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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lsd-first-evidence-higher-level-consciousness-hallucinogenic-drug-scientists-a7690366.html

"Professor Anil Seth, co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at Sussex University, said: “This finding shows that the brain-on-psychedelics behaves very differently from normal.  

“During the psychedelic state, the electrical activity of the brain is less predictable and less ‘integrated’ than during normal conscious wakefulness – as measured by ‘global signal diversity’.  

“Since this measure has already shown its value as a measure of ‘conscious level’, we can say that the psychedelic state appears as a higher ‘level’ of consciousness than normal – but only with respect to this specific mathematical measure.”"

What do you guys think? I think it lends credence to the electrical activity theory.

Maybe we altered the magnetic fields produced by our brains?

Edited by Guest
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Thank you for posting the article.  Interesting!  Is ketamin the "date rape" drug?  I'd never heard that.

I think anyone who has taken a significant dose would agree.  I remember the insight into things.  It was like seeing the world for the first time.  Did I experience a higher level of conciousness or did I just perceive that I did?  But perception is reality to the observer, so .... hmmmmm.

Edited by MadDoc
Foolish typing
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Yeah and time seems to do weird things on psychedelics. Slow down or speed up or just feel like you're in eternity. Its weird.

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Really!? The brain on hallucinogens acts different than normal!? HOLY FUKK what a way to waste a chit ton of tax money and time on a worthless research project. Loser fukk researcher should just retire now. What a worthless bitch. How stupid do you have to be to even publish those findings? "Brain doesn't act normal on psychedelics" hahaha nahhhhh I dont believe it. 

 

Professor Anil "Hurr Durr" Seth

 

"higher 'level' of consciousness"  Lol what a worthless piece of shit. 

 

Edited by dasitmane
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I always thought it weird how many of the symptoms you experience while tripping are the same ones we end up stuck with after getting HPPD. If you look at the questionnaire scores from that study they're basically a list of HPPD and DP symptoms, and yet they're also supposedly the feelings one gets while high on hallucinogens. 

Also, I find the graphics in that study showing electrical activity inside the brain while on LSD quite interesting. The occipital lobe seems to be most active and this is also where visual snow hypermetabolism occurs and where some people with DP have shown lesions. As I've mentioned in a few posts, I had a really intense sensation of being sucked to the back of my mind while tripping, and that's also a DP symptom as well (seeing the world from the back of your head). I dunno, just seems like there may be something there...

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22 hours ago, dasitmane said:

Really!? The brain on hallucinogens acts different than normal!? HOLY FUKK what a way to waste a chit ton of tax money and time on a worthless research project. Loser fukk researcher should just retire now. What a worthless bitch. How stupid do you have to be to even publish those findings? "Brain doesn't act normal on psychedelics" hahaha nahhhhh I dont believe it. 

 

Professor Anil "Hurr Durr" Seth

 

"higher 'level' of consciousness"  Lol what a worthless piece of shit. 

 

There's absolutely no reason to be so aggressive and rude. You have a history of it on here, but that's not what this forum is about. If you have a particular opinion, fine, but there's a way of expressing yourself and that's not it. Furthermore, a failure to understand the importance of this study is a failure to understand the scientific process. It is not as simplistic as you make out. I suspect you haven't even read the study, merely the media headline. Science doesn't work by people saying 'based on my experience with LSD, it induces a higher state of consciousness'.

No study has ever previously directly demonstrated a 'higher level of consciousness', and indeed the present study also focuses on how this higher level occurs in the psychedelic state. Using one particular scale, they were able to show that if, for example, being asleep is a lowered state of consciousness; being awake is a normal state of consciousness - then based on their measure of brain activity in scans, the psychedelic state is a higher level of consciousness. When we are under anaesthesia / vegetative, our brain signal is relatively most predictable; when we are asleep, our brain signal is relatively less predictable; when we are awake it is even less predictable; and when in the psychedelic state it is least predictable. This holds true for psychedelic states induced by psilocybin, ketamine and LSD - and based on their differing pharmacology, ketamine in particular, it is somewhat surprising they correspond to the same mathematical measure.

