Earliest use of hallucinogen Ayahuasca detected in Andean mummies dated to 750AD

Analysis of hair from 22 mummies found in southern Peru has revealed the earliest known use of San Pedro cactus, a source of mescaline, and the psychoactive plants that make up the drug ayahuasca. The majority of the mummies were unearthed in Cahuachi, a religious center used by the Nazca people starting around 100 B.C. Coca plants and the Banisteriopsis caapi plant, better known as the liana vine, are among the substances detected in the mummies' hair.

The plants are not native to the region and were probably transported across the Andes Mountains. Researchers found that the drugs of choice changed over time. Ayahuasca and mescaline became less favored and coca consumption became more common after the Wari Empire conquered the Nazca around A.D. 750.

This shift may indicate changes in religious rituals surrounding human sacrifice. The find included four trophy heads, including one belonging to a child, who were sacrificial victims, but there is very little evidence of what role psychoactive substances played in the rituals. Bioarchaeologist Dagmara Socha of the University of Warsaw believes the antidepressant effects of the drugs may have been an important reason for their use. "In the case of the children that were sacrificed," she says, "they were given Banisteriopsis caapi, probably because it was important for them to go happily to the gods."

https://www.sott.net/article/477499-Earliest-use-of-hallucinogen-Ayahuasca-detected-in-Andean-mummies-dated-to-750AD

Canada to offer medically-assisted suicide for psychiatric suffering

 https://www.sott.net/article/466491-Canada-to-offer-medically-assisted-suicide-to-the-mentally-ill

One year from now, in March 2023, Canada will become one of the few nations in the world allowing medical aid in dying, or MAID, for people whose sole underlying condition is depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, schizophrenia, PTSD or any other mental affliction. In the Netherlands, MAID for irremediable psychiatric suffering has been regulated by law since 2002, and a new study by van Veen and colleagues underscores just how complicated it can be. How do you define "grievous and irremediable" in psychiatry? Is it possible to conclude, with any certainty or confidence, that a mental illness has no prospect of ever improving? What has been done, what has been tried, and is it enough?

Full Article: https://www.sott.net/article/466491-Canada-to-offer-medically-assisted-suicide-to-the-mentally-ill

Cannabis products may help treat symptoms of depression, improve sleep, and increase quality of life, study suggests

A longitudinal study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry investigated the effects of medicinal cannabis among clinically depressed and/or anxious patients. Those who were using medicinal cannabis at baseline had lower depression scores than non-users, and non-users who began taking cannabis during the follow-up period experienced a reduction in both anxiety and depression symptoms.

Anxiety and depression are of the most common mental health conditions around the world. While there are existing therapeutic and pharmacological treatments, evidence suggests that many sufferers fail to seek help and are wary of the side effects of taking medication.

Study authors Erin L. Martin and her colleagues note that many people with anxiety and depression are turning to medicinal cannabis as a way to manage their symptoms. These products can be made predominantly of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), or equal amounts of both. Studies investigating the therapeutic effects of these products have shown promise but have yielded mixed results, and the ideal dosage remains unclear.

https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/cannabis-products-may-help-treat-symptoms-of-depression-improve-sleep-and-increase-quality-of-life-study-suggests-62014

Ayahuasca use associated with greatly improved anxiety and depression symptoms in large international study

Despite their illegality and a tendency among the media and politicians to demonize their use, psychedelics have been shown to have transformative effects on individuals suffering from mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. At the same time, drug use more generally is a powerful predictor of mental health issues and the line between recreational and medicinal use is often thin.

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive Amazonian brew which holds a central place in healing rituals and popular syncretic religions, especially in South America. Despite its widespread use in these contexts and growing interest globally, however, large-scale studies were lacking until very recently.

The Global Ayahuasca Project was conducted from 2017 to 2020 and is the largest cross-sectional study on Ayahuasca use to date, taking the form of an online self-reported questionnaire. A portion of its results are published in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, and tell the story of a significant connection between Ayahuasca use and improvements in affective disorders.

