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Bibliography/Citations [PART II]


Chapter 11: Cuckoos Part II

  1. The cuckoo’s egg must match in size, color, marking variation, and marking dispersion to avoid being chucked out. Davies, N. (2015). Cuckoo: Cheating by nature. Bloomsbury. (p. 125-126).

  2. Cutler, J. (2017, December 4). Cheetahs, world’s fastest cats, can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/04/cheetah-worlds-fastest-cat-national-geographic-big-cats/108067318/

  3. Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene (30th anniversary ed). Oxford University Press. (p. 250).

  4. Davies, N. (2015). Cuckoo: Cheating by nature. Bloomsbury. (p. 14)

  5. Moksnes, A., & Roskaft, E. (1992). Responses of Some Rare Cuckoo Hosts to Mimetic Model Cuckoo Eggs and to Foreign Conspecific Eggs. Ornis Scandinavica, 23(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.2307/3676422

  6. Stevens, M. (2013). Bird brood parasitism. Current Biology, 23(20), R909–R913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.025

  7. Davies, N. (2015). Cuckoo: Cheating by nature. Bloomsbury. (p. 110-12).

  8. See Rare-Enemy Effect (Glossary)

  9. Davies, N. B., & Brooke, M. de L. (1988). Cuckoos versus reed warblers: Adaptations and counteradaptations. Animal Behaviour, 36(1), 262–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(88)80269-0

  10. “Manipulated” - Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene (30th anniversary ed). Oxford University Press. (p. 249).

  11. The magnificent begging call of the cuckoo is instrumental in manipulating its foster parents into working hard enough to feed the over-sized cuckoo. See: Davies, N. (2015, May 14) Cuckoos and their victims: An evolutionary arms race [Royal Society Lecture]. https://youtu.be/n0O6S4hDDfE (51:40 in).

  12. Ibid. (53:00-56:00).

  13. In regards to birds “seeing” an entire brood of reed warblers, I’d say it’s not that far off to suggest since we’ve already shown how conflicting sense data can cause a tilt in perception. Just as it is in the McGurk effect, where the brain trusts the visual cue of the “F” sound more than what the ears hear, perhaps we’re just witnessing the avian version of the McGurk effect. Only it’s the begging cry and the gape that causes a tilt in perception, leading the hosts to actually believe they really do have an entire brood of reed warblers on their hands.

  14. Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene (30th anniversary ed). Oxford University Press. (p. 248).

  15. Darwin, C. (1998). The origin of species. Wordsworth. (p. 166-67).

  16. Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene (30th anniversary ed). Oxford University Press. (p. 248-252).

  17. Dawkins, R. (2016). Extended phenotype. Oxford University Press.

  18. Dawkins, R. (2015, April 30). This Is My Vision of “Life” [Video Interview]. https://www.edge.org/conversation/richard_dawkins-this-is-my-vision-of-life (8 min. in).

  19. Dawkins, R. (1997). Climbing mount improbable. W.W. Norton & Company. (p. 17-18).

  20. Jacklyn, P. M. (1992). “Magnetic” termite mound surfaces are oriented to suit wind and shade conditions. Oecologia, 91(3), 385–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00317628


Chapter 12: Non-Ordinary States

  1. Sensory deprivation tanks really are interesting ways to explore the Self, and we find the experience to only get better with each progressive use. Reason being, there is a certain amount of relaxation that needs to be achieved which may not be given the chance to manifest on shorter floats. In regards to the mental benefits from using sensory deprivation tanks, see: Kjellgren, A., & Westman, J. (2014). Beneficial effects of treatment with sensory isolation in flotation-tank as a preventive health-care intervention – a randomized controlled pilot trial. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 14(1), 417. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-14-417. See also: Feinstein, J. S., Khalsa, S. S., Yeh, H.-W., Wohlrab, C., Simmons, W. K., Stein, M. B., & Paulus, M. P. (2018). Examining the short-term anxiolytic and antidepressant effect of Floatation-REST. PloS One, 13(2), e0190292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190292. For the bit about how Navy SEALs are using them to help acquire languages faster, see: Wheal, J., & Kotler, S. (2017). Stealing Fire: How silicon valley, the navy SEALs and maverick scientists are revolutionizing the way we live and work. Dey Street Books. (p. 25-28).

  2. Iwata, K., Nakao, M., Yamamoto, M., & Kimura, M. (2001). Quantitative characteristics of alpha and theta EEG activities during sensory deprivation. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 55(3), 191–192. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1819.2001.00821.x

  3. Braboszcz, C., Cahn, B. R., Levy, J., Fernandez, M., & Delorme, A. (2017). Increased Gamma Brainwave Amplitude Compared to Control in Three Different Meditation Traditions. PLOS ONE, 12(1), e0170647. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170647

  4. Malik, A. S., & Amin, H. U. (2017). Designing an EEG Experiment. In Designing EEG Experiments for Studying the Brain (p. 1–30). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-811140-6.00001-1

  5. Lilly, J. C. (1997). The scientist: A metaphysical autobiography. Ronin Publishing, Inc. http://books.google.com/books?id=0JV9AAAAMAAJ (p. 121).

  6. 41.5A: Epinephrine and Norepinephrine. (2020, August 14). [Open Access Texts]. Biology LibreTexts. https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/14081

  7. NIMH » Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (n.d.). [Federal Agency Website]. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd Also here: Khouzam, H. R., Gill, T. S., & Tan, D. T. (2007). The Patient with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In Handbook of Emergency Psychiatry (pp. 453–473). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-04088-4.50026-X

  8. Koenigs, M., & Grafman, J. (2009). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala. The Neuroscientist, 15(5), 540–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858409333072

  9. Attention - There are many different types of attention that the brain can have, and we argue that our conscious experience actually runs on attention. Without attention (i.e., the capacity to attend) there is no experience. As previously mentioned, our organism may see or hear things that we, the conscious selves, don’t actually experience. Because again, not every sensation that passes through the Subconscious OS graduates to the level of perception. The philosopher Daniel Dennett has an interesting way of describing this; he calls it “fame in the brain.” For a sensation to become a perception, a certain amount of “popularity” needs to be achieved. Or stated in a slightly different way: the sensation has to be worthy of reporting. Take as an example, a child tapping you on the leg while you’re riding the metro. Amidst all the other sensations happening around you, you may not notice the tapping until about the sixth or seventh tap. Did your organism register the first tap? Probably, however, it would still take a few more taps to accrue enough ‘fame’ and be ‘worthy of’ entering your sphere of awareness. For more on Dennett’s “Fame in the Brain” see: Daniel Dennett. (2000). Are we Explaining Consciousness Yet? https://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/dennett/papers/cognition.fin.htm

  10. Mishara Aaron L, & Schwartz Michael A. (2012). Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) as Paradoxically Healing. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3956.4884

  11. The practice of meditation has been a spiritual and healing enterprise for more than the last 5,000 years. See: Ospina, M. B., Bond, K., Karkhaneh, M., Tjosvold, L., Vandermeer, B., Liang, Y., Bialy, L., Hooton, N., Buscemi, N., Dryden, D. M., & Klassen, T. P. (2007). Meditation practices for health: State of the research. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment, 155, 1–263.