We still don't understand what consciousness truly is, and this study clearly will aid in that understanding. This study shows that the psychedelic state is a distinct state of consciousness, as is being awake or being asleep, because of the global changes in brain activity observed (i.e. not linked to a particular region e.g. the visual cortex). We did not know this previously. The study helps to quantify what is going on in the brain following intake of psychedelics, and this will help further our understanding of how these kinds of drugs can be therapeutically effective, and will aid progress in being able to use these drugs to treat mentally ill individuals.The study also helps us to understand the level of our consciousness and what we are conscious of.

In the study, the greater the subjective psychedelic experience, the greater the observed change in the state of consciousness using their measure. Our awake conscious experience is probably only about 5% of what we are (the rest being subconscious), so them demonstrating an increase in that conscious experience is exciting (although the study needs to be replicated using other measures). Their stated intention is now to see how differing information flow in the psychedelic state leads to different psychedelic experiences e.g. hallucinations, something that's clearly going to be more of interest to our community.

Overall, this study supplements our understanding of how hallucinogens work to produce the experiences that they do. I think it says something that this study has initiated significant excitement for world-leading researchers who work in the area of consciousness and/or psychedelics.

I should also say that study used recycled data from the brain scans carried out by Dr Cahart-Harris, Prof Nutt, et al at Imperial. That study was crowdfunded with assistance from the Beckley Foundation, who some members on here were in contact with previously.

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On 4/21/2017 at 9:36 AM, Ghormeh Sabzi said:

There's absolutely no reason to be so aggressive and rude. You have a history of it on here, but that's not what this forum is about. If you have a particular opinion, fine, but there's a way of expressing yourself and that's not it. Furthermore, a failure to understand the importance of this study is a failure to understand the scientific process. It is not as simplistic as you make out. I suspect you haven't even read the study, merely the media headline. Science doesn't work by people saying 'based on my experience with LSD, it induces a higher state of consciousness'.

No study has ever previously directly demonstrated a 'higher level of consciousness', and indeed the present study also focuses on how this higher level occurs in the psychedelic state. Using one particular scale, they were able to show that if, for example, being asleep is a lowered state of consciousness; being awake is a normal state of consciousness - then based on their measure of brain activity in scans, the psychedelic state is a higher level of consciousness. When we are under anaesthesia / vegetative, our brain signal is relatively most predictable; when we are asleep, our brain signal is relatively less predictable; when we are awake it is even less predictable; and when in the psychedelic state it is least predictable. This holds true for psychedelic states induced by psilocybin, ketamine and LSD - and based on their differing pharmacology, ketamine in particular, it is somewhat surprising they correspond to the same mathematical measure.

We still don't understand what consciousness truly is, and this study clearly will aid in that understanding. This study shows that the psychedelic state is a distinct state of consciousness, as is being awake or being asleep, because of the global changes in brain activity observed (i.e. not linked to a particular region e.g. the visual cortex). We did not know this previously. The study helps to quantify what is going on in the brain following intake of psychedelics, and this will help further our understanding of how these kinds of drugs can be therapeutically effective, and will aid progress in being able to use these drugs to treat mentally ill individuals.The study also helps us to understand the level of our consciousness and what we are conscious of.

In the study, the greater the subjective psychedelic experience, the greater the observed change in the state of consciousness using their measure. Our awake conscious experience is probably only about 5% of what we are (the rest being subconscious), so them demonstrating an increase in that conscious experience is exciting (although the study needs to be replicated using other measures). Their stated intention is now to see how differing information flow in the psychedelic state leads to different psychedelic experiences e.g. hallucinations, something that's clearly going to be more of interest to our community.

Overall, this study supplements our understanding of how hallucinogens work to produce the experiences that they do. I think it says something that this study has initiated significant excitement for world-leading researchers who work in the area of consciousness and/or psychedelics.

I should also say that study used recycled data from the brain scans carried out by Dr Cahart-Harris, Prof Nutt, et al at Imperial. That study was crowdfunded with assistance from the Beckley Foundation, who some members on here were in contact with previously.

