Psychedelic Information Theory

Shamanism in the Age of Reason

Copyright © 2010 by James L. Kent

PIT Press / Supermassive, LLC / HTML Edition

Includes images and bibliographical references

ISBN-10: 1453760172

ISBN-13: 978-1453760178

Keywords: psychedelics, hallucinogens, perception, shamanism, chaos theory

http://psychedelic-information-theory.com

Preface

Psychedelic Information Theory (PIT) is a formal deconstruction of psychedelic hallucination, expanded consciousness, and shamanism, and as such it attempts to move topics which have traditionally been classified as metaphysics into fields of physics and mathematics. The goal of PIT is to unify all existing psychedelic research into a formal model which accurately describes the complex dynamics generated when a psychedelic drug is introduced into human neural and social networks. PIT is a general model which links psychedelic pharmacology directly to the nonlinear dynamics of expanded consciousness, neuroplasticity, shamanic technique, and tribal organization. This book should be equally enlightening for shamen, physicians, scientists, mathematicians, mystics, and anyone seeking to model or understand the functional limits of expanded consciousness.

PIT is presented as an introductory textbook for people with broad interests in consciousness, perception, psychedelics, hallucination, shamanism, dreaming, pharmacology, neuroplasticity, chaos theory, and related fields. Because PIT is meant to be an overview of a general theory which encompasses many diverse fields, it only scratches the surface of what could be a far larger and more detailed text. Students interested in further exploration on these topics should consult the bibliography and references for more avenues of research and discovery. For readers who are less scientifically inclined, or who seek a quick overview of the concepts covered in this text, an informal discussion of topics has been included in the appendixes. This discussion provides a brief summary of PIT and answers some of the most common questions raised in reaction to the text.

Sincerely,

James L. Kent

Figure 1. Fractals generated by computer programs and nature are examples of deterministic chaos in nonlinear systems, and share many formal similarities with psychedelic hallucinations. WikiMedia Commons.

Table of Contents

Part I: Psychedelic Information Theory

01. What is Psychedelic Information Theory?

02. The Value of Psychedelic Information

03. Psychedelic Information Theory

04. What is Consciousness?

05. Limits of Human Perception

06. The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action

07. Psychedelic Pharmacology

08. 5-HT 2A Agonism and Multisensory Binding

09. What is Nonlinear Hallucination?

10. Entopic Hallucination

11. Eidetic Hallucination

12. Erratic Hallucination

13. Psychedelic Neuroplasticity

Part II: Shamanism in the Age of Reason

14. What is Shamanism?

15. An Overview of Physical Shamanism

16. Physical Shamanism and Shamanic Therapy

17. Hypnotic Entrainment and Induced Trance States

18. Psychic Bonding and Psi

19. Group Mind and Fluid Tribal Dynamics

20. Shamanic Sorcery

21. Spirits and Spiritual Communion

22. Information Genesis and Complexity

Appendixes

01. Conclusions and Discussion

02. Informal Discussion of Topics

03. About this Text

04. Bibliography and References

05. About the Author

Figure 2. Images of internally generated sensations of light (phosphenes) with geometric shapes and no memory-based content, found in ethnographic reports and prehistoric rock art studies. From Nicholson and Firnhaber.

Part I: Psychedelic Information Theory

Chapter 01: What is Psychedelic Information Theory?

Psychedelic Information Theory (PIT) is the study of information creation in the human imagination, particularly in states of dreaming, psychosis, and hallucination. PIT seeks to model the functional output of human perception in order to extrapolate the limits and complexity of information arising in human altered states of consciousness.

The foundation of PIT lies in novelty theory, the study of increasing complexity of information over time. Novelty theory encompasses a large time-scale, but PIT is specifically focused on the spontaneous production of complex information in the human organism, which is also known as creativity theory or generative theory. Modeling the creation of information in the human brain requires formal definitions for perception, consciousness, and information, and as such PIT is also a work of systems theory, which posits that the potential output of any system can be fully described by the functional limitations of its components. PIT also draws on control theory, which models the stability and complexity of signal processing in dynamical systems. By applying control theory and systems theory to altered states of consciousness, PIT is an analysis of the nonlinear dynamics of hallucination and expanded states of consciousness. And finally PIT draws upon the fields of wave mechanics, neural oscillators, neuroplasticity, and the fundamentals of pharmacology, cognitive theory, and neural signaling as they apply to perception, memory, and consciousness; this also makes PIT a text on multidisciplinary neuroscience.

Why “Psychedelic” Information Theory?

The bulk of human consciousness exists in a linear range which goes from highly focused and alert to deep asleep and dreaming. Most states of consciousness are experienced uniformly and independently of each other along this linear spectrum. For instance, when you are asleep you are not awake; when you are focused you are not daydreaming; when you are anxious you are not relaxed. The fact that consciousness exists in only one state at one time is an indication that the system is linear and stable. When two distinct perceptions or states of consciousness overlap at the same time this is an indication that the system is unstable, and in most cases where divergent states of consciousness overlap the output is viewed as a pathology.1 State-divergent pathologies are typically treated with drugs targeted to amplify the positive traits and/or dampen the negative traits.

The term psychedelic means “mind manifesting,” which implies that all potential states of mind may be manifested under the influence of psychedelic drugs. If normal consciousness moves in a straight line along a spectrum of many possible states, psychedelics represent a unique and reversible destabilization of this linear spectrum where consciousness can assume multiple points of consciousness simultaneously. The most extreme divergent state of consciousness is described as being wide awake while simultaneously dreaming, a state clinically referred to as psychosis or hallucination. The emergence of multi-state consciousness under the influence of psychedelics represents a system that has destabilized from linear output and has become nonlinear and exponentially complex. Thus, in psychedelic perception the linear functions of consciousness diverge into a complex nonlinear state where multiple perspectives and analytical outputs may be experienced simultaneously.2 According to PIT, this destabilized state of nonlinear complexity is where new information is generated in the human mind. Understanding the dynamics of this unique nonlinear function is essential to understanding the informational limits and potential complexity range of all human consciousness.

Figure 3. The eight-pointed star is a popular symbol of chaos magic. The arrows represent energy, or information, scattering at high velocity. This symbol is isomorphic of a nonlinear information system, like a universe, which starts at a single point and erupts outward in all directions.

What is “Shamanism in the Age of Reason”?

PIT seeks to describe a model of psychedelic activation that can be adapted to all possible permutations of human consciousness, including group mind states, mystical states, and transpersonal awareness. The ritual of using psychedelics to generate new information, bond with peer groups, and program human belief is traditionally called shamanism, so PIT is a study of the practice of shamanism, which can also be called applied psychedelic science. The practice of using ritual techniques of spiritual transcendence to manipulate belief systems has been popularly dubbed chaos magic, which is an occult blend of neo-shamanism, cognitive theory, and social theory (Fig. 3). Chaos and complexity are also popular terms applied to the study of nonlinear systems, such as fractals and cellular automata, making chaos magic and shamanism spirituo-scientific explorations of the generative function of nonlinear systems.

While PIT focuses on physiology over mythology, it is clear that there is a fundamental human desire to achieve states of consciousness subjectively described as Gnostic or spiritually enlightening. It is the conjecture of PIT that all mystical states, including healing and regenerative states, have unique formal nonlinear qualities that can be described in physical terms close enough to make good approximations. This means that PIT is also a work of technical shamanism, neuro-theology, or spiritual neuroscience, and can be referenced in the clinical application of psychedelic drugs in shamanic ceremony, mystical ritual, or psychedelic therapy.

Generic Application, Neutrality, Margin of Error

PIT does not attempt to provide precise definitions of consciousness, perception, or the psychedelic state. Instead PIT attempts to model an approximation of psychedelic consciousness based on the known functions and limits of human perception and cognition. According to PIT, if a functional reproduction of consciousness existed then it too could be made to have a psychedelic experience. This also makes PIT a text on artificial intelligence which can be tested in mechanical systems of perception. While this text may contain some assumptions and conjecture on human brain function, the fundamentals of PIT are generic enough to apply to any system of consciousness which relies on real-time frame perception for interacting with reality. Although the bulk of the text focuses on states of hallucinogenesis afforded most readily by the tryptamines LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and DMT (found in the South American brew ayahuasca), and their action at the 5-HT2A receptor subtype, PIT strives to be generic and substance neutral, meaning that the fundamentals of PIT should apply to all drugs and techniques which produce hallucination, even though they may target different receptors and/or destabilize consciousness in a wholly unique way.

Notes and References

1. Some examples of pathologically divergent states of consciousness: Asleep and active is sleepwalking; excited and drowsy is narcolepsy; awake and rigid is Parkinson’s Disease; awake and dreaming is psychosis; relaxed and nervous is anxiety disorder; fulfilled and sad is depressive disorder; and so on.

2. When a linear function diverges or bifurcates and begins plotting a range of multiple outputs for the same input, this can be called unstable, dynamic, nonlinear, complex, higher dimensional, undefined, and so on. It depends on how you model your system.

