Subjective Reports Of Psychedelic Experience example essay topic

Introduction: Throughout human history people have sought experiences that somehow transcend every day life. Some sort of wisdom that might progress their knowledge of self and of the world that they live in. For some reason they believed that the tangible world just could not be all there is to life. Some believed in a greater force that controlled them, some believed of invisible beings that influenced their lives, some of an actual other world that paralleled their own. Many of these people also believed that it was possible to catch a glimpse of these forces, beings, or worlds through a variety of means that propel individuals into altered states of consciousness.

These techniques include meditation, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and (what will be discussed here) psychoactive drugs, more specifically psychedelic drugs. Although in the modern world such drugs have developed an almost taboo status, it is impossible to ignore the tales of enlightenment reported by ancient cultures and even those rebels that use such drugs illegally today. While the American government has been one of the main influences on today's society's negative attitudes towards psychedelic drugs, they have granted some scientist and psychologists permission to experiment with such agents, and despite the controversy and varying results there seem to be many positive uses of psychedelic agents. These positive uses and the research that has been directed toward these uses will be reviewed in the following, as well as a brief history of psychedelic drugs. History: Native Americans are probably the people most known for their use of psychedelic drugs. Being a very religious people, their entire society revolved around the spirit world, and some believed that access to this world was possible by eating certain plants that were abundant in their surroundings.

In what are now Mexico and the Southwestern United States, tribes familiarized themselves with mescaline, the active ingredient in the peyote cactus. Another drug that was used by tribes in these and many other areas was psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic ingredient of the mushroom Psilocybe mexican a and other and species that grow on the pacific coast of North, South, and Central America. Ritual use of psilocybin and mescaline among Mexican and Central American cultures is known to date back to 1500 BC (O'Brien, 1984). While American Indians are well known for their use of psychedelic agents other cultures have also been known to use psychedelics, especially psilocybin. So-called 'magic'; mushrooms also grow naturally in many parts of Europe and Asia. Norse tribesmen, for example, were believed to use Amanita musca ria or fly agaric mushrooms to bring on feelings of rage before going into battle.

The same mushroom may have also been the inspiration to the founders of Hinduism. Preparations of datura, the agent found in jim son weed, are used in magic and witchcraft in many areas of the world, (Aaronson, 1970). More recently many artist, writers, and musicians have been known to use mescaline and psilocybin and other naturally occurring hallucinogens such as those found in morning glory seeds, and nutmeg, as well as synthesized hallucinogens like LSD. Because of their mind-expanding qualities, the high insight into reality that they seem to produce, as well as highly complex sensory experiences, some report receiving inspiration from such drugs. The modern world's first glimpse into the world of psychedelics was through d- acid, or LSD. LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by two Swiss chemists from the alkaloid acid found in ergot, a parasitic fungus that grows on rye and other grains.

Five years later, on April 19, 1943 Albert Hoffman, one of LSD's co-discoverers accidentally ingested some of the drug, and was surprised by what he saw on his bike ride home, (Plot nik, 1995). He experienced restlessness and dizziness followed by a mild delirium in which he experienced 'fantastic visions of extraordinary vividness accompanied by a kaleidoscopic play of intense coloration. ' ; To be sure that the visions Hoffman experienced were a reaction to LSD, he took another dose of 25 mg which today is considered to be two and a half times the normal dose for a major trip. He again experienced intense visualization as well as synesthesia, or the merging of senses: 'sounds were transposed into visual sensations so that from each tone or noise a comparable colored picture was evoked, changing in form and color kaleidoscopically. ' ; (O'Brien, 1984). After 1943, LSD was 'a drug in search of a use,' ; (Brecher, 1972).

The United States army used it as a brainwashing agent, and as an attempt to make prisoners talk more readily. It was also reserved by the armed forces as a possible means of disabling an enemy. Psychiatrists, believing that it mimicked a psychotic state, used LSD on themselves and staff members of mental hospitals in order to better understand mental illness. It was also used as an accessory to psychotherapy in the 1940's and early 1950's in the U.S., England and Europe. In his book The Doors of Perception (1954), Aldous Huxley relayed favorable reports of his experiences with mescaline and encouraged others to explore the possibilities of mystical visions and the potential for increased creativity that psychedelic agents offered, thus sparking what some refer to as the psychedelic revolution.