  12. Flow states, exposure to Nature, and ocean therapy have all been used with success to treat veterans suffering from PTSD. Rogers, C. M., Mallinson, T., & Peppers, D. (2014). High-Intensity Sports for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression: Feasibility Study of Ocean Therapy With Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68(4), 395–404. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2014.011221

  13. Psychedelics as a treatment for Addiction, see: Nichols, D., Johnson, M., & Nichols, C. (2017). Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.557

  14. “For mood and anxiety disorders, three controlled trials have suggested that psilocybin may decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety in the context of cancer-related psychiatric distress for at least 6 months following a single acute administration.” See full article here: Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2017). Potential Therapeutic Effects of Psilocybin. Neurotherapeutics, 14(3), 734–740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-017-0542-y

  15. Psilocybin has been found to reduce symptoms of patients with major depressive disorder. See: Davis, A. K., Barrett, F. S., May, D. G., Cosimano, M. P., Sepeda, N. D., Johnson, M. W., Finan, P. H., & Griffiths, R. R. (2021). Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(5), 481. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3285

  16. “During the 1950s and 1960s, classic psychedelics (also known as serotonergic hallucinogens) such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and phosphoryloxy- N,N-dimethyltryptamine (psilocybin) were extensively investigated in psycholytic (low dose) and psychedelic (low to high dose) substance-assisted psychotherapy, resulting in more than 1,000 scientific papers and reports that included findings from about 40,000 subjects.” See: Vollenweider, F. X., & Preller, K. H. (2020). Psychedelic drugs: Neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21(11), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0367-2

  17. Ayahuasca and its antidepressant effects - Sanches, R. F., de Lima Osório, F., dos Santos, R. G., Macedo, L. R. H., Maia-de-Oliveira, J. P., Wichert-Ana, L., de Araujo, D. B., Riba, J., Crippa, J. A. S., & Hallak, J. E. C. (2016). Antidepressant Effects of a Single Dose of Ayahuasca in Patients With Recurrent Depression: A SPECT Study. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 36(1), 77–81. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCP.0000000000000436. See also: Jiménez-Garrido, D. F., Gómez-Sousa, M., Ona, G., Dos Santos, R. G., Hallak, J. E. C., Alcázar-Córcoles, M. Á., & Bouso, J. C. (2020). Effects of ayahuasca on mental health and quality of life in naïve users: A longitudinal and cross-sectional study combination. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 4075. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61169-x

  18. The entire book (Stealing Fire) seems as if it was written in defense of ASCs. However, the second chapter, entitled: “Why it matters” certainly captures the essential idea. See: Wheal, J., & Kotler, S. (2017). Stealing Fire: How silicon valley, the navy SEALs and maverick scientists are revolutionizing the way we live and work. Dey Street Books. (p. 33-50).

  19. Jan M Keppel, H. (2018). Kambo and its Multitude of Biological Effects: Adverse Events or Pharmacological Effects? International Archives of Clinical Pharmacology, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.23937/2572-3987.1510017

  20. de Haro, L., & Pommier, P. (2006). Hallucinatory Fish Poisoning (Ichthyoallyeinotoxism): Two Case Reports From the Western Mediterranean and Literature Review. Clinical Toxicology, 44(2), 185–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/15563650500514590

  21. Weil, A. T., & Davis, W. (1994). Bufo alvarius: A potent hallucinogen of animal origin. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 41(1–2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(94)90051-5

  22. Extreme rituals - Lee, E. M., Klement, K. R., Ambler, J. K., Loewald, T., Comber, E. M., Hanson, S. A., Pruitt, B., & Sagarin, B. J. (2016). Altered States of Consciousness during an Extreme Ritual. PLOS ONE, 11(5), e0153126. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153126


Chapter 13: Unlearning

  1. Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3

  2. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996, September 1). Go With The Flow [Wired Magazine]. https://www.wired.com/1996/09/czik/

  3. Wheal, J., & Kotler, S. (2017). Stealing Fire: How silicon valley, the navy SEALs and maverick scientists are revolutionizing the way we live and work. Dey Street Books. (p. 42).

  4. Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Optimal Experience: The Flow State Scale. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 18(1), 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.18.1.17

  5. Mountain biker, Colin Gray, said this on his blog a couple years back, although I can no longer find a record for it. The original blog post was likely removed and replaced.

  6. Spreng, R. N., & Grady, C. L. (2010). Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(6), 1112–1123. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21282 (About autobiographical thinking being so frequent; it is called the “default mode” of the brain for a reason. Although, if you wanted further evidence of our apparent disconnect with reality, I recommend: Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science, 330(6006), 932–932. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439

  7. Raichle, M. E. (2010, March 1). The Brain’s Dark Energy. Scientific American, 302(3), 44–49.

  8. Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2010). The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: A neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain, 133(4), 1265–1283. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq010

  9. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Hellyer, P. J., Shanahan, M., Feilding, A., Tagliazucchi, E., Chialvo, D. R., & Nutt, D. (2014). The entropic brain: A theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00020

  10. Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: Brain Imaging with Psilocybin and MDMA (No. 17). (2017, September 28). [Podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-17-dr-robin-carhart-harris-brain-imaging-with/id1217974024?i=1000392843298 (18 min in).

  11. Control center of the brain - David Nutt. (2017, April 26). David Nutt: Psychedelic Research, From Brain Imaging to Policy Reform. Psychedelic Science 2017, Oakland, Ca. https://youtu.be/ZzepSK6Gzk8

  12. Orchestrator of the self - Raichle, M. E. (2010, March 1). The Brain’s Dark Energy. Scientific American, 302(3), 44–49.

  13. Integration Hub - Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: Brain Imaging with Psilocybin and MDMA (No. 17). (2017, September 28). [Podcast]. from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-17-dr-robin-carhart-harris-brain-imaging-with/id1217974024?i=1000392843298 (18 min in).

  14. DMN candidate for ‘the ego’ - Ibid. (20:30 in).

  15. DMN candidate for ‘the ego’ - Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2010). The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: A neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain, 133(4), 1265–1283. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq010


Chapter 14: Pinning it Down

  1. Daniel Dennett. (2007, November 2). Cartesian Theatre—Daniel Dennett [Video Interview]. https://youtu.be/a3a2FFoRpzQ (2 min. in) Dennett has made this point in other lectures as well, which is where our particular quote has been pulled from, however this lecture has since been taken down.

  2. Karl Friston. (2018, June 1). Embodied Cognition Karl Friston [Video Interview]. http://serious-science.org/embodied-cognition-9027 (Quote located at the top of the interview).

  3. Wolpert, D. (2011, July). The real reason for brains [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains

  4. Charles Choi. (2007, May 24). Strange but True: When Half a Brain Is Better than a Whole One. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-when-half-brain-better-than-whole/

  5. Referencing split-brain operations - McGilchrist, I. (2019). The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the Western world (New expanded edition). Yale University Press. (p. 18, 35).

  6. Ibid. (p. 18).

  7. Taylor, J. B. (2016). My stroke of insight: A brain scientist’s personal journey. Plume.

  8. Singer, Chedd & Angier. (1997, January 22). Severed Corpus Callosum (S07E03) [Video File]. In Scientific American Frontiers—Piece of Mind. https://youtu.be/q6ryKGiQh3w

  9. McGilchrist, I. (2019). The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the Western world (New expanded edition). Yale University Press. (p. 35; 78-82).

  10. Ibid. (p. 10).

  11. Brewer, J. A., Worhunsky, P. D., Gray, J. R., Tang, Y.-Y., Weber, J., & Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(50), 20254–20259. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112029108

  12. Kang, D.-H., Jo, H. J., Jung, W. H., Kim, S. H., Jung, Y.-H., Choi, C.-H., Lee, U. S., An, S. C., Jang, J. H., & Kwon, J. S. (2013). The effect of meditation on brain structure: Cortical thickness mapping and diffusion tensor imaging. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss056


Chapter 15: Disentangling the Self

  1. Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2019). How do psychedelics work? Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 32(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000467

  2. Ibid.

  3. Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3

  4. Van der Linden, D., Tops, M., & Bakker, A. B. (2021). The Neuroscience of the Flow State: Involvement of the Locus Coeruleus Norepinephrine System. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 645498. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645498

  5. Baillargeon, R., & DeVos, J. (1991). Object permanence in young infants: Further evidence. Child Development, 62(6), 1227–1246.

