January 24, 2015

Entheogens?

A reader emails: "A local 'institute' steps into the New Age mumbo jumbo." She links to the website of Usona Institute, "a medical research organization." Its "affiliates and collaborators" include The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Pharmacy. The first link goes to a page headed "about," which has a fuzzy photo of a woman silhouetted against a mountain ridge and the following text:
When those we love are in pain, human nature compels us to help. We try conventional methods to show our compassion, but sometimes they fall short. So we search for answers outside traditional boundaries to respond to those situations that are deeply challenging.

Our immediate goal is simple. We want to help people with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis lift their anxiety and depression with the therapeutic, guided use of entheogens* which can serve as a potential adjuncts to currently available treatments. We’ve witnessed this unique experience and have seen how many patients have attained a richer, more meaningful quality of life. It’s an experience that may help them achieve what every person desires before they breathe their last breath—closer interpersonal relationships and inner peace.
Rigorous studies suggest entheogens are a safe, successful treatment in a clinical environment.

Usona was founded by Bill Linton, CEO and Founder of Promega Corporation “Our objective is to find new and effective methods to relieve anxiety and suffering, and contribute to understanding of neuroscience and the relationship of the mind and body. This is a frontier of research that will shape our future in important ways that we are just beginning to appreciate.”

*The term “entheogen” is frequently used in historical and anthropological literature to describe plant medicines used in sacred practices. In medical contexts, the term “psychedelic” is more commonly applied as an accurate descriptor of hallucinogenic and consciousness-expanding medicines.
Entheogens, eh? I see "theo" in there, and that means God. What kind of "historical and anthropological literature" are we talking about? Studies of Native American religion? Wikipedia's entry for "Entheogens" begins:
An entheogen ("generating the divine within") is a chemical substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context that may be synthesized or obtained from natural species. The chemical induces altered states of consciousness, psychological or physiological (e.g. bullet ant venom used by the Satere-Mawe people). Entheogens can supplement many diverse practices for transcendence, and revelation, including meditation, yoga, and prayer, psychedelic and visionary art, chanting, and music including peyote song and psytrance, traditional medicine and psychedelic therapy, witchcraft, magic, and psychonautics.
And now I'm remembering that New York Times article from last March: "LSD, Reconsidered for Therapy." I blogged that under the post-title "Beyond medical marijuana, psychotherapeutic LSD."

So what do you think — New Age mumbo jumbo or acceptable psychotherapy with drugs? If LSD or other psychedelic drugs are helpful in dealing with the anxiety and depression of cancer patients, would you want to demand that therapists speak only in terms of science or would you allow them to get a bit religion-y? Does your answer depend on whether any public money pays for the therapy — a separation of religion-and-state principle? Religion certainly helps some people deal with illness, and we don't even need to believe in religion to believe that.

Do you want a separation of religion and medicine? If yes, why? You might say because religion isn't subject to the regime of science, but the question isn't whether religion is true, but whether religion is useful to the patient — and that can be studied scientifically. You might say it's because the religion that would be concocted by these therapists won't be true religion, but only what works to relieve the suffering of the patients. If that's your argument, you need to examine why you want to deprive people of a psychological treatment that works. Is it because you care about true religion and want to clear false religions from the marketplace of ideas? Is it because you care about truth so much you don't want other people to be tempted to embrace beliefs that are not true?

In the comments section of my post from last March, The Godfather wrote:
We all face death. We shouldn't need LSD to ease the realization that we're about to die. If we are blessed with awareness of imminent death, we can make plans for those we leave behind, make peace, and prepare our souls. In my last days, I would prefer to be as aware as possible, not stoned. I might have to reconsider if I'm in serious pain, but even then I doubt that LSD is the drug of choice.
That's a statement about personal choice, imagined (admittedly) at a point before any choice needs to be made. The question is what drugs, delusions, illusions, and visualizations should be in the array of choices available to individuals who are suffering? But once we get that far, why do we have to be suffering? If we're all free to have our own religion — true, semi-true, false, or ridiculous — why can't we all have our entheogens?

