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First Evidence For Higher State of Consciousness Found (neurosciencenews.com)
New submitter baalcat quotes a report from Neuroscience News: Neuroscientists observed a sustained increase in neural signal diversity -- a measure of the complexity of brain activity -- of people under the influence of psychedelic drugs, compared with when they were in a normal waking state. The diversity of brain signals provides a mathematical index of the level of consciousness. For example, people who are awake have been shown to have more diverse neural activity using this scale than those who are asleep. This, however, is the first study to show brain-signal diversity that is higher than baseline, that is higher than in someone who is simply "awake and aware." Previous studies have tended to focus on lowered states of consciousness, such as sleep, anesthesia, or the so-called "vegetative" state. For the study, Michael Schartner, Dr Adam Barrett and Professor Seth of the Sackler Center reanalyzed data that had previously been collected by Imperial College London and the University of Cardiff in which healthy volunteers were given one of three drugs known to induce a psychedelic state: psilocybin, ketamine and LSD. Using brain imaging technology, they measured the tiny magnetic fields produced in the brain and found that, across all three drugs, this measure of conscious level -- the neural signal diversity -- was reliably higher. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.
"Creating complexity" in the sense of more measurable neural events is not a measure of "higher conscience". You can get the same effect with a pair of electrodes, or even getting patterns of neural events in seizures. The destruction of existing structures, and the inability to retain those "new insights" long enough to explain or use them either during or after the influence of psychedelic "events" is evidence that disruption is possible, not evidence of a "higher" consceience.
It's very *exciting* to get blitzed, and it can be *fun* to taste the color red. But it's hardly insightful. You can get more "insight" by simply paying attention.
Also known as 'lots of activity'. That may translate to *altered* state of consciousness, but calling it a *higher* state just tells me someone really likes their psychedelic drugs.
Your brain trying to figure out what to do with random signals produced by chemical disruption of brain activity is in no way 'higher' consciousness, no matter how many drug users tell us it feels that way.
I'd go with the "firing of synapses without purpose" hypothesis.
It if was actually productive, evolution probably would have made it available to us without drugs. Psychedelics are not special, these are relatively simple molecules imitating neurotransmitters. So if tripping were so beneficial, it could probably be triggered through normal pathways, with the added bonus of being able to switch from high to baseline at will.
"Creating complexity" in the sense of more measurable neural events is not a measure of "higher conscience". You can get the same effect with a pair of electrodes, or even getting patterns of neural events in seizures. The destruction of existing structures, and the inability to retain those "new insights" long enough to explain or use them either during or after the influence of psychedelic "events" is evidence that disruption is possible, not evidence of a "higher" consceience.
It's very *exciting* to get blitzed, and it can be *fun* to taste the color red. But it's hardly insightful. You can get more "insight" by simply paying attention.
You could not be more wrong. External electrical influences or seizures absolutely do not create more "complexity," in the same sense as psychedelics; they create dysfunction through disruption, which is very different. And using a ridiculous blanket term like "getting blitzed" shows that you have no understanding whatsoever of the difference between mere intoxication and other types of altered states, such as those produced by psychedelics. This study, while not groundbreaking, is interesting because it has produced more data supporting the notion that psychedelic states are not simply a form of random intoxication, as you suggest, but are indeed indicative of stimulation of certain brain functions.
You are interpreting the summary completely backwards, and you sound like someone who calls all drugs "narcotics," or thinks that any drug use simply amounts to "getting high," regardless of the intentions, results, or method of action in the body. Nancy Reagan and Richard Nixon would be proud.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Of course, after rereading the /. summary and title again, I can see how people might misinterpret the findings of this study, since the linked article is much more careful not to jump to grand conclusions, and explicitly mentions that they don't believe the psychedelic experience to necessarily be a "better" state of consciousness. But expecting anyone to actually RTFA instead of basing their opinions on the /. title is silly, I guess.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Used responsibly, LSD is a phenomenal tool for introspection and "thinking about things from a higher plane". It's hard to describe to anyone who has not tried.
Remove your consciousness from your life experiences, everyday minutia, your body's senses, and politics/history pegged to a timeline, and so on. Freed from these tethers, incredibly insightful things can be realized for the first time in the mind. After you come down, and you remember the experience, you will never view the world the same-old way again, but will process subsequent life experiences from an additional, fresh, and wholistic view-point. It is a marvelous eye-opener.
Once you've "climbed the mountain" of a strong and positive LSD trip a few times, you will no longer need to take the drug to "get to that place", and to see things in this additional, new light. It is a breathtaking experience and changes your perspective forever. Well, for decades, at the least.
* Pardon the slang and 'short-for' phrasing. I tried to make the point as concise as possible to anyone who hasn't tried it – an impossible task. *
They should have gotten blitzed first and wrote straightforwardly and honestly instead of hiding behind academic jargon and obfuscatory syntax.
Here is the dirty little secret about getting published:
No academic paper is approved for publishing. Academic papers are weeded out until only just enough for the journal remains.
Peer-review typically means your work will be sent to whomever you cited, any criticisms of other work is a guaranteed rejection. Making your work intentionally obtuse is critical. Too obvious, even if novel, and it will be thrown out. Too complicated of a style and it will be thrown out. What you need to get published is write the way top academics in your field write, acknowledge or flatter them, and balance between obfuscating the obvious with complexity and simplifying your important bits with jargon which is used as shortcuts to complex topics.
Nobody likes writing this way. Nobody likes reading it. But if you want to get published in an impactful journal, you play ball.
Here is how to go about the research: identify at least one specific mental task that works better under the influence of each experimental substance, thereby establishing an objective standard for "higher consciousness." Then we can work backward and identify the changes in neutral activity that led to this improved performance on tasks.
Like those who have never had the pleasure of experiencing a tight pussy clamping around their penis would believe the description of sounds like having their dick stuck in a vice?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
This bares a question - does "vegetative" state + LSD == normal state?
What I still want to know is how they were able to administer these ILLEGAL drugs with federal funding and not go to jail for contributing to someones delinquency by theretofore giving SCHEDULED SUBSTANCES.
The research wasn't done in the USA.
Actually, this may be a 'higher' state of consciousness, but that does not necessarily denote 'better'.
Think about hearing someone on the other end of a phone whisper, it's useless because you can't make it out.
Then at a 'normal' speaking level, they make sense and things function.
Then if they yell into the phone, there's no denial there is heightened activity, but it's so noisy and clipping and chaotic as to be useless again.
Increased activity and/or diversity does not always equal better (particularly increased diversity of a signal generally leads to problems).
So 'higher' can still be 'crazy'.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.