  6. First, it should be mentioned that theory of mind (ToM) isn’t a unitary construct, and that pieces of ToM unpack before the age of five and six. That said, in reference to second-order false belief tasks, mastery does come at about age five or six. Miller, S. A. (2012). Theory of mind: Beyond the preschool years. Psychology Press. (p. 63).

  7. Fair, D. A., Cohen, A. L., Dosenbach, N. U. F., Church, J. A., Miezin, F. M., Barch, D. M., Raichle, M. E., Petersen, S. E., & Schlaggar, B. L. (2008). The maturing architecture of the brain’s default network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(10), 4028–4032. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800376105. See also: Saxe, R. (2009, July). How we read each other’s minds [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_saxe_how_we_read_each_other_s_minds

  8. A wonderful explanation for “infantile amnesia,” see: Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory: A Social Cultural Developmental Theory. Psychological Review, 111(2), 486–511. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.111.2.486

  9. Oh, I.-S., Wang, G., & Mount, M. K. (2011). Validity of observer ratings of the five-factor model of personality traits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 762–773. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021832

  10. Borza, D., Danescu, R., Itu, R., & Darabant, A. (2017). High-Speed Video System for Micro-Expression Detection and Recognition. Sensors, 17(12), 2913. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122913

  11. Kahneman, D. (2010, February). The riddle of experience vs. memory [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory

  12. Freud, S., Strachey, J., & Freud, S. (1989). The ego and the id. Norton.

  13. Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. In F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis, & B. Keverne (Eds.), The Science of Well-Being (p. 284–305). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567523.003.0011

  14. Ibid.

  15. Tyng, C. M., Amin, H. U., Saad, M. N. M., & Malik, A. S. (2017). The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1454. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454

  16. “The psychological present is said to be about three seconds long; that means that, you know, the in a life there are about 600 million of them; in a month, there are about 600,000—most of them don’t leave a trace. Most of them are completely ignored by the remembering self.” - Kahneman, D. (2010, February). The riddle of experience vs. memory [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory (6:53 in).

  17. Eleanor Maguire. (2014, March 13). The Neuroscience of Memory—Eleanor Maguire [Royal Institution Lecture]. Ri, London, England. https://youtu.be/gdzmNwTLakg (45:30 in).

  18. Stevens, A. (1999). On Jung (2. ed). Princeton Univ. Pr. (p. 43-46).

  19. Anil Seth. (2016, November 2). The real problem [Charity]. Psychology. https://aeon.co/essays/the-hard-problem-of-consciousness-is-a-distraction-from-the-real-one

  20. The brainstem and the hypothalamus, for example, are two key parts of the brain that help give rise to consciousness and drive conscious behavior, although the goings-on behind both of these areas are completely outside of our awareness. “Voluntary (cognitive) control of behavior requires the cerebral cortex; whereas control of innate (instinctive) behaviors is classically associated with the hypothalamus….Classic lesion experiments have shown that innate behaviors can be performed to some extent without the cerebral cortex, and spinal reflexes without the forebrain and much of the brainstem.” - Hahn, J. D., Fink, G., Kruk, M. R., & Stanley, B. G. (2019). Editorial: Current Views of Hypothalamic Contributions to the Control of Motivated Behaviors. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 13, 32. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2019.00032 See also: Brainstem - The brainstem controls numbers vital bodily functions like swallowing, blood pressure regulation, breathing, etc. Damage to the upper brainstem is known to cause coma or persistent vegetative states. Yet, patients with a severely damaged cortex and a relatively spared brainstem typically remain in a vegetative state, suggesting that brainstem activity alone is insufficient to sustain consciousness. Koch, C., Massimini, M., Boly, M., & Tononi, G. (2016). Neural correlates of consciousness: Progress and problems. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(5), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.22

  21. Kahneman, D. (2010, February). The riddle of experience vs. memory [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory (11 min in).

  22. Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. In F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis, & B. Keverne (Eds.), The Science of Well-Being (p. 284–305). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567523.003.0011 (p.285-86).

  23. Anil Seth describes the same experience (loss of sense of time) in his TED talk. Seth, A. (2017, April). Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality

  24. Within the anesthetized state, there are many different levels that are possible. See: Bonhomme, V., Staquet, C., Montupil, J., Defresne, A., Kirsch, M., Martial, C., Vanhaudenhuyse, A., Chatelle, C., Larroque, S. K., Raimondo, F., Demertzi, A., Bodart, O., Laureys, S., & Gosseries, O. (2019). General Anesthesia: A Probe to Explore Consciousness. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 13, 36. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2019.00036

  25. Bischoff, P., & Rundshagen, I. (2011). Awareness Under General Anesthesia. Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2011.0001

  26. Zajchowski, C. A. B., Schwab, K. A., & Dustin, D. L. (2017). The Experiencing Self and the Remembering Self: Implications for Leisure Science. Leisure Sciences, 39(6), 561–568. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2016.1209140

  27. George Musser. (2011, September 15). Time on the Brain: How You Are Always Living In the Past, and Other Quirks of Perception [Science Magazine]. Scientific American: Observations. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the-past-and-other-quirks-of-perception/

  28. Suddendorf, T., Addis, D. R., & Corballis, M. C. (2009). Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1521), 1317–1324. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0301 See also: Klein, S. B., Loftus, J., & Kihlstrom, J. F. (2002). Memory and Temporal Experience: The Effects of Episodic Memory Loss on an Amnesic Patient’s Ability to Remember the Past and Imagine the Future. Social Cognition, 20(5), 353–379. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.20.5.353.21125

  29. Eleanor Maguire. (2014, March 13). The Neuroscience of Memory—Eleanor Maguire [Royal Institution Lecture]. Ri, London, England. https://youtu.be/gdzmNwTLakg See also: Maguire, E. A., & Hassabis, D. (2011). Role of the hippocampus in imagination and future thinking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(11), E39–E39. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018876108


Chapter 16: Mental Disorders

  1. Jung, C. G., & Falzeder, E., Jung, Lorenz, Meyer-Grass, Maria, Woolfson, Tony. (2012). Children’s Dreams: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936-1940. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400843084 (p. 3).

  2. Seth, A. (2017, April). Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality (8 min. in).

  3. Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science, 330(6006), 932–932. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439

  4. Duan, L., Van Dam, N. T., Ai, H., & Xu, P. (2020). Intrinsic organization of cortical networks predicts state anxiety: An functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1), 402. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01088-7

  5. Wang, X., Öngür, D., Auerbach, R. P., & Yao, S. (2016). Cognitive Vulnerability to Major Depression: View from the Intrinsic Network and Cross-network Interactions. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 24(3), 188–201. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000081

  6. See Triple network model of major psychopathology: “Deficits in access, engagement and disengagement of largescale neurocognitive networks are shown to play a prominent role in several disorders including schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, dementia and autism.” Menon, V. (2011). Large-scale brain networks and psychopathology: A unifying triple network model. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(10), 483–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.08.003

  7. “Importantly, studies in patient populations have shown that blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI can be used to detect altered FC [Functional Connectivity] in individuals suffering from a variety of CNS diseases. Further, patients can often be distinguished from healthy controls with high sensitivity and high specificity. In addition, research has shown connectivity strength to be correlated with severity of disease symptoms, with recovery of connectivity observed following pharmacological treatment.37 These connectivity networks can be disturbed in various psychiatric conditions such as anorexia nervosa,38 obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression,40–42 anxiety,43,44 bipolar disorder and hypomania,45 trauma,46 and addiction,47,48 among others. These citations are by no means exhaustive, but demonstrate that a large number of psychiatric disorders are associated with disturbances in RSFC.” - Nichols, D., Johnson, M., & Nichols, C. (2017). Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.557

  8. Posner, J., Cha, J., Wang, Z., Talati, A., Warner, V., Gerber, A., Peterson, B. S., & Weissman, M. (2016). Increased Default Mode Network Connectivity in Individuals at High Familial Risk for Depression. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(7), 1759–1767. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.342

