Psychedelic Psychotherapy

Once thought to be something that died out in the 60's, Psychedelic therapy is still being conducted today. It all began in 1943 when Albert Hoffmann of Sandoz Laboratories accidentally made (and ingested) LSD. As a result of his experience, he decided to utilize it for use as a therapeutic aid. This eventually caught on in the 1950's, and the results were actually pretty positive. Strange as it seems, Time Magazine even ended up publishing a few articles that didn't make the substance seem as if it were an evil byproduct of Satan and rock music.

The results of this peculiar brand of psychotherapy were mostly positive. Some studies have even shown that it has assisted in treating alcoholism. The former link states that, according to the NHS, "there is no evidence that LSD does any long-term damage to the body or mind." Both of these articles were written in 2006, several years after the substance gained such a horrible reputation.

There have been similar studies conducted with the hallucinogenic substance Ibogaine. The following video shows how it helped a heroin addict kick the habit.



Most recently, an article posted this year describes the positive effects of psychedelic psychotherapy on a 67 year old woman. The woman described in the article has ovarian cancer, and while the psychotherapy was not able to cure cancer, it was able to treat her cancer anxiety, as well as post-traumatic stress. The session was able to give her a very positive outlook regarding the remainder of her life.

Despite all of the evidence that psychedelics, when used in a controlled medical environment for psychotherapeutic purposes, have the potential to provide individuals with an improved psychological state, or help them kick addictions to harmful and addictive substances, they're still commonly regarded in an immensely negative light.

It's easy to see how the counter-culture movement of the 1960's left a bad taste in everyone's mouth regarding the use of psychedelics. Timothy Leary's mantra "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was commonly misinterpreted as an invitation for teenagers to drop out of school, abuse drugs, and contribute absolutely nothing to society. Leary later explained the true meaning of the phrase in an autobiography released in the early 1980's. "'Drop out' suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or subconscious commitments. 'Drop out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.'"

Unfortunately this proved to be too little, too late, especially considering the fact that a massive amount of people really did just get stoned and abandon all constructive activity as a result of his mantra.

It still seems like a stretch to be using psychedelics for therapeutic purposes. However, the medical industry is constantly distributing dangerous drugs. Don't believe me? Well, check out the following commercial for Celebrex.



The narrator for the ad literally says that Celebrex can lead to death. Yet this substance is not only legal, but it's getting ad time on the air!

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not advocating the use of drugs for people to solve their problems. However, it seems that it would be more logical for the previously described psychedelics (none of which, according to NHS, have any deadly side effects) to be used in a medical setting than a substance that has a massive list of horrible side-effects.

Again, I'm not advocating the legalization of psychedelic substances at all, but it's been proven that they've been able to greatly assist people, and it's also been shown that many of the negative connotations associated with them are commonly attached to the counter-culture movement of the 1960's.

Considering the positive effects that these substances have had, perhaps it wouldn't be a ridiculous notion to give professionals of science and medicine the opportunity to research them for the sake of creating a safer alternative to many of our current pharmaceutical substances.