Are Psychedelics The New Wonder Drug?

Or something with serious spiritual implications?

Although these treatments have been around for a long time, ketamine-assisted therapy and psilocybin-assisted therapy (among a handful of others) seem to be surging with a popularity that I’ve not seen before. For those unfamiliar this is a psychedelic therapy that helps “open the mind” and assist in the treatment of several mental health issues. The top mental health conditions that have been studied for this sort of psychedelic treatment are:

• Major depressive disorder

• Bipolar disorder

• Post-traumatic stress disorder

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Generalized anxiety disorder

• Social anxiety disorder

• Chronic pain

• Alcoholism

• (probably others but that’s enough of a list)

From what I’ve read, the evidence is encouraging that this sort of treatment has some very positive outcomes. But I can’t help but wonder if there’s more going on here. I wonder if “opening the mind” and “lowering defences” can also be a bad thing, from a perspective that takes into consideration the spirit realm.

The reason I wonder is because the roots of psychedelics are with indigenous and shamanic traditions with strong spiritual implications. For example, for thousands of years in the Amazon Basin Ayahuasca ceremonies revolve around a psychedelic brew from the ayahuasca vine to elicit powerful visions and emotional experiences. Native Americans would similarly use peyote (a type of cactus) for ceremonial use, and in South America another cactus, San Pedro, is used, in West Africa it’s the iboga shrub, and so on. There are many examples of spiritual ceremonies using psychedelics to place the shaman and/or the worshipers into a particular psychedelic state of mind. I’m sure we are all aware of this.

There has been, for a while now, a whole cottage industry around Ayahuasca Ceremonies for Westerners. Ayahuasca retreats promise a “guided journey into another dimension” with the assistance of an indigenous shaman. One retreat says its aim is “to provide you with the optimum environment for you to replant your spirit”. Is this the sorcery or magic form of pharmakeia? What the heck are we doing replanting our spirits?

Here's the abstract from a recent journal article highlighting the spiritual experiences associated with psychedelic-assisted therapy:

Psychedelic substances have been central to religious and shamanic healing practices of various cultures for generations. More recently, in western medicine, psychedelic substances have demonstrated promise in the treatment of various mental health indications. A growing evidence base supports not only the therapeutic potential of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, but also the importance of integrating spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences into the traditional therapeutic process. Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic, is a serotonergic hallucinogen that can elicit profound spiritual experiences even in the research setting. Our group is currently conducting a randomized controlled trial exploring the therapeutic potential of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for alcohol dependence. Over the course of the trial, many individuals have reported experiences that take a variety of forms, including spiritual insights, beatific visions, and communion with the Divine. Here we present three case studies of experiences involving communion with a deceased loved one, with a holy figure, and with the Divine from our clinical trial. These cases have been selected to illustrate the diverse nature of the spiritual experiences observed in this clinical trial, and to also explore elements of spiritual care that may be supportive in the psychotherapeutic process during and after the medication experiences. Should psychedelic medicine continue to show treatment promise in clinical trial stages, there is a strong possibility that these medicines will become an integral part of psychotherapy, which will require integration of direct spiritual experiences and spiritual care into the healing process.¹

“Leading the psychedelic renaissance” is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) – they are even featured in a new Netflix series on psychedelics “How to Change Your Mind”. The main message is that psychedelics are not at all dangerous and that the superstitious perspective that people in the west have had about psychedelics has now been debunked. These are safe and effective therapies.

Ketamine was originally developed in the 1960s as an anaesthetic and was commonly used in surgery and emergency medicine due to its ability to rapidly induce a “dissociative state”, helping to reduce pain and anxiety. In the 1990s researchers began to explore the potential therapeutic effects of ketamine on mental health disorders and by the early 2000s was trialed as an antidepressant. Apparently, these studies showed that ketamine produced rapid and significant improvements in depressive symptoms in patients who had previously been resistant to traditional antidepressant treatments. So there emerged an alternative for “treatment resistant” patients, and now, it seems, it’s for everyone.

Ketamine-assisted therapy combines the use of this dissociative anaesthetic with psychotherapy to help alleviate symptoms of certain mental health conditions by “removing defences”, “opening the mind”, and freeing the patient from mental rigidity (as some characterise it). As a NMDA receptor antagonist it changes the activity in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus (where there are the most NMDA receptors). An antagonist will block receptors for a specific neurotransmitter, in this case glutamate (the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain), and you would expect it to decrease prefrontal activity. But paradoxically ketamine seems to increase glutamate signalling in the prefrontal cortex. The exact mechanism underlying this paradoxical effect is not yet fully understood, but it is believed to involve a complex interplay between several different neurotransmitters and signalling pathways in the brain. Basically, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the mechanisms in play here.