In the imagined future world of Freedom of Entheogens, you may be thinking what will I choose? Is bullet ant venom right for me?
The Satere-Mawe people of Brazil use intentional bullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to become a warrior. The ants are first rendered unconscious by submerging them in a natural sedative, and then hundreds of them are woven into a glove made of leaves (which resembles a large oven mitt), stingers facing inward. When the ants regain consciousness, a boy slips the glove onto his hand. The goal of this initiation rite is to keep the glove on for a full 10 minutes. When finished, the boy's hand and part of his arm are temporarily paralyzed because of the ant venom, and he may shake uncontrollably for days. The only "protection" provided is a coating of charcoal on the hands, supposedly to confuse the ants and inhibit their stinging. To fully complete the initiation, however, the boys must go through the ordeal a total of 20 times over the course of several months or even years.
Oh, come on. It's like acupuncture!

49 comments:

sojerofgod said...

Mumbo Jumbo

George said...

Whatever it is, it isn't medicine.

traditionalguy said...

The academics are busy making this sound like new and highbrow stuff, but the use of drugs like this has a traditional name: Sorcery. The beatings of drums and the flashing of lights are similarly used by Sorcerers.

Mixed together you have a Hard Rock concert.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Many cancer patients suffer from PTSD. There a similarities between a cancer diagnosis and going to war. First you are conscripted into a war you don't want to fight. Then you are seriously injured, followed by capture and prolonged torture by the medical establishment.

Psychedelics may have some use in the treatment of PTSD by helping 'reset' the nervous system rather than have it remain stuck in a high anxiety state.

Laslo Spatula said...

The imminent approach of Death is not a bad time to get in touch with the Universe.

I am Laslo.

Michael K said...

"Many cancer patients suffer from PTSD."

Beginning a nonsensical comment by a "New Age" enthusiast. The support for this "alternative medicine" placebo pushing is popular among the useless rich and other loonies.

UCI medical school has a whole division of nonsense funded by the wife of the billionaire founder of Broadcom. They went for the money instead of the science. They have a history of this sort of thing which is why I ended my faculty relationship with them 20 years ago.

This stuff will also be useful for Obamacare when the death panels kick in. "Take the red piil instead of the pacemaker" as our president said.

rehajm said...

Somebody was moved by the informational pamphlet How to Avoid the Justice System While Turning Your Illicit Drug Habit Into A Self Financing Enterprise

Bill R said...

"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything."
G.K. Chesterton

I'm not an especially religious person, but the longer I live, the truer this seems.

I remember the late sixties, when the culture was changing so quickly. My friends were abandoning traditional religions like Judaism and Christianity because they were so unsophisticated and unscientific.

Fair enough, but then they would start rattling on about Astrology.

Michael K said...

" then they would start rattling on about Astrology."

Then they adopted Global Warming. And they tell you the other guys are anti-science.

Laslo Spatula said...

Next thing you know they'll be giving morphine to the terminally ill.

Slippery slope with pretty flowers.

I am Laslo.

Anonymous said...

From 'Song Of The West'

On the red rocks of Sedona
I met Illona
long before she became my bride.
Lovers then, my spirit-guide

was exotic-speaking-in-tongues,
curing cancer with blow-guns
selling Area 51 hodge-podge
and tickets to the sweat-lodge.

During one bad ant-mitt trip
A woman named O'Dowd broke a hip
On the red rocks of Sedona
Where I met Illona

The lawsuit came quick,
no surprise
Police charges,

the stars like salt in our eyes...

Skipper said...

Another placebo, but whatever works.

Anonymous said...

Clearly, the entheogens cause PTSD, or the PTSD causes 'entheogenesis.'

I'm not sure which.

But it's true, goddamnit. It's science, or something very much like science.

Big Mike said...

New Age Mumbo Jumbo

But I'm all in favor of ARM wearing the bullet ant mitten while he types.

m stone said...

"Entheogens can supplement many diverse practices for transcendence, and revelation, including meditation, yoga, and prayer, psychedelic and visionary art, chanting, and music including peyote song and psytrance, traditional medicine and psychedelic therapy, witchcraft, magic, and psychonautics."

