Timeless Healing at the Doors of Perception

Just now, as I was about to start writing my post about the effects of psychedelics on psychiatric illness, I spotted this online news clip: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supports a clinical development program for psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

What’s going on? Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic drug produced by several species of mushrooms (the “magic" kind). Although psychedelics are considered illicit drugs, today's society is less constrained by ideological battles such as those in the 1960s, when psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin were considered either a dangerous intoxicant or the promise of mystical salvation. Scientific research is again probing the short- and long-term psychological effects of LSD, psilocybin, and ayahuasca. In addition, university labs in London and Zurich are investigating what happens in the brain of healthy volunteers under the influence of psychedelics.

What can be said is that psychedelics strongly induce altered states of consciousness, thereby affecting the dimensions of time, space, and the experience of self. These changes are only comparable with other extreme states of consciousness that occur in dreams or in mystical ecstasy. These experiences include oneness of the self with the universe, the feeling of timelessness, and the certainty of experiencing a sacred truth which is, unfortunately, indescribable.

But how do psychedelics help in states of depression or other psychiatric illnesses? One study, led by Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, involved administering psilocybin to terminally ill patients. The intake led to strong decreases in depressed mood and death anxiety in most of the individuals. Moreover, meaning of life came back and overall optimism increased. How can these positive and persistent effects be explained? They can potentially be attributed to feeling a stronger connection to other people and the world, as the patients reported typical mystical-type experiences.

Dozens of other studies are now investigating whether psychedelics can be helpful for patients with depression and anxiety for whom standard pharmacological therapies have not shown effects. These drugs are also tested to treat alcohol, methamphetamine, and tobacco dependence. But one has to be cautious: These studies are still considered experimental. Larger clinical trials have to be conducted. This is exactly what the aforementioned FDA approval is for—finding out whether psychedelics can successfully be used as regular treatment in an everyday professional, psychiatric context.

In the theoretical part of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Melbourne, Paul Liknaitzky in 2017 explained how altered states of consciousness might influence psychiatric symptoms in depression, anxiety, and substance dependence.

In these psychiatric syndromes, individuals show hyper-awareness of the self and of time. It is all about them—the self is hyper self-aware, negative affect is high, and time drags. Moreover, those patients have a loss of connection with other people and the world. Liknaitzky then explains how the core features of altered states of consciousness are antithetical to psychiatric symptoms. They lead to less awareness of the self and time. Recall the reports mentioned under the influence of psychedelics—oneness of the self with the universe, the feeling of timelessness. And people later feel more connected with other people and the world.

This is a transformation that can also be achieved through meditation, floating tank exposure, endurance running, dancing, drumming-induced trance, etc. Scientific reports are accumulating which show positive effects of meditation on psychiatric symptoms, or, very recently, how a one-time exposure to the floating experience can reduce anxiety symptoms. In the floating tank, or sensory deprivation tank, you float in a dark and soundproof water tank with high salt concentration at skin temperature. One cannot see, and can hardly hear anything, except one's own breathing in and breathing out. Because you float in the water at skin temperature, you lose your sense of body boundary and after a while feel relaxed and in a good mood. The sense of self and time is reduced.

Justin Feinstein and colleagues from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma, exposed 50 patients with anxiety and stress-related disorders, namely post-traumatic stress, generalized anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, and social anxiety, to one floating tank session. The majority of patients reported reductions in stress, muscle tension, pain, depression, negative affect and improvements in relaxation, happiness, and overall well-being. Considering that this was a comparably short one-session exposure, states of consciousness can hardly have changed as dramatically as in psychedelic-induced states. The effects in the floating tank are more comparable to moderate meditation experiences in which, after a while, your sense of bodily self and of time is reduced. A dissolution of body-self boundaries during meditation actually can lead to greater happiness, as a recent study by French psychologist Michael Dambrun has shown (see my blog on that study: Gaining Happiness by Losing Yourself).

These are exciting findings. In explaining the transformation an individual goes through, some researchers suggest that the "spiritual awakening" of altered states of consciousness gives a person a different perspective on life and a sense of meaning. Large clinical studies are on their way to finding out if these new treatment potentials fulfill expectations. That way, patients with psychiatric disorders could be treated in radically new ways.