamism and vitality that I appreciated even more on first trip.&lt;p&gt;For anyone considering psychedelics, do it thoughtfully and methodically. Read the book mentioned in the parent, practice meditation, explore your mind, and really ensure your mindset (&amp;quot;set&amp;quot;) is positive and open. Further, plan to occupy a peaceful, quiet place, hopefully lacking too many strangers&amp;#x2F;social interaction (&amp;quot;setting&amp;quot;). If set and setting are good, you&amp;#x27;re in for a wonderful time.</text></item><item><author>brenden2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been reading a book called &amp;quot;How to Change Your Mind&amp;quot;[1] which contains a collection of history, anecdotes, trip reports, and some of the science behind these types of drugs. The book mostly discusses psilocybin and LSD, but it also touches on some of the other related drugs. If you&amp;#x27;re curious and want to learn more, it&amp;#x27;s worth a read.&lt;p&gt;The one thing I&amp;#x27;ll say is that it seems like these drugs affect the brain in a way that&amp;#x27;s more akin to a super-placebo, rather than being therapeutic on their own. In other words, you would need to use the drugs in combination with therapy to obtain good results.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;How_to_Change_Your_Mind&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;How_to_Change_Your_Mind&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>surfsvammel</author><text>To me, the most stunning hallucination, during LSD, was the total confusion of my senses. A specific flower was in bloom at the time, and my mind confused it’s smell with the colour purple. It was the strangest experience. Smelling colour... There is no way to describe it in words.&lt;p&gt;Even though this episode was decades ago, I still, kind of, experience the scent of that flower as the colour purple.</text></comment>