3 experts reveal how psychedelics can expand the walls of perception

00:00- It is the natural evolution of consciousness to expand. (dramatic music) - What psychedelic means from its linguistic roots is mind manifesting. You could have a euphoric experience, you could have a hellish experience. - People in the past historically have assigned this to the gods, to the muses, to fate, to possession.

00:37This is just too much. This is too cool. It's too inspired, it's too informed to possibly be me. - One of the fundamentals that we all have is a sense of identity, kind of who lives in this box. With psychedelics, what you realize is that, in some sense, you also are outside this box, and to transcend those limits shifts forever the way in which you see the world.

01:03(dramatic music) - "Psychedelic" can be used to refer to what are called the classic psychedelic compounds: psilocybin, which is in magic mushrooms; LSD; DMT, which is in ayahuasca; mescaline, which is in peyote. They affect a particular type of serotonin receptor called the serotonin 2A receptor, and that's their primary mechanism of action.

01:33But then you have other drugs. So for example, MDMA will work by releasing serotonin, so that's a different mechanism. And ketamine and PCP, they affect the glutamate system in the brain primarily rather than the serotonin system. So what does "psychedelic" mean then if it refers to multiple pharmacological classes of drugs that work in different ways?

01:59And the answer for me is that these are all drugs that can have a profound effect on one's sense of reality, including one's sense of self. - Because of the neurobiology, there are four qualities that tend to arise pretty consistently in those non-ordinary or altered states.

02:24Selflessness tends to happen because the areas of our brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, but including additional networks that connect often turn off or completely light up. Either way, they knock out our everyday waking sense of self-consciousness and self-awareness.

02:44Timelessness happens for a similar reason as basically different parts of our brain light up and turn off, our ability to calculate time gets knocked out, and we get absolutely sucked into the immediate present moment, so a feeling of timelessness comes with it.

03:00The effortlessness, and it's literally in the sort of almost in the biblical sense, not my will, but thy will. When I knock out my self-consciousness, when I'm not in the past or the future, I'm just in the present moment, when I am effortlessly being propelled, the next thing that consistently seems to happen is the richness.

03:19We have access to far more information than we do in our regular waking state. It can be: I feel myself swept along, and it feels awesome. Or it's terrifying, but I don't have a choice. - Psychedelics not used carefully are dangerous. Most things not used carefully can be dangerous.

03:43The problem for psychedelics is because the expansion is so strong, if you have no support or no background or no understanding, it's terrifying. Transpersonal psychology is a framework which allows you to get a larger view. It includes all of awareness, all of consciousness, all human experience, and it looks around for what are the tools.

04:11Meditation is a tool. Psychedelics are a different kind of tool for opening up the closed box of awareness. After a psychedelic experience, you are not only more open, but you are questioning very fundamental beliefs that you have had without any particular knowledge.

04:31Integration is a method of dealing with the overflow of information that happens during and after a psychedelic experience. That time is a very fluid time where the brain is still communicating more than usual, and it's a good time where someone can help you move from confusion to clarity.

04:55Central experience that we all strive for is to be unified and connected to a larger reality than ourselves. To feel that you are part of, for instance, humanity, or you're part of the living fabric of the Earth. - It's not just about hitting a certain type of serotonin receptor in the brain.

05:17There's something about the psychology of the experience that unfolds during that session that tends to be important. - You've assigned it supernatural origins, but in reality it's just us in an optimated state. - That's perhaps the goal of transpersonal psychology, and it is the experience of psychedelics that things will never be the same afterwards, because my universe has actually opened wider.