Chapter 02: The Value of Psychedelic Information A text called Psychedelic Information Theory raises the question, “What is Psychedelic Information, and why should we care?” Generally, psychedelic information is any information created in the mind of the subject during a psychedelic experience. Psychedelic information is generated spontaneously in reaction to the psychedelic catalyst; typically the subject has little or no control over the information generated in a psychedelic experience. Psychedelic information is almost always previously unknown to the subject and may appear to originate from an external source or materialize out of thin air. Psychedelic information typically takes the form of visual, audio, and sensory hallucination, but can also be abstract or gestalt like an emotional epiphany. Finally, psychedelic information applies to any art or concept that originates from or evokes psychedelic experience. This text focuses primarily on the physiological process underlying the spontaneous generation of psychedelic information, and how that information influences both personal and cultural identity. The fact that psychedelic information makes its way into popular culture is proof that humans find psychedelic information valuable, but it is still ambiguous if psychedelics add any real value to culture. Research has shown that spiders are affected by psychedelics,1 as are rats,2 cats,3 monkeys,4 and so on. However, there is little evidence that information other than noise is generated during psychedelic episodes in animals; the experience does not mean anything beyond a specific derangement of the senses. In contrast, the human adaptation to translate subjective experience into meaningful narrative is uniquely exploited by psychedelics. Psychedelics target perception, memory, and the complex emotions attached to symbols and concepts; the core functions humans rely on to formulate belief. Because of this exploit, the result of the psychedelic catalyst in humans is the spontaneous generation of meaningful information which is imprinted into memory. Any perceptual system can have a psychedelic experience,5 but it takes abstract thinking and the interconnection between symbols, concepts, and emotions to make psychedelic information meaningful. Thus, the psychedelic experience does not create information in all systems of consciousness; the psychedelic experience only generates meaningful information in systems of consciousness with the capacity for abstract reasoning via symbolic logic and emotional attachment. Presumably any conscious system which emulates the functions of human abstract reasoning will also similarly generate meaningful information during a psychedelic experience. The Value of Information Within the set of information valuable to humans there are domains of descending importance. First there is information valuable to all organisms (biological information), then there is information valuable to all humans (species information), then there is information valuable only to a specific local group of humans (cultural information), and then there is information valuable only to a single human (personal information). All biological information and the most important bits of species information are genetic and are preserved through natural selection. Within the domain of human species importance there is also technological information (such as fire, tools, language, music, agriculture, science, etc.) which are culturally agnostic and serve the needs of the entire species equally. Technological information of species-level importance is equated with high value and will be adopted by all cultures over a short period. Species-level information has high durability and changes very slowly over time. Cultural information falls in the category of language-based memes and regional or tribal traditions. Cultural information may be shared across cultures or may be restricted to a specific region or subculture. Cultural information is considered to be of medium value, low durability, and changes rapidly over time as the memes and traditions of culture change. Religion and artwork are examples of cultural information that typically only have value to their culture of origin, but occasionally ascend to species-level importance. Finally there is personal information, which is valuable only to a single individual. Personal information changes rapidly, is subject to experience and whim, and is only useful over the lifetime of the organism. Personal information has very low durability and low overall value. The Value of Psychedelic Information Psychedelic information is generated within the domain of the personal; yet many people who take psychedelics perceive the information as having species-level importance. There are a few reasons for this phenomena. The first, and easiest, is that psychedelics create states of mania and delusions of grandeur in which the subject feels that he or she is the most brilliant person on the planet, or that they are receiving supernatural prophecy. Secondly, the subject may experience archetypal visions or sensations of transcendence that are perceived to be of high religious or mystical importance. Thirdly, the subject may experience a deconstruction of consciousness associated with animal consciousness, reptilian consciousness, plant consciousness, the Gaian mind, genetic-level intelligence, or deep species memory; information perceived to be of value to all humans or all living creatures. Because psychedelics produce all of these experiences they are routinely perceived as having species-level importance. Psychedelics are obviously useful in the domain of the personal; shamanism and psychedelic therapy rely on the information function of psychedelics to diagnose and heal. In the cultural domain psychedelics can be employed in ritual to build strong religious or tribal groups; they can be used in healing or sorcery; or they can be a catalyst for innovation and creative expression. Beyond this their value is ambiguous. There are some debates to be made in this area, such as pointing out that Francis Crick envisioned the spiral structure of DNA after he ingested LSD,6 or that LSD helped Kary Mullis think up the PCR process that earned him a Nobel Prize in genetics.7,8 To counter these arguments, both Crick and Mullis had been studying molecular biology for years trying to crack those very problems; LSD cannot take credit for anything more than helping Crick and Mullis organize their thoughts in a new way. We can point to great discoveries as examples of psychedelic information, but only a tiny fraction of all psychedelic information can claim this level of importance. Worse than this, erroneous psychedelic information claiming species-level importance has negative cultural value and dilutes the overall information marketplace, making psychedelic information almost statistically worthless.9 Probability dictates that most psychedelic information will have little or moderate value, and that the rare piece of psychedelic information will have extreme negative or positive value. It also follows that the more times a subject takes psychedelics the more likely it is they will generate information of high positive or negative value. Similarly, the more often a subject takes psychedelics the more likely they are to latch onto and subsequently reinforce information of high perceived value, either positive or negative. In this case the psychedelic becomes an information imprinting tool. In psychedelic imprinting the information is always subjectively perceived to be of high value, even if it is of low or even negative cultural value.10 Negative and Positive Information Value It is easy to demonstrate that psychedelic information has value; cultures that use psychedelics as sacraments place high value on the information they receive; people will trade hard-earned cash for a psychedelic experience. But because the quality of psychedelic information has such a wide range it is easy to perceive psychedelics as having no value or, in the argument of prohibition, negative value. Psychedelic information with negative value can be described as that which is delusional, paranoid, false, or subverts the health of the individual or culture. Negative psychedelic experiences, or bummers, are a commonly reported element of psychedelic experimentation, but this does not necessarily make bummers negative. Some users claim that negative experiences have value because they provide emotional insight; others report that negative psychedelic experiences cause permanent psychological damage, which is extremely negative. In rare cases people act out and harm themselves or commit suicide on psychedelics. Obviously these are extreme examples of negative value, and these extreme examples are usually linked to mixing drugs, drug binging, or overdosing. There is an optimal dose range for any psychedelic substance; reports of negative effects increase once the optimal dose range is surpassed.11 Conversely, there is a range of psychedelic experience that is just as extreme but positive in value; the spiritual or therapeutic or entheogenic experience that adds value to the user and their culture. Having an extremely positive psychedelic experience does not happen by accident; there is nuance involved in selecting the proper dose, finding the right setting, and so on. By contrast, having a negative psychedelic experience is almost always an accident due to improper dose or setting. Therefore, the positive value of a psychedelic experience can be predicted and controlled up to a certain dose range, but beyond that the potential positive value drops and potential negative value increases. Shamanism, which for the purposes of this text is defined as the practice of using psychedelics in ritual, employs specialized techniques to guide psychedelic information along desired pathways. Influencing and imprinting psychedelic information along positive pathways is perceived as spiritual, enlightening, and therapeutic; influencing or imprinting psychedelic information along negative pathways is perceived as mind control, black magic, or sorcery. Although the value of psychedelic information generated in any single episode is ambiguous, the practice of shamanism is a durable technology with species-wide application. Thus, shamanism is a technological subset of psychedelic information with high value to the entire species, even though the practice of shamanism can be employed to both positive or negative effect. Notes and References 1. Christiansen A, Baum R, Witt P, “Changes In Spider Webs Brought About By Mescaline, Psilocybin And An Increase In Body Weight”. JPET April 1962 vol.136 no.1 31-37. 2. Butters, Nelson, “The effect of LSD-25 on spatial and stimulus perseverative tendencies in rats”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 8, Number 6 / November, 1966 3. Trulson M, Howell G, “Ontogeny of the behavioral effects of lysergic acid diethylamide in cats”. Developmental Psychobiology Volume 17 Issue 4, Pages 329 - 346 4. Jarvik M, Chorover S, “Impairment by lysergic acid diethylamide of accuracy in performance of a delayed alternation test in monkeys”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 1, Number 3 / May, 1960. 5. See Chapter 04, "What is Consciousness?". 6. Rees, Alun, “Nobel Prize genius Crick was high on LSD when he discovered the secret of life”. Mail on Sunday, 8 August 2004. 7. Mullis, Kary, “Dancing Naked in the Mind Field”. Vintage, NY, 2000. 8. Rabinow, Paul, “Making PCR: a story of biotechnology”. University of Chicago Press, 1996. 9. The psychedelic community produces a new guru every decade or so, and the cultural contributions of these gurus trends from pseudo-scientific to outright fantastical. It is often difficult to tell if the contributions of psychedelic celebrities outweigh the more nonsensical memes they propagate. 10. Psychedelic imprinting can take many forms, and in some cases negative information can be imprinted into identity. Brainwashing is the act of imprinting another person against their will, which is viewed as negative. Self-brainwashing is the act of imprinting yourself with negative information either by choice or error. In self-brainwashing negative information typically assumes explicit paranoid or messianic themes. Extreme cases of psychedelic self-brainwashing will mimic elements of psychosis and persistent delusional disorder. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”. 11. Hasler F, Grimberg U, Benz M, Huber T, Vollenweider F, “Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-effect study”. Psychopharmacology, Volume 172, Number 2 / March, 2004.

