Mescaline: A Neglected Tool for Psychotherapy

There are classic psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, DMT) and non-classic psychedelics (ketamine, MDMA) that receive a lot of scientific and public attention regarding their potential mental health benefits. These are substances that, when combined with psychotherapy, can be helpful in resolving or alleviating conditions such as depressive and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and addiction.…

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Analysing the Idea of Plant Consciousness

The idea that plants have consciousness, sentience, or intelligence would be unthinkable to most people. How could an organism without a nervous system or brain possess these capacities? A minority of scientists are challenging this assumption, however, leading some people to accept the possibility that the spectrum of sentience is more inclusive than previously imagined.…

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Can Psychedelics Make People More Drawn to Conspiracy Theories?

It is widely known that psychedelics and cannabis are associated with non-conventional thinking. The way that these psychoactive substances change how people think – including cannabis, which can have mild and sometimes profound psychedelic effects – can be viewed with serious interest; psychedelics can, after all, alter people’s metaphysical beliefs, including those of psychologists and…

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‘Just Listen to Your Body’: How Pseudo-Wisdom Fuels Science Denial

In the realm of New Age spirituality/ideology, one reason to oppose medical interventions is contained in the phrase ‘just listen to your body’ – in a very specific sense. Listening to your body could, in one way, simply mean developing a mindful awareness of your body, such as whether you feel physically fatigued or if…

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The Relationship Between Personality and Sensitivity to Psychedelics

When different people take the same dose of any psychedelic, some will have a more subjectively intense experience than others. This is due to dose-independent factors, or what many psychonauts, psychedelic enthusiasts, and researchers call set and setting. Set is your mindset going into the experience, whereas setting refers to all the environmental factors that…

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