5-MeO-DMT life-changing experiences might have been debunked!
What we thought to be a toad life-changing trip might be more than that, a new study claims!
Incilius Alvarius (formerly known as Bufo Alvarius) has been in everyone’s mouths lately (no pun intended), from the misconception that licking the toads would cause psychedelic experiences shared by The Simpsons and many other media outlets to the infamous episode of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia uncovering the identity behind the mysterious person behind the first Incilius Alvarius experience.
Since then, quite a lot has changed, while some things remained the same.
On the negative scope, despite the efforts made regarding the protection of these toads by Protect the Sonoran Desert Toad and everyone sharing the importance of leaving the Incilius Alvarius toad alone, people keep poaching the species for personal benefit and harming the toads by not driving carefully.
Hence, it is fair and unfortunate to say that we are still witnessing a decline in the population of the toads in their habitat.
On the positive scope, Berkley Psytech, a branch of Berkley Institute, opened its doors to understanding the potential clinical purposes of intranasal 5-MeO-DMT, bringing us the possibility of using the compound for the treatment of Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) and Alcohol Use Disorder. The trials have shown that the compound was safe and well tolerated by the patients with no serious or severe adverse effects. Within minutes, there was a reliable psychedelic effect, and patients would come back from altered states within 2 hours. These findings indicate a potential for the substance to deliver a shorter treatment time and reduced resource burden in comparison to other compounds in psychedelic therapy.
The intensity of the psychedelic experience correlates with exposure to the substance, with scores of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ-30) and Ego Dissolution Inventory (EDI) increasing proportionally with the dosage administered.
For quite some time, this has been the focus of the psychonaut community to induce intense mystical experiences capable of allowing us to have life-changing experiences and altering how we perceive life.
However, new research proves that something else is happening to our brains while such experiences occur within our minds.
At the peak of a 5-MeO-DMT experience, rudimentary structures of subjective experiences such as time, space, and the self typically disappear, and a dramatic lack of differences ensues.
Many describe 5-MeO-DMT as entering the realm of everything and nothing where even the inference that they are the subject of experience is protracted.
But what could be the reasoning behind this lack of information processing and deconstruction of consciousness?
According to new research published by the University College London, the Imperial College London, and the University of Oxford, upon vaporizing 12mg of synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, there was a radical shift in the brain dynamics of 29 healthy participants, particularly in low-frequency oscillations (slow waves) which are crucial for various cognitive processes, including consciousness and memory consolidation.
While under the effects of the compounds, the low-frequency waves that typically travel coherently and systematically across the cortex became disordered.
The waves demonstrated properties different from their baseline state.
Instead of following their typical trajectory, where they propagate forwards and backward across the cortex, these waves became more ‘viscous’ and less likely to exhibit smooth, continuous patterns.
Suggesting that the typical structured neural communication in the brain was disrupted, leading to widespread disorganization in interregional brain interactions.
The research further observed that the reorganization of the slow waves led to broader implications for the brain’s overall activity.
There was a shift towards more stable and low-dimensional states of activity, meaning that the brain’s ability to switch rapidly between patterns of activity diminished. This slower and more constrained dynamic, with increased “energy barriers” to quick global shifts, contrasts with the brain’s usual flexibility and complexity in a natural resting state.
Such altered dynamics are relevant for models of how psychedelics interact with serotonin receptors to produce their psychedelic effects, including alterations in perception, self-awareness, and consciousness.
This explanatory research makes us wonder if the life-changing experiences caused by the oscillation in slow waves could be the reason behind the life-changing reports caused by the deconstruction of reality after the intake of 5-MeO-DMT and other psychedelics.