Chapter 03: Psychedelic Information Theory Like dreams, psychedelics are catalysts for generating information in the human imagination. There are many theories about the origin of this information: the subconscious; repressed emotions; the collective unconscious; genetic memory; spirit entities; alien transmission; junk data from neural excitation; and so on. Regardless of the origin it is widely accepted that psychedelics do generate information, and not merely junk data of questionable value. Psychedelics excel at producing salient information which can have a profound impact on the beliefs and identity of the subject. The information generated by psychedelics is usually personal, but it can become transpersonal as psychedelic insights are shared with friends and the public. The rate of psychedelic information flow can be measured by the amount of explicit influence psychedelics have over any given culture, and the rate of flow is different for every culture. Some cultures repress anything resembling psychedelic information while others make it central to their spirituality.1 Since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, psychedelic information flow has erupted into Western culture at an unprecedented rate. This rate of modern psychedelic information flow has had its ups and downs, but overall has remained relatively constant even in the face of global prohibition.2 The pathway of psychedelic information flow is simple and universally the same: 1) ingestion; 2) internal transmission; 3) internal integration; 4) cultural transmission; 5) cultural integration. Most psychedelic research focuses solely on internal transmission, the second stage of the psychedelic information process which is commonly called the trip. While the trip is certainly interesting it is still only one part of the larger overall process by which psychedelics influence both the individual and culture. Each part of this information process has its own patterns and predictable stages, and different portions of this text will attempt to illuminate one or more of these stages in the service of providing an overall understanding of how psychedelics impact culture. Below is a capsule summary of each stage in the psychedelic information process. Ingestion While it is difficult to define why people choose to take psychedelics, each society has its own rules which dictate who is allowed to ingest a psychedelic drug and in what context. In traditional settings ingestion is a spiritual exercise used to gain supernatural wisdom, and dosage is controlled ritually by the shaman. In modern Western culture the traditional rules have broken down and psychedelic ingestion has become complex and somewhat haphazard. In a modern context most people are introduced to psychedelics in mundane recreational circumstances, motivated by hedonism, curiosity, boredom, peer pressure, or rebellion. Sometimes an innate hunger for the mysterious drives ingestion. Typically the psychedelic user is seeking something, however vague that notion. Internal Transmission Internal transmission is where the psychedelic interacts with the neural network and new information is generated. Information in the psychedelic state is generated spontaneously within visual and audio hallucination; ideas which pop into the subject’s imagination; novel juxtapositions of previous concepts; and removed perspectives that allow for new holistic analysis. This information can be literal or figurative; it can be abstract; it can come in words or phrases; it can be spoken or sung; it can be visual; it can emerge as epiphanies or brilliant ideas; it can be a recalled memory; it can be delivered by spirit entities in strange languages; and so on. The information density in a psychedelic session is layered, saturated, and colorfully detailed. Much of the information in a psychedelic hallucination may be accurately described as kaleidoscopic noise, but within this noise comes a wealth of salient content.4 In physical terms psychedelics create new information via spontaneous activation and organization of sensory and perceptual networks. Psychedelic information is experienced via direct neural firing and is transferred to memory via the creation and strengthening of synaptic connections in the neural network.5 Psychedelic information generation takes energy, and the information processing capacities of the human brain are finite, and thus there is an upper limit to the amount of information that can be generated within a single psychedelic session before the brain begins to down-regulate in an attempt to return to baseline.6 Internal Integration For many reasons there is loss of fidelity in the transmission of hallucinatory information from imagination into memory. Like a dream, memories of the psychedelic session must be compressed into manageable snippets that stand out within the larger wash of information. Although psychedelic hallucinations fade quickly they can have lasting emotional impact. How each person deals with the content of each experience is unique to their world view. Some people may choose to ignore content derived from the psychedelic experience; others may cherish anything they can remember and will scrutinize each vision in pursuit of higher metaphysical truth. During this process the information generated during the psychedelic trip is encoded into personal memory by forging and testing new synaptic pathways. During post-psychedelic integration the subject may begin to re-assess and modify personal beliefs and behaviors. Cryptic and intense visions may be recalled over and over, or the subject may dwell obsessively on novel feelings experienced during their trip. The subject will typically review their psychedelic trip and create a lasting narrative of the journey, including what they experienced and what they learned. Integration is where the subject decides what happened in the experience. The content of the hallucination is not as important as the process by which the subject takes that content and shapes it into lasting memories, beliefs, and behaviors; this is the process of encoding psychedelic information into synaptic networks. Content generation without behavioral integration is essentially meaningless, so the true testament of psychedelic power is not the ability to produce visions, but the ability to imprint new information and transform belief. Cultural Transmission Psychedelic visions do not stay in the head; if they did there would be no psychedelic art, no psychedelic music, no psychedelic spirituality, and no psychedelic revolution. Psychedelics activate a process in which the realm of the psychological spills out into the realm of the physical. It is clear from 20th century history that psychedelics can fuel artistic expression, social experimentation, religious movements, and political activism. There is no other class of drugs which can claim to have such powerful cultural sway.7 If psychedelics only produced hallucinations there would still be legitimate cause for fascination, but psychedelics also influence cultural movements, which makes them a global religious and political force to be reckoned with. The ritual bonding of social groups though cultural transmission of psychedelic information is a subject that has been overlooked in almost all psychedelic research. Not only do psychedelics produce change at the individual level, they also produce changes at the group or tribal level, and thus they influence change in the social structures and goals of human culture. The spread of psychedelic information can be subtle or explicit, starting with the creation of art influenced by the psychedelic experience and culminating in the indoctrination of others into the psychedelic tribe through ritual sharing of the sacrament. Once a subject has been indoctrinated they too will spontaneously generate psychedelic information and begin sharing that information with others. This information process cascades from person to person until the cultural transmission of psychedelic memes reaches a tipping point and becomes openly adopted and even celebrated by the cultural mainstream. Cultural Integration By conservative estimates perhaps 10-15% of the population has ever tried a hallucinogen.8 Despite such low levels of exposure the archetypes of psychedelic experience are well integrated into modern culture. Psychedelic subcultures (urban tribes) are active in every city on the planet. Annual psychedelic festivals, raves, and massives draw tens of thousands of people together from all continents.9 Psychedelic influences appear constantly in modern fashion, music, visual arts, film, television, consumer products, marketing, packaging, advertising, videogames, and so on. Despite years of prohibition the promise of psychedelic spirituality and psychedelic therapy is still fresh in the public imagination.10 The global cultural integration of psychedelic information may not be complete, but it is measurably on its way. It has only been 50 years since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, and the speed with which psychedelics have influenced global culture is impressive. Over the decades the use of psychedelics has jumped generations, and each new generation rediscovers and repurposes the psychedelic ritual for its own needs. There are religious and political forces actively seeking to control or stop the use of psychedelics, but if current trends continue the complete cultural integration of psychedelic information seems inevitable. There may soon come a time when the global majority is in the psychedelic tribe, with the uninitiated minority self-excluded from the ritual. When psychedelic indoctrination reaches a majority of any population then that culture can be described as being saturated with psychedelic information. A culture that has become saturated with psychedelic information will naturally recognize psychedelic ritual as a legitimate rite of passage or spiritual practice.11 Psychedelic Information Process The psychedelic information process is an observable phenomenon that has influenced cultures throughout history and is now affecting modern global culture. At the center of this information process is the pharmacological action of a small number of molecules hitting a tiny subset of neural receptors for a relatively short duration of time. The ongoing information process generated by this small pharmacological interaction goes far beyond the normal range of what we expect drugs to accomplish. Because psychedelics defy pharmacological rationality they are misunderstood, feared, and revered as spiritual in origin. This misunderstanding drives the psychedelic information process into divergent streams of theory and mythology, creating the tapestry of psychedelic propaganda, confusion, and disinformation we have today. The divergence of psychedelic information and existence of competing schools of psychedelic ideology demonstrates there is no one objective and true psychedelic ideology; any ideology can be influenced and amplified by the psychedelic information process. The psychedelic information process is neutral and ideology non-specific; it applies equally to learning, creativity, mind-control, brainwashing, mysticism, sorcery, and healing. The psychedelic process and psychedelic archetypes can be co-opted by any religious or political group for personal power gain, and psychedelics can be used as weapons as easily as they can be used as medicines or sacraments.12 The only constant between all divergent schools of psychedelic ideology is the physical process that stimulates the flow of novel information through human neural networks. The study of this information process is known as Psychedelic Information Theory. Notes and References 1. Psychedelic information flow within any culture is a function of religion and politics. Traditional shamanic cultures value psychedelic information as a ritual form of bonding, healing, and discovery, and encourage psychedelic information flow. Industrialized cultures with centralized beliefs view psychedelic information as subversive and anti-authoritarian, and repress psychedelic experimentation out of fear of losing centralized control. 2. A close scrutiny of late 20th century history indicates that there was a small decline in psychedelic interest in the late 1970s and 1980s, followed by a global resurgence of underground psychedelic interest in the 1990s, and a complete return to psychedelic research at the turn of the 21st century. Prohibition may slow the flow of psychedelic information, but it does not stop it. 4. The content of psychedelic hallucinations has been described vividly in many places. See “Tripping” by Charles Hayes, or the Erowid.org Experience Vaults for hundreds of fascinating first person accounts. 5. See Chapter 13, “Psychedelic Neuroplasticity”. 6. Gresch PJ, Smith RL, Barrett RJ, Sanders-Bush E., “Behavioral tolerance to lysergic acid diethylamide is associated with reduced serotonin-2A receptor signaling in rat cortex”. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005 Sep;30(9):1693-702. 7. Since psychoactive drugs shape politics and warfare around the world, the claim that psychedelics are more influential on culture and cultural movements than other drugs can be easily disputed. However, psychedelics are unique in their ability to quickly catalyze tribal subcultures bent on spontaneous altruism, populist activism, and free radicalism. 8. HHS/SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, “Ecstasy, Other Club Drugs, & Other Hallucinogens”. Internet Reference, 2008. 9. Modern psychedelic festivals can be traced to the “Be-ins” and “Acid Tests” of San Francisco in the late 1960s, made famous by Tom Wolfe's “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”. These festivals evolved into Woodstock, the Grateful Dead circuit, the Rainbow Family, Rave culture, Burning Man, the Boom Festival, the Love Parade, and other gatherings around the world dedicated to psychedelic music, art, and culture. Attendance at the largest of these annual festivals is regularly in the tens to hundreds of thousands of people. 10. The 2006 psilocybin and mysticism study by Roland Griffiths brought new enthusiasm to mixing psychedelic spirituality with clinical therapy. 11. It is easy to claim that traditional tribal societies are saturated with psychedelic information, but modern society is not far behind. Western media is filled with psychedelic imagery and fascinated by altered states. In the United States, ayahuasca and peyote are already recognized as legitimate religious sacraments within specific churches, and psychedelic drug experimentation is a common rite of passage among university students. 12. Groups linked to the weaponized use of psychedelics include the Manson Family, the SLA, Aum Shinrikyo, the CIA, and the United States Department of Defense.

