Ayahuasca Alters Brain Waves To Produce Waking Dream-Like State, Study Finds 115
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: People under the influence of a psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca frequently experience vivid visual and aural hallucinations and also report feeling as if they are in a dream. Now a new study published in Scientific Reports has shown that the drug alters the user's waking brain-wave patterns to produce a mental state that the researchers describe as "dreaming while awake." Ayahuasca is a bitter tea made from the Brazilian vine banisteriopsis caapi, colloquially known as the "spirit vine," used in shaman-led spiritual ceremonies among native people in the Amazon basin. Its primary active ingredient is dimethyltryptamine (DMT). That's the secret to ayahuasca's powerful psychedelic effects, which can also produce feelings of elation and fear or a sense of epiphany or psychological breakthrough. Those mind-altering properties come at a price, however. Participants in the ceremonies are often advised to bring a bucket, since nausea and vomiting (and sometimes diarrhea) are common reactions to the tea.
The current paper is the most recent study out of the [Imperial College London's Center for Psychedelic Research]. The study involved 13 subjects fitted with EEG caps and electrodes to monitor their brain activity while being given an IV infusion of DMT. The team found that the DMT caused a marked drop in alpha waves, a mark of wakefulness, along with a corresponding brief increase in theta brain waves, indicative of a dream state. Furthermore, while brain activity has been shown to decrease in subjects under the influence of psilocybin and LSD, the Imperial College researchers found more chaotic brain activity in subjects while under the influence of DMT. That might be why ayahuasca users report more vivid visual effects and a greater sense of immersion than is typically experienced with other psychedelics.
The current paper is the most recent study out of the [Imperial College London's Center for Psychedelic Research]. The study involved 13 subjects fitted with EEG caps and electrodes to monitor their brain activity while being given an IV infusion of DMT. The team found that the DMT caused a marked drop in alpha waves, a mark of wakefulness, along with a corresponding brief increase in theta brain waves, indicative of a dream state. Furthermore, while brain activity has been shown to decrease in subjects under the influence of psilocybin and LSD, the Imperial College researchers found more chaotic brain activity in subjects while under the influence of DMT. That might be why ayahuasca users report more vivid visual effects and a greater sense of immersion than is typically experienced with other psychedelics.
You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:4, Funny)
when the people will try anything to avoid reality.
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The car that hits you when you try to cross the main road in the dark while drunk.
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The car that hits you when you try to cross the main road in the dark while drunk.
is that the same reality as NDEs? Near death experiences seem excessively "real" to those who've experienced them.
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Yeah? How can you tell? Because I can tell the car hit was real by the broken bones.
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Yeah? How can you tell? Because I can tell the car hit was real by the broken bones.
People having PTSD flashbacks hear and see the things that traumatized them years ago, in the moment they are in. These experiences are real for them and the psychological effects on them are as real and as damaging (sometimes more so) as being hit by a car.
The PTSD flashbacks are certainly real for the people around them, who themselves are traumatized over time with lots of exposure to small traumas. Auditory and visual hallucination suffered by schizophrenics is soothed with nicotine, of all substanc
Related trauma book: The Body Keeps the Score:... (Score:2)
... Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
https://www.goodreads.com/book... [goodreads.com]
Blurb: "Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and ch
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That's a great reading list you've got there, I'll be putting a few of those on my next book order. We seem to have some similar interests, though they come from completely different sources. Some of mine are:
Pete Walker's Book CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving [amazon.com]
Pennebaker and Smyth Opening Up by Writing it Down [ebay.com]
Clarke Working with Monsters [amazon.com]
Brampson The Art of Thinking [amazon.com]
Thank you!
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Shared OBEs (Out-of-body Experiences) is one proof that Consciousness is non-local, and reality includes the meta-physical.
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Proof. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. The Amazing Randi's wager is still unclaimed, anyone with "proof" of metaphysical reality must have some very good reason for not really needing that $1,000,000.
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ALL Objective Truth is always reached through a Subjective Experience.
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Is this meant to sound deep? To me, it's just a truism, a banality that imparts no real wisdom.
If I kick you in the nuts (or ovaries, if you have those), it is objectively true that your subjective experience would include severe pain. Of course, the deep wisdom here comes not from talking about me kicking you in the nuts, but in you actually being kicked in the nuts, whether by me or someone else.
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Yes it an altruism but not everyone understands it.