I note the Wiki author threw "prayer" in the mix.

An equal opportunity dispensary.

iowan2 said...

Science has documented the positive measurable placebo effect. I saw a panel of MD's discussing this with postive attitudes.
Somehow if that placebo is prayer, it falls into the quackery catagory. I'm at a loss why there is a change in attitude.

A sugar pill can obtain measurable curative results. Why not faith?

MaxedOutMama said...

I notice that the diagnosis can be "life-threatening", which is not the same thing at all as terminal.

I think there is a higher ethical bar to using drugs like LSD in non-terminal patients. For one thing, the side effects of drugs used to treat disease (and possibly remit it) are real. Loading on more chemicals is not a healthy thing to do to the liver, kidneys and brain. Further, these patients have decisions - often difficult decisons - to make about their treatments, and I suspect that psychedelic decision-making is not the best.

I have known persons who used LSD and never really recovered - they were never mentally normal after. Now in a clearly terminal patient, that's perhaps not such a factor. But in a person who may have ten, twenty years to live, it should be a very real medical consideration.

Where there is little hope of effective therapy, it may be entirely ethical to give patients whatever they want to trip out however they want.

However I think there is also a very strong possibility that drugs such as these could be offered to non-dying patients to make them opt for the "grand ecstatic enlightenment" instead of seeking actual medical treatment. The medically ethical questionable aspect is whether this wouldn't be greatly pushed by various interests including insurance companies. It is in their interest to set up a Soylent Green type of solution; LSD is cheap. Chemotherapy is not. The vast strides in cancer therapy, for example, have cost insurance cos a lot of money.

The current line in American medicine has been that once a person decides that he/she is dying and only to seek palliative care, that may include drug treatments ordinarily precluded. If you breach that line, you may find yourself hipdeep in something that's just a seemingly gentler kinder version of Nazi bioethics.

The commercial forces here are not subtle and offing the sick or not offering many life-extending treatments to the older or sicker persons is the explicit goal of much of the health policy establishment. I strongly suspect that's why you see a program like this.

Big Mike said...

@MaxedOutMama, very well thought through and well-written. Hats off to you.

The Godfather said...

"what every person desires before they breathe their last breath—closer interpersonal relationships and inner peace." Not what I expect to be focused on when I cross over Jordan.

Will Cate said...

Entheogens is just a euphemism for psychedelic drugs.

Sadly we live in an age where we no longer call things plainly by what they are.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Will Cate said...
Sadly we live in an age where we no longer call things plainly by what they are.


You can thank the 'war on drugs' for that.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

MaxedOutMama said...
I notice that the diagnosis can be "life-threatening", which is not the same thing at all as terminal.


This is the whole point. If psychedelics have value as a treatment of PTSD following cancer diagnosis/treatment it would be for survivors who are struggling to return to their former lives and routines.

rhhardin said...

Slightly meta-related, in my survey of romantic comedies I came across Stepmom, where a cancer diagnosis appears as a too clunky plot device -- in the film analysis of Dilbert, tears, diseases and weddings.

Not that it wasn't nicely acted.

But a guy couldn't help noticing.

Fernandinande said...

Michael K said...
Blogger Michael K said...
AReasonableMan said..."Many cancer patients suffer from PTSD."

Beginning a nonsensical comment by a "New Age" enthusiast.


"Nonsensical", yet correct -

MDMA has been successfully used to improve the mental well being and subjective outlook of terminal cancer patients in less than a handful of controlled therapy sessions supplemented with the drug. Terminal cancer overlaps with PTSD because it is a singular, intense event that causes great distress and depression.

The support for this "alternative medicine" placebo pushing is popular among the useless rich and other loonies.

With some luck, that will be the dumbest thing I'll read today.

If placebos, why are they illegal?

which is why I ended my faculty relationship

Michale K. claims to be some sort of medical person? If true, that's scary.

Laslo Spatula said...
The imminent approach of Death is not a bad time to get in touch with the Universe.


A lot of Nervous Nellies here, apparently afraid of their own shadows.

Biff said...