Figure 4. Feedback circuits in visual perception pathways. Sensory signal in human consciousness projects up and around the brain like a wave as consciousness arises in distinct stages. Sensation begins with the sensory organs and feeds into the thalamus (through the LGN for visual pathways), which filters and routes sensation into higher areas of the cortex. Recognition happens quickly and instinctively in the thalamus and medial temporal lobe, focusing attention on salient information. Memory identifies incoming signal moving upward in the cortex, passing data through parallel layers of spatial and object recognition along dorsal and ventral pathways. Multisensory perception finally converges in the pre-frontal cortex as a parsed reconstruction of reality is presented for informing real-time behaviors. Chapter 04: What is Consciousness? Since this text is about the manipulation of consciousness it is beneficial to have working definition for this term. Consciousness is defined here as a dynamical information processing system with specific functions and emergent operating properties, all of which are necessary to maintain system stability.1 The minimum specific functions for any conscious system are: 1) perception 2) recognition 3) memory 4) recall, and 5) behavior. The minimum specific operating properties for any conscious system are: 1) modular coherence 2) linear stability 3) feedback control 4) adaptability, and 5) self-awareness. When all of these functions and operating properties are working in tandem you get something resembling human consciousness.2 When one or more of the five essential functions is degraded then consciousness slides into semi-conscious, subconscious, or unconscious modes. When one or more of the five operating properties is degraded then consciousness becomes unstable and loses fidelity. A description of the functions and operating properties of consciousness follows. Five Basic Functions of Consciousness All conscious systems rely on five basic functions to interact with the environment in real time. Perception A conscious system must receive input, this input is called perception. For humans, perceptual input is received as sense data moving towards the brain from the peripheral nervous system. Sensation does not become actual perception until it is routed up through the thalamus and into higher cortical areas for processing. Humans also perceive internal thoughts and feelings, their own external behaviors, and small pieces of their dreams. Perception is linear, it feeds back on itself through behavior and recall, and its primary function is to observe changes in environment over time. Errors in human perception are sometimes called hallucination. Recognition Data from perception is parsed and matched against known salient patterns; this process is called recognition. Human recognition is driven by hormonal reaction to salient patterns; patterns which have high emotional resonance. Human recognition utilizes fast nonlinear analysis over slow semantic analysis. Fast recognition has high utility but low fidelity, meaning it works quickly but must be double-checked by linear memory for accuracy. Recognition is contextual, multisensory, associative, and its function is to find salient data in incoming perception. Nonlinear recognition errors include false identification, misrepresentation, and déjà vu. Memory All salient patterns are stored in memory. Patterns stored in memory are matched against incoming data for recognition; they are also matched against possible solutions for recall. In humans memory is imprinted by emotional resonance, reinforced through linear repetition, and potentiated though nonlinear contextual association. Human memory has many layers; semantic, eidetic, associative, and potentially holographic. Multi-layered human memory involves long-term potentiation and lossy compression, but this compression also includes indexing redundancy to serve fast recall and recognition of salient data. Recall Recall uses associative patterns stored in memory to make informed decisions based on logic. Unlike recognition, which is spontaneous and intuitive, recall uses negative feedback to inhibit detrimental solutions and positive feedback to stimulate advantageous solutions. Recall is cyclical and associative, meaning it can use both negative and positive feedback to cycle through and evaluate many hypothetical scenarios before resting on a final decision.3 The main function of recall is to analyze patterns stored in memory to inform intelligent decisions and behaviors in real time. Behavior A conscious system performs behaviors based on input. Human behavior takes the form of both internal and external actions. Internal behaviors, such as thinking thoughts and feeling emotions, transform memory and recall into logical decisions; external behaviors translate internal decisions into outward actions. Human behavior is linear and serial; behaviors are performed in sequence one at a time, typically with thoughts and emotions preceding and informing the intent of action. Both internal and external behaviors feed back into perception, closing the loop on the perceptual feedback process. Operating Properties of Consciousness When all of the functions of consciousness are up and running the system begins to take on certain familiar operating properties. These basic properties are what we would expect from any conscious system, and any conscious system that loses these properties will also become unstable and lose fidelity of perception and memory. Modular Coherence In order to perform like a seamless, integrated system, consciousness must have some means of synchronizing performance between modular sub-functions. Functional cooperation between different areas of the brain is measured in terms of coupled neural oscillators, neural spike synchrony, and coherence of network oscillations.4 Waking consciousness oscillates within the alpha and beta ranges; high frequency gamma coherence is associated with the fast binding of cortical networks necessary for perception and consciousness.5 Modular coherence is the first operating property of a conscious system; precise timing between all areas is necessary for multisensory integration. Without coherence the modular sub-functions of consciousness lose interoperability and destabilize. Linear Stability Consciousness can perform many different functions, but it only performs one function at a time. The functional range of consciousness is linear and moves predictably from state to state with the passage of time. Consciousness transitions seamlessly from one behavior to the next. Consciousness retains state data and reacts logically to environmental change. In conscious systems the perception of the passage of time remains constant. The ability to remain focused on the environment and perform sequenced, goal-oriented behaviors in real-time is an operational baseline for all conscious systems. Feedback Control Conscious systems must be able to monitor and control their own stability and perform behaviors to modulate system input and output. All conscious systems must have some form of feedback control to retain object focus, retain state data, refine behaviors, perform state transitions, and maintain linear stability. Without feedback control, a dynamical information processing system is prone to output exuberance, memory overload, and error. 6 Adaptability A conscious system must be able to store patterns, predict outcomes, learn new behaviors, and react to external variable change. Adaptability and the ability to learn from experience is an epiphenomena or spontaneous operating property of a functionally stable consciousness. Intelligent systems that do not exhibit adaptability only mimic some of the functions and properties of consciousness without actually achieving full consciousness. Self-Awareness A conscious system must be aware of itself and be able to recognize other conscious systems. Self-awareness is an epiphenomena of the functions and properties of consciousness maintaining linear stability through time. Self-awareness and the ability to recognize and interact with other conscious systems may be the truest and most objective test of any stable consciousness. Modular Consciousness The most dramatic way to demonstrate the fragility of consciousness is to lose it. We sleep every night, and sleeping is a very limited form of consciousness where most of the functions and properties disappear. When we sleep we cannot hold state information from one moment to the next, thus we lose contextual data and self-awareness. In dreams we have perceptions and perform behaviors, but they are not linear nor do we have much control over them. In deep sleep all functions of consciousness go offline and almost entirely shut down. When we wake up these functions slowly return and then re-stabilize into an alert waking mode. Consciousness turns itself off; consciousness turns itself back on. Sleeping and dreaming demonstrate that the basic functions of consciousness are modular and interdependent; they can operate individually as well as in specialized groupings. The modular functions of consciousness can be switched off and on in any order without affecting the long-term stability of the fully operational system. The modularity of consciousness becomes evident in cases of brain trauma or mental illnesses where the subject loses some functions of consciousness but retains others.7 When consciousness is stable we cannot tell it is modular; it runs as a seamless whole or an integrated system. When consciousness destabilizes the modular units uncouple and reveal themselves to be sub-personal pieces of a larger identity process. The loss of multisensory perception and the splintering of consciousness into multiple independent processes can accurately be described as an altered state of consciousness. Psychedelic Consciousness If consciousness is modular and the modular functions can interoperate in multiple configurations, it is reasonable to assume there are multiple configurations of sub- and meta- consciousness that are rarely explored. The linear states of consciousness we experience daily are controlled by a top-down homeostatic regulator,8 but when we short-circuit this regulator we find that modular sub-functions of consciousness can be destabilized, uncoupled, and accessed in novel ways. All forms of mysticism rely on radical destabilization of homeostasis.9 EEG studies of subjects with hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) have shown that when the visual cortex loses coherence with other areas of the brain and coherence among local visual networks increases, spontaneous hallucinations are produced.10 Sensory deprivation for as little as fifteen minutes is all that is necessary to uncouple the visual cortex and have it start producing coherent self-sustaining hallucinations.11 This can be described as sleep onset visualization, similar to daydreaming or lucid dreaming, and is sometimes called the prisoner’s cinema because extended periods of solitary confinement also produce this effect, as does macular degeneration of the retina. This demonstrates that when modular functions of the brain are uncoupled from top-down coherence they do not always disappear, they may also spontaneously organize into more locally coherent configurations. This uncoupled and locally coherent activity can produce wandering or non-linear sensation in lower brain areas which floats up to conscious awareness as linear perception. This is a neat formal definition for states of dreaming, creative visualization, and hallucination. Psychedelic Information Theory posits that the uncoupled sub-functions of modular consciousness, acting either alone or in novel peer groupings, are responsible for the subjective altered states classified as hallucinogenic, dissociative, and psychedelic. All hallucinogens must first destabilize top-down coherence of consciousness to produce novel states of spontaneous organization between the modular sub-units; this is how all hallucination begins. Dissociatives disrupt top-down coherence by blocking the excitatory pathways that allow the modular units to communicate. Psychedelics have a more subtle effect on top-down coherence; they periodically interrupt or excite the modulatory frequency of multisensory frame binding, causing perception to destabilize into energetic nonlinear configurations.12 By destabilizing the top-down control of consciousness, psychedelics allow the modular sub-functions to wander and/or interact with coupled peers in dedicated subsystems; similar to the dedicated circuit created between perception and memory when dreaming. Destabilizing or splintering consciousness into novel configurations is the essence of psychedelic exploration. When consciousness bifurcates or splits, subjective perception instantly becomes more chaotic and complex. Splintered consciousness may actually appear to be in two places at once, stuck in a superposition between waking and dreaming, finding stability in two simultaneous perceptual states, also know as multi-stability a multi-stable state. Novel configurations of splintered or multi-stable consciousness can be described as nonlinear, complex, meta, transpersonal, depersonalized, faceted, holistic, higher-dimensional, expanded, mystical, subconscious, semi-consciousness, and so on. Splintering, re-configuring, and rebuilding the modular sub-units of identity are techniques that may be applied in brainwashing or metaprogramming,13 but also fall under the rubric of mysticism and shamanism. By subverting and re-organizing the modular functions of linear consciousness, psychedelics expand the functional range of consciousness to include many novel states of multi-stable complexity. These complex perceptual states, also known as expanded states of consciousness, are the origin of hallucination and the source of all the psychedelic information that has influenced human mythology, religion, art, science, and culture. Notes and References 1. There is a popular school of thought which posits that consciousness precedes physicality, and that for there to be atoms and molecules and galaxies there must first be consciousness. This is a very broad definition of consciousness which should be saved for more metaphysical discussions. 2. The functions and operating properties of consciousness described here are a simplification of the functions of the human brain, but they are an ample enough description for modeling human consciousness in any environment. 3. This definition of deliberative recall is simplified and based on principles of deductive and inductive reasoning. This definition compresses a much larger discussion on the various types of neural logic and does not account for human emotional irrationality, but it is the minimum definition needed to model the output of human reasoning. 4. The so-called “binding problem” of multisensory perception is approached from a variety of directions, but current theories rely on measuring the strength, frequency, synchrony, and resonance of spike waves propagating through neural assemblies. There are many ways to estimate the relative cooperation between separated brain areas based on their wave properties. Coherence is a term used to indicate strong signal cooperation between separated areas. Areas that are high in coherence may act like coupled oscillators in a feedback circuit, or they may take the form of parallel circuits engaged in a synchronized but distributed processing task. 5. Meador KJ, et al., “Gamma coherence and conscious perception”. Neurology 2002;59:847-854. 6. WikiPedia.org, “Control Theory”. Internet Reference, 2010. 7. The most compelling examples of mental illnesses which destabilize consciousness are Alzheimer's disease, which affects memory, and schizophrenia, which affects coherence and linear stability. These two examples compress a much larger discussion of how the degradation or loss of specific functions and operating properties of consciousness lead to specific pathologies. 8. Top-down modulation of waking consciousness is a function of aminergic modulation in the forebrain – serotonin and dopamine focusing and maintaining attention – but total homeostatic regulation of brain and body is generally considered to be a function of the hypothalamus. From WikiPedia: “The hypothalamus co-ordinates many hormonal and behavioral circadian rhythms, complex patterns of neuroendocrine outputs, complex homeostatic mechanisms, and many important behaviors.” 9. Fasting, chanting, meditation, trance-dancing, isolation tanks, mind machines, and other non-drug visionary practices are rituals designed to destabilize homeostasis through deprivation and hypnotic repetition. Psychedelic drugs achieve more dramatic results by directly interrupting neuromodulatory pathways at the receptor site. 10. Abraham HD, Duffy FH, “EEG coherence in post-LSD visual hallucinations”. Psychiatry Res. 2001 Oct 1;107(3):151-63. 11. Mason OJ, Brady F, “The psychotomimetic effects of short-term sensory deprivation”. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2009 Oct;197(10):783-5. 12. See Chapter 06, “Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action”. 13. Metaprogramming is the term John Lilly chose in the text, “Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer”. Splintering is a term used in brainwashing to describe the process of breaking the subject’s identity into multiple pieces through stress exercises, making them vulnerable to imprinting and manipulation.