  9. National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July 1). Anxiety Disorders [Federal Agency Website]. NIMH. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders

  10. Ibid. (See Panic Disorders)

  11. Koenigs, M., & Grafman, J. (2009). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala. The Neuroscientist, 15(5), 540–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858409333072

  12. Zhou, H.-X., Chen, X., Shen, Y.-Q., Li, L., Chen, N.-X., Zhu, Z.-C., Castellanos, F. X., & Yan, C.-G. (2020). Rumination and the default mode network: Meta-analysis of brain imaging studies and implications for depression. NeuroImage, 206, 116287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116287

  13. “Depression can be characterized, to some extent, as repetitive, ruminative thinking.” - Dr. Anil Seth - (1:18:20) World Science Festival. (2019, April 16). Revealing the Mind: The Promise of Psychedelics [Science Festival]. Big Ideas Series, New York. https://youtu.be/Fi66wFfOC-4

  14. W.H.O. (2021, September 13). Depression [United Nations Agency Website]. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression

  15. Paul Nestadt, M.D. (2020, September 28). Why Aren’t my Antidepressants Working? [Health & Research]. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/why-arent-my-antidepressants-working

  16. Just taking someone who’s suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) “MDD is found to predict significant decrements in role functioning (e.g., low marital quality low work performance, low earnings). MDD is also associated with elevated risk of inset, persistence, and severity of a wide range of chronic physical disorders and to suicide.” Kessler, R. C. (2012). The Costs of Depression. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 35(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2011.11.005; See also: Dr. James Pennebaker - “People who are depressed use the word “I” more than people who are not depressed.” Then later, “One of the theories of depression is that it’s a disease of self-focus, that people are so ruminative and looking inward so much.” Dr. James Pennebaker. (2017, March 4). Dialogue: Great U Texas Austin Psych Prof JW Pennebaker [Video Interview]. https://youtu.be/hJ4JEypNH2s (38 min. in). Additionally, depression has been characterized by a severe pessimism bias about oneself and future. See: Beevers, C. G., Mullarkey, M. C., Dainer-Best, J., Stewart, R. A., Labrada, J., Allen, J. J. B., McGeary, J. E., & Shumake, J. (2019). Association between negative cognitive bias and depression: A symptom-level approach. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(3), 212–227. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000405. After that, grapple with the fact that this pessimism bias appears to be alleviated with just one treatment of psilocybin: Lyons, T., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2018). More Realistic Forecasting of Future Life Events After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1721. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01721

  17. LSD - Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  18. Psilocybin (Extraversion and Openness were effected) - Erritzoe, D., Roseman, L., Nour, M. M., MacLean, K., Kaelen, M., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2018). Effects of psilocybin therapy on personality structure. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 138(5), 368–378. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12904. See also: MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11), 1453–1461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881111420188

  19. MDMA - Wagner, M. T., Mithoefer, M. C., Mithoefer, A. T., MacAulay, R. K., Jerome, L., Yazar-Klosinski, B., & Doblin, R. (2017). Therapeutic effect of increased openness: Investigating mechanism of action in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 31(8), 967–974. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881117711712


Chapter 17: MDMA, Psilocybin, and LSD

  1. Passie, T. (2018). The early use of MDMA (‘Ecstasy’) in psychotherapy (1977–1985). Drug Science, Policy and Law, 4, 205032451876744. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050324518767442

  2. Benzenhöfer, U., & Passie, T. (2010). Rediscovering MDMA (ecstasy): The role of the American chemist Alexander T. Shulgin: The rediscovery of MDMA by Alexander T. Shulgin. Addiction, 105(8), 1355–1361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02948.x

  3. Brad Burge. (10/24/2015). Psychedelics—New Perspectives (No. 099) [Video]. https://youtu.be/Bq-ewHfJyPs (13 min. in).

  4. Ibid. (15 min in).

  5. Torsten Passie. (2017, April 26). Torsten Passie: History of MDMA - An Overview [Scientific Presentation]. Psychedelic Science 2017, Oakland, Ca]. https://youtu.be/r72hZzJGsNU (24 min in).

  6. Doblin, R. (2019, April). The future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/rick_doblin_the_future_of_psychedelic_assisted_psychotherapy (8:20 in).

  7. Feduccia, A. A., Jerome, L., Yazar-Klosinski, B., Emerson, A., Mithoefer, M. C., & Doblin, R. (2019). Breakthrough for Trauma Treatment: Safety and Efficacy of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Compared to Paroxetine and Sertraline. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 650. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00650

  8. Jerome, L., Feduccia, A. A., Wang, J. B., Hamilton, S., Yazar-Klosinski, B., Emerson, A., Mithoefer, M. C., & Doblin, R. (2020). Long-term follow-up outcomes of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of PTSD: A longitudinal pooled analysis of six phase 2 trials. Psychopharmacology, 237(8), 2485–2497. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05548-2 Additionally, it is worth noting that the prevalence of PTSD amongst veterans of OIF and OEF (from 2007-2013) has been estimated to be at 23%! See: Fulton, J. J., Calhoun, P. S., Wagner, H. R., Schry, A. R., Hair, L. P., Feeling, N., Elbogen, E., & Beckham, J. C. (2015). The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Veterans: A meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 31, 98–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.02.003

  9. Fuentes, J. J., Fonseca, F., Elices, M., Farré, M., & Torrens, M. (2019). Therapeutic Use of LSD in Psychiatry: A Systematic Review of Randomized-Controlled Clinical Trials. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 943. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00943

  10. Ibid.

  11. Brad Burge. (10/24/2015). Psychedelics—New Perspectives (No. 099) [Video]. https://youtu.be/Bq-ewHfJyPs (21:20 in).

  12. Das, S., Barnwal, P., Ramasamy, A., Sen, S., & Mondal, S. (2016). Lysergic acid diethylamide: A drug of “use”? Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 6(3), 214–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125316640440

  13. Lattin, D. (2012). Distilled spirits: Getting high, then sober, with a famous writer, a forgotten philosopher, and a hopeless drunk. University of California Press. (p. 206).

  14. The following is a pretty good summary of LSD myths, their origin, and the literature that debunks them: Roberts, T. B., & Council on Spiritual Practices (Eds.). (2001). Psychoactive sacramentals: Essays on entheogens and religion. Council on Spiritual Practices. (p. 125-35). However, it is also of note that there were myths that LSD caused chromosome damage, which has also been debunked. See: Grob, C. S., & Grigsby, J. (Eds.). (2021). Handbook of medical hallucinogens. The Guilford Press. (p. 18-19).

  15. Grof, S. (1980). LSD psychotherapy. Hunter House. (p. 297).

  16. “80-90% of people rate these experiences in the top 5 of their life,” says Dr. Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University when asked to reflect on all his research in the psychedelic domain. See: Jordan Peterson. (March 2, 2021). The Psychology of Psychedelics—Roland Griffiths (S4 E20) [Video]. https://youtu.be/NGIP-3Q-p_s (52:50 in).

  17. Pamela Caragol. (2009, November 3). Inside LSD [Documentary]. In National Geographic Explorer. National Geographic. https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-lsd/ (8 min. in).

  18. Beckley Foundation. (2017, April 19). Psychedelic Research Timeline [Research Think Tank]. Psychedelic Science. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/psychedelic-research-timeline-2/

  19. Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  20. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., … Nutt, D. J. (2016). Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4853–4858. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518377113

  21. Das, S., Barnwal, P., Ramasamy, A., Sen, S., & Mondal, S. (2016). Lysergic acid diethylamide: A drug of “use”? Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 6(3), 214–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125316640440 (This article is a good review about LSD and its uses, however it’s worth mentioning that classic psychedelics, like LSD and psilocybin, are both 5-HT2A receptor agonists and act upon our brains in similar ways. They’re both effective agents for generating bona fide “mystical-type” experiences, yet there is far more research being done with psilocybin. And the reason for this seems to be because of its shorter duration time, long history of use, and its “perceived” cultural image, which is typically viewed as being “more natural” than LSD, even though most clinical trials are required to use a synthetic form of psilocybin. All this considered, there would likely be more papers published about the efficacy of LSD, in regards to PTSD, etc., if its duration time were a bit shorter, and its PR campaign a bit stronger.

