Alchemica

Research on Consciousness by the Aid of the Psychedelic Experience - GEORGIOS MAVROUDIS "Bewilderment; confoundness; mystification; infantilism… those are the words that best describe the contemporary condition in science when it comes to the issue of consciousness. In an age when we appear to have reached an immense sophistication of knowledge over the nature of matter, the cosmogonic evolution, the life, the society, we remain almost speechless against the slippery inquiry of the nature of consciousness. If mathematical formulation is to be the bedrock of ideological and scientific certitude then we have no certitude whatsoever in the realm of what is the mind. We endorse to all of kind of hypotheses unconsciously but when we are pressed, we cannot defend our position. It is not an exaggeration to report that all rationalistic formulas seem to fail on the probing of this strange, yet overwhelming, phenomenon. In contrast to the natural sciences, psychology is still suspended by the lack of dare or innovation to overcome the challenges, which come out from the mystifying darkness of consciousness. While physics have already made their great leap towards the quantum indeterminacy and biology has penetrated to the spinal cord of life, the DNA, psychology is still under their capitulation, with a deficiency of its own original methodology for the investigation of the phenomena that is concerned with. Of course, we can give the mitigation that psychology is still a young a science, an immature discipline against an incredibly perplexed problem: The question of what mind is, what consciousness is and what behavior is for. Those are not simple questions. Those enigmas delegate the humankind to the dangling enterprise of discovering the truth for millennia. We are not really much progressed since Heraclitus, Aristotle, and Parmenides had postulated their first speculations on the nature of consciousness. We might have progressed in methods of probing the brain but our theories on the issue are, all in all, a drama of discrepancies and crudeness. On this paper, the reader will find that there is a general apprehension against obsolete theories that govern stubborningly the field of psychology. Both Cartesian dualism and cognitive theories will have to be strictly criticized. A new skepticism will stand against all present assumptions with the premise of a more radical revaluation of the mind and consciousness. No doubt, it is a dauntingly difficult task to face most of the new cognitive doctrines and the physicalist map of the philosophy of science. Their descendance from the traditional rationalism guarantees their full consistency and thus their undefeatable status to any rival theories. Yes, naiveties of the embodied soul and the Cartesian theater kind, as Dennett designated, are forlorn by their fallacy when they are put next to the reductionistic cartography of the brain. However, the triumph of the cognitive research is surprisingly undermined by the parade of brand new ideas coming from the field of the natural sciences. While, journals and books proclaim that the time of naivety is over and consciousness becomes accessible to objective research, yet in compliance with the quantum physics, chaos theory and morphogenetic fields in biology, this very proclamation seems to join the same naiveties. The message that we got from new approaches in other levels of our reality is that any judgment which rushes to be established over an obsolete or yet incomplete conception of the universe and life is doomed to failure by a humiliating canceling. That and only that should keep us open to new approaches and ideas, to new theories and philosophies and at the same time uncommitted to any present ideologies. Otherwise, our hopes for unraveling the nature of consciousness or any other phenomenon that stands beyond our grasp will be afflicted by a terrible suspension of progress. Therefore, in this paper the research will march in the darkness of consciousness equipped with a different verdict. This verdict will be shaped by two inescapable factors that, in a way, condition the issue of consciousness. The transcendental experience and the quantum mechanics will intricate the question and will feed us with an abundance of new ideas and notions about the mind. They will send us farther away for a deeper comprehension of consciousness. Their unanimity to each other and, most importantly, their unanimity to the sense of having a mind, their amenability to the old suppositions of our pristine imagination incite me to use them for the enterprise of transcending obscuring and disorientating notions on the scientific safari of consciousness studies...." http://www.scribd.com/doc/4092208/Research...ia-Psychedelics

How are you going No_One? I've been thinking of you and hoping things are starting to work out! I can relate to your post on many levels. I've been throught the same thing: diagnosis, forced treatment, a parent making the situation worse etc... That said, I must congratulate you on being able to keep yourself so together with your posting... I couldn't at one time. Nice work. Anyway, take it easy and feel free to PM me if you ever want to chat about things.

Was that ripe (brown pod) or unripe (green pod) rogdog?

A few passages from Anadenanthera - Visionary Plant of Ancient South America (courtesy of t st): [/color]http://www.amazon.com/Anadenanthera.../dp/0789026422 [/color]

Interested in the activity of any of the left-overs remaining after the seeds are taken out... hate to waste anything if it has a use. Most of the cyanogenic glycoside references seem to be debatable but maybe there are other "nasties" that should be avoided.