Chapter 05: Limits of Human Perception Any discussion of psychedelic hallucination is a discussion of the spontaneous emergence of information in human perception. Human perception is limited by the capacity of sense organs; the speed and architecture of the neural network; and the number of distinct perceptions the brain can analyze at any one time. Despite functional limitations, human consciousness is seamless, meaning that each perception and behavior flows smoothly from one to the next. When consciousness is stable, perception and behavior is seamlessly integrated; when consciousness destabilizes, perception and behavior lose cohesion until we are no longer in control of our thoughts and actions. Destabilization of consciousness can happen all at once, in the case of being knocked unconscious, but more often it happens incrementally, as in going to sleep. Psychedelics are unique in that they can both enhance and degrade perceptual limitations by orders of degrees; psychedelics can obscure and distort perceptual data, or they can enhance resolution and generate expanded states of consciousness. These contrasting results may be dose dependent, but it is also possible that psychedelics simultaneously produce perceptual degradation and enhancement. Psychedelic hallucinations are often described as being beyond the limits of human imagination, a trait which is offered as de-facto evidence of expanded consciousness or supernatural dominion. Since the boundaries of the human imagination can be modeled with some close degree of accuracy, any substantial discussion about the nature of psychedelic hallucination must therefore start with some basic assumptions about the limitations of human perception, and thus the functional limitations of expanded consciousness. The Visual Spectrum The human visual spectrum has evolved to work best in a small window of sunlight penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere, comprising the white-light band seen in a rainbow; roughly the 400-790 THz (terahertz) energy range which oscillates on the order of hundreds of trillions of cycles per second. The smallest wavelength of visible light is violet, which is only 380 nm (nanometers) wide and travels with the highest frequency. Red, by contrast, is 750 nm long on the other end of the visible spectrum, and at twice the length it travels at half the frequency.1 Unlike some organisms, the human eye does not see into ultraviolet or infrared rages, nor does it see microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, gamma rays, or anything that falls out of the visual spectrum. This also applies to night vision and dark-adapted vision. The dark-adapted eye utilizes the rod cells as opposed to the cone cells of daylight vision; rod cells are more photosensitive and more numerous, but they lack the color sensitivity and detail resolution of daylight rendering.2 Subjects on psychedelics often report increased luminosity and saturation of colors, as well as halos or auras of light surrounding objects; this implies an increase in color saturation and photosensitivity likely related to dilated pupils associated with 5-HT 2A agonism. In closed-eye or low-light environments subjects report vividly saturated geometric matrices rendered in swirling palettes of fluorescent purple and neon green.3 All of these reports fall within the expected range of an overly saturated visible color spectrum, with the dark-adapted eye finding more sensitivity in the shorter-wavelength, higher-frequency, violet to green ranges. There is speculation that psychedelic hallucination is the result of tuning the brain to receive cosmic radiation at a wider bandwidth than normal; bands associated with electromagnetic, metaphysical, morphogenetic, Akashic, or geomagnetic fields. This so-called spectral argument posits that instead of producing consciousness, the human brain acts as a radio receiver for consciousness, and psychedelics allow the user to tune the brain to new perceptual frequencies, possibly higher dimensional in nature. This metaphor may make intuitive sense, but no research exists to confirm any spectral advantage to psychedelics other than increased photosensitivity and some visual acuity at low doses.4,5,6 Subjective reports indicate that psychedelics may increase auditory or synesthetic sensitivity to electromagnetic background noise, and the perception of energy fields or auras emanating from living organisms is reported often enough to warrant further scientific scrutiny, but these claims have not been tested rigorously enough to be conclusive.7 The spectral argument is further weakened by the observation that if the human eye can be tuned to see a novel frequency range, a mechanical spectrum analyzer should also be able to pick up information on that same frequency. To date no hidden psychedelic spiritual energy fields have been detected by even the most sensitive spectral scanning devices. Figure 5. Troxler’s fading illusion demonstrates temporal decay of peripheral filling. Stare at the dot in center of image and hold eyes perfectly still for a count of 20. The border around the dot will being to fade. Blinking or moving the eyes will bring the fading areas back. From WikiPedia. Visual Frame Aliasing Seamless perception relies on rapid frame updating to render external changes in real time. Humans can render changes in reality at roughly 13-15 frames per second (fps, or Hz), which means that human reality fully refreshes roughly once every 77 milliseconds (ms), and open-eye saturation of peripheral filling fully fades at around 10-20 seconds (Fig. 5). Human frame perception is exploited by animation and film, which updates at 24 fps, and television, which updates near 30 fps. Computer monitors and high-definition televisions refresh at 60 Hz or higher, and at this rate human perception of motion is entirely seamless.8 The rate of human frame perception corresponds roughly to the alert beta range of waking human consciousness (12-30 Hz) seen in EEG readings.9 Any event which happens faster than 1/60th of a second (16.6 ms) falls between perceptual frames and is considered to be subliminal or imperceptible to human consciousness.10 Seamless frame rendering is also called temporal aliasing, and can be subverted by a variety of common phenomena, including stroboscopic lights which break motions into jerky snapshots, and wagon-wheel illusions where rotating spokes appear to stop or spin backwards.11,12,13 In addition to retaining visual information, perceptual frames hold the totality of multi sensory rendering. Smooth frame aliasing preserves semantic state information from one moment to the next, and retains fidelity of information held in working memory. There is evidence that the brain can track multiple object layers for each frame;14 possibly corresponding to the number of distinct items we can sustain in working memory, which is about seven.15 Frame rendering is a distributed cortical task modulated by the aminergic system. High aminergic modulation of the frontal lobe is a good indicator of external frame alertness. Any drug which interrupts the precise timing of the aminergic modulatory system will also disrupt the seamless nature of temporal frame aliasing in the same way that a strobe light disrupts the motion of a spinning wheel. Temporal aliasing hallucinations include frame stacking, frame delay, frame freezing, frame reverse, frame echo, and infinite frame regression; all of which are considered to be uniquely psychedelic.16 The sensation of hallucinogenic frame stacking indicates that psychedelics may create a temporary frame decay buffer that allows for simultaneous multi-frame analysis and increased complexity of visual comprehension. Subverting or enhancing the limits of visual frame aliasing is an indication of expanded consciousness. Figure 6. The peripheral drift illusion (PDI) is easily seen when this image is in the visual periphery. Research suggests the illusion is based on temporal differences in tracking luminance along four degrees of gradation. The four-step gradient processing produces a temporally mismatched contrast signal that fools the peripheral motion system. WikiPedia, Faubert & Herbert, 1998. Visual Frame Resolution Human visual resolution is limited by a number of factors. The first limitation is the density and distribution of retina in the eye; 130 million photoreceptors feeding into 1.2 million optic projections, with a spatial compression ratio of roughly 100 to 1. Photoreceptors in the eye are distributed in rings with color-sensitive cones clustering towards the center and contrast-sensitive rods filling the periphery.17 Despite the large number of photoreceptors the field of vision is incomplete. Including the blind spot where the retina attaches to the optic nerve, as much as 20% of peripheral vision contains gaps that must be filled with progressive rendering. Incoming rings of visual data must be smoothed into lines and shades in the visual cortex; a process that can produce artifacts of the spatial network when destabilized.18 The smoothed visual image is then passed forward in two divergent projections for spatial and object analysis, and the finished image reaches multi-modal convergence in the PFC (Fig. 4).19 This is a fair bit of signal juggling for any processor to handle at 15 frames per second. Even though human vision employs elaborate compression and reconstruction techniques, the human eye can detect visual detail at resolutions into the micrometer range. From a meter’s distance the human eye cannot detect detail under 100 micrometers in length, making print resolutions of 300 dots-per-inch (DPI) entirely seamless. Some estimates put the detail of human visual resolution at 14 million pixels per the entire visual field; or by the 3D topographical field-rendering limit of 10 billion triangles per second, or 760 million triangles per frame.8 Human detail resolution is only reliable near the center of vision; many optical illusions exploit perceptual filling functions of the periphery (Figs. 5 & 6).20,21,22 Given the mechanical shortcomings of peripheral rendering, these estimates should be taken as visual saturation points as opposed to functional capacities. The rendering of visual information may be the most complex and energy-intensive task of the human brain. Seamless visual perception requires precise neural firing. When perception destabilizes the visual field falls apart; the most commonly reported form of visual destabilization is diplopia or double-vision. Since visual rendering is so rich and complex, it is potentially the easiest part of the brain to destabilize. In other words, visual rendering is so elaborate and time-dependent it can be easily fooled by hallucination and illusion. Dreaming, Imagination, Psychosis, Hallucination