  22. Gasser, P., Kirchner, K., & Passie, T. (2015). LSD-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with a life-threatening disease: A qualitative study of acute and sustained subjective effects. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881114555249

  23. Muttoni, S., Ardissino, M., & John, C. (2019). Classical psychedelics for the treatment of depression and anxiety: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 258, 11–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.07.076

  24. Winkelman, M. (2015). Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107120011

  25. Giorgio Samorini. (2019). The oldest archeological data evidencing the relationship of Homo sapiens with psychoactive plants: A worldwide overview. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 3(2), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2019.008

  26. Peter von Puttkamer. (2009, May 19). Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey [Documentary]. History Channel.

  27. Davis, W. (1997). One river: Explorations and discoveries in the Amazon rain forest (1. Touchstone ed., [Nachdr.]). Simon & Schuster. (p. 240-43).

  28. Dasgupta, A. (2019). Abuse of Magic Mushroom, Peyote Cactus, LSD, Khat, and Volatiles. In Critical Issues in Alcohol and Drugs of Abuse Testing (pp. 477–494). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815607-0.00033-2

  29. Vollenweider, F. X., & Preller, K. H. (2020). Psychedelic drugs: Neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21(11), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0367-2

  30. Email correspondence with Dr. David Nichols on Dec. 12, 2021. During one of the times Dr. David Nichols met Hofmann, Albert said he had no idea how he got it into his body. Although, Nichols suspects that some of the solution from the column chromatography purification process may have gotten onto his fingers or under his fingernails. Apparently, they didn’t wear rubber gloves in those days, Nichols reports, so the solution might’ve diffused through his skin, or possibly if he rubbed his eyes or mouth.

  31. David E. Nichols & Benjamin R. Chemel. (2006). The Neuropharmacology of Religious Experience: Hallucinogens and the Experience of the Divine. In Patrick McNamara (Ed.), Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion: Vol. 3 (The Psychology of Religious Experience) (1st edition). Praeger Publishers. (p. 7).

  32. Davis, W. (1997). One river: Explorations and discoveries in the Amazon rain forest (1. Touchstone ed., [Nachdr.]). Simon & Schuster. (p. 227-43).

  33. Nichols, D., Johnson, M., & Nichols, C. (2017). Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.557

  34. Andersson, M., Persson, M., & Kjellgren, A. (2017). Psychoactive substances as a last resort-a qualitative study of self-treatment of migraine and cluster headaches. Harm Reduction Journal, 14(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-017-0186-6

  35. Daniel, J., & Haberman, M. (2017). Clinical potential of psilocybin as a treatment for mental health conditions. The Mental Health Clinician, 7(1), 24–28. https://doi.org/10.9740/mhc.2017.01.024

  36. Studies using psilocybin as a potential treatment for PTSD are still underway, but there is much support for its potential. Krediet, E., Bostoen, T., Breeksema, J., van Schagen, A., Passie, T., & Vermetten, E. (2020). Reviewing the Potential of Psychedelics for the Treatment of PTSD. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 23(6), 385–400. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyaa018

  37. Bogenschutz, M. P., Forcehimes, A. A., Pommy, J. A., Wilcox, C. E., Barbosa, P., & Strassman, R. J. (2015). Psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol dependence: A proof-of-concept study. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(3), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881114565144

  38. Johnson, M. W., Garcia-Romeu, A., & Griffiths, R. R. (2017). Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 43(1), 55–60. https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2016.1170135

  39. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., … Nutt, D. J. (2016). Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4853–4858. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518377113

  40. “80-90% of people rate these experiences in the top 5 of their life,” says Dr. Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University when asked to reflect on all his research in the psychedelic domain. See: Jordan Peterson. (March 2, 2021). The Psychology of Psychedelics—Roland Griffiths (S4 E20) [Video]. https://youtu.be/NGIP-3Q-p_s (52:50 in).

  41. The locus of action for all classic psychedelics is that they are agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor. Interestingly though, if this receptor is blocked by ketansarin, the subjective effects are also blocked. “Consistent with these animal studies, the administration of the 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin abolishes virtually all of the subjective effects of psilocybin, LSD and DMT in humans.” Vollenweider, F. X., & Preller, K. H. (2020). Psychedelic drugs: Neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21(11), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0367-2

  42. Drake Baer. (2015, January 29). How Steve Jobs’ Acid-Fueled Quest For Enlightenment Made Him The Greatest Product Visionary In History [News Website]. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-lsd-meditation-zen-quest-2015-1

  43. Adderall and Ritalin are both stimulant medications typically used to treat those diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. These stimulants typically have a calming or focusing effect on those with ADHD, although for those who have not been diagnosed with ADHD, the effect is similar to that of caffeine (another CNS stimulant) which typically increases wakefulness, increases focus and attention, and suppresses appetite. See: National Institute of Drug Abuse. (2014, January 1). Stimulant ADHD Medications: Methylphenidate and Amphetamines [Government Health Organization]. National Institute on Drug Abuse. https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/drugfacts_stimulantadhd_1.pdf

  44. Winkelman, M. (2015). Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107120011

  45. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Hellyer, P. J., Shanahan, M., Feilding, A., Tagliazucchi, E., Chialvo, D. R., & Nutt, D. (2014). The entropic brain: A theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00020

  46. Winkelman, M. (2015). Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107120011

  47. Iboga - Alper, K. R. (2001). Chapter 1 Ibogaine: A review. In The Alkaloids: Chemistry and Biology (Vol. 56, p. 1–38). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-9598(01)56005-8

  48. Psilocybin - Garcia-Romeu, A., Griffiths, R. R., & Johnson, M. W. (2014). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences in the treatment of tobacco addiction. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 157–164. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107121331

  49. Ayahuasca - Talin, P., & Sanabria, E. (2017). Ayahuasca’s entwined efficacy: An ethnographic study of ritual healing from ‘addiction.’ International Journal of Drug Policy, 44, 23–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.02.017

  50. “We’re wired to have these kinds of experiences,” says Dr. Roland Griffiths when asked to reflect on twenty years of psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins University. Jordan Peterson. (March 2, 2021). The Psychology of Psychedelics—Roland Griffiths (S4 E20) [Video]. https://youtu.be/NGIP-3Q-p_s (67:45 in).


Chapter 18: Piecing it all together

  1. Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  2. Watts, R., Day, C., Krzanowski, J., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2017). Patients’ Accounts of Increased “Connectedness” and “Acceptance” After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 520–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817709585

  3. See Bones of the Experience (Glossary)

  4. Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  5. Ibid.

  6. Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2010). The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: A neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain, 133(4), 1265–1283. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq010

  7. Spreng, R. N., & Grady, C. L. (2010). Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(6), 1112–1123. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21282

  8. Raichle, M. E. (2010, March 1). The Brain’s Dark Energy. Scientific American, 302(3), 44–49.

  9. Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: Brain Imaging with Psilocybin and MDMA (No. 17). (2017, September 28). [Podcast]. from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-17-dr-robin-carhart-harris-brain-imaging-with/id1217974024?i=1000392843298 (20 min. in)

  10. Ibid. (18 min. in).

  11. Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3

  12. Berman, M. G., Peltier, S., Nee, D. E., Kross, E., Deldin, P. J., & Jonides, J. (2011). Depression, rumination and the default network. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(5), 548–555. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq080

  13. Posner, J., Cha, J., Wang, Z., Talati, A., Warner, V., Gerber, A., Peterson, B. S., & Weissman, M. (2016). Increased Default Mode Network Connectivity in Individuals at High Familial Risk for Depression. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(7), 1759–1767. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.342

  14. Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3

  15. Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  16. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., … Nutt, D. J. (2016). Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4853–4858. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518377113

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Atasoy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Kringelbach, M. L., Deco, G., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2017). Connectome-harmonic decomposition of human brain activity reveals dynamical repertoire re-organization under LSD. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 17661. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17546-0

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., … Nutt, D. J. (2016). Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4853–4858. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518377113

  23. Ibid.

  24. Beckley Foundation. (2016, April 1). The World’s First Images of the Brain on LSD [Scientific Institution]. Beckley in the Press. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/the-brain-on-lsd-revealed-first-scans-show-how-the-drug-affects-the-brain/

  25. Nichols, D. E. (2004). Hallucinogens. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), 131–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2003.11.002

  26. J. Krishnamurti. (1979). Awareness of inattention is attention [Public Speech]. https://youtu.be/3VrN45mg8gI (6:20 in).