Cheers Sethomopod - arrived today. Thanks for your very generous offer. Anyone here played around with the outer seed pod? Active?

I know what it's like lsdreamz... need to grow some balls myself. At least your going into the shop, for me, mustering up the courage to do that would take a bit. Maybe you should drop a couple of those Empathy capsules and venture in? Nothing like a bit of social lubrication to bring out the charmer in you... Just make sure you don't get too "off-tap", or she might get cluey. Then again, it might just make it harder for the next encounter. Good luck if you do decide to ask! (...or do what I'm considering, get a dog. All the love, much less hastles!)

Do you really think that everything that may come to the surface through the use of a psychedelic is a pointless hallucination? Don't people strive to alter their consciousness to improve on something... to look for better answers to life? I understand that many people see it as an escape, a holiday if you like. I have no problem with that, but it seems rather pointless to always treat the psychedelic/hallucinogenic experience as a "psychotomimetic state", one where everything you experience should be dismissed. Don't you have experiences where aspects of your life come to the surface through the use of "hallucinogens", ones that could do with improvement? Why am I killing my lungs with smokes? Why do I seek to alter my consciousness so frequently? What do I not like about my life? ...Or is everyone here perfect enough that they don't have issues that they seek to resolve? I won't argue that most hallucinations are purely a product of the imagination (and not something that need to be acted on), but surely some of it is the un/subconscious mind revealing aspects of one's life that they normally wouldn't see, at least for consideration? For me, psychedelics often bring out a deeply introspective state and if I was to dismiss everything that I had contemplated under the influence, it would be a waste of time and substance

That can't be stated enough... seems like a pointless piece of research until this can be taken into account.

Thanks for sharing those experiences Hunab - wish I had journeys that structured and fascinating. May I ask, do you consider yourself to be a frequent dreamer (that is, do you frequently dream at night and have the ability to recall what you dreamt)? Did you dream much as a child? I've had maybe 5(?) dreams in my life which I can recall (most when I was sick with a temperature, or taken a large dose of melatonin) and I'm starting to wonder if the ability to dream (and recall it) plays an important role in accessing other states of consciousness through psychedelics?

I think it's much too easy to dismiss other states of consciousness as being purely products of the imagination - some people, myself included, do get afraid of there being more to life than they had previously imagined or been told. Every time I have some strange feeling, for example "others thoughts infiltrating my head-space", it's pretty hard to realise that there could actually be something important going on subconsciously... it's easier to just put it aside as a delusion. It's also not helpful to be brought up in a western society which seems to consider our day-to-day rational consciousness as being the one and only "reality". It seems to take several confronting, similar experiences to finally think "wait a minute... maybe there was a lesson in all that, maybe something needs to be done?" There are a few times where I've experiences where I think of something that needs to be confronted, got all excited that I've stumbled across something important and then come to the point where I can't even recall what half of it was about... Maybe once a person wakes up to the insights and acts on them, there is real potential to improve one's life. It just takes enough fear, or a position where one can actually see a benefit, before one realises that change is needed. As for improving the world, who knows? I think most people set their lives up to certain point where they find any changes to be an inconvenience, either for purely selfish reasons, or because making a change for the better would take time and effort. If it does, do you really think people will be equipped to deal with such phenomena, especially in a population mostly naive to mind expanding drugs and mystical experiences? I would have thought it would just cause freak outs, hospitalisations and people being told to dismiss whatever they are experiencing in their minds. Ever heard a shrink tell you that the "voices in your head" might actually be telling you something you should be acting on?

It's interesting to note that no attempt was made by PACIA to list anethole as a precursor to my knowledge (due to its extensive use in food and beverage). Some state governments have listed it as a proposed amendment for their State Acts but I was unaware that this was in place. Eugenol (Oil of Cloves) however has been listed by PACIA for some time...

I wonder if this is the same thing... http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...27030442AATPtpH 0.4 micrograms in every litre... Should get you buzzing like mad.

Excellent, thanks for the offer t st - sounds like a good option for some of us with short attention spans

I like some of the "instructions" at the end of the book but find it hard to read/absorb it when I'm in most states. I'd love to have some of the material included as samples in trance/psytrance tracks...