Usona was founded by Bill Linton, CEO and Founder of Promega Corporation

How interesting! When I was still a researcher at the lab bench, Promega was one of the most respected suppliers of enzymes and tools for molecular biology procedures like genetic engineering, molecular cloning, etc. They were (are?) truly a key player in modern biomedical research. I haven't been at the bench in about decade. I wonder if Promega still has its reputation.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

My first thought was to wonder about this. But then I saw Promega being involved and felt better. I have some first hand experience with the company and they are a serious, scientific, company. Not quackery by any means.

My experience is as recent as early last year.

I had never heard of etheogens before though I do have some first hand experience with psychadelics back in the 60s.

The name has a bad connotation of high hippies. Perhaps etheogens is a rebranding that is needed.

I think some of these drugs may have some benefit. For a terminally ill patient, they can't hurt and may help.

So good on Promega for this.

John Henry

Guildofcannonballs said...

Because of my self-beclowning credulity isn't my goal, nor comedy.

Simply, I hope we all realize the immense debate already
highlighted here.

Some feel "medicine" is pure and mistakes, deadly, are inevitable. Not because daddy built the gym or affirmative action or pimp-money, just because mistakes happen and only unreason wouldn't understand why.

Others are afraid if given LSD or MDMA or DMT people will choose wrong, out-of-their-mind choices. The choice to take the drugs which could cause further dehabilitation has to be taken sober, we can, most of us I hope, agree. Why not devise metrics before the psychoactive interactions to determine cognitive function so as to embrace the subjects lack of ability to function preventing MOM's (MaxedOutMomma) bad scenarios as far as science can?

rhhardin said...

I've hit a 4-dvd jackpot of romance deaths with no motivating plot reason for the choice.

These are romances full of anti-insights.

rhhardin said...

It would make a great blooper reel if a woman acting somebody with senile dementia forgets her lines.

Just a suggestion.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The sun shines, in any given Earthly area, for less than 24 hours per day excepting the most extreme poles for short duration.

Does this means writing "the sun shines 24/7" is false?

No.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rhhardin said...

Empirical discovery : any DVD that says Nicholas Sparks discovers true love followed by the completely unnecessary death the guy.

jaed said...

I find it strange that the societal view seems to be "don't let anyone near opiates" (or hallucinogens) until it's their last and then it's "BRING ON THE METHADONE TAP. THANK GOD FOR OPIATES."

Not necessarily all that strange, if you're cynical. If the only way you can get adequate pain relief (or drugs for psychological relief) is to agree to die already and stop using up expensive medical treatments - if things are set up so that you're effectively penalized if you continue treatment, with pain and distress - then a lot of people will choose to stop treatment. Which means less expense.

This also ties in with MaxedOutMama's observation: The current line in American medicine has been that once a person decides that he/she is dying and only to seek palliative care, that may include drug treatments ordinarily precluded.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Based solely on my own misadventures with LSD, psilocybin, and peyote, this sounds like a really terrible idea. Under hallucinogens, bad thoughts can become huge and literally overpowering. I can't even imagine how terrible my own impending death might seem while tripping.

caseym54 said...

That ant venom glove for a rite of passage sounds a lot like the gom jabbar of Dune's Bene Gesserit.

ossian said...

Your respondents are ignorant of major research in the last fifty years. Aldous Huxley, of a distinguished scientific family, asked for LSD on his death bed and spoke of its comforting aspect. The famous religious scholar Huston Smith has written an entire book, Cleansing the Doors of Perception, about the use of entheogens among religious people during a Good Friday liturgy. And the researches of Gordon Wasson and Carl Ruck cannot be ignored if one claims to have any right to speak meaningfully in this discussion. I write as a graduate Catholic theologian/historian of religion who has never used an entheogen, but I maintain we must be open to this knowledge and use. There are too many reliable accounts of their usefulness to ignore.

Richard Fitzwell said...

Newsflash: "If we are blessed with awareness of imminent death..."

It's not a blessing. Living with the 'awareness' can make a person a bit sad and anxious.

Fiftyville said...

The future of medical care in America, thanks to Obamacare chasing competent doctors out, is a vision of Dr. Oohmamalookabooboo dropping acid along with the patient as he waves a chicken bone and a feather over you to treat your cancer.

