Therapeutic value of hallucinogens

Recent studies reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry [link] and the Journal of Psychopharmacology [link], reveal that hallucinogens actually have legitimate therapeutic value. Scientists now believe these agents have the potential to help patients with post-traumatic stress, drug and alcohol dependence, unremitting pain, depression and the existential anxiety of terminal illness. According to Roland Griffiths, author of the first study:

“The psilocybin experience takes away the veil of fear and enables patients to see things in a more expanded and interconnected way. It can relieve the existential anxiety of terminal illness. The psychological improvements have helped many to reverse the course of their illness, which reinforces the notion that one should never underestimate the healing power of the psyche. Scientifically, these compounds are way too important not to study.”

This sounds familiar. In college I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the Neurological Basis of Hallucinatory Experience. I had the foresight (or audacity) at the time to recommend that hallucinogens would be a useful method-of-investigation for Psychologists. I said: “.. it would be negligent not to consider the guided peyote session as portal into alternative states of consciousness” [link].

Presence of mind

“A sign of the end of time is when people can no longer tell the difference between the work of man and the work of nature ..” Hopi prophecy

I’ve never met anyone with a healthy mental outlook who didn’t also have great presence of mind. They can be totally immersed in virtual space then quickly disconnect and be completely present for you. They skillfully navigate technical networks as well as the ‘here and now’. Don’t get me wrong, I am also enamored with technology. Social networks enable people to expand their outlook, collaborate and see things from totally different perspectives. That’s what the designers of the Internet originally had in mind. There’s a recent example I like to share. Scientists at the University of Washington were trying to figure out the way enzymes act to allow AIDS to reproduce ..and they couldn’t solve it. So, they put it on the Internet and made it into a game and these gamers from all over the world solved it in three weeks. The brainpower of the world is at our disposal. That’s a good thing. However, with any technology ..I can tell you some really good things about it as well as some not-so-good things about it. People get so engaged in the technological world that they often don’t seem to be present in the real one. I’m not sure mental health is possible without being able to refresh the mind periodically and be completely present with people. I recently spent two weeks at Esalen in Big Sur where I was totally immersed with people in the moment. It was a technology break for me. I’m not so sure about my mental health, but I did return feeling a renewed appreciation for technology as well as a greater sense of what is going on here in the present.

Synthesizing minds

At a graduate seminar many years ago, a fellow student named David Stoltenberg proposed a theory that said that the simple act of reading is a “cross-sensory” event in the brain ..he even had a name for it ..“sensory synesthesia” ..which he described as “perceiving the sound of a color ..or the light of a sigh.” He was giving a multi-media presentation to demonstrate this idea ..but it didn’t turn out the way he planned ..the projectors malfunctioned ..the main point got lost ..and what I was able to get out of it left me feeling unconvinced ..it sounded too much like science fiction. When I think back, I realize I owe Dave a big apology ..and a pound of red Lebanese ..he was right ..you have to be able to “hear” what you “see” in order “understand” what you “read”.

Research now shows that synesthesia, far from being a “fringe” phenomenon, can actually enhance cognitive function in addition to being part of the reading process. Many notable artists, poets and novelist are thought to have this ability. The condition occurs from increased communication between sensory areas of the brain [link]. It probably lies on a spectrum of the way we normally perceive and experience the world. In other words, we all have it ..just some more than others [link].

Calculating minds

Success at math is often more about focusing attention and screening distractions (caused by threat and anxiety) ..than it is about activating areas of the brain actually involved with math calculation. Sian Beilock (University of Chicago) reports: 

“We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to separate anticipatory neural activity from what’s occurring while performing math. Increased activity in frontoparietal regions of the cortex, involved with focusing attention and suppressing anxiety, were better predictors of math scores than activity in regions associated with arithmetic calculation (the left intraparietal sulcus of the cortex) [link].” 

Think about walking across a suspension bridge if you're afraid of heights versus if you're not – it’s a completely different ballgame. This work suggests that educational intervention emphasizing anxiety-reduction (rather than additional math training) will be most effective in revealing a population of mathematically competent individuals, who might otherwise go undiscovered.

Parsing Gabrielle

Notes made during interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC.

Her speech centers are still intact ..but some of the pathways that connect speech with concepts may have been severed. They show her a picture of a table and she comes up with words all right ..just not the right ones. She’s guessing and her therapy involves prompting her to narrow down the range of possibilities until she’s in the vicinity of ‘table-ness’. It is geared toward building alternate pathways to replace the one’s she lost. The connection between her lexicon (the place where words are stored) and semantic memory (memory for meaning) may be all that’s affected. Prognosis is good. She can read words from her lexicon OK. Her difficulty is connecting them with ideas in the mind. So it’s just a process of generating alternate pathways. I wonder if she can write or type in complete sentences. I wonder if there’s a way to prompt the language pathways of the brain to act with equipotentiality, same as they did during childhood, to help facilitate the regenerative process. Apparently music can help because it activates greater brain-area ..and she can sing the words she has difficulty coming up with on her own.  Spontaneously however, she doesn’t speak in full sentences yet. Her two word utterances show a ‘return to the kernal’ ..meaning she can express the main idea without the generating the phrase-structure necessary to produce a full sentence. Hopefully, she hasn’t lost the rules of grammar ..only the ability to pick-out the words to express them. 