The study included more than 11,000 respondents, 7,785 of whom reported suffering from symptoms of depression or anxiety at the time of consumption. The authors made use of a variety of measures to assess mental health outcomes among Ayahuasca users, as well as their subjective experience both during and following consumption.

The results of the study show an impressive amelioration in depression and anxiety symptoms nearly across the board. 94% of respondents experienced some (“a bit”), great (“very much”) or complete resolution of depression symptoms; the same was true in 90% of cases for anxiety symptoms.

The large sample size allowed for the authors to draw a number of significant conclusions about the kinds of Ayahuasca experiences that correlated most strongly with important improvements. Those who reported more profound mystical experiences, for example, tended to experience the greatest improvements. A greater number of insights into one’s personal relationships also correlated strongly with improvements, suggesting one cognitive pathway by which the drug may reduce anxiety and depression symptoms.

Not all respondents were so lucky, however. A small minority of individuals reported worsened depression symptoms (2.7%) and worsened anxiety symptoms (4.4%). Of course, depression and anxiety symptoms evolve over time and it may be that the Ayahuasca use was unrelated to these changes, but there is at least some evidence of its implication. For example, feeling disconnected or alone; nervous, anxious or on edge; or depressed or hopeless in the weeks immediately following consumption were all predictors of worsened symptoms.

One major limitation of the study is its cross-sectional nature, meaning that we can’t reliably confirm a causal relationship. It’s also worth mentioning that self-reporting, and especially historical, affective self-reporting can be unreliable. Finally, delivery of the questionnaire via Ayahuasca groups and forums, where individuals with positive reactions are more likely to be active, may have translated to some significant selection bias.

Overall, the study suggests an important relation between Ayahuasca use and improved affect among individuals suffering from depression or anxiety, and very little evidence of negative mental health effects. Understanding the cognitive, emotional and even social pathways by which Ayahuasca and other psychedelics work is an important next step.

The study, “Ayahuasca use and reported effects on depression and anxiety symptoms: An international cross-sectional study of 11,912 consumers,” was published in April 2021.

DMT, active component in ayahuasca, aids in the growth of new neurons

Five therapeutic properties of medicinal mushrooms

https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/mushroom-power-five-therapeutic-properties-medicinal-mushrooms1

Mushrooms have recently gained popularity in culinary circles, but their far-reaching therapeutic properties should get your attention for a longer and healthier life

Although mushrooms have been part of the healer's toolbox since ancient times, the medicinal power of mushrooms is gaining momentum in evidence-based journals.

Medicinal mushrooms come in a wide variety and shapes such as white button, reishi, maitake, shiitake, oyster, cordyceps, cauliflower, tiger tail and lion's mane, and most have health benefits that range from fighting cancer and boosting your immunity and memory to preventing diseases like diabetes and arthritis.

https://www.sott.net/article/452171-Five-therapeutic-properties-of-medicinal-mushrooms

Mainstream media coverage of healing potential of Magic Mushrooms is increasing!

BBC: Psilocybin: Magic mushroom compound 'promising' for depression

Psychedelic drug psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms, is as good at reducing symptoms of depression as conventional treatment, a small, early-stage study has suggested.

The Guardian: Psychedelics are transforming the way we understand depression and its treatment

So why does psilocybin appear to be a more successful treatment for depression than a typical antidepressant? Brain imaging data from the trial, alongside the psychological data we collected, appears to show that while SSRIs dampen emotional depth by reducing the responsiveness of the brain’s stress circuitry, helping to take the edge off depressive symptoms, psilocybin seems to liberate thought and feeling. It does this by “dysregulating” the most evolutionarily developed aspect of our brain, the neocortex. When this liberation occurs alongside professional psychological support, the most common outcome is a renewed breadth of perspective. Psychedelic therapy seems to catalyse a type of psychological growth that is conducive to mental health, overlapping in many respects with spiritual growth.

Psy Post: Psilocybin’s complicated relationship with creativity revealed in new placebo-controlled neuroimaging study

People under the influence of psilocybin — the active component of magic mushrooms — report having more profound and original thoughts, but tend to score lower on cognitive tests of creative ability, according to new research published in Translational Psychiatry. But the findings indicate that the psychedelic substance can still boost creative ability in the long-term.