  27. Kaiser, R. H., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Wager, T. D., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2015). Large-Scale Network Dysfunction in Major Depressive Disorder: A Meta-analysis of Resting-State Functional Connectivity. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(6), 603. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0071

  28. Scult, M. A., Fresco, D. M., Gunning, F. M., Liston, C., Seeley, S. H., García, E., & Mennin, D. S. (2019). Changes in Functional Connectivity Following Treatment With Emotion Regulation Therapy. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00010

  29. Posner, J., Cha, J., Wang, Z., Talati, A., Warner, V., Gerber, A., Peterson, B. S., & Weissman, M. (2016). Increased Default Mode Network Connectivity in Individuals at High Familial Risk for Depression. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(7), 1759–1767. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.342

  30. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (February, 2004). Flow, the secret to happiness [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness

  31. Ulrich, M., Keller, J., Hoenig, K., Waller, C., & Grön, G. (2014). Neural correlates of experimentally induced flow experiences. NeuroImage, 86, 194–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.019

  32. Shapiro, S., Siegel, R., & Neff, K. D. (2018). Paradoxes of Mindfulness. Mindfulness, 9(6), 1693–1701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0957-5

  33. Magic mushrooms & Reindeer—Weird Nature—BBC animals. (2009, January 26). [Documentary]. In Weird Nature. BBC Four. https://youtu.be/MkCS9ePWuLU

  34. Siegel, R. K. (2005). Intoxication: The universal drive for mind-altering substances. Park Street Press. (p. 65).

  35. Hockings et al., document chimpanzees using tools made from leaves to scoop out naturally occurring palm wine. However, it is also of note that at least three species of bird have been seen going after this natural sweet beverage. Hockings, K. J., Bryson-Morrison, N., Carvalho, S., Fujisawa, M., Humle, T., McGrew, W. C., Nakamura, M., Ohashi, G., Yamanashi, Y., Yamakoshi, G., & Matsuzawa, T. (2015). Tools to tipple: Ethanol ingestion by wild chimpanzees using leaf-sponges. Royal Society Open Science, 2(6), 150150. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150150

  36. Birds tapping palm wine, see: Gutiérrez, J. S., Catry, T., & Granadeiro, J. P. (2020). Human facilitation of sap‐feeding birds in the Bijagós archipelago, West Africa. Ibis, 162(1), 250–254. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12790

  37. Janiak, M. C., Pinto, S. L., Duytschaever, G., Carrigan, M. A., & Melin, A. D. (2020). Genetic evidence of widespread variation in ethanol metabolism among mammals: Revisiting the ‘myth’ of natural intoxication. Biology Letters, 16(4), 20200070. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0070

  38. Siegel, R. K. (2005). Intoxication: The universal drive for mind-altering substances. Park Street Press. (p.103-5).

  39. Ibid. (p. 64).

  40. Samorini, G. (2002). Animals and psychedelics: The natural world and the instinct to alter consciousness. Park Street Press. (p. 76-77).

  41. BBC. (2017, February 1). Lemurs get high—Spy in the Wild—BBC (No. 4) [Documentary]. In Spy in the Wild. BBC One. https://youtu.be/yYXoCHLqr4o

  42. Dolphins Play Catch with a Pufferfish! - Spy In The Wild—BBC Earth (No. 2). (2019, September 19). [Documentary]. In Spy In The Pod. BBC One. https://youtu.be/0T5aGLybXEs

  43. Siegel, R. K. (2005). Intoxication: The universal drive for mind-altering substances. Park Street Press.

  44. David Nichols. (2010, August 5). David E. Nichols Interviewed by Jan Irvin (2010) [5/7] [Audio]. https://youtu.be/Ih_Yqge2cU0 (9:30 in).


Chapter 19: Experiences

  1. Lebedev, A. V., Kaelen, M., Lövdén, M., Nilsson, J., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2016). LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change: LSD-Induced Entropic Brain Activity. Human Brain Mapping, 37(9), 3203–3213. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23234

  2. Smoking cessation addiction studies - “No significant differences in general intensity of drug effects were found between groups, suggesting that mystical-type subjective effects, rather than overall intensity of drug effects, were responsible for smoking cessation.” Garcia-Romeu, A., Griffiths, R. R., & Johnson, M. W. (2014). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences in the treatment of tobacco addiction. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 157–164. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107121331

  3. The mystical-type experience produces “sustained positive changes in attitudes and behavior that were consistent with changes rated by friends and family.” - Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5

  4. Anxiety and depression studies - Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Carducci, M. A., Umbricht, A., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., Cosimano, M. P., & Klinedinst, M. A. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1181–1197. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116675513

  5. Depression studies - “Four separate trials have reported improvements in depressive symptoms after psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (Griffiths et al. 2016; Ross et al. 2016; Grob et al. 2011; Carhart-Harris et al. 2016), including one in which ‘treatment-resistant depression’ was the primary criterion for inclusion (Carhart-Harris et al. 2016).” See: Carhart-Harris, R. L., Bolstridge, M., Day, C. M. J., Rucker, J., Watts, R., Erritzoe, D. E., Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Bloomfield, M., Pilling, S., Rickard, J. A., Forbes, B., Feilding, A., Taylor, D., Curran, H. V., & Nutt, D. J. (2018). Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: Six-month follow-up. Psychopharmacology, 235(2), 399–408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4771-x

  6. About the mystical-type experience being the key component to the maximization of healing, the authors of this paper were sharp to notice that there are degrees of mystical experience, and that even ‘incomplete’ mystical experiences were of benefit. Gasser, P., Kirchner, K., & Passie, T. (2015). LSD-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with a life-threatening disease: A qualitative study of acute and sustained subjective effects. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881114555249

  7. This entire podcast speaks to the general point, but two sections of note occur at 37 to 39 min in, and at 54 min in. Jordan Peterson. (March 2, 2021). The Psychology of Psychedelics—Roland Griffiths (S4 E20) [Video]. https://youtu.be/NGIP-3Q-p_s (54:30 in).

  8. Foody, G. M., & Atkinson, P. M. (Eds.). (2002). Uncertainty in remote sensing and GIS. J. Wiley. (p. 279).

  9. Haden, M. (2017, November). Psychedelics: Past, present, and future [Video]. TEDx Conferences. https://youtu.be/JI1dwVsPw2E (6:40 in)

  10. This blog post from a ketamine treatment facility in Florida gets at the point of ego death rather succinctly. Xavier Francuski. (2018, November 5). Why We Strive For Ego Death With Psychedelics [Treatment Facility Website]. Ketamine for Anxiety. https://revitalizinginfusions.com/why-we-strive-for-ego-death-with-psychedelics/

  11. Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2019). REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics. Pharmacological Reviews, 71(3), 316–344. https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.118.017160


Chapter 20: DEMP Cont'd

  1. Wheal, J., & Kotler, S. (2017). Stealing Fire: How silicon valley, the navy SEALs and maverick scientists are revolutionizing the way we live and work. Dey Street Books.