Lol, based on the fact that he said "higher level of consciousness" I dont need to read the whole article to understand that he is an idiot.

And who dictates what this forum is about? So who are you to say what its about?

And as far as I'm concerned in all the research that I have done I'm easily ahead of the so called professionals in this disease, and based on your history you have made absolutely zero progress in the diagnosis nor treatment there of, so you have absolutely no room to speak.

 

Edit: I actually read a little more of your most ridiculous statements and the fact that you think that psychedelics should be used on mentally ill/handicapped patients shows that you not only know absolutely nothing about neurology, but that you're a belligerent moron, a mere child running with scissors unrelentingly. Please put down the scissors, step away from your keyboard, and slap yourself repeating "I know not what I say" till you understand the reason for the therapy at hand. 

No pun intended, phaggot.

Edited by dasitmane
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5 hours ago, dasitmane said:

Lol, based on the fact that he said "higher level of consciousness" I dont need to read the whole article to understand that he is an idiot.

And who dictates what this forum is about? So who are you to say what its about?

And as far as I'm concerned in all the research that I have done I'm easily ahead of the so called professionals in this disease, and based on your history you have made absolutely zero progress in the diagnosis nor treatment there of, so you have absolutely no room to speak.

 

Edit: I actually read a little more of your most ridiculous statements and the fact that you think that psychedelics should be used on mentally ill/handicapped patients shows that you not only know absolutely nothing about neurology, but that you're a belligerent moron, a mere child running with scissors unrelentingly. Please put down the scissors, step away from your keyboard, and slap yourself repeating "I know not what I say" till you understand the reason for the therapy at hand. 

No pun intended, phaggot.

Pot, kettle, black springs to mind.

Have a one month posting ban for your troubles. Any further abuse of members will result in further bans. As I said, that sort of mentality is not what this forum is about. We support each other here - we don't abuse each other. The clue's in the title of the forum.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

"Psychedelic drugs – Reduced blood flow to the PCC and mPFC was observed under the administration of psilocybin. These two areas are considered to be the main nodes of the DMN.[31] One study on the effects of LSD demonstrated that the drug desynchronizes brain activity within the DMN; the activity of the brain regions that constitute the DMN becomes less correlated."

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21 hours ago, TheMythos said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

"Psychedelic drugs – Reduced blood flow to the PCC and mPFC was observed under the administration of psilocybin. These two areas are considered to be the main nodes of the DMN.[31] One study on the effects of LSD demonstrated that the drug desynchronizes brain activity within the DMN; the activity of the brain regions that constitute the DMN becomes less correlated."

I'm convinced the limbic system is tied to HPPD one way or another. The posterior cingulate, insula, hippocampus, amygdala, thalmus -- they're all in close proximity to each other in the brain and seem to pop up repeatedly in HPPD, DP and Visual Snow studies. The brainstem is where the nervous system derives and given how many people with HPPD, DP and VS have trouble with anxiety I don't think it's crazy to imagine some sort of nervous dysfunction is the root cause of many of these issues. 

Recently I read up on the cranial nervous system and especially the optic nerve and oculomotor nerve, both of which have interesting ties to HPPD. Damage to these nerves can result in diplopia (double vision, which I and many DP sufferers have), mydriasis (pupil dilation, which is an incredibly common HPPD symptom), difficulty with accommodation reflex (being able to shift from near to far objects, which I have) and so on. 

Given what we know about LSD's ability to connect different, far-away regions of the brain but also to halt blood supply to others, I don't think it's too far fetched to suggest ischemic stroke in some part of the limbic brain as a possible culprit of HPPD. Of course, this is all just pure, random speculation. I think it's fun given nobody in the medical field seems to be particularly keen on figuring out what's wrong with us. 

Also, not sure if anybody's seen this yet but it's interesting and relevant: 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119397-how-lsd-affects-the-brain-and-creates-its-trippy-effect/

I'd be really interested to see how someone with HPPD reacts to ketanserin. Whether it be good or bad, it could tell us a lot about whether the 2A receptor is involved.

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