• New study explores relationship between

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Mar 31 22:30:44 2022
    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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