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That which is reliably measurable.
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And you measure Consciousness HOW again?
How do you measure how much love a person has for their spouse?
Quit drinking the bullshit Kool-Aid TM of Materialism.
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That million dollars is going to sit there forever. The reason is that he requires proof that's impossible. No one can prove any feeling exists.
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Feelings of any sort don't prove the existence of anything supernatural. Doesn't matter whether you can prove they exist, what matters is whether something is happening that is not covered by the laws of physics.
And you can prove a feeling exists. If I take a voodoo doll and poke it while you are in another room, we can easily see whether you feel something at the moment it happens. Boom, proof of a feeling.
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Randi has no scientific credentials.
He is a liar [skepticala...eptics.org] and pseudo-skeptic -- he will NEVER pay out. The only delusions ones are those that think he will.
The point is that Objective Truth is consensual. That includes Mathematics and Science -- Applied Philosophical Systems to reach Truth.
How do YOU prove that 2+2=4?
By doing it yourself.
It doesn't matter what someone _else_ says or does until you literally have the experience yourself going through the proof. UNTIL then all you have is hearsay. You need to define
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Let's talk about the sum of 1+2+3+ ... inf.
For most people this sum would be, quite logically: +infinity.
But Mathematicians are not most people: They say the sum is -1/12.
What? How does summing positive numbers make it negative???
By having a different consensus on how numbers behave when extended to a complex plane using analytic continuation [youtu.be] (3Blue1Brown on Riemann Sum)
Have you watched the video? Because in the video it explicitly states that the Riemann-Zeta function is not defined for values s <= 1. So the function, if extended through analytic continuation, would NOT be the traditional 1+2+3+4+....+inf, because it is NOT DEFINED there. Analytic continuation tells you that there must be a separate extension to the Riemann-Zeta function such that for s = -1 the extension converges to -1/12. But that extension is obviously and trivially NOT the Riemann-Zeta functio
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How do you proof something to someone else only you yourself can experience?
That may be just your hallucination ... (Score:1)
... and he's fine over here with me.
Yeah ... that is why it is silly to refer to reality without saying whose. Like saying "percent", but not *of what*.
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Insightful)
define reality, please.
Reality is the thing that doesn't go away when you stop believing in it.
That falsely implies you could tell ... (Score:1)
... that you are merely believing it.
Or that you truly "stopped".
The whole point of "truly believing" is that your mind assumes it is not "just a belief" and not up to you, no matter if you stop.
How would you tell that that is not the case for this very comment here?
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Tell that to my kids, whom no longer believe in Santa, but still get a visit from him. ;)
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coming up heads 50 times in a row is as likely as it
coming up heads twice in a row
That is reality, and it has nothing to do with how you
"look at the universe and its contents", or how
you "ascribe meaning", or how you "explore potentiality".
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I don't know if that is true or not however it's thinking that helps me take a moment before reacting to what people say or do and helps me avoid emotional entanglements with people.
define reality, please.
Your perception of it filtered through your prejudices, values and belief systems. Whatever isms you happen to posses alter your perceptions of reality.
Which is the essentially what my sig below constantly reminds me of when I post:
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeking novelty is not the same thing as avoiding reality.
And anyway, the drug is real. The experience is real. The specific content of the experience is hallucinatory, and hence not real. But the experience itself is really happening. The emotional and psychological impact of the experience is also real. If research reveals that there is a reliable means of deriving lasting benefits from using the drug, with a minimum of side-effects, then it is a good thing overall. Even for people who do not face bleak futures.
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The often permanent neurological changes from using it is real too.
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And they are collectively known as "the Opoid Crisis".
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Insightful)
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I do not care about the specific mechanism of action of an escape drug, dimwit, I'm commenting on the motivation for the abuse.
Functional literacy sufficient to understand the point of a post was the more or less expected on Slashdot about the time you joined, you should have learned about it.
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Yes, your observation is very astute, the drug crisis is indeed primarily the result of the deadly combination ignorance and escapism.
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The often permanent neurological changes from using it is real too.
At least with mushrooms, I can attest that the neurological changes are very real, and extremely beneficial. I only wish they were more permanent than just a few weeks to months.
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The often permanent neurological changes from using it is real too.
At least with mushrooms, I can attest that the neurological changes are very real, and extremely beneficial. I only wish they were more permanent than just a few weeks to months.
Agreed.