The study also collected functional magnetic resonance imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy data, providing some new insights into the underlying neurobiological mechanisms associated with creative ability.

Ketamine normalizes hyperactivity in key brain region of depressed patients

There is no shortage of psychological and pharmacological therapies to combat the world’s most widespread mental health issue, major depressive disorder (MDD). However, a significant portion of the affected population fail to respond to many of these traditional therapies. For this reason, new drugs must be tested and validated. One promising candidate is ketamine –famously but somewhat improperly known as a horse tranquilizer.

However, the manner by which ketamine acts is not well known, meaning that clinicians are still circumspect regarding its use in treating MDD. Recently, researchers in New York look at how ketamine affects the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a region of the brain whose hyperactivity has proven ties to MDD. The recent study, which appeared in Neuropsychopharmacology, helps bridge this gap in the literature.

Full Article: https://www.psypost.org/2021/04/ketamine-normalizes-hyperactivity-in-key-brain-region-of-depressed-patients-60295

Psychedelic experience may not be required for psilocybin's antidepressant-like benefits

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers have shown that psilocybin—the active chemical in 'magic mushrooms'— still works its antidepressant-like actions, at least in mice, even when the psychedelic experience is blocked. The new findings suggest that psychedelic drugs work in multiple ways in the brain and it may be possible to deliver the fast-acting antidepressant therapeutic benefit without requiring daylong guided therapy sessions. A version of the drug without, or with less of, the psychedelic effects could loosen restrictions on who could receive the therapy, and lower costs, making the benefits of psilocybin more available to more people in need.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-psychedelic-required-psilocybin-antidepressant-like-benefits.html

Researchers believe the drug might help loosen the brain's fixed pathways, which can then be "reset" with talking therapy afterwards.

A powerful hallucinogenic drug known for its part in shamanic rituals is being trialled as a potential cure for depression for the first time.

Participants will be given the drug DMT, followed by talking therapy.

It is hoped this could offer an alternative for the significant number of people who don't respond to conventional pills for depression.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy might offer longer-term relief from symptoms, some researchers believe.

A growing body of evidence indicates other psychedelic drugs, particularly alongside talking therapy, are safe and can be effective for treating a range of mental illnesses.

This will be the first time DMT is given to people with moderate to severe depression in a clinical trial.

Dr Carol Routledge, the chief scientific officer of Small Pharma, the company running the trial said: "We believe the impact will be almost immediate, and longer lasting than conventional antidepressants."

'Spirit molecule'

The drug is known as the "spirit molecule" because of the way it alters the human consciousness and produces hallucinations that have been likened to a near-death experience.

It is also the active ingredient in ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian plant medicine used to bring spiritual enlightenment.

Researchers believe the drug might help loosen the brain's fixed pathways, which can then be "reset" with talking therapy afterwards.

Dr Routledge likened the drug to "shaking a snow globe" - throwing entrenched negative thought patterns up in the air which the therapy allows to be resettled into a more functional form.

But this hypothesis still needs to be proven.

The team is consulting Imperial College London, which runs the pioneering Centre for Psychedelic Research.

As part of the study, they hope to investigate whether the drug can be administered as a one-off or as part of a course.

Subjects will be followed up for at least six months to see how long the effects of the treatment last.

Ketamine clinic

Meanwhile, a ketamine-assisted therapy clinic is set to open in Bristol next week.

First ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic opens

While the drug is already used for depression in clinics like the ketamine treatment service in Oxford, it is not accompanied by psychotherapy.

Rather, it is used to provide temporary relief from symptoms for people who have very serious, treatment-resistant depression.

So-far unpublished researched presented at a conference by professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, Celia Morgan, suggests ketamine accompanied by therapy has much longer-lasting effects.

Prof Morgan said there was mounting evidence that drugs, including psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and MDMA (Ecstasy), were safe and could play a role in the treatment of mental health disorders.

And there was some early evidence they could have longer-term effects than the medicines conventionally prescribed as antidepressants, known as SSRIs, but more research was needed.

