Hidden trauma: Do psychedelics reveal memories or create fake ones?

In this Big Think article, author Saga Briggs discusses an important issue, commenting: "Psychedelics have been reported to help individuals access and process deeply buried memories. However, psychedelic research raises concerns about the potential for psychedelics to enhance suggestibility and create false memories, mirroring debates from the "memory wars" era. Despite the compelling anecdotes, research highlights the complex nature of memory and the need for cautious interpretation of psychedelic-induced recollections.  Can psychedelics help people unearth and emotionally process significant memories, including traumatic memories that might be lurking below conscious awareness? Anecdotal evidence suggests they can. In the film Trip of Compassion, we hear from three survivors of separate traumas who said taking MDMA helped them revisit and heal from their experiences. And in courageous acts of vulnerability, two influential figures in the psychedelic space, Tim Ferriss and Katherine MacLean, have publicly shared their stories of recovering memories of sexual abuse under psychedelics — MacLean under psilocybin, as described in her book Midnight Water, and Ferriss under ayahuasca, mushrooms, and meditation, as noted in his podcast.  The media and research literature are full of countless anecdotes of psychedelics revealing hidden memories. But alongside what are undoubtedly some real and heart-rending personal accounts, there’s reason to be skeptical about the veracity of the memories retrieved while under the influence of psychedelics. After all, psychedelics have also been shown to increase suggestibility and enhance false memories — effects that understandably raise suspicions about retrieved memories, similar to suspicions in the “memory wars” of the 1990s, a series of debates on the scientific validity of repressed memories, uncovered trauma, and the perils of memory recovery therapy.   So how do we reconcile these two narratives, and is it really as black or white as siding with science or survivor?"

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