Throughout the 50's and 60's many scientists and psychologists, notably Dr. Timothy Leary, experimented with various psychedelic agents on themselves and volunteers. Soon however the widespread illicit use of the drugs by the public, especially the hippie subculture, along with a variety of fears that were aroused through some testing, forced governments to prohibit such drugs, except for use by government sanctioned researchers. Many such researchers were in disagreement over the specific capabilities of the drugs, and thus they argued over what the agents should be called. Originally they were thought of as psychotomimetic drugs, because of their ability to mimic psychotic states. However it was soon discovered that their capacities well exceeded the suggestions of this generic term. Humphrey Osmond (1957) discusses his search for a name:' I have tried to find an appropriate name for the agents under discussion: a name that will include the concepts of enriching the mind and enlarging the vision.

Some possibilities are: , mind moving; , mind rousing; and psyche plastic, mind molding. Psychezynic, mind fermenting, is indeed appropriate. Psycherhexic, mind bursting forth, though difficult, is memorable. Psyche lytic, mind releasing, is satisfactory.

My choice, because it is clear, euphonious, and uncontaminated by other associations, is psychedelic, mind manifesting. One of these terms should serve. ' ; From that point on the world referred to these 'mind manifesting'; agents as psychedelic drugs. As with many other drugs, the fact that psychedelics are illegal does not stop their recreational use, and they are still fairly popular today among students, intellectuals, and artists. Why Psychedelics are not like Other Drugs When calling something a drug, one assumes that the content and nature of the experiences induced by that substance are artificial products of its pharmacological interaction with the brain. However, to the contrary, psychedelics do not create artificial experiences but release genuine expressions of the psyche, revealing its functioning on levels not normally available for observation or study.

One must recognize that psychedelics function more or less as nonspecific catalysts and amplifier's of the psyche (Grof, 1994). Psychedelics represent a completely new field of psychology. If one were to compare psychology to astronomy, psychoanalysis would resemble Galileo's telescope, which lets one see a somewhat magnified image of an object, however that image appears upside down and backwards. The telescope changed our whole idea of the solar system and revolutionized navigation. Psychedelics are more like today's high-powered Hubbell-type telescopes that are able to scan the depths of outer, invisible space. They are not convenient.

One cannot go bird watching with them. They explore a tiny segment of an enormous infinity. They raise more questions than answers, and to understand those answers psychologists must change their thinking to fit their new tools (Osmond, 1957). In order to truly comprehend and understand psychedelics, one must put away the narrow and superficial conceptual model used in academic psychiatry and psychology, which is limited to biology, postnatal biography, and the Freudian individual unconscious.

The phenomena that are exposed during a psychedelic experience include sequences of psychological death and rebirth, encounters with archetypal beings, visits to mythological realms of various cultures, past incarnation memories, extrasensory perception, episodes of out of body states, experiences of cosmic consciousness research. Attempts to interpret any of these phenomena in the context of traditional Newtonian-Cartesian science inevitably leads to serious paradoxes (Grof, 1994). Most subjects find the psychedelic experience valuable; some find it frightening, many say that it is uniquely lovely. But nearly all subjects, ranging from artists, scientists, philosophers, and businessmen agree that these experiences are not escapes from, but enlargements, burgeoning's of reality. Their statements suggest that although its functioning is impaired, the brain acts more subtly and complexly than when it is normal. Yet surely, when poisoned, the brain's actions should be less complex rather than more so!

Therefore, if these statements are correct, it would seem that the paradoxes shown here would deem it necessary to not only not think of psychedelics as ordinary drugs, but to think of psychedelic exploration as a completely new way of understanding the human mind. The Psychedelic Experience, 1: The Four Levels of the Psychedelic Experience Many times, subjects have difficulty describing their experiences; it is highly likely that these difficulties occur because of the difficulties that researchers often have when trying to interpret these reports in some sort of organizational structure. One of the more successful attempts at organizing subjective reports of psychedelic experience has been made by R.E.L. Masters and Jean Houston, (1966). Masters and Houston have guided and observed 206 subjects through many LSD and peyote sessions. From their observations, they propose the existence of four levels of mental functioning in the psychedelic state: sensory, recollective-analytic, symbolic, and integral.

