Psychedelic Press Blog — psychedelic

Exploring psychoactive substances in Fairy-land

Our fascination with gems, shimmering objects, colourful flowers, and translucent stained-glass windows stems from their resemblance to the glowing beauty gleaned in the visionary’s inner eye, argued Huxley. By viewing such objects of beauty, we are reminded of the visionary realms and can be transported into them.

Abstract The fields of psychology and psychopharmacology have developed along surprisingly divergent historical trajectories, given their shared clinical endpoint. The subsequent schism between drug and psychotherapeutic treatments is artificial, and exaggerated by continued ignorance on both sides of the debate. In fact, such distinctions are relatively contemporary. There exists a rich history of shared psychotherapeutic-drug assisted clinical practices in pre-history and non-Western cultures using the psychedelic (hallucinogenic) drugs. These practices were re-invented in the 1950s and 1960s in Western medicine and are now enjoying a renaissance in contemporary research. It is postulated in this article that further development of psychedelic...

There is an abundance of good news. After forty plus years of research being denied, what Charles Grob kindly called, “a lull,” psychedelic science is back. Excellent research results appear in the top peer-reviewed journals. The popular science press, as well as the general media, favorably covers the findings. In fact, it is difficult to find a thoughtful negative article about psychedelics anywhere. Governments hover on the edge of funding and hundreds of graduate students in religious studies, social work, psychology, biochemistry, neuroscience and psychiatry intend to go into psychedelic research.       Major research groups in the US and the UK...

Peter Sjöstedt-H is an Anglo-Scandinavian philosopher who specialises in the thought of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson and Whitehead, and within the field of Philosophy of Mind. Noumenautics, his recently published first book, traverses the mindscape of metaphysics, nihilism and psychedelic phenomenology. It navigates through subjects such as the sentience of cells, the constrictions of consciousness, the metaphysics of might, the magic of mushrooms, the narcotics of Nietzsche, and the neologism of neo-nihilism – the last of which may itself cause flashbacks. Peter's been kind enough to answer some of our questions on Noumenautics and the relationship between psychedelic substances and philosophy.   Psychedelic...