Translator: Beatrice Carpi
Reviewer: Peter van de Ven Hello. It's an amazing pleasure
to be with you here today. Unfortunately for some you,
I will be talking in English, but there are, you know, the little things
that you can use for translation, so I hope that everyone
will be with me for this talk. What we're going to talk about today
concerns each and everyone of you, really, because we're all humans,
we all have brains. And even though we might be coming
from different religions, different backgrounds,
different professions, different colours, our brains function
pretty much the same way. At the centre of the topic
are psychedelics. But I want to get one thing very clear
from the very outset of this talk: it is not my purpose to promote the use
of any legal or illegal substances - at all. It is my purpose today to poke at your childish curiosity
that has been asleep for so many years, and seek to lift the stigma
surrounding these substances because I believe,
and science believes as well, that there is so much potential
in both medicine, research and in terms of, you know,
of personal development - they can be used as personal tools. So even before we begin
to discuss what psychedelics are, we need to look at the human brain
and how it normally operates. See, the adult brain is largely run
on automatic software. What that means, you might know that you've got,
you know, billions and billions, around 80 billions
of neurons in your brain and these exchange signals. They exchange information,
and they process stuff for you. That's how you feel, that's how you think,
that's how you memorise, etcetera. And no single structure of the brain
is responsible for your human experience. Your human experience is dependent on multiple neurons
firing together simultaneously, perfectly synchronized in time. And that's how you think,
that's how you perceive. Unfortunately though, as we age, adults tend to think
only in set neuronal networks. When a child is born, the child's brain
operates very differently. The child uses a much larger neurological
potential and capacity of their brain. They use very different signals,
in comparison to adults, very different neurological paths,
in comparison to adults. And that produces some weird effects -
we should all agree children are weird. They could fall a lot, they could ask
weird questions and all that. And that's why they are weird, because they use
very different neurological paths, in comparison to adults. And I'm going to focus on one particular
such neurological network in your brain. This is the default mode network, and as you might have guessed, it is your default functioning mode
inside your brain. That is a default functioning network
of neurons in your brain that is largely responsible
for your human consciousness and perception as well. So this network is situated
in your medial prefrontal cortex, which is somewhere around here,
you can see in the picture, and your posterior cingulate cortex,
which is somewhere around here, and they connect with the angular gyrus. Now, this network is active
pretty much all the time. It's active anytime you're not engaged
in a particular task. It's active when you
are thinking about yourself, when you're thinking about other selves, when you are engaging in detailed
memory recall and moral reasoning. When you are giving judgements and labels
and evaluations to yourself and to others and, you know, to society and all that, and whenever you think
about the future or the past as well. So you tell me how often
you use this network; it's active pretty much all the time. And the thing with this network
is that it's active by default. And after the ages of 6 to 12,
it gets so reinforced in your brain that you are not really able to think
outside of this neurological network. You're not really able to just go ahead
and say "I'm going to avoid that now, and I'm going to use
my extra neurological potential." It's just not how it happens, because with age we tend
to just fall within these networks. And whether we like it or not, they will process stuff for you
and for me and for us, in a specific way, whether we like it or not. So, why am I telling you all of that? Well, because of this loopy automatic
network, we are kind of the way we are. And psychedelics have been found
to have an absolutely profound effect on this network
and these two brain areas. And we are looking at psychedelics today. What are psychedelics? Well, first of all, "psychedelic"
is a word, it's a concept. It's derived from ancient Greek: "psyche" means mind or soul,
and "delein" means to show or to reveal. So that translates into "mind revealing,"
or commonly used as "mind expanding." So, there are many, many,
many different substances that could be, you know,
classed as psychedelics, out there. And I want to stress, really, really
put emphasis on something here: they are a completely different
category of things in terms of qualitative experience, compared to anything else
you might have come across in the street, or you might have heard of
from your friends, you know, smoking ganja,
maybe taking some cocaine and ecstasy; this is completely different; this is a whole separate
category of things. And I'm going to focus particularly
on one specific kind of them today, and these are called
the serotonin receptor agonists: LSD, psilocybin mushrooms,
and DMT, also known as ayahuasca. Out of these three, I'm going to focus
on a particular one, and that is the psilocybin mushroom. You might see psilocin underneath; well, psilocin is the active
ingredient in psilocybin. When you consume a psychoactive,