At the first, or sensory, level, the subject may report a changed awareness of the body, unusual ways of experiencing space and time, heightened sense impressions, synesthesia ('feeling sounds,' ; 'hearing color'; ), and- with the eyes closed- vivid visual imagery. These sensory level experiences are those that Dr. Hoffman had on his first 'trip'; , these tend to 'de condition'; a subject, to loosen his habitual conceptions, and to ease the rigidity of his past imprinting. At the second, or recollective-analytic, level, the subject's reactions become more emotionally intense. He may relive periods of his life. He may formulate insights into himself, his work, and his personal relationships. Of all Masters and Houston's subjects, only forty per cent reached the third, or symbolic, level.

At this level, visual imagery generally involves history and legend, or the subject may recapitulate the evolutionary process, developing from primordial protoplasm to man. He may also embark upon a 'rite of passage'; and imagine himself participating in a baptismal ceremony or a puberty ritual. Eleven per cent of Masters and Houston's subjects reached the fourth, or integral, level, at which religious or mystical experiences occur. Masters and Houston have described the religious experience as a confrontation with 'the Ground Being'; ; they contrast it with mystical experience, which they see as dissolution, as a merging of the individual with the energy field of the universe.

One woman related, 'All around me was the Light, a trillion atomized crystals shimmering in the blinding incandescence. ' ; (Masters, 1966) A vivid description of a psychedelic session has been given by Allen Watts (1962), in which the subject is listening to a recording of a Catholic Mass. This description clearly depicts how the subject shifts from the sensory, to the recollective-analytic, symbolic, and integral levels. ' I am listening to the music of an organ... The organ seems quite literally to speak. There is no use of the vox human a, but every sound seems to issue from a vast human throat, moist with saliva...

'; This is the sensory level of the psychedelic experience. Perceptual changes have formed the organ music in to a human voice. Other sense impressions take form as Watts speaks of 'a vast human throat, wet with saliva. ' ; He is making visual and other connections with what he has heard. ' I am listening to a priest chanting the Mass, and a choir of nuns responding.

His mature, cultivated voice rings with the serene authority of the One, Holy, and Apostolic Church, of the Faith once and for all delivered to the saints, and the nuns respond naively it seems, with childlike, utterly innocent devotion. But listening again, I can hear the priest 'putting on'; his voice, hear the inflated, pompous balloon, the studiedly unctuous tones of a master deception ist who has the poor little nuns, kneeling in their stalls completely cowed. Listen deeper. The nuns are not cowed at all. They are playing possum. With just a little stiffening, the limp gesture of bowing nuns turns into the gesture of the closing claw.

With too few men to go around, the nuns know what is good for them: how to bend and survive. This is the recollective-analytic level, at which memories and insights often occur. Watts is listening to a recording of the Mass, when suddenly he perceives a pompous quality to the priest's tones. Going deeper into the analysis of what he hears, Watts discovers that the nuns' response displays more than obedience- it is their shrewd way of playing the game of survival. ' But this profoundly cynical view is only an intermediate stage... In the priest's voice I hear down at the root the primordial howl of the beast in the jungle, but it has been inflected, complicated, refined, and textured with centuries of culture...

At first, crude and unconcealed, the cry for food or mate, or just noise for the fun of it, making the rocks echo. Then rhythm to enchant, then changes of tone to plead or threaten. Then words to specify the need, to promise and bargain. And then, much later, the gambits of indirection. The feminine stratagem of stooping to conquer, the claim to superior worth in renouncing the world for the spirit, the cunning of weakness proving stronger than the might of muscle- and the weak inheriting the earth. ' ; This is the psychedelic experience's symbolic stage.

The priest's voice reflects the evolutionary process; the nun's response echoes female archetypes. ' As I listen then, I can hear in that one voice the simultaneous presence of all the levels of man's history, as of all the stages of life before man. Every step in the game becomes as clear as the rings in a severed tree... I, as an adult, am also back there alone in the dark, just as the primordial howl is still present beneath the sublime modulations of the chant... Down and at last out- out of the cosmic maze... I feel, with a peace so deep that it sings to be shared with all the world, that at last I belong, that I have returned to the home beyond home...

