Is a drug even needed to induce a psychedelic experience?

This intriguing recent Scientific American article comments: "A debate has long percolated among researchers as to whether what happens after taking a psychedelic drug results from the placebo effect—rooted in a person’s belief that taking psilocybin or ketamine is going to give them a transformative experience. Boris D. Heifets, an associate professor of anesthesiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has been tackling this question amid his broader laboratory investigations of what exactly happens in mind and brain when someone takes a psychedelic. How much of this sometimes life-altering experience is chemical and empirical, and how much is mental and subjective? It turns out the effects may consist of a lot more than just a simple biochemical response to a drug activating, say, the brain’s serotonin receptors. Heifets recently talked with Scientific American about his years-long quest to define the essence of the psychedelic experience."

For more psychedelic news and research, visit the psychedelic health professional network homepage.