blood pressure daily and listened for signs of ventricular eccentricity
every time I got into bed. It took months of not having a stroke before I
could once again trust my heart to go about its business without my
supervision. Gradually, thankfully, it retreated once again to the
background of my attention.
I tell you all this by way of explaining why I felt I should talk to my
cardiologist before embarking on a psychedelic journey. My cardiologist
was my age, so not likely to be shocked by the word “psilocybin” or “LSD”
or “MDMA.” I told him what I had in mind and asked if any of the drugs
in question were contraindicated, given my coronary issues, or if there
was any risk of an interaction with the meds he had prescribed. He was
not overly concerned about the psychedelics—most of them concentrate
their effects in the mind with remarkably little impact on the
cardiovascular system—but one of the drugs I mentioned he advised I
avoid. This was MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly, which has been
on schedule 1 since the mid-1980s, when it emerged as a popular rave
drug.
The drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is not a classical
psychedelic (it works on different brain receptors and doesn’t have strong
visual effects), yet several of the guides I was interviewing had told me it
was part of their regimen. Sometimes called an empathogen, MDMA
lowers psychological defenses and helps to swiftly build a bond between
patient and therapist. (Leo Zeff was one of the first therapists to use
MDMA in the 1970s, after the compound was popularized by his friend
the legendary Bay Area chemist Sasha Shulgin and his wife, the therapist
Ann Shulgin.) Guides told me MDMA was a good way to “break the ice”
and establish trust before the psychedelic journey. (One said, “It
condenses years of psychotherapy into an afternoon.”) But as its scientific
name indicates, MDMA is an amphetamine, and so, chemically, it
implicates the heart in a way psychedelics don’t. I was disappointed my
cardiologist had taken MDMA off the table but pleased that he had more
or less given me a green light on the rest of my travel plans.
frankie
(Frankie)
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