The sure foundation upon which I had sought to stand has turned out to be the center from which I seek. ' ; This is the integral stage of the psychedelic experience. Watts sees himself in the voice of the priest and in all the precursors of that voice. His 'home beyond home'; and 'sure foundation'; is the very center of his being. Because the sensory and recollective-analytic levels are the more commonly occurring of the four levels due to the fact that they are the lower or initial levels, there are considerably more recorded accounts of experiences in them. The following are accounts from subjects of varying researchers.

A subject of Constance Newland (1962) became interested in studying famous paintings after ingesting thirty milligrams of psilocybin, he asserted ly lost his reading ability completely while under the influence of the drug, while his capacity to view the pictures grew pleasurable. 'I glanced at my watch but could make no sense out of the numerical symbols. I looked at an art magazine; the pictures were beautiful, almost three-dimensional. However, the script was a jumble of meaningless shapes. The same subject, near the end of his 'psilocybin high,' ; reported still another alteration in the viewing process:' Earlier, I had tasted an orange and found it the most intense, delightful taste sensation I had ever experienced. I had tried reading a magazine as I was 'coming down,' ; and felt the same sensual delight in moving my eye over the printed page as I had experienced when eating the orange.

' The words stood out in three dimensions. Reading had never been such a sheer delight and such a complete joy. My comprehension was excellent. I quickly grasped the intent of the author and felt that I knew exactly what meaning he was trying to convey. ' ; In the former instance, motivation for reading was low because the subject was interested in studying art prints. In the latter episode, the pleasure of eating an orange permeated the act of reading a magazine, which then became a delightful experience.

The following report is another, perhaps simpler account of an experience during a peyote session that bridges the symbolic and recollective-analytic levels of psychedelic experience (Aaronson, 1970) 'The guide asked me how I felt, and I responded 'Good. ' ; As I uttered the word 'Good,' ; I could see it form visually in the air. It was pink and fluffy, like a cloud. The word looked 'good'; in its appearance and so it had to be 'Good. ' ; The word and the thing I was trying to express were one, and 'Good'; was floating around in the air. ' ; Name and thing are often wedded at the recollective-analytic and the symbolic stages.

A subject will say the word 'Mother'; and feel that the word itself contains aspects of his own mother. A theology student will say 'Logos'; and imagine that God and Christ are both present within the word. Not until the drug's effects begin to wear off can these individuals tear the words apart from the experience (Aaronson, 1970). P.G. Stafford and B.H. Golighty (1967) have cited the account of a student who utilized the recollective-analytic level to practical advantages learning enough German in a week to enroll for an advanced course in the subject:' I hadn't even gotten around to picking up a textbook, but I did have a close friend who knew German well and who said he was willing to 'sit in' while I took the drug and try to teach me the language. ' The thing that impressed me at first was the delicacy of the language... Before long I was catching on even to the umlauts. Things were speeding up like mad, and there were floods of associations...

Memory, of course, is a matter of association and boy was I ever linking up to things! I had no difficulty recalling words he had given me- in fact, I was eager to link them together. In a couple of hours after that, I was even reading some simple German, and it all made sense. ' ; Not all psychedelic experiences are positive however. Material that emerges at the recollective-analytic level does not always lead to the well being of a subject, especially if the drugs are taken in unsupervised sessions and with an absence of preparation. Following an LSD session, a college student wrote the following account of his experience at the recollective-analytic level:' Apparently some sort of love making was going on in the other room because the guide would not let me enter it.

As it turned out, this was the wrong thing to do, because it started me on the road to paranoia, panic, and 'the depths. ' ; His refusal to let me enter the room aroused my suspicions of an ulterior motive. I picked one which I have a curious fear of: homosexuality. I was unwilling to submit to what became suggestive words, lewd actions, and a depraved smile. I shudder when I recall it. My fear was not of the act but that if I submitted I would become 'one of them'; - 'them'; being an indefinite but evil sort of being with a depraved smile- and never able to 'return.

' ; It reminded me of the movie The Pod People, where 'people'; are grown in pods and substituted for real people. You don't even know if your best friend is one of these 'people'; dedicated to your destruction or conversion until it is too late. ' ; Because of the pathological elements in this description, the student was advised by several people to do no more drug experimentation. However, about a year later, the student accepted a friend's invitation to smoke marijuana. The session began with a number of pleasant bodily feelings and unusual perceptual impressions. Suddenly, the student became obsessed with the notion that his friend wanted to have sexual relations with him.

