Psychedelics

While often thought of as a remnant from the Summer of Love, psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, LSD, peyote as well as DMT, ayahuasca and ibogaine are making their way back into mainstream culture as psychological research has recently revisited the use of psychedelics in experimental psychological treatment.

At a high level, psychedelics can be broken down into three categories:

• Serotonergic: The “popular” psychedelic drugs like LSD, DMT, and mescaline which cause changes in your sensory perception including hallucinations;
• Empathogens: Influence serotonin releasing neurons, providing sense of euphoria, love in addition to increased attentiveness and awareness with relatively mild changes to perception such as audio and visual stimuli; and
• Dissociatives: Induce depersonalization and derealization in users, who. Users feel disconnected from the world, their surroundings, and even their own bodies.

At a chemical level, psychedelics can be classified into one of three types of chemical compounds: tryptamines, phenethylamines, or lysergamides.  Overall, these drugs rely on serotonin receptor agonism to trigger psychedelic experiences that include:

• Thought/visual/auditory changes, and
• Altered state of consciousness, commonly characterized by a higher state relative to ordinary experience.