While the information resolution of imagination and dreams is difficult to measure, it is widely agreed that dream perception is less resolved in detail than waking perception. Dreams are incomplete; contextual state data is not retained from frame to frame; and thus the durability of dream data falls apart under close scrutiny. Sometimes dreams can be vivid to the point of being indistinguishable from reality, containing people and places and narratives that retain state information over many different sequences, but more often dreams are fleeting and half remembered, lasting only a few seconds before fading. Visual rendering of human imagination is more durable than dreams, but is also very low in resolution. Humans can imagine objects, people, and places in their minds, but human visual imagination is not typically photorealistic. Human memory is more semantic than eidetic, meaning that waking thoughts are mostly verbal, emotional, and only minimally visual. Most humans can imagine basic shapes, outlines, and sensual concepts; a smaller percentage can imagine topographical maps and rotate 3D objects in their mind. Visualizing a simple object like a cube or a pyramid is a cognitive task that requires full concentration; and even at peak visualization the internalized form rarely rises beyond a blurry silhouette. The exception to this limitation is dreaming or daydreaming, when eidetic or photographic snapshots bubble up into consciousness almost fully-formed. The emergence of dreamlike eidetic information into waking consciousness is usually a spontaneous reflex; few people have full control over photorealistic rendering of imagination and memory.23,24 Having fully-formed visions spontaneously erupting into consciousness is sometimes called overactive imagination, daydreaming, vivid memory recall, eidetic memory, photographic memory, emergent ideation, hallucination, or psychosis. Each of these modes of internal visualization is characterized by a different intensity and duration of imaginary detail; the more intense and durable the phantom detail, the less it looks like imagination and the more it begins to look like psychosis. Mediating transitions between external alertness and internal visualization is a baseline for perceptual stability; confusing the two would be problematic. The function of internal visualization is activated by the medial temporal lobe and modulated by neurotransmitter acetylcholine; psychedelics presumably activate this function spontaneously by interrupting aminergic alertness of the forebrain.25 If psychedelic hallucinations capitalize on the brain’s capacity to produce vivid dreamlike images, we would expect the detail of a psychedelic frame to match the information profile of a dream frame; low information resolution, fleeting and erratic state data, low formal durability from frame to frame. This means that contextual information such as identity, location, and purpose would also morph and transition many times over the period of a few seconds. If the quality of a hallucinogenic frame matches the formal quality of a dream frame, one could expect psychedelic visions to be of lower resolution than normal vision; but subjective reports indicate that multiple layers of dreaming and waking consciousness can overlap in a single frame, creating a complex overlay of both real and imagined perceptions. Being unable to separate imagination from reality is the clinical definition of psychosis, but also implies an increase in potential frame information density, which implies expanded consciousness. Figure 7. Mandalas and calendars representing universal harmony and knowledge. Top row: a Kalachakra time-wheel mandala; a Mesoamerican calendar. Bottom row: a mandala of the enlightened Buddha; a mandala of the Wheel of Life (Bhavacakra, or samsara). Nonlinear art embeds holographic information – such as an entire cosmology – into a single image. The Limits of Expanded Consciousness If the human imagination is infinite, and if psychedelics can expand the capacity of human imagination, then psychedelics can paradoxically make the infinite even more infinite. This makes sense if you accept that infinity is a linear concept which starts at zero and goes in one direction forever; but if infinity is bent into a series of repeating loops and spirals then it begins to look more like a fractal than a line, and thus more psychedelic. Human perception is linear, but humans live in a nonlinear system. One of the basic limitations of human consciousness in the inability to think exponentially; even with mathematics to assist us, envisioning and predicting exponentially complex systems is a vast conceptual hurdle. Psychedelics destabilize linear perceptions of space and time to produce fractal states of frame layering, bifurcation, and infinite frame recursion. This allows perception to become exponential, to exist in multiple states at once, much like a quantum computer that processes multiple simultaneous probabilities. If normal human imagination is bound within the limits of linear infinity, psychedelic perception is expanded to the limits of exponential or fractal infinity. Psychedelic perception presents a progressive nonlinear bifurcation of recursive self-similar information corresponding to both internal and external perceptual space. The psychedelic layering, bifurcating, and regression of internal and external perceptions creates a timeless, transpersonal perspective of a fractal rendering of time and space.26 The perception of seeing all time and space unfolding as a single unified function is a theme that has been reproduced in Eastern mandalas and Mesoamerican calendars for thousands of years, where a central figure sits in the center of concentric interlocking rings of reality (Fig. 7). In Sanskrit this great wheel of time is called Kalachakra (time wheel), and Kalachakra yoga emphasizes the interlocking self-similarity of body cycles and celestial cycles.27 The description of Kalachakra overlaps with Mesoamerican cyclical calendars and spiritual themes, expressed by Maria Sabina, the Oaxacan healer who first shared the magic mushroom known as Teonanacatl with R. Gordon Wasson. Sabina said, “The more you go inside the world of Teonanacatl… you see our past and our future, which are there together as a thing already achieved, already happened… I knew and saw God: an immense clock that ticks, the spheres that go slowly around, and inside the stars, the earth, the entire universe, the day, the night… He who knows to the end the secret of Teonanacatl can even see that infinite clockwork.”28 This is undoubtedly a reference to Kalachakra, the great wheel of time. Witnessing the timeless infinity of Kalachakra can be compared to Western models of Gnosticism and Hermeticism (“As Above, So Below”) where the pinnacle of mystical achievement is channeling the infinite wisdom of the universal spirit;29 or early Deist notions of a God as a great Clockmaker who set the universe in motion and let it run without intervention.30 According to Maria Sabina’s report, the subjective experience of the infinite clockwork is an end secret of psychedelic vision; this is where you arrive if you follow the process of fractal information regression to the beginning and end of all time. The thought of experiencing Kalachakra as expressed by Maria Sabina stretches the boundaries of believability, but the subjective reports of a timeless, infinite psychedelic space where the size of the universe is revealed and everything in the past and the future has already occurred is common enough to conclude that this experience is not only possible, but that it might be the end-point of expanded human consciousness. 31 Notes and References 1. WikiPedia.org, “Visible spectrum”. Internet Reference, 2010. 2. Miller RE II, Col (RET), “The Eye and Night Vision”. USAF Special Report, “Night Vision Manual for the Flight Surgeon”, 1992. 3. Accounts of colors seen in tryptamine hallucinations from subjective reports. 4. Hill RM, Fischer R, “Interpretation of visual space under drug-induced ergotropic and trophotropic arousal”. Agents Actions, 1971 Nov;2(3):122-30. 5. Fischer R, et al., “Psilocybin-induced contraction of nearby visual space”. Agents Actions, 1970 Aug;1(4):190-7. 6. Fischer R, “Effects of psychodysleptic drug psilocybin on visual perception. Changes in brightness preference”. Experientia, 1969 Feb 15;25(2):166-9. 7. Accounts of seeing auras taken from subjective reports. Casual tests to confirm spectral claims have been inconclusive. 8. Michael F. Deering, “Limits of Human Vision”. Sun Microsystems, 1998. 9. WikiPedia.org, “Electroencephalography”. Internet Reference, 2010. 10. WikiPedia.org, “Subliminal stimuli”. Internet Reference, 2010. 11. VanRullen R, et al., “The Continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion and the ‘When’ Pathway of the Right Parietal Lobe: A Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study”. PLoS ONE 3(8): August 6, 2008. 12. WikiPedia.org, “Wagon wheel effect”. Internet Reference, 2010. 13. Bach M, “Wagon-wheel effect”. From Michael’s Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. Internet Reference, 2010. 14. VanRullen, Rufin, “The continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion is object-based”. Vision Research Volume 46, Issue 24, November 2006, Pages 4091-4095. 15. WikiPedia.org, “Working memory”. Internet Reference, 2010. 16. See Chapter 12, “Erratic Hallucination”. 17. WikiPedia.org, “Retina”. Internet Reference, 2010. 18. Gutkin, Pinto, Ermentrout, “Mathematical Neuroscience: From Neurons to Circuits to Systems”. Journal of Physiology - Paris 97 (2003) 209–219. 19. LeDoux, Joseph, “Synaptic Self”. Viking Penguin, NY, 2002. 20. WikiPedia.org, “Peripheral drift illusion”. Internet Reference, 2008. 21. WikiPedia.org, “Grid illusion”. Internet Reference, 2010. 22. Pinna, Baingio, “Pinna Illusion”. Scholarpedia, 4(2):6656, 2009. 23. The low rendering of human visual imagination is taken from a survey of subjective reports. The quality of internal visualization is enhanced by closing the eyes and falling into a state like meditating or daydreaming. 24. Hobson, J. Allan, “The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness”. MIT Press, 2001. 25. Hobson JA, et al., “The neuropsychology of REM sleep dreaming”. NeuroReport 9:3, pR1-R14, 16 February 1998. 26. A fractal is a nonlinear algorithms that repeats a basic set of instructions to generate complex, self-similar, recurrent patterns from microscopic to macroscopic to cosmic scales. 27. WikiPedia.org, “Kalachakra”. Internet Reference, 2010. 28. Schultes RE, Hofmann A, “Plants of the Gods”. Healing Arts Press, Vermont, 1992. 29. WikiPedia.org, “Hermeticism”. Internet Reference, 2010. 30. WikiPedia.org, “Watchmaker analogy”. Internet Reference, 2010.