The student's friend called the police and the student was rushed to the hospital, having entered a serious psychotic episode. It should also be noted that when the student was later interviewed, it was discovered that no antidote had been given him once he entered the hospital. Instead policemen, who insisted on knowing the names of campus marijuana and LSD users, interrogated him (Aaronson, 1970). This last note brings to the floor the idea that set and setting are two very influential predominance's of psychedelic experiences, along with suggestion and other topics that might be familiar to psychologists interested in other fields of study.

The Psychedelic Experience, 2: Set and Setting In just about all psychedelic experiences there is a noticeable agreement between the general feeling of the experience, whether it was pleasurable, frightening, insightful, or disturbing, and the set and setting of that experience, or any kind of suggestion that might have preceded it. This is a notion that is associated to other areas of psychology, especially hypnosis. In order for the enhanced capacity for experience created by psychedelic agents to show itself, an adequate range of stimuli must first be available to be experienced (Aaronson, 1970). Hoffer and Osmond (1967) Stress the importance of providing ample environmental support to create the kinds of experience required to produce a change in personality.

Alpert and Cohen (1966) also stress the need for satisfactory settings to provide psychedelic experiences. As the stimulus situations presented to the subject increase in complexity, the variability of possible responses to those stimuli increases, especially when there is perceptual heightening. For this reason, along with the emphasis on setting, a companion emphasis on set- the attitudes, motivations, preconceptions, and intentions that individuals bring to their experiences- has arisen (Aaronson, 1970). It has been pointed out that the psychotomimetic reactions of the early studies with LSD occurred within the context of a laboratory in which the individual taking the drug was surrounded by white-coated physicians who were looking for evidence that a parallel situation to schizophrenia was being produced. LSD subjects were sometimes told by the physician administering the drug, 'You will probably go out of your mind for several hours'; ; many subjects later reported terrifying experiences. It has also been shown that when psychedelics were administered to a variety of normal subject groups under conditions in which they were confronted with impersonal, hostile, and investigative attitudes on the part of others, the subjects responded with devaluate distortions and hostility.

Flexibility, familiarity, and the presence of others with a common culture ameliorated the psychotomimetic aspects of the reaction, while rigidity, unfamiliarity, non-acceptance, and absence of others with a common culture exacerbated them (Aaronson, 1970). For example, in the preceding report, it is likely that the psychotic episode that the student entered was influenced, and probably increased in severity by the hospital setting and the interrogation that followed his admittance. The knowledge of the influence of set and setting can be seen in many of the cultures discussed in the historical section. The Norse tribesmen who ingested the fly agra ric mushroom before setting forth into battle most definitely had a preconceived notion that it would bring on feelings of rage, while the Hindus probably assumed that eating the same mushroom would bring them feelings of peace and harmony. The Native American Church strictly follows the guidelines set by their ancestors, consuming their peyote during controlled sessions in which the religious leader maintains the general peaceful manner of the group while they play drums and chant the teachings of Christ in ritualistic ceremonies. Whether they were positive or negative responses is up for interpretation, but it is apparent that due to the set and setting of the aforementioned experiences, the desired response was achieved by all of the groups.

The Native Americans, as well as the Hindus, reached spiritual heightening and awareness, the Norse tribesmen achieved their feelings of rage, and the early modern experimenters were able to bring on psychotic reactions in their patients, thus bringing to attention the idea that it might be possible to acquire any desired response one might have by undergoing psychedelic therapy or training. Using Psychedelic Agents as Tools This is an idea that is hard to resist. That psychedelics might not only be used recreation ally and in the offices of psychiatrists and psychologists, but as a tool for business men, educators, linguists, and even other areas of psychology, such as behavior change programs in prisons, it is truly revolutionary. Stanislav Grof (1994) says of psychedelics: 'They are powerful tools and like any tool they can be used skillfully, ineptly, and destructively. ' ; Willis W. Harman (1970) also speaks along those same lines, 'Given the appropriate conditions, the psychedelic agents can be employed to enhance any aspect of mental performance...

