New study explores relationship between psychedelics and consciousness
Date:
March 31, 2022
Source:
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Summary:
A new study addresses the question of whether psychedelics might
change the attribution of consciousness to a range of living and
nonliving things.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Psychedelic drugs, like psilocybin, an ingredient found in so-called
magic mushrooms, have shown promise in treating a range of addictions
and mental health disorders. Yet, there's something mysterious and almost mystical about their effects, and they are commonly believed to provide
unique insights into the nature of consciousness.
==========================================================================
Now, a new study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers addresses
the question of whether psychedelics might change the attribution of consciousness to a range of living and nonliving things.
The findings, published March 28 in Frontiers in Psychology, reveal that
higher ratings of mystical type experiences, which often include a sense
that everything is alive, were associated with greater increases in the attribution of consciousness.
"This study demonstrates that when beliefs change following a psychedelic experience, attributions of consciousness to various entities tend to increase," says Sandeep Nayak, M.D., postdoctoral research fellow at the
Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and one of
the researchers involved in the study. "It's not clear why, whether that
might be an innate drug effect, cultural factors or whether psychedelics
might somehow expose innate cognitive biases that attribute features of
the mind to the world." For the study, the researchers analyzed data
gathered between August 2020 and January 2021 on 1,606 people who have
had a belief-changing psychedelic experience. Participants averaged 35
years of age and were predominately white (89%), male (67%) and from
the United States (69%).
Study participants completed an internet-based survey that included
questions focused on belief changes attributed to a single psychedelic experience with a classic psychedelic substance (e.g., psilocybin
mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca). The survey also included questions about demographics, psychedelic use, personality, and scientific knowledge
and attitudes.
The study found that among people who have had a single psychedelic
experience that altered their beliefs in some way, there were large
increases in attribution of consciousness to a range of animate and
inanimate things. For example, from before to after the experience,
attribution of consciousness to insects grew from 33% to 57%, to fungi
from 21% to 56%, to plants from 26% to 61%, to inanimate natural objects
from 8% to 26% and to inanimate manmade objects from 3% to 15%.
"On average, participants indicated the belief-changing experience in
question occurred eight years prior to taking the survey, so these belief changes may be long-lasting," says Nayak.
Classic psychedelics -- the pharmacological class of compounds that
includes psilocybin and LSD -- produce visual and auditory illusions
and profound changes in consciousness, altering a person's awareness of
their surroundings and of their thoughts and feelings. These substances
produce unusual and compelling changes in conscious experience, which
have prompted some to propose that psychedelics may provide unique
insights into the nature of consciousness itself.
"The results suggesting that a single psychedelic experience can produce
a broad increase in attribution of consciousness to other things, raises intriguing questions about possible innate or experiential mechanisms underlying such belief changes," says Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., the
Oliver Lee McCabe III, Ph.D., Professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology
of Consciousness at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
and founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. "The topic of consciousness is a notoriously
difficult scientific problem that has led many to conclude it is not
solvable."
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Johns_Hopkins_Medicine. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sandeep M. Nayak, Roland R. Griffiths. A Single Belief-Changing
Psychedelic Experience Is Associated With Increased Attribution
of Consciousness to Living and Non-living Entities. Frontiers in
Psychology, 2022; 13 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.852248 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220331134240.htm
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