psychedelics
FilterEveryone, all time23 from 10 people
- SP
Sunil Pai quoted
Systems and developer-tools engineer at Cloudflare as of 2026
Their wordsat some point (now?) we should stop calling it psychosis, recognise that it’s actually euphoria
- 2 weeks earlier
- SC
Sasha Chapin quoted
Writer and author of All the Wrong Moves
Their wordsThe moment when you realize that you thought drugs were powerful and meditation was mild, but you now realize the opposite is true.
↗Average moments of a long-term meditatorsashachapin.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
- HK
Henrik Karlsson quoted
Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland
Their wordsThere are many practices that promise to transform and improve us-therapy, meditation, psychedelics-, but that branding doesn't mean that they actually do much for us: it is common to see people use these techniques for years without any obvious progress on their problems.
↗How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 9 months earlier
- NO
Norman Ohler quoted
German writer and journalist
Their wordsAnd then I found a smoking gun: October 1943. Kuhn acknowledges that he receives half a gram of ergotamine, which is the precursor drug to LSD. And so it's highly likely that the Nazis used LSD together with mescaline in Dachau.
↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 20th of 22 in this recording
- NO
Norman Ohler quoted
Their wordsAnd this is basically the reason why LSD at one point became illegal, because it did not get the chance. Stoll still wanted to put it on the market, but Sidney Gottlieb, the head of MKULTRA, he really didn't want LSD to be on the market. He didn't want it because he thought it's not good or dangerous for anybody, he just wanted to control LSD.
↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 22nd of 22 in this recording
- 11 months earlier
- GH
Graham Hancock quoted
British journalist and author
Their wordsIf I had the power to do so, I would make it a law, an absolute law, that anybody running for a powerful political position, particularly if that position is president or head of state in any kind of way, that that person has to undergo the ayahuasca ordeal first.
↗Graham Hancock: Lost Civilization of the Ice Age & Ancient Human History | Lex Fridman Podcast #449youtube.com 21st of 25 in this recording
- 2 weeks earlier
- EB
Ed Barnhart quoted
Archaeologist and director of the Maya Exploration Center
Their wordsIn fact, strangely, the majority of plants that are actually psychotropic, not just mood altering, are from here in the Americas. There are very few drugs that will make you hallucinate outside of the Americas.
↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 9th of 25 in this recording
- 3 years earlier
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Author and journalist writing on food
Their wordsI'd happily trade that for a greater measure of horticultural freedom. To me, the very idea of a criminal plant seems wrong.
↗The Intoxicating Gardenmichaelpollan.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 23 months earlier
- SA
Scott Alexander quoted
Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten
Our reading · no longer heldPsychedelics work by strengthening the brain's top-down priors
No longer holdsA more recent paper by Carhart-Harris and Friston provides compelling evidence that psychedelics probably work by _weakening_ the brain's top-down priors, meaning I got this one maximally wrong.
SaidA more recent paper by Carhart-Harris and Friston provides compelling evidence that psychedelics probably work by weakening the brain's top-down priors, meaning I got this one maximally wrong.
- 1 day earlier
- SA
Scott Alexander quoted
Their wordsI suggested that psychedelics might work by strengthening the brain's top-down priors.
- 2 months earlier
- RC
Robin Carhart-Harris quoted
Neuroscientist and psychedelics researcher
Their wordsWe end by discussing further implications of the model, such as that psychedelics can bring about the revision of other heavily weighted high-level priors, not directly related to mental health, such as those underlying partisan and/or overly-confident political, religious, and/or philosophical perspectives.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- KF
Karl Friston quoted
Neuroscientist at University College London
Their wordsWe end by discussing further implications of the model, such as that psychedelics can bring about the revision of other heavily weighted high-level priors, not directly related to mental health, such as those underlying partisan and/or overly-confident political, religious, and/or philosophical perspectives.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- RC
Robin Carhart-Harris quoted
Their wordsThe resulting synthesis states that psychedelics work to relax high-level priors, sensitising them to liberated bottom-up information flow, which, with the right intention, care provision and context, can help guide and cultivate the revision of entrenched pathological priors.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- KF
Karl Friston quoted
Their wordsThe resulting synthesis states that psychedelics work to relax high-level priors, sensitising them to liberated bottom-up information flow, which, with the right intention, care provision and context, can help guide and cultivate the revision of entrenched pathological priors.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- RC
Robin Carhart-Harris quoted
Our readingPsychedelics may be therapeutic precisely because they act on the brain's highest-level beliefs.
Their wordsIn this paper, we propose that psychedelics can be therapeutically effective, precisely because they target the high levels of the brain’s functional hierarchy, primarily affecting the precision weighting of high-level priors or beliefs.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- KF
Karl Friston quoted
Our readingPsychedelics may be therapeutic precisely because they act on the brain's highest-level beliefs.
Their wordsIn this paper, we propose that psychedelics can be therapeutically effective, precisely because they target the high levels of the brain’s functional hierarchy, primarily affecting the precision weighting of high-level priors or beliefs.
↗REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelicspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov All 10 from this paper
- 8 days earlier
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Our readingUnsupervised use of psilocybin carries risks of a different order than unsupervised use of cannabis.
Their wordsThe risks of unsupervised psilocybin use are considerable, and of a different order than the risks of cannabis.
↗Where I Stand on Magic Mushroomsmichaelpollan.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Our readingPsilocybin is a remarkably safe drug, with no known lethal dose and no addictive potential.
Their wordsIn some ways, psilocybin is a remarkably safe drug - there is no known lethal dose (something that can't be said for many medicines sold without a prescription) and it is nonaddictive.
↗Not So Fast on Magic Mushroomsmichaelpollan.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Their wordsin rare instances, a psychedelic trip can set off a psychotic break.
↗Not So Fast on Magic Mushroomsmichaelpollan.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Our readingBallot initiatives are not the smartest way to establish a legal place for psychedelic therapy.
Their wordsMy worry is that ballot initiatives may not be the smartest way to get there.
↗Not So Fast on Magic Mushroomsmichaelpollan.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 12 months earlier
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Their wordsThe psychedelic experience appears to give people a radical new perspective on their own lives, making possible a shift in worldview and priorities that allows them to let go of old habits.
↗My Adventures With the Trip Doctorsmichaelpollan.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Their wordsthe psychedelic experience is not foreordained by the chemical but rather is "constructed" in the mind from an unpredictable mix of expectation, memory, the contents of the unconscious and a variety of environmental factors.
↗My Adventures With the Trip Doctorsmichaelpollan.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- MP
Michael Pollan quoted
Our readingPsychedelics have lower toxicity and less addiction potential than other psychoactive compounds.
Their wordsCompared with other psychoactive compounds, psychedelics have low toxicity and are nonaddictive.
↗My Adventures With the Trip Doctorsmichaelpollan.com 3rd of 3 in this piece