I would also point out this benefit:
Furthermore, while brain activity has been shown to decrease in subjects under the influence of psilocybin and LSD
That the "mind/ego/whatever" can kick back, take a break and relax is one of the big selling points. People get so used to their chattering monkey that when it stops chattering, just that in itself is an 'epiphany'.
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The often permanent neurological changes from using it is real too.
Sources please.
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As you wish.
The cocktail is associated with a profound increase in novel neurogenesis in the hypocampus of the brain.
https://beckleyfoundation.org/... [beckleyfoundation.org]
Among other things, the hipocampus helps correlate sensory information. It is frequently reported that use of Ayahuasca will forever change the kind of experiences you have on other psychedelics, such as shrooms. It is not unreasonable to suspect a causal relationship there.
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You assume "escape" means running away from the mundane. I'm no expert but everything I've read says just the opposite. Being emotionally repulsed by, or attracted to anything, and having no control over that reaction, makes the mind unfree, pretty much by definition. Being able to, but not forced to keep the mind centered and calm in absolutely any conceivable situation is the "escape" being referred to here. Only if the mind remains unforced by external circumstances can it be said to be free.
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Huh? First, what's with the attitude? Are you so attached to your beliefs that mere discussion looks like attack? If we are going to have any further conversation on this topic, I'd like to resolve this first. Why the attack? Do you feel as though I attacked you? Do you feel slighted when I fail to recognize your wisdom?
Second, the rest of your comment seems to be a non sequiter. Grasping at spiritual experiences also indicates a mind that isn't free. Running from the mundane and running towards some poorl
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Yeah ... it's a mystery Chumlee.
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Even if we take that to mean that I was insulting your spiritual wisdom, I believe that cause and effect still have a definite ordering. I wrote that after the incident in which you obviously felt your spiritual wisdom was being slighted. And let's be clear, you started out on a high horse with "Your mistake is assuming..."
Anyhow, you seem like the sort of person who gets overly emotional when people question your spiritual beliefs so I'll just back away slowly at this point. I'm sure your beliefs are deep
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Sure thing bud. Make sure to do the human race a favour and kill yourself!
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Aw, you too pal! What a great, spiritual conversation. Reminds me of that rainforest tribe that takes Ayuhuasca and eats people. Super spiritual, no doubt! Drugs definitely, and demonstrably, always turn assholes into good people, for sure. Keep on truckin, you intrepid psychonaut'! Maybe I'll run into you at Burning Man next year, we can share some 5-MEO DMT (I got that legal hookup brah!) and spin some fire poi.
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I wasn't joking about that 5-MEO hookup, or the burning man thing. I was doing DMT with Terrence McKenna when you were in diapers, child. There's publicly available footage of me on stage with Mark Pesce talking about 5-MEO DMT. Do not cite the deep magic to me, I was there when that shit was written.
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Interesting)
All perception is hallucinatory, and thus not real. Altering perception increases orthogonality of the interpretation of reality. LSD, ayahuasca, and all perception augmentation tools add to the experience of reality, they don't detract. People who don't choose such experiences are not "smarter", they lack the courage to explore. Any honest person who abstains from such exploration will admit to themselves if not to others that they are afraid of the experience, not courageous in their abstinence.
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Any honest person who abstains from such exploration will admit to themselves if not to others that they are afraid of the experience, not courageous in their abstinence.
Brilliant and so true.
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All perception is hallucinatory, and thus not real.
That may be true in art and literature, but not in science.
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There is no shame in choosing to abstain /. about Ki (Japanese) or Chi (Chinese) or Prana (Hindi) (actually Prana is not exactly the same as Ki/Chi but a related form of inner energy).
Yes, in many things there is.
I had a talk with a guy here on
I know it exists, he know it does not. I gave him a simple exercise or the hint to go _once_ in a Tai Chi class or Chi Gong class. He refused. He basically is either to scared to admit he was wrong and knows nothing or to scared that Ki magically harms him or somethi
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Interesting)
Talk to someone with schizophrenia.
They often describe their affliction as dreaming while awake.
If we can figure out how ayahuasca works, and how to block it, it may lead to newer and better anti-psychotic medicines.
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Funny)
Talk to someone with schizophrenia.
This is why I'm on Slashdot, to look at the comments of the people who have various mental issues. The self-inflicted cases are the most illuminating.