  2. Dietrich, A. (2011, November). Surfing the Stream of Consciousness: Tales from the Hallucination Zone [Video]. TEDxBeirut. https://youtu.be/syfalikXBLA (10:20 min. in)

  3. Nichols, D. E. (2016). Psychedelics. Pharmacological Reviews, 68(2), 264–355. https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.115.011478

  4. Aghajanian, G. K. (1980). Mescaline and LSD facilitate the activation of locus coeruleus neurons by peripheral stimuli. Brain Research, 186(2), 492–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(80)90997-X

  5. Preller, K. H., Razi, A., Zeidman, P., Stämpfli, P., Friston, K. J., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2019). Effective connectivity changes in LSD-induced altered states of consciousness in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(7), 2743–2748. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815129116

  6. The Master and His Emissary: Conversation with Dr. Iain McGilchrist (Dr. Jordan Peterson, Interviewer). (2018, February 17). [Video Interview]. https://youtu.be/xtf4FDlpPZ8 (2:50 in).

  7. There are multiple attributions for this quote from Margaret Thatcher to Mahatma Gandhi, although Quote Investigator attributes the most modern incarnation to Frank Outlaw. That withstanding, there are versions of this quote going back as far back as 1856. See: Quote Investigator. (2013, January 10). Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Words; Watch Your Words, They Become Actions [Quote Tracer]. Quote Investigator. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/10/watch-your-thoughts/

  8. LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change. (2016). [Research Think Tank]. The Beckley Foundation. https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/resource/lsd-induced-entropic-brain-activity-predicts-subsequent-personality-change/ See also: Lebedev, A. V., Kaelen, M., Lövdén, M., Nilsson, J., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2016). LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change: LSD-Induced Entropic Brain Activity. Human Brain Mapping, 37(9), 3203–3213. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23234

  9. Increases in Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, see: Hutten, N. R. P. W., Mason, N. L., Dolder, P. C., Theunissen, E. L., Holze, F., Liechti, M. E., Varghese, N., Eckert, A., Feilding, A., Ramaekers, J. G., & Kuypers, K. P. C. (2021). Low Doses of LSD Acutely Increase BDNF Blood Plasma Levels in Healthy Volunteers. ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, 4(2), 461–466. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00099


Chapter 21: The Chair Incident

  1. Nichols, D. E., & Grob, C. S. (2018). Is LSD toxic? Forensic Science International, 284, 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.01.006

  2. David Eagleman. (2016, October 4). The Brain and The Now—David Eagleman [Keynote address]. The Long Now Member Summit, San Francisco. https://youtu.be/vv_e99qbJ4U (6 min in).

  3. Stetson, C., Fiesta, M. P., & Eagleman, D. M. (2007). Does Time Really Slow Down during a Frightening Event? PLoS ONE, 2(12), e1295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001295

  4. David Eagleman. (2016, October 4). The Brain and The Now—David Eagleman [Keynote address]. The Long Now Member Summit, San Francisco. https://youtu.be/vv_e99qbJ4U (36 min in).

  5. David Eagleman. (2009). Brain Time [Author’s Website]. Latest. https://eagleman.com/latest/brain-time/

  6. Wolpert, D. (2011, July). The real reason for brains [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains


Chapter 22: Koreatown Revisited

  1. Preller, K. H., Razi, A., Zeidman, P., Stämpfli, P., Friston, K. J., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2019). Effective connectivity changes in LSD-induced altered states of consciousness in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(7), 2743–2748. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815129116

  2. The brain can process and identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds, roughly equating to us being able to see at about 75fps. See: Anne Trafton. (2014, January 16). In the blink of an eye. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2014/in-the-blink-of-an-eye-0116

  3. Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., … Nutt, D. J. (2016). Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4853–4858. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518377113

  4. David Biello. (2008, March 20). Self-Experimenters: Psychedelic Chemist Explores the Surreality of Inner Space, One Drug at a Time. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/self-experimenter-chemist-explores-new-psychedelics/

  5. Huxley, A. (2009). The doors of perception. Harper Perennial. (p. 27,34).

  6. Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2019). How do psychedelics work? Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 32(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000467

  7. “The visual modality is arguably the most developed in the primate and occupies the largest amount of real estate: approximately 50% of cerebral cortex in macaque and 20–30% in humans is devoted to visual processing.” In: Sheth, B. R., & Young, R. (2016). Two Visual Pathways in Primates Based on Sampling of Space: Exploitation and Exploration of Visual Information. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2016.00037. See also: Werner, J. S., & Chalupa, L. M. (Eds.). (2004). The visual neurosciences (Vol. 1). MIT Press. (p. 513).

  8. David Eagleman. (2016, October 4). The Brain and The Now—David Eagleman [Keynote address]. The Long Now Member Summit, San Francisco. https://youtu.be/vv_e99qbJ4U (14 min in.)

  9. Dennis, M. Aaron (2021, December 26). Rodney Brooks. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rodney-Allen-Brooks

  10. David Eagleman. (2016, October 4). The Brain and The Now—David Eagleman [Keynote address]. The Long Now Member Summit, San Francisco. https://youtu.be/vv_e99qbJ4U (15 min. in).

  11. Pamela Caragol. (2009, November 3). Inside LSD [Documentary]. In National Geographic Explorer. National Geographic. https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-lsd/ (38:50 in).

  12. Krebs, R. M., Park, H. R. P., Bombeke, K., & Boehler, C. N. (2018). Modulation of locus coeruleus activity by novel oddball stimuli. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 12(2), 577–584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-017-9700-4

  13. Tse, P. U., Intriligator, J., Rivest, J., & Cavanagh, P. (2004). Attention and the subjective expansion of time. Perception & Psychophysics, 66(7), 1171–1189. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196844

  14. NatGeo. (2014, June 19). Brain Games—Time Perception (Oddball Effect) [Documentary; Video File]. National Geographic. https://youtu.be/W7uLwUHuxRM

  15. Eagleman’s Texas Tower - Stetson, C., Fiesta, M. P., & Eagleman, D. M. (2007). Does Time Really Slow Down during a Frightening Event? PLoS ONE, 2(12), e1295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001295

  16. Zago, L., Fenske, M. J., Aminoff, E., & Bar, M. (2005). The Rise and Fall of Priming: How Visual Exposure Shapes Cortical Representations of Objects. Cerebral Cortex, 15(11), 1655–1665. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhi060


Chapter 23: Synesthesia

  1. James Wannerton. (2020). James Wannerton—Synesthete [Artist website]. https://jameswannerton.com/about/

  2. Sakai, J. (2020). Core Concept: How synaptic pruning shapes neural wiring during development and, possibly, in disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(28), 16096–16099. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010281117

  3. Dan Clifton, Catherine Gale, Johanna Woolford Gibbon. (2015, October 21). What Makes Me? (No. 2) [Documentary]. In The Brain with David Eagleman. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/brain-david-eagleman-what-makes-me_ep2/

  4. AMNH. (2012, May 21). Mass Extinction Events [Museum Website]. American Museum of Natural History. https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/extinction/mass-extinction

  5. Brang, D., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2011). Survival of the Synesthesia Gene: Why Do People Hear Colors and Taste Words? PLoS Biology, 9(11), e1001205. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001205

  6. Chrissie Giles. (2017, October 16). What it’s like to have synaesthesia: Meet the man who can taste sounds. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/synaesthesia-sound-taste-health-science-brain-a7996766.html

  7. Harman, W. W., McKim, R. H., Mogar, R. E., Fadiman, J., & Stolaroff, M. J. (1966). Psychedelic Agents in Creative Problem-Solving: A Pilot Study. Psychological Reports, 19(1), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1966.19.1.211

  8. Scott, G., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2019). Psychedelics as a treatment for disorders of consciousness. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2019(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niz003


Chapter 24: Synesthesia Cont'd

  1. Grossenbacher, P. G., & Lovelace, C. T. (2001). Mechanisms of synesthesia: Cognitive and physiological constraints. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01571-0

  2. Dana Smith. (2013, December 4). Can Synesthesia in Autism Lead to Savantism? [Magazine Website]. Scientific American (MIND Guest Blog). https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/can-synesthesia-in-autism-lead-to-savantism/

  3. Peiffer-Smadja, N., & Cohen, L. (2019). The cerebral bases of the bouba-kiki effect. NeuroImage, 186, 679–689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.033

  4. David Eagleman. (2009, June). Synesthesia: Hearing colours, tasting sounds [Chast Lecture]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvCw-H8h6E4 (14:30 in).


