This research focuses on the events leading to the 1968 U.S. federal prohibition of psilocybin. It is a study of duelling moral entrepreneurs-Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert vs. the Harvard University Administration. The goal is to show how the primary active compound in an ostensibly harmless fungus (the psilocybin mushroom) became controversial in less than a decade.

Methods: We used books, newspapers, magazine articles and previously unpublished materials (including documents from the Harvard Archives) to analyze Leary and Alpert's lives and careers through the early 1970s.

Results: The prohibition of psilocybin in the U.S. was largely a product of Leary and Alpert's involvement in the "Harvard drug scandal" and their transformation from Harvard professors to countercultural icons. They tested the substance on a variety of human subjects and in doing so piqued the interest of Harvard undergraduates while drawing condemnation from other faculty and Harvard administrators. This case is theoretically interesting because unlike most illegal drugs, psilocybin was never linked to a threatening minority group, but to some of the nation's most privileged youth.

Conclusion: The Harvard administrators were not really moral entrepreneurs but Leary and Alpert clearly were. Although they were far from being prohibitionists, they were self-righteous crusaders on different but equally holy missions for the good of young and minority Americans. Ironically, due to their successes the possession of psilocybin was criminalized under United States federal law in 1968 (Pub. L. No. 90-639, Stat. 1361 1968 and Boire, 2002). This case study demonstrates that crusaders can be successful in changing culture even when laws are passed in futile attempts to control their behaviour, just as Leary predicted.

Authors: Colin Warka, John F. Galliherb

Abstract
The elimination of subjectivity through brain research and the replacement of so-called ‘folk psychology’ by a neuroscientifically enlightened worldview and self-conception has been both hoped for and feared. But this cultural revolution is still pending. Based on nine months of fieldwork on the revival of hallucinogen research since the ‘Decade of the Brain,’ this paper examines how subjective experience appears as epistemic object and practical problem in a psychopharmacological laboratory. In the quest for neural correlates of (drug-induced altered states of) consciousness, introspective accounts of test subjects play a crucial role in neuroimaging studies. Firsthand knowledge of the drugs’ flamboyant effects provides researchers with a personal knowledge not communicated in scientific publications, but key to the conduct of their experiments. In many cases, the ‘psychedelic experience’ draws scientists into the field and continues to inspire their self-image and way of life. By exploring these domains the paper points to a persistence of the subjective in contemporary neuropsychopharmacology.

Bron: History of Human Sciences, Volume 23, Number 1, 2010, pp. 37-57

by N. Langlitz

Abstract. Daily events that boost the immune system (as indicated by levels of salivary immunoglobulin A), some instances of spontaneous remission, and mystical experiences seem to share a similar cluster of thoughts, feelings, moods, perceptions, and behaviors. Entheogens – psychedelic drugs used in a religious context – can also produce mystical experiences (peak experiences, states of unitive consciousness, intense primary religious experiences) with the same cluster of effects. When this happens, is it also possible that such entheogen-induced mystical experiences strengthen the immune system? Might spontaneous remissions occur more frequently under such conditions? This article advances the so called "Emxis hypothesis" – that entheogen-induced mystical experiences influence the immune system.

Combined observations from biology, medicine, religion, psychology, and psychotherapy point to the possibility of a fascinating relationship among entheogens (psychoactive plants and chemicals used in a religious context), mystical experiences, and the immune system – that entheogen-induced mystical experiences may strengthen the immune system. I call this proposition the "Emxis hypothesis – emxis" being a partial acronym of sorts for "Entheogen-induced Mystical eXperiences Influence the immune System."

Bron: Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 15 (1999) : 139-147

Summary

While the endogenous hallucinogens, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, 5-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyl-tryptamine and
5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, have been acknowledged as naturally occurring components of the mammalian body for decades, their biological function remains as elusive now as it was at the time of their discovery. The recent discovery of the trace amine associated receptors and the activity of DMT and other hallucinogenic compounds at these receptor sites leads to the hypothesis that the endogenous hallucinogens act as neurotransmitters of a subclass of these trace amine receptors. Additionally, while activity at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor has been proposed as being responsible for the hallucinogenic affects of administered hallucinogens, in their natural setting the 5-HT2A receptor may not interact with the endogenous hallucinogens at all. Additionally 5-HT2A agonist activity is unable to account for the visual altering effects of many of the administered hallucinogens; these effects may be mediated by one of the endogenous hallucinogen trace amine receptors rather than the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor.
Therefore, activity at the trace amine receptors, in addition to serotonin receptors, may play a large role in the sensory altering effects of administered hallucinogens and the trace amine receptors along with their endogenous hallucinogen ligands may serve an endogenous role in mediating sensory perception in the mammalian central nervous system. Thus the theory proposed states that these compounds act as true endogenous hallucinogenic transmitters acting in regions of the central nervous system involved in sensory perception.

Medical Hypotheses 72 (2009) 91–94

J.V. Wallach