The psychedelic agent acts as a facilitator, an adjunct to the situation it facilitates, neither good nor evil, efficacious nor powerless, safe nor dangerous. ' ; In 1965 Dr. Timothy Leary and his associates began a behavior change program using psilocybin. Their subjects were 32 inmates at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Concord who were eligible for parole in three to five months time and had not more than one previous parole violation. After an initial discussion meeting, the inmates took a variety of personality tests. There followed three to four discussion meetings where the test results were discussed, as well as the possible experiences with psilocybin, and the subjects were encouraged to plan their own behavior change programs. The groups met for an all-day session in a hospital room, and took psilocybin.

The atmosphere was relaxed and permissive, subjects were allowed to lie down if they wished, music was also available. The effects of the drug last about 3-4 hours, but the group would stay together all day for support and discussion. No interpretations were made during the session, but afterwards another series of three to four discussion meetings was held, during which subjects worked through their experiences, compared, analyzed, and tried to integrate into everyday life what they had learned. This process was repeated two or three times and after the final discussion meeting the men were re-tested with the same battery of tests and the results were again fed back.

Here is the case study of S., A 48 year old white man who was serving time on charges of being a common and notorious thief, forgery, larceny and escape. He had a prior history of 30 arrests, the first one at the age of twelve. On the initial tests S. presented the classic picture of a 'hardened inmate'; . During the first psilocybin session, S. was suspicious and attempted to control and suppress the changes that were occurring partly due to a competitive situation with another inmate.

For the second session in the same group, he was given a larger dose since he was a rather large individual. Out of the shell of the hardened criminal emerged a sensitive, lonely, child-like human being. 'At the time of the peak of the drugs effect I had a terrific feeling of sadness and loneliness, and a feeling of great remorse of the wasted years... It seemed to me that I was crying inside of me and a feeling as if tears were washing everything away. And I was hollow inside, with just an outer shell standing there watching time stand still. ' ; (Leary, 1965) He continued in a second group as an assistant group leader.

With a group of three younger inmates it was possible for him to assume a role of responsible and encouraging leadership. In the two sessions with this group he was able to experience and explore certain more alien and unacceptable aspects of his personality. In one it was a fear of death which he envisioned in the form of a summoning figure; in the other it was his own selfishness (in demanding drugs). After both experiences he reported feeling very detached from prison life, uninterested in gambling or even talking to anyone except those in his group. In describing the influence of the project on his life, S. wrote:'. ..

Before taking this drug my thinking always seemed to travel in the same circles, drinking, gambling, money and women and sex as easy and I guess a fast life... Now my thoughts are troubled and at times quite confusing, but they are all of an honest nature, and of wondering. I know what I want to be and I am sincere in my mind when I say that I will try very hard to make it so. I also know that the mushroom drug in group discussions, and tests, and group therapy is most important. Because there is then also an opening of the mind, and you also get a better understanding of yourself and the people who are in your group. You feel more free to say and discuss things, which you generally would not do.

' ; (Leary, 1965) Here it is obvious that his psychedelic experiences produced quite a personality change in S. He was released on parole and was never arrested again. This therapy appears to be an evident solution for keeping individuals from being arrested and jailed after being released from a previous sentence, a problem that is widely growing in the over populated prisons of the United States. In another quite different experiment Willis W. Harman and James Fad iman (1970) focused on the selective enhancement of specific capacities through psychedelic training. Through observations that they had made in their previous clinical research with psychedelics had led them to postulate these propositions: (1) Any human function, as generally elicited, can be performed more effectively.

This amounts to an acknowledgment that we do not function to our full capacity. (2) The psychedelics appear to temporarily inhibit censors that ordinarily limit the mental contents coming into awareness. The subject may, for example, discover his latent ability to form colored imagery, to hallucinate, to recall forgotten experiences of early childhood, to generate meaningful symbolic presentations, etc. By leading the subject to expect enhancements of other types of performance- creative problem solving, learning manual or verbal skills, manipulating logical or mathematical symbols, sensory or extrasensory perception, memory and recall- and by providing favorable preparatory and environmental conditions, it may be possible to improve the level of functioning in any desired respect.

(3) Both objective and subjective indicators of mental performance are appropriate to use in establishing whether there has indeed been an improvement (or impairment) of performance. The subjects were twenty-seven males engaged in a variety of professional occupations, all of which normally required problem solving ability. Each group of four subjects met one another during an evening session several days before the experimental day. Subjects were told that they would experience little or no distractions such as visions, involvement with personal emotional states, and so on. The instructions emphasized that the experience could be directed as desired.