Dopamine seems to be pretty complicated to extract... a few people have played around using l-dopa and tyramine/tyrosine (considered to be metabolic precursors for a certain alkaloid) which are easy enough to buy online if you look around in 1-25gr amounts. L-dopa might be considered S4 - prescription only, so keep that in mind (I'm not sure if the S4 classification is for L-dopa alone or when combined with benzerazide/carbidopa). DMSO is a good carrier (injection or possibly application to the skin) but water works. It's pretty easy to "rot" away significant portions of cactus if you use too much, or don't use sterile equipment. Look into "Pumping your Pedro" if you are in a country where research is legal.

I've studied 3 years of Molecular and Drug Design but most of the course is dry and stale to be honest. The practical experience is great but all the honours offerings are not anything I'm particularly interested in. Considering a few botany units or more focus on pharmacology in the future but the work-load is pretty extreme. Personally, I think it's pretty hard to do in Australia but who knows what the future may hold? MAPS - So You Want to Be a Psychedelic Researcher? - http://www.maps.org/students_research.html or https://erowid.org/references/refs_view.php...;DocPartID=6609 PsyComp Academic - http://www.psycomp.org.uk http://www.cottonwoodresearch.org/ Can psychedelics have a role in psychiatry once again? - http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/186/6/457 Just a few links to think about. All the best with it!

If you haven't seen it yet, check out faustus' sensory deprivation tank... Very cool! http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=4665

Thanks for the links and offers! Cheers.

This paper confirms what has already been stated by t st. No alkaloids were detected using Draggendorf's, Bertrand's, Bouchadart's and Mayer's reagents. Absence of alkaloids in Psychotria carthagenensis Jacq. (Rubiaceae) Psychotria viridis and P. carthagenensis are often discussed in relation to the hallucinogenic beverage Ayahuasca, used for religious, medicinal and social purposes. The significance of including Psychotria species in this beverage has been understood on the basis of substantial amounts of tryptamine alkaloids detected on leaves of both P. ciridis and P. carthagenensis. Nevertheless, there is a long lasting debate over the identification of which Po,chotria species are actually traditionally employed. We here report that a P. carthagenensis leaf ethanol extract was found to be devoid of alkaloids. The extract significantly decreased mice body temperature (350 and 500 mg/kg). Toxicity assessment revealed that the extract induced sedation and slight ptoses (75% of animals treated with 1000 mg/kg). Lethality was not observed within 48 h. The data indicate that P. carthagenensis does have bioactive compound(s), possibly active at the central nervous system, but unlikely to be tryptamine alkaloids as in the case of P. viridis. Therefore, if P. carthagenensis is indeed used by ayahuasqueros, its chemical and pharmacological significance have yet to be elucidated. "Interestingly enough, out of the six species of Psychotria native to and collected in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, only P. carthagenensis was devoid of alkaloids." Absence_of_alkaloids_in_Psychotria_carthagenensis.pdf Umbellatine-like alkaloids look like an interesting lead... question is, would they be detected with Draggendorf's, Bertrand's, Bouchadart's and Mayer's reagents? I would have thought there'd be at least one positive alkaloid result if there were ANY alkaloids. Seems like umbellatine is another name for psychollatine, a glucosidic monoterpene indole alkaloid. It is also used for berberine which is confusing... As for the reagents: The Dragendorff's Reagent is used for the detection of Nitrogenous compounds, alkaloids, antiarrhythmic drugs and surfactants and is also good detector for Phenols. Most alkaloids are precipitated from neutral or slightly acidic solution by Mayer's reagent (potassiomercuric iodide solution) to give a cream coloured precipitate. Certain alkaloids with a lactone function, for which Bertrand's reagent is not suitable, may be readily and exactly determined with Reinecke's reagent. I would have thought this would give a positive test for alkaloids in at least one of the assays but maybe glucosidic alkaloids are different. This is interesting. Psychollatine has NDMA synergistic, dopaminergic and serotonergic actions. Sounds like a perfect admixture for a viridis brew. Psychopharmacological profile of the alkaloid psychollatine as a 5HT2A/C serotonin modulator. Behavioral effects of psychollatine, a new glycoside indole monoterpene alkaloid isolated from Psychotria umbellata, was investigated in models of anxiety, depression, memory, tremor, and sedation related to 5-HT and/or GABA neurotransmission. The GABA antagonist picrotoxin and the 5-HT2 antagonist ritanserin were used to examine the role of GABA and 5-HT2 receptors in psychollatine-induced effects. In the light/dark and hole-board models of anxiety, diazepam (0.75 mg/kg) and psychollatine (7.5 and 15 mg/kg) showed anxiolytic-like effect at doses that do not increase sleeping time nor alter spontaneous locomotor activity. The anxiolytic effect of psychollatine was prevented by prior administration of ritanserin, but not of picrotoxin, indicating that 5-HT2 but not GABA receptors are implicated. In the forced swimming model of depression, psychollatine (3 and 7.5 mg/kg) effects were comparable to the antidepressants imipramine (15 mg/kg) and fluoxetine (20 mg/kg). Psychollatine suppressed oxotremorine-induced tremors in all doses. In the step-down learning paradigm, diazepam (0.85 mg/kg), MK-801 (0.15 mg/kg), and psychollatine 100 mg/kg impaired the acquisition of learning and memory consolidation, without interfering with retrieval. It is concluded that the effects of psychollatine at the central nervous system involve serotonergic 5HT2(A/C) receptors. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/np049695y Role of glutamate and dopamine receptors in the psychopharmacological profile of the indole alkaloid psychollatine. Psychollatine (1), a new glycoside indole monoterpene alkaloid isolated from Psychotria umbellata, has shown an interesting psychopharmacological profile. This study aimed to investigate the role of NMDA glutamate and dopamine receptors in mediating the properties of 1. Psychollatine (1) was assessed for NMDA-induced seizures, MK-801-induced hyperlocomotion, amphetamine-induced lethality, and apomorphine-induced climbing behavior in mice. Psychollatine (1) (100 mg/kg) and MK-801 (0.3 mg/kg) prevented NMDA-induced seizures (P < 0.01), while 1 (100 mg/kg) attenuated the MK-801-induced hyperlocomotion (P < 0.05). Compound 1 (3 and 10 mg/kg), as well as chlorpromazine (4 mg/kg), prevented amphetamine-induced lethality (P < 0.05). Finally, 1 (10 mg/kg) (P < 0.05), MK-801 (0.2 mg/kg) (P < 0.01), and chlorpromazine (4 mg/kg) (P < 0.01) attenuated apomorphine-induced climbing behavior. The present results strongly support the involvement of NMDA glutamate receptors in the mode of action of psychollatine (1). http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17664575 Other than that, maybe the focus should shift from loooking for alkaloids to non-nitrogenous components. On another note: Psychotridine is discussed at http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=381878 but this should have returned a positive alkaloid test IMO

