Chapter
Thirteen
Altered states of consciousness
In the first ever placebo-controlled brain-imaging studies, participants had 75
micrograms of LSD intravenously. Functional connectivity increased right across
the brain and more local effects coincided with changes in experience. For
example, higher cerebral blood flow and greatly expanded functional connec-
tivity in primary visual cortex (V1) correlated strongly with visual hallucinations.
Decreased connectivity between the parahippocampus and the retrosplenial cor-
tex correlated strongly with reports of ‘ego dissolution’ and the sense of altered
meaning, ‘implying the importance of this particular circuit for the maintenance
of “self ” or “ego” and its processing of “meaning” ’ (Carhart-Harris et al., 2016b, p.
4853). An integrated information-inspired modelling of psychedelic states tries
to account for the fact that such states seem to be ‘about more things’ than ordi-
nary waking conscious states, but to involve less systematic organisation and
categorisation. From an IIT perspective, this mixture can be explained as a result
of increased neural entropy, leading to enhanced cognitive flexibility combined
with reduced cause–effect information about all past and future states of the sys-
tem (Gallimore, 2015).
In other studies, increased connectivity in the temporoparietal junctions cor-
related with ego dissolution (Tagliazucchi et al., 2016), and decreased functional
connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) correlated with less imagery
related to the past (Speth et al., 2016). This has implications for treatment of con-
ditions like depression that involve excessive rumination on one’s past, probably
mediated by the DMN. Preliminary studies also suggest that LSD, ayahuasca, psi-
locybin, and other psychedelics can be beneficial for treatment-resistant depres-
sion and anxiety without causing harmful side-effects or dependency (Gasser
et al., 2014; dos Santos et al., 2016; Frecska, Bokor, and Winkelmann, 2016). The
effects include a lasting ‘afterglow’ that can be helpful for people with addictions,
and is probably caused by psychedelics’ action on the serotonin system (Winkel-
man, 2014).
Psychedelics have changed many people’s lives. Some say they helped solve
deep-seated psychological problems, encouraged them to value kindness and
love, and inspired them creatively in their work. Many say they were convinced
that, for once, they saw things as they really are. But are they right?
Certainly the pioneers of the hippie movement in the 1960s thought so, including
Richard Alpert, a young, rich, and highly successful Harvard psychologist who,
along with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and others, had first ‘turned on’ with
psilocybin. He then began to find psychology unrewarding and his life empty.
Chasing the insights of the drug, he and five others once locked themselves in a
building for three weeks and took 400 micrograms of LSD every four hours. It was
‘as if you came into the kingdom of heaven and you saw how it all was and [. . .]
then you got cast out again’ (Alpert, 1971, p. 19; Stevens, 1987). He realised how
little he knew and went to India to study Eastern religions, and became Baba Ram
Dass. Now in his 80s, he is still an active spiritual teacher.
Some people believe that taking LSD has changed them permanently, so it is sig-
nificant that neural changes in brain entropy after experimental administration of
LSD correlated with personality changes two weeks later. ‘Openness to experience’
increased overall, increased more in those who reported ego dissolution during
their trip, and changes were still detectable after two weeks. (Lebedev et al., 2016).