They also worked using a completely different mechanism, Prof Morgan explained.

'Long-lasting change'

While conventional drugs may numb negative feelings, "these drugs seem to allow you to approach difficult experiences in your life, sit with that distress and process them," she said.

"It might be getting at something more fundamental" that was the root cause of the problem, Prof Morgan said.

"Through that we think you can get much more long-lasting change."

Prof Michael Bloomfield, a consultant psychiatrist at University College London, said although it was a "really exciting" area of research, caution was needed in overpromising the drugs' potential.

It was also a field of therapy that could be open to abuse and misuse, he said.

Prof Morgan also stressed the importance the drugs being used within the context of therapy as there were concerns that "people might think they can give it a go with some recreational drugs".

"But it's really not how it works" she said.

‘The ketamine blew my mind’: can psychedelics cure addiction and depression?

Psilocybin might produce rapid and lasting antidepressant effects

Scientists in Denmark believe the psychedelic substance psilocybin might produce rapid and lasting antidepressant effects in part because it enhances neuroplasticity in the brain. Their new research, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, has found evidence that psilocybin increases the number of neuronal connections in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of pig brains.

Psilocybin — the active component in so-called “magic” mushrooms — has been shown to have profound and long-lasting effects on personality and mood. But the mechanisms behind these effects remain unclear. Researchers at Copenhagen University were interested in whether changes in neuroplasticity in brain regions associated with emotional processing could help explain psilocybin’s antidepressant effects.

“Both post-mortem human brain and in vivo studies in depressed individuals have shown a loss of synapses through the down-regulation of synaptic proteins and genes,” the authors of the study wrote. “Hence, upregulation of presynaptic proteins and an increase in synaptic density may be associated with the potential antidepressive effects of psychedelics.”

The researchers had previously conducted tests to establish the proper dose of psilocybin needed to produce psychoactive effects in pigs, who were examined because their brains are anatomically similar to the brains of humans.

A group of 12 pigs received a psychoactive dose of psilocybin, while a separate group of 12 pigs received inert saline injections. Half of the pigs were euthanized one day after the administration of psilocybin, while the rest were euthanized one week later.

An examination of brain tissue from the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex revealed increases in the protein SV2A in pigs who had received psilocybin. SV2A, or synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A, is commonly used as a marker of the density of synaptic nerve endings in the brain. SV2A is typically reduced in patients with major depressive disorder.

“We find that a single dose of psilocybin increases the presynaptic marker SV2A already after one day and that it remains higher seven days after,” the researchers said, adding that the “increased levels of SV2A after intervention with a psychedelic drug adds to the scientific evidence that psychedelics enhance neuroplasticity, which may explain the mechanism of action of its antidepressant properties.”

The study, “A Single Dose of Psilocybin Increases Synaptic Density and Decreases 5-HT2A Receptor Density in the Pig Brain“, was authored by by Nakul Ravi Raval, Annette Johansen, Lene Lundgaard Donovan, Nídia Fernandez Ros, Brice Ozenne, Hanne Demant Hansen, and Gitte Moos Knudse.

https://www.psypost.org/2021/03/new-research-provides-evidence-that-a-single-dose-of-psilocybin-can-boost-brain-connections-60095

A Day On Solid Ground - to listen

That is also why I am here

To feel the depth of being, the pain, the sorrow.  Understanding what being human is. What the seperation entails. What the resistance means. 

To wander through the underworld. That is also why I am here. 

The experience of sadness and loss, the frustration, the heart is on a journey of understanding. 

To feel all of life, to walk through the world and know every facet is the most precious commodity. The soul finds it's ecstasy in the breakdown, in the falling away. 

There is no greater joy than in deep participation, fulfillment of the returning. I am coming home each day. 

As I walk slowly through the hours, through the seasons; I walk through my seperations. I walk through my fears. I feel the cells of my body teaching me; pain is relieving me, my resistance is reading me, my depression is leaving me. 

Just like tears falling from my eyes, so are the leaves falling from me. My incarnation is close to me in the cold of the night. 

Do you not see the radiance? 