If anyone here manages to download this, I'd be keen on getting a copy burnt... Been stuck on 15% for weeks now (with no seeds).

My opinion is that you get potentiation with acute MAOI use but longer term MAOI use (weeks) reduces the effects. Some find that the MAOIs make the experience more sedating and in cases, dysphoric. That's with 3g rue orally though. ...Results may vary.

ERGOT-TYPE ALKALOIDS IN VEGETATIVE TISSUE OF RIVEA CORYMBOSA The ergot alkaloids, ergine and isoergine, were found in the leaf and stem but not in the root of Rivea corymbosa, which had been grown in a greenhouse. The amount per plant increased with time reaching a maxima of 0.027 and O.012 per cent dry weight in the leaf and stem, respectively, after approximately 9 months’ growth. http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/local_lin...d=12&id=616 The concentration of ergot and clavine alkaloids in the leaves (0.027% dry weight) is not as high as that of the seeds which contain approximately 0.06 per cent on a fresh weight basis. Molecular characterization of a seed transmitted clavicipitaceous fungus occurring on dicotyledoneous plants (Convolvulaceae) This article explains that the ergoline (aka ergine, LSA or LAA) alkaloids present in plants from the Convolvulaceae family (more specifically those from the Ipomoea genera) are produced by a clavicipitaceous fungus that lives in symbiosis with them. That fungus lives on the surface of these plants and passes to next generations by incorporating it's spores on the plant's seeds. http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/local_lin...=12&id=6522 IDENTIFICATION OF ERGOLINE ALKALOIDS IN THE GENUS ARGYREIA AND RELATED GENERA AND THEIR CHEMOTAXONOMIC IMPLICATIONS IN THE CONVOLVULACEAE The results of the identification of 21 ergoline alkaloids of 14 species of Argyreia http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/local_lin...d=12&id=617

Thanks for writing all that up Hunab. Just what I was looking for! Cheers.

I think Ralph Metzner sums it all up quite nicely in "Hallucinogenic Drugs and Plants in Psychotherapy and Shamanism": Hallucinogenic Drugs and Plants in Psychotherapy and Shamanism http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/6558932