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Informative)
Captain Obvious on LSD (Score:2)
Psychedelic drugs make you dazed and confused? Who knew?
Actual school bathroom graffiti: "Reality is for people who can't handle drugs."
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Actual school bathroom
Ah, the "wisdom" of the feeble mind, frayed further by drug abuse.
Or maybe it was from a teacher?
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Simon & Garfunkel: "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls..."
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Of course they are, if you have not read anything better.
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Simon & Garfunkel: "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls..."
Rush: "The words of the profits are written on the studio walls..."
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"by salesmen..."
I think they were spoofing S&G.
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Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Informative)
Example: Been a dick to others around you and are totally unaware of it? You go to an ayahuasca retreat, drink some juice that tastes like electric puke, lay down and feel the worst nausea you've ever felt. You know it's working when you start seeing colors racing around you in the most beautiful patterns while you roll and squirm from the intense need to vomit your guts out. The colors and patterns start taking the form of people, animals, half-people half-animals, aliens, whatever works for you. They can look like geometric lines and wireframes, or like the most hyper-realistic 3D rendered graphics running on computers we can't even dream of yet.
And then they start talking to you. Not with voices, telepathically. They think at you, and you don't reply they just know what you're thinking as you think it. They don't just tell you what you've done wrong, they make you feel what you've made someone else feel. They put you in every memory of every situation where you've treated someone unfairly except now you're the one taking it. It happens over and over and over rising in intensity while you just want the experience to stop but there's no getting off this ride.
Eventually things slow down and become peaceful. You're left with a sense of hyper-awareness of things you've done wrong and ways you need to change, and the way it was thrown at you with such ferocity makes it something you never forget. The authenticity of the message is undeniable, it feels as if it came from a higher being. It did, and that being was yourself being high as fuck. You put something in your brain that forced it to change the way thoughts travel around, a bunch of new paths opened up, and chunks here and there that don't normally say a thing to each other start talking and figuring out the big picture. And they didn't like how it was going.
That's the difference between psychedelics and other substances people use, such alcohol/pills/feel-good dopamine overloads that make you feel good despite how much your reality might suck. Why there are countless reports on psychedelics helping people in so many ways, from helping with addiction to other drugs, ptsd, depression, etc. Why do so many people swear on psychedelic experiences changing their lives for the better? You ever see articles like that about meth, heroin, alcohol, etc? "Yeah drinking every night cured my PTSD... click to read more" I don't think so.
The only bleak thing about the future is if people stay ignorant to new information. Go check out some studies and articles on psychedelic therapy, learn some stuff. Maybe go to an ayahuasca retreat some day and get your ass mentally whooped, and somehow feel grateful you did.
Source: Did ayahuasca 3 times
Re:You know the future is indeed bleak (Score:5, Interesting)
You are very fortunate.
Ayahuasca slaps you so hard with reality
I've described the psychedelic experience as like looking in to a mirror. It can be a lot for some people to handle. It sure as hell isn't an escape.
Here's hoping this insane prohibition ends soon. We have a lot to gain.
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Maybe the barriers between conscious and unconscious have been lowered and your unconscious has no intention of lying to you now that it has your undivided attention about how it observes your conscious self going through life.
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Source: Did ayahuasca 3 times
So what did you learn? How did you change?
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Albert Hoffman, "the father of LSD", was born in 1906. I'm kind of sure that's not the baby boom generation. Cannabis and opium have been known for centuries, as have various DMT-containing drugs and the chemist who first isolated it was born in 1901, again, not a boomer.
I'd wager the reason boomers took so many drugs was something of an accident of history. One of the first generations to have a broader view of other cultures thanks to education and literature, an increasing level of racial integration
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I'd wager the reason boomers took so many drugs was something of an accident of history.
They were asking for volunteers at Stanford in the early 60s, when LSD was still legal.
Once Kesey and the rest experienced that, the horse was out of the barn.
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Yeah, but you had guys like Huxley with experience with Mescaline, the Beatniks were into cannabis for various reasons (exposure to Black Jazz/musicians who used it, older cultural references, like Alice B. Toklas' hash brownies, etc), and sort of other exposure to various non-Western cultures which used various flavors of hallucinogens.
Definitely the rise of LSD during the peaking period of the boomer generation went along way towards tying boomer to hallucinogens, especially considering its nexus with hip
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Nah, TDS is the ability to believe Trump.