The singing of the redemption is as the silver streams of moonlight. So fair; you have tiny shimmers like crystalline cobwebs in your hair. 

The tones are softly calming, the music of the spheres. Yet once you were in utter darkness, in the midst of terror, in the crying years.

Have we got it all wrong? Depression as a survival strategy

For generations, we have seen depression as an illness, an unnecessary deviation from normal functioning. It's an idea that makes sense because depression causes suffering and even death. But what if we've got it all wrong? What if depression is not an aberration at all, but an important part of our biological defense system?
More and more researchers across specialties are questioning our current definitions of depression. Biological anthropologists have argued that depression is an adaptive response to adversity and not a mental disorder. In October, the British Psychological Society published a new report on depression, stating that "depression is best thought of as an experience, or set of experiences, rather than as a disease." And neuroscientists are focusing on the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in depression. According to the Polyvagal Theory of the ANS, depression is part of a biological defense strategy meant to help us survive.

The common wisdom is that depression starts in the mind with distorted thinking. That leads to "psychosomatic" symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, or fatigue. Now, models like the Polyvagal Theory suggest that we've got it backward. It's the body that detects danger and initiates a defense strategy meant to help us survive. That biological strategy is called immobilization, and it manifests in the mind and the body with a set of symptoms we call depression.

When we think of depression as irrational and unnecessary suffering, we stigmatize people and rob them of hope. But when we begin to understand that depression, at least initially, happens for a good reason we lift the shame. People with depression are courageous survivors, not damaged invalids.

Full Article

Psychedelic drug DMT to be trialled in UK to treat depression

UK regulators have given the go-ahead for the first clinical trial of the use of the psychedelic drug dimethyltriptamine (DMT) to treat depression.

The trial will initially give the drug – known as the “spirit molecule” for the powerful hallucinogenic trips it induces – to healthy individuals, but it is expected to be followed by a second trial in patients with depression, where DMT will be given alongside psychotherapy.

Taking the drug before therapy is akin to shaking up a snow globe and letting the flakes settle, said Carol Routledge, chief scientific and medical officer at Small Pharma, the company running the trial in collaboration with Imperial College London.

“The psychedelic drug breaks up all of the ruminative thought processes in your brain – it literally undoes what has been done by either the stress you’ve been through or the depressive thoughts you have – and hugely increases the making of new connections.

“Then the [psychotherapy] session afterwards is the letting-things-settle piece of things – it helps you to make sense of those thoughts and puts you back on the right track. We think this could be a treatment for a number of depressive disorders besides major depression, including PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and possibly some types of substance abuse.”

DMT is found in several plants and is one of the active ingredients in ayahuasca, a bitter drink consumed during shamanistic rituals in South America and elsewhere. DMT is also available as a street drug in the UK, where it classified as a class A substance, carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in jail for possession and life imprisonment for supply.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the trial on Monday, and Small Pharma is currently involved in discussions with the Home Office, which must also give permission because DMT is a controlled substance.

The hope is that the initial trial, which aims to establish the lowest dose of DMT that elicits a psychedelic experience, could begin in January. It will involve 32 healthy volunteers, who have never previously taken a psychedelic drug, including ecstasy or ketamine. This will be followed by trial in 36 patients with clinical depression.

The treatment will be modelled on studies of psilocybin – the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms – in depression. Here patients are brought into a clinic, where they undergo a “setting” session, during which the clinician primes them to open their mind to the drug, and ensures that they are comfortable and relaxed. Next, they are administered the drug, and once the psychedelic experience ends, the patient immediately undergo a session of psychotherapy.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/09/psychedelic-drug-dmt-to-be-trialled-in-uk-to-treat-depression

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy produces large, rapid, and sustained antidepressant effects

Combining the psychedelic drug psilocybin with supportive psychotherapy results in substantial rapid and enduring antidepressant effects among patients with major depressive disorder, according to a new randomized clinical trial. The findings have been published in JAMA Psychiatry.

The new study provides more evidence that psilocybin, a compound found in so-called magic mushrooms, can be a helpful tool in the treatment of psychiatric conditions.