31. Exploring the mystical implications of Kalachakra, the great fractal time wheel, has filled many volumes and fueled many prophecies. There is a solid case to be made that Kalachakra is the pinnacle of all mystical achievement; the end of psychedelic exploration; and the endpoint of human consciousness. Since the psychedelic Godhead is a transcendent state of timeless, infinite, omniscient consciousness, it is doubtful that anything more complex or expansive can ever be experienced by the human mind, marking the functional end-point of expanded consciousness.

Figure 8. Stabilized and Destabilized Perception.

Stable perception refreshes at 15 frames per second, allowing seamless update of consciousness in the beta range of 12-30 Hz, indicated by the wave. At this refresh rate objects and textures can be rendered with high precision.

When the precise frame refresh rate of perception is interrupted, consciousness destabilizes and begins to track overlapping information from multiple receding frames. Destabilization, feedback, and latency of frame refresh creates sensory echo and complex frame interference patterns.

Chapter 06: The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action

The brain is an information processing organ that uses top-down signal modulation to control the flow of bottom-up sensory input. Feedback modulation of incoming signal is an example of self-stabilizing control in an information processing system. Using the tenets of cognition and control theory it is possible to describe a model in which hallucinogens periodically interrupt the top-down modulatory control of perception to create sensory interference patterns, multisensory frame destabilization, and altered states of consciousness.

Bottom-up Perception, Top-Down Control

What we perceive as waking consciousness is a synthesis of bottom-up sensation modified by top-down expectation and analysis.1 Incoming sensation is gated by the top-down focus of subjective attention. Inhibitory feedback subtracts background noise while excitatory feedback resolves and amplifies salient data. This configuration describes a signal filter-amplifier with an inhibitory-excitatory feedback loop to control signal focus and content discrimination. The top-down filtering and focusing of sensory signal is an autonomic reflex and is perceptually seamless; the brain blocks background noise, transitions focus, and recognizes objects without disrupting subjective frame continuity. Without the ability to control incoming sensory signal with feedback, perception would become under-constrained, distracted, overloaded, exuberant, and error-prone. Under-constrained internal sensory noise entering into multisensory awareness would be perceived as hallucination.

Constraint, Control, and Feedback Inhibition

Feedback excitation is applied in sensory circuits to amplify salient input, but the majority of the brain’s feedback circuits are inhibitory, meaning that human consciousness is more constrained than unconstrained. In dynamical information processing systems, signal constraint and error correction is applied through negative feedback to subtract or cancel perturbation and noise entering the signal circuit; this is known as control theory. In sensory networks, such as the layers of the cortex or the retina, fast inhibition is applied laterally to boost contrast discrimination in line detail; this is called lateral inhibition. Fast inhibition in the cortex can also be applied from the bottom-up as well as laterally, this is called the synaptic triad of fast inhibition. Inhibition can also be applied from the top-down, allowing the logical cortex to filter or ignore noisy input from the thalamus; this is called top-down feedback inhibition, and it is typically tonic, meaning top-down feedback is inhibitory over many consecutive spike trains to control extended periods of channeled focus. When the brain is alert and focused, this means it is highly constrained by inhibitory feedback.

When people express their fears about psychedelics, the most commonly voiced concern is the fear of losing control. Common entheogenic wisdom states that you must relinquish control and submit to the experience to get the most out of psychedelics. Holding onto control causes negative experiences and amplifies anxiety. Metaphors for control and submission are applied to psychedelics because hallucinogens subvert various forms of feedback control, allowing perception and behavior to become unconstrained and unpredictable. Extreme states of under-constrained perception would include sensory saturation, sensory echo, synesthesia, hallucination, disorientation, and confusion. Extreme states of under-constrained behavior would include mania, hysteria, paranoia, euphoria, and as the system becomes totally overloaded, catatonia.

Loss of feedback restraint in a dynamical information processing system causes output to become exuberant and unpredictable; this is called deterministic chaos, or chaos in deterministic systems. In order for a perceptual system to transition from a linear to a chaotic or nonlinear state, negative feedback control must be removed or subverted by a periodic driving force. If control is entirely removed then perception becomes totally unconstrained, leaving a system that is quickly overloaded with too much information. If control is placed in a partially removed state, or in a toggled superposition where it is alternately in control and not in control over the period of a rapid oscillation, then the constraints of linear sensory throughput will bifurcate into a nonlinear spectrum of multi-stable output with signal complexity correlating to the method of control interruption.

The Control Interrupt Model of Psychedelic Action

Before the mind can start hallucinating, the top-down modulatory control of consciousness must first be interrupted. Interrupting top-down control of consciousness allows the mind to destabilize into novel information processing configurations. When top-down control of waking consciousness is destabilized, neural oscillators in the brain will spontaneously organize into coherence with the most energetic local drivers. This process can be described in terms of oscillator entrainment and resonance; when the modulatory driver maintaining global oscillator coherence is interrupted, uncoupled oscillators will naturally fall into synchrony with most energetic periodic drivers in the environment.2 In this state, the normally inflexible configurations of consciousness and perception become extensible and open to the influence of environmental feedback. This explains why psychedelics create synesthesia or cross-sensory representations of energetic sensory drivers, and why set and setting have a profound influence on the tone and content of a psychedelic experience.

When top-down modulatory control of consciousness is interrupted, the seamless nature of multisensory perception degrades and the subject begins to experience hallucinations (Fig. 8). Early indicators of modulatory interruption include periodic high-frequency distortion or noise in sensory networks. In tactile networks this periodic interruption may be felt as parasthesia, or phantom tingling and pulsating; in visual networks it may be perceived as phosphenes, or strobing or flickering of light intensity, possibly fast enough to produce geometric hallucinations; in audio networks it may be perceived as tinnitus, ringing, humming, buzzing, or tones that cycle up and down in pitch. These are all descriptions of field-based hallucinations generated in response to periodic interruptions along multisensory signal pathways. The speed and intensity of the control interrupt, and thus the speed and intensity of the hallucinations, are a direct result of the hallucinogen’s pharmacodynamics and method of ingestion.

Figure 9. Using an Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (ADSR) envelope we can model the intensity of hallucinogenic interrupt for any drug. From WikiPedia.

Control Interrupt Envelopes

Using control interruption as the source of hallucinogenesis, we can model hallucinogenic frame distortion of multisensory perception the same way we model sound waves produced by synthesizers; by plotting the attack, decay, sustain, and release (ADSR envelope) of the interruption as it effects consciousness (Fig. 9).3,4 For example, nitrous oxide (N20) inhalation alters consciousness in such a way that all perceptual frames arise and fall with a predictable “wah-wah-wah” time signature. The throbbing “wah-wha-wah” of the N20 experience is a stable standing wave formation that begins when the molecule hits the neural network and ends when it is metabolized, but for the duration of N20 action the “wah-wah-wah” completely penetrates all modes of sensory awareness with a strobe-like intensity. The N20 sensation is often described as a soft tingling, throbbing, or buzzing that grows to consume all sensation.

Figure 10. Modeling the interrupt envelope for N2O and Salvia we can see N2O has a hard but rounded attack and decay. In contrast Salvia has a slightly faster and more intense ADSR profile, describing a slightly more biting and disorienting effect on multisensory perception.