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TDS again. It causes the victim to insert inaccurate hate-on Trump references into every conversation they have, no matter how unrelated.
If you're on drugs, I suggest you kick the habit. If you're not, maybe time to try some anti-psychotics.
Thanks for the down mods. I desperately need to lower my karma. So I will get biblical with your jab. My point was more that from a religious or spiritual point of view one individual put it best a long time ago, "You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice." Simple life concept that needs no drugs or means to convey to others. No TDS involved. In fact the complete opposite.
out of the closet ! (Score:5, Interesting)
This mysterious concoction draws people from around the world to the deep jungles of the Amazon for a magical experience. Some recover and rave about their experience.
But the concoction is a mishmash (apologies to msmash) of strange ingredients simmered in a pot by a mystical brewmaster with questionable credentials. What the world needs, for a proper evaluation of this substance, is a standard formula. A clinically pure essence of the active ingredient. Then a proper large scale evaluation can be done in a safe environment with a variety of volunteers of different ages, sexes, and other traits.
After many decades of repression, some governments are allowing study of psychedelic substances for potential benefits. Long overdue and we have a long way to go.
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I guess this kind of story brings out the drug nutters.
Re: out of the closet ! (Score:5, Interesting)
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But the concoction is a mishmash (apologies to msmash) of strange ingredients simmered in a pot by a mystical brewmaster with questionable credentials. What the world needs, for a proper evaluation of this substance, is a standard formula.
All you really need is the leaves of the Psychotria viridis [wikipedia.org] plant, and a MAOI which is normally provided by Banisteriopsis caapi [wikipedia.org]. Then you've got potentiated DMT. But it's not really the easiest way to get DMT...
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> It's always cringey to see "science" types engage in one-dimensional thinking.
Exactly - it could well be hundreds of trace chemicals subtly interacting and we don't have any evidence to the contrary. Frankly it could be that the nausea-inducing chemicals are unnecessary for the trip; so much research is left to do but the Morons with Nukes make this especially difficult.
DMT and harmaline, combined, do not have the same effects as ayuhuasca.
Anyway, people interested in IV DMT should check out The Spiri
I think you got that backwards... (Score:1)
Not Ayahuasca! (Score:4, Interesting)
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DMT on its own probably produces similar brain states to ayahuasca, but the subjective experience is different between the two in more ways than just the duration.
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It's fascinating to think how many combinations the shaman must have gone through in order to find the right plants!
According to legend a shaman had a dream in which spirits told him to go into the jungle, find a specific vine and a specific root and to boil them together.
DMT! Not Ayahuasca! (Score:1)
There's a difference!!
This is like claiming apples make you fat because you fed some peoe lots of sugar and they got fat. "But sugar is the key ingredient in apples!"
And even if ysomehow Ayahuasca contains no other ingredients that have any modulating or other effects whatsoever (Not a likely scenario in the real world.), you would first have to verify that by doing comaprstive experiments.
This idiocy is why companies claim their junk food is healthy "because it contains a preparation 'with an extract subst
Hardly news (Score:4, Funny)
Another drug that does something similar (Score:2)
Yes, with amitriptyline I really have that much control over my dreams.
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I have found, in addition to more vivid and frequently lucid dreams, it can create a condition of remaining in dream state even after awakening. I can break out of the state if I need to.
Reading Castaneda will do that.
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I have found, in addition to more vivid and frequently lucid dreams, it can create a condition of remaining in dream state even after awakening. I can break out of the state if I need to.
Reading Castaneda will do that.
I didn't see where the user can choose to break dream state. I will say, breaking dream-state intentionally is a very weird feeling. I can physically feel my self "coming online." It is hard to describe, it is like a tingly wave moving through my head.
Of course, it is also interesting, walking to the WC in the morning hours. I am frequently purposefully not breaking the dream-state. When doing this I have to maintain a bit of cognitive separation. I am not awake, and I am seeing things that only exis
Tadpole (Score:1)
Material reductionists spending half their life watching liquid crystals changing color while telling you what reality is.
Bring a bucket? (Score:2)
So, two buckets then.
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They do have toilets you know. Robin Quivers talked about her Ayahuasca experience. She was sitting on the toilet while holding a bucket in her lap and she still had visions even with her eyes closed.
What kind of explanation is that? (Score:1)
How does "more chaotic brain waves" explain the experiences people have on DMT? Something is missing there.
No Monty Python fans? (Score:2)