you know, mushroom, psilocybin breaks down in your stomach,
and psilocin is what does the magic. So that's where the magic
in magic mushrooms comes from. And I said that they are
serotonin receptor agonists. Well, what that means is that they don't agonize
your receptors or do harm to them. What they do is that they bind with them, the psilocin molecule -
there is a picture for you here - the psilocin molecule is an exact replica
of your serotonin molecule, which you produce by yourself. It's an exact replica in nature. It's as if nature was playing
copy and paste with that. And they way it binds with the receptor
is absolutely magnificent, because it doesn't do any harm
to the receptor, it does't cost your tissues anything,
no tissue damage and all that, and is the exact same copy of serotonin. It's pretty brilliant, isn't it? And magic mushrooms or the, you know,
the psilocybin mushrooms, they grow in almost any climate zone. There are over 200 species of them
around the world. And they've been used
up to 6,000 years before Christ came, they've been used for a long, long time, only in religious and spiritual setting,
not recreationally; this is not a recreational substance,
and it should not be treated as such because the effects, in comparison
to other recreational substances that we are more acquainted with,
are completely different. The effects are something
that you can't really put into words, as it will become apparent in a bit. So, I want to focus
on two specific researches, here, to see how psilocin, the magic mushroom,
affects the human brain. After we've already established the psilocin molecule binds
with the serotonin receptor, what actually takes place in the brain
is something spectacular, something incredible. The first research
that I'm going to talk about was conducted way, way back in -
not actually that way back, it was 2012. It was London, a team of researchers led
by Professor David Nutt, amazing fella, Professor in Medicine,
Imperial College London. What they did is that they administered psilocybin
to adults in a controlled environment, and they observed what the effects were. So what happened was that
when psilocin met the serotonin receptor, blood flow to your default mode network - that area that is constantly responsible
for your thoughts of self and others and future and past
and overthinking stuff, it's always active, almost anytime
you are not engaged with anything - they noticed that the blood flow
of that area was severely reduced, and the brain was put down
in a sort of sedated dream-like state. So far, so good. But in 2014, the same team, joined by an Italian
mathematician, by the way - so at least, to me, that tells me
that the results should be correct - they found that parallel
to this decrease in blood flow, there was also a decrease
in neuronal activity within the default mode network
of the subjects. So the neurons of the DMN, that normally
exchange signals to process stuff for you, were now kind of
in a decreased functioning mode, almost deactivated, in a way. So one would ask, well what happens to all
the stuff that the DMN normally processes, they would still need to process while you
are under the effects of this substance. Well, you see, your brain
is pretty, pretty awesome; it's got this quality
called neuroplasticity. So that means whenever
a signal in your brain, you know, an emotion or a thought,
which normally runs down a specific path, is not able, for some reason, to run down
the same path, in this case the DMN, your brain will automatically
create new connections, it will create new junctions
between neurons, and it will find alternative ways
to exchange information, that same information
that would normally be, you know - oh, cause this is changing,
something happened, OK - yeah, that same information
that your DMN would normally process was now being processed through
alternative ways, alternative paths. And not only that, not only that. What they observed was that the overall
communication of neurons within your brain was spectacularly enhanced. The long-range effect,
as it's called in science, the long-range effect is when areas
of the brain separated from each other which do not normally cooperate
to process information and stuff, they were now establishing
new connections under the effects - when the DMN was deactivated. And that is spectacular. There was dramatic temporary
reorganisation of the communication and great enhancement
in neuronal activity and communication. And the new connections were perfectly
synchronized in space and in time. It's almost as if your brain knows
how to do that stuff by default, but it's forgotten it. That's when you grew up,
and that's kind of nasty. So far, so good. The brain was not breaking a sweat,
the brain was not troubled, it actually resembled a brain
under meditation. The brain scans were pretty much identical
to those of a brain in meditation. And meditation kind of affects
the same neurological network, that's the default mode network, and it switches down your feelings
of self and your self talk and all that. And that's when things really,
really start to come up. And yeah, so it is pretty, pretty crazy how much potential for communication
between neurons we've got inside here, that's the most complex apparatus
known to man, the most complex thing, and we barely use it, we barely use it. So, this is an illustration
of your brain connectivity under a placebo and under psilocybin. It's absolutely incredible. And this is not half of your neurons, the right side is not
half of your neurons at all. Your brain is not put under pressure.