Kernal: When asked if she wants to return to Congress, she relies: “No, better ..!”
 Generative grammar: Embedded verb phrases are required to turn the kernal “No, better!” into a full sentence: “No, I want to get better first” 

Parsing Nixon

The transcript of Nixon’s testimony about Watergate became public Thursday, providing a detailed view of Nixon - combative, defensive and mindful of his place in history [link]. As an exercise in deception-detection, I suggested we parse a short passage of Nixon’s testimony. We limited it to the response Nixon gave to a specific question asked by federal prosecutors. We examined the implications Nixon made in order to give prosecutors the impression that he was acting as Chief Executive and giving high-level ‘directives’ to his staff ..and not ordering the Watergate break-in. When prosecutors asked about White House efforts to target Lawrence O'Brien (Chairman of the Democratic National Committee) and the events leading up to the break-in at his office in the Watergate complex, Nixon replied:

“I do not recall suggesting Mr. O’Brien files be checked ..I only suggested that in this campaign, we should be as effective in conducting our investigations as they (the Democrats) had been in conducting their investigations.”

[ I only suggested .. ] implies no direct orders were given. Although prosecutors may infer ‘tacit approval’, without knowing what was going on in the minds of the White House staff at the time; prosecutors couldn’t go there. That information was only available in discussions leading up to this point. But the previous 18 minutes were erased from the White House tape. *See Footnote*

[conducting our investigation .. ] implies they were only discussing an equitable response to what Democrats were doing during the campaign. Since there was no evidence of criminal activity on the part of Democrats, prosecutors could only conclude Nixon wasn’t suggesting anything inappropriate.

It’s clear Nixon was using pragmatic implications [link] ..a trick that lawyers routinely recommend to their clients. He could deny culpability but, at the same time, avoid perjury in the advent investigators found evidence that he actually did order the break-in. Instead of denying it outright, he says is he was making what amounts to a ‘suggestion’ that they conduct an ‘equitable investigation’. If it comes out later that he gave orders, he cannot be accused of perjury for the inferences federal prosecutors made in response to his statements. In other words, implications are not grounds for perjury. To the end, Nixon played the role of an attorney trying to create ‘reasonable doubt’ in the minds of his jurors (Historians).

* Footnote: Congress actually did infer that, by omission, the 18-minute gap probably contained incriminating information turning Nixon’s statement into a criminal act. This is what led to a vote of impeachment by over two-thirds of the House.

Santa Cruz

At Pergs today, a Chinese man leans over to Terry and says: “I’m going to tell you the secret of eternal youth ..save you much money on make-up and plastic surgery” She goes “OK, I’m in” He says “Still your mind and you will not age as quickly as people whose minds are constantly struggling to hold their personalities together.”

Santa Cruz

I’m sitting drinking tea at Merrill and chatting with some of Terry’s classmates. They seem exceptionally well informed and receptive. Certainly not the way I remember myself back then. I’m impressed. They express a keen interest in what’s going on at Esalen and ask me if there’s a revival of sixties radicalism (!?) Wayne, a poli sci student, has pretty detailed knowledge of events going back to the Vietnam era. This feels erringly familiar. I ask him if he’s ever heard of the Iran-Contra affair.

“Yeah, that had something to do with selling guns to Iran ..in exchange for hostages.”
“That’s right. Anything else ..? “
Yeah, they used the money they made to fund the Contras.”
“And you believe that ..?”
 “Well now wait a minute, I do remember something about a conspiracy to sell drugs to support the Contras ..(?)”

Now I definitely feel like the last to know. I go for a walk through the woods and find a place where I can sit and watch the sunset over Monterey Bay. I shake my head. I’m happy to see our system of higher education is working well. They’re teaching conspiracy theories that are way more advanced than mine. These kids are getting out of here with a mind as sharp as Occam's razor.

Santa Cruz

After Mary’s workshop, I blow-off the weekend workshop ..and turn it into a personal retreat for the next couple of days. Nice. I arrive in Santa Cruz on Monday. Now I’m on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, which is such an amazing place. It’s in the redwood forests overlooking Monterey Bay. I take a hike through the woods, processing the workshop, which still resonates ..as I go. I follow a wooded trail to the Uni library, go online and post some of my workshop experiences, from a first-person, ego-centric point of view. If you’re interested, follow the link ~>[link].  I sit and stare out the window at the redwood trees. They’re massive ..and very wise I believe. They’re the oldest living beings on the planet. I remember when I could sit by an open window and spit sunflower seeds at them. Not no more. The windows won’t open(!?) Could they be afraid someone may try to head for the woods without going down the stairs and leaving by the front door ..? Hmm, not even at the height of my psilocybin days ..