During therapy a licensed healthcare professional administers a controlled dose of ketamine through an intravenous infusion or nasal spray. The patient then undergoes a psychotherapy session while under the influence of the drug, often sitting or lying down in a comfortable place. The goal of the therapy is to provide a heightened state of awareness and insight, allowing the patient to explore their thoughts and emotions in a safe and supported environment.

But Ketamine is not the only psychoactive substance on the menu. Research and clinical practice is going on with MDMA, cannabis, LSD, ibogaine, ayahuasca and psilocybin (magic mushrooms).  Australia’s TGA has approved MDMA and psilocybin for psychotherapeutic use. The word is out, big time – this ‘safe and effective’ treatment is going to save a lot of people much mental anguish, and save a lot of lives (IV Ketamine has been used for year on severely depressed and suicidal patients), so goes the narrative.

This is big business, to say the least. I’m sure the entrepreneurs who are getting in now are going to make a lot of money.

But just because the TGA or the FDA or Big Pharma call something ‘safe and effective’, I still can’t help my intuitive hesitation. It may be physiologically safe… maybe… but again, what about the spiritual realm? I mean these drugs have come out of a spiritual tradition, they promise spiritual insight and transformation. Are we just going to jump headlong into mind altering drugs because it comes all packaged in modern ‘science’ – no dancing around the fire required? Or maybe we do want to go back to dancing around the fire, smoking mushrooms and encountering the divine? (whatever version of the ‘divine’ lies behind a psychedelic experience)

Seemingly so. Every major voice out there is touting the wonders of psychedelics – it’s mainstream in a big way. If you lack faith in it, I’m guessing you’d be shot down as ignorant, superstitious, anti-science, or worse.  

Here’s another abstract from a recent paper suggesting that psychedelics could be a pathway toward spiritual health. It quotes sentiments like “Psychedelics offer a safe and powerful pathway to spiritual growth, almost as if these drugs were custom-made for a culture that sees itself as “spiritual but not religious””, and “Are we witnessing a kind of evolutionary step in the long history of human consciousness of a holy or transcendent dimension?” I think we are.

When the link between psychedelic drugs and mystical states of experience was first discovered in the 1960s, Huston Smith challenged scholars in religion and philosophy to consider the implications. Very few took up his challenge. Beginning in 2006, hundreds of studies have linked psychedelics not just to mystical states of experience but to potential treatments for many mental health disorders. Regulatory approval for therapies is on the horizon, and hundreds of millions of people worldwide could be treated. Research findings challenge the underlying rationale of the War on Drugs, leading to decriminalization of specific psychedelic drugs or to authorization of their use in mental health contexts. Religious institutions are slowly adapting, with some referring to psychedelics as sacraments or as pathways to deeper spirituality. Religious leaders are also beginning to speak out publicly in support of careful use of these drugs, and some are training to become “psychedelic chaplains” to work alongside mental health professionals administering these drugs. Scholars in theology and religion are encouraged to engage these trends, to explore challenging philosophical and theological issues surrounding mystical states of experience in general, and to consider the long-term cultural impact of the most recent psychedelic research.²

Am I being overly cautious about something that is not an issue? Or is this some gnostic gateway to esoteric knowledge we should embrace? Is it just a tool for neurological rewiring of traumatised brains? Or is this opening ourselves up to demonic manipulation?

Of course, the debate is long and extensive with an ocean of articles, blog posts, videos, from multiple PhDs to every sort of wako you can imagine. The majority, it seems to me, are pro-psychedelic, from Jesus being strung out on mushrooms to the latest scientific findings of health benefits.

But I still feel it could be a major psych op. Another Big Pharma move. Another layer of propaganda from the principalities and powers that lord it over the earth.

Or have I been psychologically damaged from the past few years that I can no longer trust the experts, the regulatory agencies, the science - lost in my own dissociative state?

Will Winston Smith stop struggling and truly love Big Brother?

What do you think?

1. Podrebarac, S. K., O'Donnell, K. C., Mennenga, S. E., Owens, L. T., Malone, T. C., Duane, J. H., & Bogenschutz, M. P. (2021). Spiritual experiences in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: Case reports of communion with the divine, the departed, and saints in research using psilocybin for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 8(3), 177–187.

2. Cole-Turner R. Psychedelic Mystical Experience: A New Agenda for Theology. Religions. 2022; 13(5):385. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050385