Chapter 25: Off the Rails

  1. Watts, R., Day, C., Krzanowski, J., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2017). Patients’ Accounts of Increased “Connectedness” and “Acceptance” After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 520–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817709585

  2. Erowid. (2012, September 12). 25I-NBOMe (2C-I-NBOMe) Fatalities / Deaths [Non-profit research and educational organization]. Erowid Center. https://erowid.org/chemicals/2ci_nbome/2ci_nbome_death.shtml

  3. World Health Organization. (2014). 25I-NBOMe [Critical Review Report]. W.H.O. https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/4_19_review.pdf

  4. Gee, P., Schep, L. J., Jensen, B. P., Moore, G., & Barrington, S. (2016). Case series: Toxicity from 25B-NBOMe – a cluster of N-bomb cases. Clinical Toxicology, 54(2), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650.2015.1115056

  5. Wood, D. M., Sedefov, R., Cunningham, A., & Dargan, P. I. (2015). Prevalence of use and acute toxicity associated with the use of NBOMe drugs. Clinical Toxicology, 53(2), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650.2015.1004179

  6. Watts, A. (2017). Out of your mind: Tricksters, interdependence, and the cosmic game of hide-and-seek. Sounds True, Inc. (p. 24).


Chapter 26: What Really Happened

  1. Nichols, D. E., & Grob, C. S. (2018). Is LSD toxic? Forensic Science International, 284, 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.01.006

  2. Dan Hooper. (2020, February 10). What Happened At The Beginning Of Time? - With Dan Hooper [Royal Institution Lecture]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB7d89-YHjM

  3. Krishnamurti, J. (1987). The awakening of intelligence (1st Harper & Row pbk. ed). Harper & Row. (p. 94).

  4. “Genes are immortal…” in: Richard Dawkins. (2013, September 25). An Appetite for Wonder: Richard Dawkins in Conversation with Adam Rutherford [Video Interview]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omsUZ3u5TX4 (48 min in).

  5. “The genes that survive…” in: Russell Barnes, Dan Hillman. (2008, August 11). Richard Dawkins Presents: The Genius of Charles Darwin (Part 2: The Fifth Ape) [Biology; Documentary]. Channel 4. https://youtu.be/xuCfju7JN_4 (35:20 in).

  6. Richard Dawkins. (2013, September 25). An Appetite for Wonder: Richard Dawkins in Conversation with Adam Rutherford [Video Interview]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omsUZ3u5TX4 (49:15 min in).

  7. Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene (30th anniversary ed). Oxford University Press. (p. 21).

  8. The cdc2 gene, which was originally discovered by Sir Paul Nurse, is a gene that controls cell division in fission yeast. Sir Paul Nurse was awarded the Nobel prize for this discovery, because apparently, this cdc2 gene is also found in humans. To put that in perspective, that means the gene for controlling cell division has been conserved for well over a billion years, in light of the fact that humans and yeasts shared a common ancestor between 1.2 and 1.5 billion years ago. Nurse, P. (2021). What is life? Five great ideas in biology (First American edition). W.W. Norton & Company. (p. 50-51).

  9. While the original “out of Africa” hypothesis of human migration may have been a little too simple (positing one single giant migration occurring about 60,000 years ago) recent archaeological finds are more in support of multiple migrations out of Africa. Some of which are believed to have occurred as early as 194-250k years ago. For early migrations, see: Beyer, R. M., Krapp, M., Eriksson, A., & Manica, A. (2021). Climatic windows for human migration out of Africa in the past 300,000 years. Nature Communications, 12(1), 4889. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24779-1

  10. For Multiple dispersal support, see also: Bae, C. J., Douka, K., & Petraglia, M. D. (2017). On the origin of modern humans: Asian perspectives. Science, 358(6368), eaai9067. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai9067

  11. For evidence pointing towards a major dispersal around 65k years ago, see: Malaspinas, A.-S., Westaway, M. C., Muller, C., Sousa, V. C., Lao, O., Alves, I., Bergström, A., Athanasiadis, G., Cheng, J. Y., Crawford, J. E., Heupink, T. H., Macholdt, E., Peischl, S., Rasmussen, S., Schiffels, S., Subramanian, S., Wright, J. L., Albrechtsen, A., Barbieri, C., … Willerslev, E. (2016). A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia. Nature, 538(7624), 207–214. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18299

  12. For additional evidence regarding a clear dispersal of modern humans from southern to eastern Africa 60-70k years ago, see: Rito, T., Vieira, D., Silva, M., Conde-Sousa, E., Pereira, L., Mellars, P., Richards, M. B., & Soares, P. (2019). A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 4728. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41176-3

  13. Amos, W., & Hoffman, J. I. (2010). Evidence that two main bottleneck events shaped modern human genetic diversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1678), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.1473

  14. Geneticist/anthropologist Spencer Wells describes a near-extinction event which happened about 70,000 years ago, where the total number of human beings alive dropped down to as few as 2,000 individuals. Wells, Spencer. (2014, May 5). The human journey—a genetic odyssey [Video]. TEDx Talks. https://youtu.be/xnbxrDGZoBQ (7 min in).

  15. University of Copenhagen. (2008, January 31). Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 16, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm

  16. Krista Conrad. (2020). Countries With The Most Blue-Eyed People—World Facts. In World Atlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-blue-eyed-people.html

  17. National Human Genome Research Institute. (2018, September 7). Genetics vs. Genomics Fact Sheet [Research Organization]. Genome.Gov. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Genetics-vs-Genomics

  18. Seaman, J., & Buggs, R. J. A. (2020). FluentDNA: Nucleotide Visualization of Whole Genomes, Annotations, and Alignments. Frontiers in Genetics, 11, 292. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.00292

  19. Suntsova, M. V., & Buzdin, A. A. (2020). Differences between human and chimpanzee genomes and their implications in gene expression, protein functions and biochemical properties of the two species. BMC Genomics, 21(S7), 535. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-020-06962-8

  20. National Human Genome Research Institute. (2010, July 23). Why Mouse Matters [Research Organization]. Genome.Gov. https://www.genome.gov/10001345/importance-of-mouse-genome

  21. Nour, M. M., Evans, L., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2016). Ego-Dissolution and Psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI). Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00269

  22. Pahnke, W. N. (1969). The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death. Harvard Theological Review, 62(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000027577

  23. End Well. (2018, February 28). Transcendence Through Psilocybin | Anthony Bossis, PhD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCf3h-F7apM

  24. Muraresku, B. (2020). The immortality key: The secret history of the religion with no name (First edition). St. Martin’s Press. (p. xv, 5-6, and the whole book really).

  25. Good Friday Experiment: Pahnke WN. Thesis presented to the President and Fellows of Harvard University for the Ph.D. in Religion and Society. 1963. Drugs and mysticism: An analysis of the relationship between psychedelic drugs and the mystical consciousness.

  26. Pahnke, W. N. (1967). LSD and religious experience. LSD man & society. Wesleyan University Press. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.463.950&rep=rep1&type=pdf

  27. Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5

  28. Griffiths, R., Richards, W., Johnson, M., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22(6), 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881108094300







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