Diggs said...

As long as the body is weak, there's no reason to keep the mind strong. Let's move ever closer to death panels via psychotropic drugs. We can save a lot of money not treating the elderly if we ensure the elderly are not aware of their value to the living.

Jum said...

None of this will do a damn thing to cure you...but it's cheap as hell, and you'll stop whining and just die quietly. So it's a two-fer as far as the government is concerned.

Besides, the peasants must be made to understand that all these life-extension discussions are for the elite class...otherwise known as "Democrat politicians and their contributors"

Don M said...

My heart goes out to anyone who suffering pain uses psychotropic drugs. LSD coupled with the pain of say, cancer would be a really bad trip.

The classic psychotropic drug would be Aminita Muscaria, aka fly agaric.

Its preparation is encoded in Mark: soak the mushrooms newly grown after a heavy rain (sons of thunder) cut in pieces (40 lashes) in wine for three days, and take a bit of the mushroom (body) and drink some of the wine (blood) and you hear colors and see sounds. The people who use this tend to have temporary relief and even temporary recovery from pain. The Norse berserker fought on, despite great wounds.

Micha Elyi said...

"I remember the late sixties, when the culture was changing so quickly. My friends were abandoning traditional religions like Judaism and Christianity because they were so unsophisticated and unscientific."
--Bill R (1/24/15, 9:46 AM)

Your friends were so unsophisticated that they were unaware that modern empirical science was invented by the Christians. The Catholic ones, pretty much. (Like science? Kiss the Pope.)

"Fair enough, but then they would start rattling on about Astrology."

Yeah, I know the kind too. Intellectual consistency is not among their virtues.

buck smith said...

The government should to have the power to say what devices or substances citizens can put in their bodies. Our bodies, our selves!

Anonymous said...

My wife died from ovarian cancer four years ago. It is a long story, but after the initial diagnosis, they gave her two weeks to live. She lived for five more years. We learned that when doctors start talking about "quality of life," what they are really saying is, "We aren't going to try to save you, and if you could die quickly, that would be nice."

Anonymous said...

Actually, LSD is a good idea. It can produce in a patient an out-of-body type experience similar to an NDE. From that, a person can learn (and be confident) that consciousness does NOT end with the failure of the body but goes on to some other venue. This would surely help many a dying patient deal with the stress.

Anonymous said...

"Carcinoma Agnels," by Norman Spinrad, 1967. Dangerous Visions.

David Davenport said...

Your respondents are ignorant of major research in the last fifty years. Aldous Huxley, of a distinguished scientific family, asked for LSD on his death bed and spoke of its comforting aspect. The famous religious scholar Huston Smith has written an entire book, Cleansing the Doors of Perception, about the use of entheogens among religious people during a Good Friday liturgy. And the researches of Gordon Wasson and Carl Ruck cannot be ignored if one claims to have any right to speak meaningfully in this discussion.

Ernst Junger also took LSD and liked it. Dr. Albert Hoffmann personally supervised Junger's tripping.

Nate Whilk said...

Bill R at 1/24/15, 9:46 AM wrote, I remember the late sixties, when the culture was changing so quickly. My friends were abandoning traditional religions like Judaism and Christianity because they were so unsophisticated and unscientific.

Fair enough, but then they would start rattling on about Astrology.


And now they support Obama.

snow day said...

Aldous Huxley's example came immediately to mind, so I'm glad others mentioned it. Far from getting stoned, he intended it for directly confronting death as fully conscious as possible. (To observers, he appeared to succeed most gracefully and peacefully.) This, as an alternative to the unfortunate practice of narcotizing patients on their death beds. Denial of such treatment on the basis of some expected heroic stoicism is silly. There is a great abundance of anthropological, historical, botanical, chemical, psychological, and pharmacological research on this wide class of drugs. And of course, these drugs have held central positions in the religious traditions of cultures all over the world. The term entheogen was not intended to be euphemistic, but as a better name for what has historically been a sacrament. Scoffers simply don't know. The New Age bits are distressing, but the subject is quite worthy of serious attention.