Taking into account the subjective reports of N20 action, the periodic interrupt of N20’s “wah-wah-wah” can be modeled as a perceptual wave ambiguity that toggles back and forth between saturated consciousness and semi-consciousness at roughly 8 to 11 frames-per-second, or @8-11 Hz (hertz).5 Consciousness rises at the peak of each “wah” and diminishes in the valleys in between, growing in sustained intensity with each cycle until the subject passes out. On sub-anesthetic doses, N20 creates a looping effect where frame content overlaps into the following frame, causing a perceptual cascade similar to fractal regression. We can thus model the interrupt envelope of N20 as having a rounded attack, fast decay, low sustain, medium release, with an interrupt frequency of @8-11 Hz. Any psychoactive substance with a similar frequency and shape of interrupt envelope will produce results that feel similar to the N20 experience (Fig. 10). For instance, Smoked Salvia divinorum (vaporized Salvinorin A&B, or Salvia) has an interrupt envelope similar to N20, except Salvia has a slightly faster interrupt frequency (@12-15 Hz), a harder attack, a slightly longer decay, a more intense sustain, and a slightly longer release.6 These slight changes in the frequency and shape of interrupt envelope cause Salvia to feel more physically intense, more hallucinatory, and more disorienting than N20, even though they share a similar throbbing or tingling sensation along the same pathways and frequency range.

Using interrupt envelopes we can contrast smoked Salvia or inhaled N20 with vaporized DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine), which when smoked has similar onset and duration to both substances but very different hallucinogenic effects. Unlike the slow throbbing periodicity of N20 or Salvia, vaporized DMT produces an interrupt frequency associated with a high-pitched carrier wave and high-speed frame flicker (24-30+ Hz). The frequency of DMT’s interrupt is so rapid the entire body ramps up in panicked response to the new driver. The rate of DMT’s visual frame flicker is fast enough to instantly produce geometric hallucinations and fully realized animations.7 Taking these subjective effects into account we can model DMT’s interrupt envelope as having a moderate attack, long decay, medium sustain, long release, and high frequency (24-30+ Hz). The moderate attack means DMT’s perceptual frame interference is less of a physical throbbing than N20, but because of a higher frequency and longer frame release the rendering of DMT hallucination is more fluid, detailed, seamlessly aliased, and fades longer over a higher number of frames.

The interrupt envelopes modeled here are approximate and based on reported subjective effects, but may also give some insight into the pharmacodynamics of each substance.8 Following the logic of the Control Interrupt Model, it can be assumed that each hallucinogen has a unique interrupt envelope based on receptor affinity, receptor density, rate of metabolism, and so on, and each unique interrupt envelope creates a distinct type of interference pattern in multisensory perception. The interrupt envelope for any substance will also change if the substance is ingested orally as opposed to vaporized or injected; the speed of absorption into the bloodstream will naturally affect the intensity of ADSR values. This is why each psychedelic can produce unique sensations and hallucinations, and why each psychedelic can produce subtle variations in the speed and intensity of hallucination depending on method of ingestion.9

By modeling the interrupt envelope of a psychoactive substance it is possible to accurately predict its subjective results on multisensory perception. Non-drug sources of hallucination, such as those caused by psychosis, deprivation, fever, or schizophrenia, may also have unique and quantifiable control interrupt envelopes related to erratic multisensory frame modulation.

Control Interrupt and Shamanism

If consciousness must have a top-down control frequency to remain stable, and psychedelics produce a periodic interruption of this control frequency, then the interaction between the perceptual control frequency and the periodic interruption can be described as a wave interference pattern in global oscillator coherence. Subjects on moderate doses of psychedelics can override the hallucinogenic interrupt and retain global coherence via energetic physical movement or repetitive behaviors like chanting or dancing. Conversely, if the subject lies motionless, then the interruption fully destabilizes alert consciousness into a depersonalized dreamlike trance.10 These reports indicate that even though psychedelics destabilize top-down modulatory control of consciousness, feedback control and linear system stability can be entrained back into coherence via external periodic drivers, including rhythmic motor activity, drumming, singing, chanting, rocking back and forth, dancing, and so on. It is no accident that these are also the basic formal elements of shamanic ritual.

In physical terms, the shaman is the primary energetic driver, or resonator, stabilizing attractors within the chaotic hallucinogenic interference pattern created in the consciousness of the subject. In the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics, this phase-locking action is similar to deterministic chaos seen when entraining limit cycles in a forced Van der Pol oscillator. 11 By prescribing a psychedelic substance, the shaman introduces the control frequency interrupt, and through ritual craft and showmanship the shaman applies harmonic interference to navigate and influence the tone and texture of the trip. By mixing the hallucinogenic control interrupt with a harmonic periodic driver the shaman can entrain expanded states of consciousness and manipulate the subject’s mind with high precision. The precision wave-based manipulation of neural oscillators within the psychedelic state can be called applied psychedelic science, physical shamanism, or Shamanism in the Age of Reason.

Notes and References

1. Corlett PR, Frith CD, Fletcher PC, “From drugs to deprivation: a Bayesian framework for understanding models of psychosis”. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 November; 206(4): 515–530.

2. WikiPedia.org, “Entrainment (Physics)”. Internet Reference, 2009.

3. ADSR envelopes were chosen as the best available shorthand for approximating differences in the tone and texture of each hallucinogen as it interrupts consciousness. Arguably a more precise model could be employed, but using ADSR compresses a longer discussion on how to precisely model intensity and onset of subjective hallucinogenic effects.

4. WikiPedia.org, “ADSR envelope”. Internet Reference, 2009.

5. N 2 0 interrupt envelope is an approximation based on subjective reports.

6. Salvia interrupt envelope is an approximation based on subjective reports.

7. DMT interrupt envelope is an approximation based on subjective reports.

8. Most receptor interactions occur on the order of microseconds, so attempting to model pharmacodynamics based on rate of subjective frame interruption may be impossible, or require complex statistical interpretations.

9. ADSR envelopes will change slightly for any substance depending on dose and speed of absorption into the bloodstream, but beyond that they may also change depending on the purity of hallucinogen. For instance, if an LSD experience is described as “clean”, this means the hallucinogenic interrupt is so subtle that it is almost invisible; this also implies purity of the LSD. In contrast, when an LSD experience is described as “dirty” or “jagged”, this means the interrupt induces transitions in consciousness that are abrupt and unpleasant; this also implies the LSD is adulterated or has not been sufficiently purified. It is widely accepted that if one batch of LSD induces a soft interrupt envelope with a wiggly and sensual attack, that same LSD should produce similar result for everyone. The same would be true for LSD that produces a jagged and abrupt attack. If a pure sample set could be acquired and tested, it may be possible to model precise interrupt frequencies and ADSR envelopes for every known psychoactive substance.

10. Reports taken from subjective accounts and corroborated over multiple subjects and experiences.

11. Kanamaru, T., “Van der Pol oscillator”, Scholarpedia, 2(1), 2202, (2007).

Chapter 07: Psychedelic Pharmacology

Figure 11. Glutamate ad GABA, the neural messengers for go and stop. Glutamate excites neurons and promotes spiking, GABA inhibits spike trains.

Sensory signal traveling through the brain is mediated by glutamate, an excitatory chemical messenger. Sensory signal is filtered by GABA, an inhibitory messenger GABA (Fig. 11). The precise spike timing of these messengers is tuned by neuromodulators, which synchronize spiking across the entire brain. Most hallucinogens are structurally similar to the modulators which tune global spike timing, such as serotonin (5-HT), norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and dopamine (DA) (Fig. 12). All of these chemicals are classified as amines, meaning that they have a nitrogen (N+) containing amino group hanging off a root carbon ring. This nitrogen structure is the key element in any amino acid, carrying the energy needed for metabolic processes which do work. Since these transmitter chemicals have only one nitrogen group they are called monoamines, and they are the essential messengers of the aminergic neuromodulatory system.

Monoamines entering the bloodstream are normally kept out of the brain by the blood-brain-barrier, but psychedelic molecules have a neutral charge so they are able to pass. When these amine crystals pass through the blood-brain barrier they brush against neural receptor sites; if the receptors are a good fit then the crystals get stuck for a short period of time. The bonding of amine ligands to serotonin and dopamine receptors is where psychedelic action begins.1,2

Figure 12: Psychedelic amines look very much like the endogenous neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. On the left are the adrenal-promoting catecholamines, amphetamines, and phenethylamines; on the right are the indoleamines, also called tryptamines, and their hallucinogenic counterparts. LSD, a synthesized molecule, is also an indoleamine, but is more structurally engineered than its organic counterparts.

Serotonin and the Tryptamines

Because of depressive mood disorders and pharmaceuticals like Prozac, the most well known neuromodulator is serotonin, or 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine). 5-HT is essential to many basic brain functions, linked to mood, depression, contentment, learning, anxiety, sleep, appetite, and the regulation of involuntary smooth muscles that control blood pressure and digestion. Serotonin is an indoleamine and a variant of tryptamine, which is the most basic of all the indoleamines and the structural starting point for DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine), 5-MeO-DMT, psilocin, psilocybin, DPT, AMT, and most psychedelic drugs with acronyms ending in T (which stands for Tryptamine). LSD is also an indoleamine, but it is larger and more complex than organic indoleamines, and is in many ways structurally unique.

Dopamine and the Phenethylamines

Working in concert with serotonin is the neuromodulator dopamine (3-hydroxytyramine). Dopamine is synthesized from L-DOPA and is instrumental in modulating salient attention, motivational response, and fine motor control. Dopamine is central to the reward system, and dopamine release is stimulated by recreational drugs, food, gambling, sex, and physical risk taking. Dopamine imbalances are linked Parkinson’s disease, ADD, compulsive risk behavior, and psychosis. The role of dopamine interruption is relevant to psychedelic activity in many aspects; psychedelics may affect sensuality and motor control, and may facilitate psychosis, mania, and compulsive behaviors.

Amphetamines and the phenethylamine group of psychedelics (mescaline, 2-CB, MDA, MDMA, and so on) are more structurally similar to dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, which are also monoamines but sometimes referred to as catecholamines since they are based on the single catechol ring structure. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are referred to as stress hormones because they prime the body’s adrenal production and energy response to stress and danger. The phenethylamines and catecholamines all have the six-carbon benzene ring backbone, simpler than the dual-ring tryptamine structure, with at least one amine group. The simplest form of this molec