Direct suggestions were made to encourage mental flexibility during the session. About one hour of pencil and paper tests was administered following the explanation and the subjects were told that they would take a similar battery during the experimental session. By the end of the preparation session, participants were generally anticipative and at ease. The subjects arrived at the session room at 8: 30, at 9: 00 the psychedelic agent (mescaline sulfate) was given, and for three hours the subjects relaxed with their eyes closed listening to music. At noon the battery of psychological tests were given, and then the subjects proceeded to work on their problems for four hours. Afterwards there was a discussion of their experiences and a review of their respective solutions.

Participants were driven home after this and given sedatives in case they experienced any difficulty in sleeping. In many cases however, they preferred to stay up well after midnight, continuing to work on insights and solutions discovered earlier in the day. The following is a list of some of the factors that enhanced functioning during the session, followed by representative quotations from the subjects' reports. 1. Low Inhibition and Anxiety: 'There was no fear, no worry, no sense of reputation and competition, no envy, none of these things which in varying degrees have always been present in my work. ' ; 2.

Capacity to Restructure Problem in Larger Context: 'Looking at the same problem with [psychedelic] materials, I was able to consider it in a much more basic way, because I could form and keep in mind a much broader picture. ' ; 3. Enhanced Fluency and Flexibility of Ideation: 'I began to work fast, almost feverishly, to keep up with the flow of ideas. ' ; 4.

Heightened Capacity for Visual Imagery and Fantasy: 'Was able to move imaginary parts in relation to each other. ' ; 5. Increased Ability to Concentrate: 'Was able to shut out virtually all distracting influences. ' ; 6. Heightened Empathy with External Processes and Objects: '... The sense of the problem as a living thing that is growing towards its inherent solution.

' ; 7. Heightened Empathy with People: 'Sometimes we even had the feeling of having the same thoughts or ideas. ' ; 8. Subconscious Data more Accessible: '... Brought about almost total recall of a course that I had had in thermodynamics; something I had never given any thought to in years. ' ; 9.

Association of Dissimilar Ideas: 'Most of the insights come by association. ' ; 10. Heightened Motivation to Obtain Closure: 'Had tremendous desire to obtain an elegant solution (the most for the least). ' ; 11. Visualizing the Completed Solution: 'I looked at the paper I was to draw on.

I was completely blank. I knew that I would work with a property three hundred feet square. I drew the property lines, and I looked at the outlines. I was blank. 'Suddenly I saw the finished project: I did some quick calculations... it would fit on the property and not only that... it would park enough cars... it met all the requirements. It was contemporary architecture with the richness of a cultural heritage... it used history and experience but did not copy it.

' ; Many of the solutions conceived in these sessions were actually put to use, thus proving that by using psychedelic agents it is quite possible to obtain a variety of practical solutions that might take longer to achieve under normal circumstances. It also shows that if motivated properly, one can achieve a greater part of his potential while under the effects of psychedelic agents. These are only two of many of the various experiments that have explored the capacities of psychedelic agents. One should believe that any amount of possibilities is conceivable when such agents are applied.

Conclusion: Hopefully through this look at psychedelic drugs the reader can appreciate the numerous invaluable positive uses that these agents offer. They have been used for centuries in other societies and cultures with seemingly little harm, and if used correctly there should be no reason for them to cause harm in ours. Through the limited research the government has allowed scientists and psychologists, there have been amazing discoveries of the capacities of these drugs. It has been proven that they are able to extend psychotherapy's view of the human mind, they are able to promote massive personality changes, and to enhance the learning and problem solving experience. It has even been suggested that psychedelics are able to enhance any aspect of mental functioning. One must look beyond the stereotypes that psychedelics have earned in the twentieth century, and also modern science, that presupposes that any thing that cannot be explained within its own contexts either does not exist or is but a fanciful idea.

However, the realm of psychedelics is uncharted area, and when dealing with such experimental substances, such as these psychedelic agents, one must proceed with caution, as was mentioned earlier the agents are powerful tools and can be used with skill or reckless abandon, and therefore can yield positive responses or deadly consequences. If used with care psychedelics will allow many psychologists and patients to embark on a perhaps endless journey of self-discovery.