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Also: "If you have a bunch of weird(?) people experiment on their own minds and also each other, you would maybe imagine that could lead to bad effects and/or things might fall apart at some point. Perhaps this is why some people found Leverage to be a bad idea from the outset. Well, it took ~8 years (and we learned a lot in the process), but things did fall apart. We did know that going in though, and were aware that things might not work out (though I suppose people were also pretty committed to it working, and planning on that maybe more than they were planning on it falling apart quite so spectacularly)."
https://cathleensdiscoveries.com/LivingLifeWell/in-defense-of-attempting-hard-things
And more specifically:
Here it is in the words of current Leverage Institute's post about their previous work on psychology:
"During our research we encountered a large number of risks and potentially deleterious effects from the use or misuse of psychological tools and methods, including our own. We believe that research should be conducted by people who are informed, as far as possible, with the potential risks and dangers of research, and the use of our tools and methods are no exception.
As such, when equipping others to engage in psychological experimentation themselves, we will endeavor to help people to make informed choices by describing the risks and dangers as we see them, and making recommendations about what we believe to be more or less safe approaches."
https://www.leverageresearch.org/research-exploratory-psychology
A more detailed account of bodywork, energy work etc. in this section about "Mapping the Unconscious Mind":
https://www.leverageresearch.org/research-exploratory-psychology#:~:text=2018%20%2D%202019%3A%20Mapping%20the%20Unconscious%20Mind
Estimation of covid reinfection rates in the future was in the news recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/19/without-covid-19-jab-reinfection-may-occur-every-16-months-say-scientists
The actual paper:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(21)00219-6/fulltext
Set, setting and suggestions can affect the experience for sure. Personal values, culture, religion etc. can make a difference in how the experience progresses, how it is interpreted and integrated and so on.
But my understanding from both the scientific literature and the anecdotal reports is that the nature of the mechanism of action of these drugs indeed is such that they can result in mystical experiences in people who take it.
See for example:
>Psychedelic drugs have long been known to be capable of inducing mystical or transcendental experiences. However, given the common “recreational” nature of much present-day psychedelic use, with typical doses tending to be lower than those commonly taken in the 1960s, the extent to which illicit use of psychedelics today is associated with mystical experiences is not known. Furthermore the mild psychedelic MDMA (“Ecstasy”) is more popular today than “full” psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, and the contribution of illicit MDMA use to mystical experiences is not known. The present study recruited 337 adults from the website and newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), most of whom reported use of a variety of drugs both licit and illicit including psychedelics. Although only a quarter of the sample reported “spiritual” motives for using psychedelics, use of LSD and psilocybin was significantly positively related to scores on two well-known indices of mystical experiences in a dose-related manner, whereas use of MDMA, cannabis, cocaine, opiates and alcohol was not. Results suggest that even in today's context of “recreational” drug use, psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin, when taken at higher doses, continue to induce mystical experiences in many users.
"Illicit Use of LSD or Psilocybin, but not MDMA or Nonpsychedelic Drugs, is Associated with Mystical Experiences in a Dose-Dependent Manner"
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2012.736842
You seem to be claiming that without somebody giving you suggestions, people would not think of psychedelic trips as something special.
Well, as the discoverer of the substance, Hoffman surely did not have any preconceptions, since the first time he was exposed to LSD it was an accident, and had no idea of it's psychedelic properties.
His account is freely available online here: https://www.hallucinogens.org/hofmann/child1.htm
A quote where he describes the second exposure, which was intentional experiment: "This self-experiment showed that LSD-25 behaved as a psychoactive substance with extraordinary properties and potency. There was to my knowledge no other known substance that evoked such profound psychic effects in such extremely low doses, that caused such dramatic changes in human consciousness and our experience of the inner and outer world."
Thank you for this blog post. It has been immensely useful to me lately.
I have started new habits and this time they actually seem to stick! Key: never skip twice. Very useful framing. It's like a super power really.