“Prior studies in cancer patients and in an uncontrolled clinical trial in depressed patients using psilocybin-assisted therapy showed promising results. Because there had not been a control group those prior studies were limited,” said study author Alan K Davis, an assistant professor at Ohio State University and adjunct assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University.

“We were interested in testing whether psilocybin-assisted therapy would be helpful for people with depression because depression is one of the most prevalent and debilitating conditions in the world.”

Full Article

Indigenous Colombians mount a spiritual defense of the Amazon

MOCOA, Colombia — The Union of Traditional Yage Medics of the Colombian Amazon (UMIYAC) brings together five ethnic groups ­— the Cofán, Inga, Siona, Coreguaje, and Kamëntsá — who practice spiritual ceremonies for individual and community healing based on ayahuasca, or yagé. But that’s not all that these communities have in common.

All five of these Indigenous groups are also classified by Colombia’s Constitutional Court as being at “risk of physical and cultural extermination.”

“Our strategy has to do with revitalizing and strengthening our spiritual connection with Mother Earth,” said Miguel Evanjuanjoy, advocacy and project manager of UMIYAC, in a video interview with Mongabay in October. He was speaking from his community of Yunguillo, in the department of Putumayo. “As stewards of the Amazon rainforest, we care for the land because it is she who nourishes us spiritually and through her sacred products.”

Spread across the Putumayo, Caquetà and Cauca regions of southern Colombia, with a small crossover into Ecuador, the 22 territories represented by UMIYAC are on the front line of the battle to protect the Amazon. A 2018 study conducted by the University of the Andes in Bogotá, for example, shows the annual deforestation rate in Caquetà alone is 0.77%, the highest in Colombia and nearly twice the rate for tropical South America as a whole.

Full article: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/indigenous-colombians-mount-a-spiritual-defense-of-the-amazon/ 

The ceremonial use of yagé opens participants up to ancestral knowledge, particularly the “natural laws” established by the ancestors that allow communities to “live in peace and harmony with other beings in nature,” Evanjuanjoy said.

As one of the more widely studied substances in the “psychedelic research” renaissance currently happening in Western countries, yagé shows potential as a treatment for prominent modern mental health disorders like depression and addiction. It even holds promise, according to ethnopharmacist Dennis Mckenna, as a catalyst for changing environmental consciousness.

“The sacred plant of yagé is a spiritual nourishment for people,” Evanjuanjoy said. “Through this plant, our grandmothers and traditional healers receive the wisdom to heal the diseases that affect the individual, the community, and the territory.

“It is the light, the path, the guide, and the primary tool to continue defending our territories and to continue the struggle for the survival of our culture.”

UMIYAC is an alliance comprised of spiritual leaders from five different Amazonian ethnic groups deemed to be in danger of extinction.
The ancestral lands of these five groups are located near deforestation hotspots in the Colombian Amazon, making them the front-line defense for the rainforest.
Presided over by spiritual leaders, the traditional yagé ceremonies that tie these ethnic groups together reinforce the spiritual wisdom needed to retain their territories and autonomy.

Shocking Changes - The Tower - Everyone has to walk the path of spiritual ascension and do their own emotional work

This period of time is extremely difficult for many people on the earth that are enduring stages of the Dark Night of the Soul, whether consciously on the spiritual path or not. Recently, the larger collective consciousness themes are around the power struggles and deep conflicts that exist in the structure of falsity and delusions, when electrified by the lightning flash that cracks through the darkness and confusion to illuminate the contents in front of us so that we can see or gain deeper truth. When we are struck by lightning, this can be a terror based or painful event in our lives that activates intense energy pouring up and into the body, and this creates an inner conjunction with the energy blockages in the body which surfaces great discomfort, anxiety, pain or fear. Most of the time when we experience an event in our lives in which lightning strikes occur, it is uncovering not only false structures, but buried parts of the unconscious mind and cellular memories that are embedded in our bodies. Meeting the negative energy or blockages when this inner conjunction is made acts as the spiritual catalyst for great changes and potential transformation, it forces the surface or hidden fears located in the pain body to be brought out into the thoughts, emotions, behaviors or in the impulses of the person.