Your brain is doing its natural course. It's doing what it does best, you know,
transferring signals between neurons. And your brain was not troubled
by this substance at all. So, it's fair to say that when
we switch off all the resources going for processing of thoughts
about the self and evaluations and pondering on the future and the past, when we switch that off,
your brain kind of unlocks itself. It kind of reoccupies its own neurons, which are otherwise not used, and had not been used
since you were all children, because children use that stuff. Children use alternative neurons,
new neuronal paths all the time. And adults don't, and that's kind of sad. I can't - OK. So, so yeah, you might be wondering, how does that all feel in terms of
non-scientific, normal, human kind of talk and effects, subjective effects. And you might've heard of the subjective
effects of psychedelics as "the trip." Some of you might be familiar with it, some of you might have been down
the, you know, the rabbit hole. But what the trip is - before I tell you what science says
about emotional and perceptional changes, I'll give you my own
piece of mind of that, OK? The trip is a trip
to your subconscious mind, it's a trip to your subconscious self,
a trip to something that you've long lost and you're not able to attain
and reach and get into while you are awake and, you know,
normal and conscious and all that. The trip is a trip to discovering
your subconscious self, and it's very scary, trust me on that,
it's very scary, and it's very weird, and it's life-changing in a way. It's eye-opening, people have said. So I want to very briefly mention
something about psychedelics here. It's very important to acknowledge
the set and setting that you take them in. Set refers to how you feel
in life at the moment, whether you feel loved,
whether you feel accepted, whether you're at peace with yourself. And setting refers
to your instant environment and the comfort of that and the safety
of your instant environment. So these are critical for your experience. You should not approach them lightly, you should never approach
a psychdelic substance lightly. These have been used only
in spiritual and religious environment, and these have no place
on our recreational table. We've got enough stuff out there anyway. So, in terms of perceptional changes,
people have reported amazing stuff, ranging from, you know, a complete level
on which colors are perceived, colors are actually felt
during these experiences, you are not seeing them
with the eyes, you feel the colors, and that's something
very difficult to put into words. The whole "trip" is very difficult
to put into words. These are just references
that we are using here. In terms of perception, people have
reported open-and-closed-eyes visuals. So what that means is that you
can't really get away from the experience and what you're seeing
by closing your eyes, because you will still be seeing stuff
when you close your eyes. And what you're going to be seeing is going to be taking the form
of very complex geometrical patterns, symbols and very, very vivid imagery. Memory recall on these substances
is absolutely ridiculous - absolutely ridiculous. And what people have also mentioned is that they had a feeling
of loss of self, and that's kind of normal
when the DMN is not active. All concepts of self
are blown out of the window, and you realize how little
the self really means. And we are so attached to our selves,
aren't we? It's really bad. And people have also reported
losses of concept of time, and that's something
that you can't really put into words, just explain to people, you know:
I can't feel time anymore. It's mind-blowing
what happens to your brain when you take the time perception
out of the equation; it's absolutely mind-blowing. And in terms of emotions, people have felt, they reported actually,
extremes of emotions, so people either felt extreme love,
happiness, euphoria, connectedness, acceptance of themselves
and everyone and all that, and at the same time, you could get severe panic attacks,
you could get paranoia, you could get just unpleasant feelings,
but really bad ones, during the experience. And once the experience is gone,
you're pretty much back to normal, but with a new perspective. You've gained something that you
can't really see the rest of the time. In terms of general well-being
and impressions, people have reported a very deep spiritual understanding
of themselves and of others, and they've finally come to peace with who they are
and what they are doing in life. So it kind of gives you
this amazing perspective on objective reality
and reality's purpose and functions that you can't normally perceive, really. Feelings of enlightenment, feelings
of awe, feelings of transcendence. This may sound
like a recreational substance, but these are just words, these are the experiences
that people have reported. That's indescribable, these are just
references for you to get hold on. And feelings and thoughts
of impeding death, that goes back to what I said
about loss of self, and it goes back to deactivation
of the default mode network in the brain. So far, so good. Moving along. These stuff have been found
to have long-term effects on you. That's not something I am going to hide,
they do have long-term effects on you. And from my own opinion,
they are extremely positive. Openness to experience
a new perspective on life, a completely new perspective on life, have been reported up to 14 months
after a single administration, and that's not due to the substance,
not due to the chemistry of the substance, it's due to the psychological
experience that you get through ingesting this substance. So that's that. People with depression and anxiety have reported that after a single
administration of the substance, depression and anxiety were gone
for up to six months after one use, after one experience with the psychedelic. And it kind of becomes obvious,
by now, why these are illegal, and why pharmaceuticals,
and especially antidepressants, in the western world are such a big thing. Because you see, most antidepressants
out there, and anxiety relievers, they affect the exact same area
of the brain, the serotonin receptor. But instead of binding with it
and then exciting the receptor, they regulate the way
you re-uptake serotonin, and this is just not good -
this is just not good. It causes toxicity,
it causes harm to tissues, and none of those pharmaceuticals
can provide long-term effects after a single use,
absolutely none of them. So that kind of makes it obvious
why these have so much stigma around them and why they are still kept illegal,
which is ridiculous, they've got nothing to do
with an illegal recreational substance. There is also no evidence
of addiction to these, so that's kind of another reason to not
look at them as a recreational thing. You can't get addicted
to that experience, trust me, it's so profound and so intense
that you can't be addicted to that thing. They've actually been found
to treat addiction. DMT, ayahuasca, is being confirmed
to treat heroin and cocaine addiction. You imagine that?