When the person has no spiritual context, and if they are not strong enough to discipline their mind to gain control over outward impulses, they may find themselves acting out destructive archetypes and narratives of pain, fear and dramas with the people around them that trigger these inner memory buttons. Some of these emotional triggers can be from other lifetimes and those experiences, as well as unhealed emotional conflicts in the current lifetime that have been carried over because the negative emotional theme was left unresolved in other lifetimes or identities. It is important to understand that we can compassionately witness these impulses and negative narratives as they surface to us, but we do not have to choose to play them out in our body. In fact, it can be very traumatic if a person just allows themselves to be a slave to their impulses and play these narratives out unconsciously, which is re-engaging automatic memories from the collective consciousness that can be recycled into our life experiences, over and over again. The more we repeat the same trauma pattern over and over, it registers imprints in our nervous system, brain and consciousness, making it harder to stop the destructive cycles of pain body triggers and ego wounds.

These pain body triggers and ego wounds can be further manipulated by negative entities, such as Fallen Angelics, which predictably will find wounds to jump onto and magnify the pain so the person is nearly a marionette puppet being pulled by attachment strings.

To stop the manipulation of painful and destructive emotional patterns, we have to stop acting them out, we must gain control over our impulses and make a strong decision to choose states of inner peace over succumbing to states of inner violence. Sometimes this means time out, take a break, turn off the mind and shift the body into passive and relaxed states, such as through meditation, and finding inner stillness. Inner violence is the contents of the collective unconscious mind and pain body, while inner peace is the state of the spiritual self or super-consciousness. To create a bridge between the unconscious contents recorded in the pain body, and link them with the highest spiritual self, not only will we be the recipient of lightning strikes from the heavens above, we will be placed in a position where we must choose peace and love, in order to remain inner connected.

Shocking Changes

Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin are being tested to treat mental illness. They're also expanding our understanding about human consciousness

The scientific world is in the midst of a decade-long psychedelic renaissance. This revolution is expanding our understanding of one of the most captivating scientific puzzles: human consciousness. Numerous research fields are revealing new insights into how psychedelics affect the brain and which neural processes underly consciousness.

Multiple studies testing psychedelic drugs for treating mental illness provide compelling evidence of their therapeutic benefit. Treated disorders have included depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia, obsessive compulsive disorder and addiction. Dozens of clinical trials are underway, the majority investigating the therapeutic effect of psilocybin, the active component in so-called magic mushrooms. This natural compound belongs to the class of serotonergic psychedelics — those that activate serotonin (type 2A) receptors.

Researchers are examining the distribution of serotonin 2A receptors to help pinpoint the brain areas affected by psychedelics. The greater the density of these receptors, the greater the likelihood that a particular brain region contributes to the psychedelic experience, according to a study published in Neuropsychopharmacology. Knowing this helps us understand how psychedelics exert their positive therapeutic effect, as well as which brain regions are involved in various states of consciousness.

What Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Teaching Us About Human Consciousness

Energies of August as a potent and supportive time for building the new in your life

 

CBD increases blood flow in regions of the brain linked to memory

A new study, led by researchers from University College London, is offering some of the first robust evidence showing how cannabidiol (CBD), a key compound in cannabis, increases cerebral blood flow in memory processing regions of the brain such as the hippocampus.

CBD is just one of more than 100 different cannabinoids found in cannabis. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the compound most often associated with the plant’s psychoactive euphoric effects. CBD on the other hand is increasingly being found to confer a number of positive health outcomes. It recently became the first cannabis-derived compound ever approved by the FDA, used to reduce seizures in severe forms of epilepsy.

“There is evidence that CBD may help reduce symptoms of psychosis and anxiety,” says lead author on the new study, Michael Bloomfield. “There is some evidence to suggest that CBD may improve memory function. Additionally, CBD changes how the brain processes emotional memories, which could help to explain its reputed therapeutic effects in PTSD and other psychiatric disorders. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the effects of CBD on memory are unclear.”

Full Article: https://newatlas.com/science/cbd-blood-flow-hippocampus-brain-memory-alzheimers/