Heroin and cocaine, that's pretty heavy. LSD and magic mushrooms have been
discovered to treat drug and alcohol, lighter drugs, and alcohol
and tobacco-smoking addiction, and funnily enough, marijuana addiction. So, yeah, you can't really get addicted
to anything like that. And I want to show you
this really exciting table to illustrate how they're not even
in the same category, really. This was done by the Independent
Scientific Committee on Drugs - 2014, London - and examined the 20 most commonly
used recreational substances. What they discovered, in terms of overall
harm done to the user and to society, was that LSD and magic mushrooms,
as you can see at the bottom of the table, are a whole separate category of things,
that they shouldn't even be there. It's a shame to put them
down there, look at that. You've got alcohol, you've got heroin,
you've got cocaine, tobacco, cannabis, and they are just incomparable in terms
of harm done to user and to society. So there is absolutely
no harm done to anyone, reportedly. So yeah, there are
very interesting effects, there are very interesting effects
with autism patients, you can research that for yourself,
there's tons of information online. There are instant effects
with ADHD patients and OCD patients; these are major disorders
in the western world. Every third or every fourth child
has ADHD, can you imagine that? And those children get put
on pharmaceuticals from day one, and you can't really expect them
to grow as normal children. So that's absolutely ridiculous there. And I want to leave you
with probably my favorite research here. That was conducted way back, 2006,
and it was government sponsored. It was sponsored by the US government, OK? They wanted to know what
this stuff can do to you, apparently. So, they pooled like 40 people,
40 adults, aged between 40 and 45 - I can't see many people
above 30 in this hall, but you can probably relate by
thinking about your parents and all that. Adults, 40 of them, aged 40 to 45, all had college degrees, all had children,
all had families, all had jobs. So that's your definition
for a normal person, right there. And they administered the regular dose
of psilocybin to those people. And they discovered that 1 in 5
could be expected to have a bad trip - that's the one where you feel panic
and paranoia and all that - for a good 4 or 5 hours,
for as long as the instant effects last. But I want to tell you something,
a bad trip is only scary for 4 or 5 hours. The amount of things that you
are going to learn about yourself and about the world and about others and about your time and space
that you live in through a bad trip is something that you
can't really put a value on. So is kind of worth
going through one of these, and it's only 1 in 5, and that's a very,
very rough estimation there, and it's not something bad,
it's not something that you should dread, it's something that you then
need to work with and integrate, in terms of experience
and thoughts that you need to integrate after such an experience. But what's funny, 1 in 3
of those adult people reported that this was the single most spiritually
significant event of their life. Can you imagine that? Adults, 40 to 45, with jobs and all that. Taking mushrooms was the single most
spiritually significant thing for them. They might have been stupid, I don't know. But 2 out of 3 reported
that this experience was in the top 5
of significant experiences at all, not just spiritual. And they were lined up pretty much
with the death of a family member and a child being born in the family. That's how significant they rated
this experience, can you imagine that? That's research,
that's not me making stuff up. OK? Many people in the past and in the present
have spoken out about psychedelics. There's so much stigma
that shouldn't be there. It's just up to us to educate ourselves. And as I said,
and I want to really stress that, it is not my purpose to promote,
or propagate use of any substance. It is my purpose to make you
curious again and make you go out there and read what's being currently
dealt with under the scientific umbrella. I would never tell you
to take a substance, that's not something
for me to tell you, really. But what I firmly believe in, and what I really want to get across
to you guys today, is that we, as conscious
beings on this planet, we've got the genetic obligation
to never stop exploring and never stop learning about ourselves. So thank you so much. (Applause)
This guy actually does a great job talking this over. Money and power are really the only reasons any stigma surrounding psychedelics exists, and this could only be because psychedelics reveal the superfluity of both. Not to mention their holistic potential to reveal self, purpose, place, and all those other teensy little details of, you know, why we’re even alive.