Transformation. Hallucination. Mystical experience. Deep healing. 

These are some of the potential physical and psychological effects you may have heard associated with psychedelics. But what is all the (literal) buzz about? 

Thanks to pioneering advocates of psychedelic research like neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and the Beckley Foundation, psychedelics are having a cultural moment. Through brain imaging and social emotional outcomes research, scientists studying the effects of psychedelics are beginning to understand how these compounds impact various parts of the brain associated with memory, cognition, and decision making. These research trials suggest that psychedelics may alleviate symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction, and may even calm existential distress for individuals facing a terminal illness. 

So what exactly is happening in your brain during a psychedelic experience? Let’s explore. (And if this gets overwhelming, check out How psychedelics work (for dummies)).

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How the brain makes sense of the world

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Picture this. Your brain contains as many neurons as there are stars in our galaxy. These neurons fire as they process the sights, smells, textures, tastes, and noises in the world.

Areas of the brain that fire together create patterns, or “networks” which can be seen in fMRI brain scans. One of the most prominent networks discussed amongst neuroscientists is the Default Mode Network (DMN)¹. This network is most active when you are not focused on the outside world, such as remembering the past, imagining the future, reflecting on yourself or thinking about others. 

The DMN helps create stability in your life by forming rigid beliefs about who you are and how the world works. As raw sensory information enters your brain, it passes through this filter. This means your final perspective of everything you experience in life is altered and controlled by this lens.

While we need these patterns to work more efficiently and keep us safe, too much order in the brain can result in rigid thinking and beliefs. This becomes particularly problematic if these beliefs are unhealthy or reinforce negative patterns. In fact, neuroscientists like Carhart-Harris have found that rigid beliefs formed by our predictive coding may lead to an increased risk for depression, anxiety, obsessions, compulsions, eating disorders, and addictions², particularly if these beliefs were formed and reinforced in childhood. 

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So what do psychedelics do?

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During a psychedelic trip, random brain activity called “neural crosstalk”³ increases. This temporary crosstalk creates more “entropy” (chaos, disorder, and the opposite of rigidity) in the brain, allowing connection in areas of the brain that do not normally communicate. While this might sound alarming, your brain is not getting scrambled. In fact, calming activities such as meditation increase the entropy of brain waves. 

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Thanks to this neural crosstalk, you might experience your senses differently during a psychedelic experience. Common experiences include synesthesia (a cross contamination of the senses where you may see music or hear color), hallucinations, magical thinking, and new ideas, insights, and innovations. Mystical experiences are also common, and may include feelings of unity, sacredness, peace, joy, ego death, objective truth, numinosity, time/space transcendence, ego death, and ineffability.  

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As neural crosstalk and entropy⁵ increase while on a psychedelic, the volume in our DMN turns down, allowing for rigid beliefs to become more flexible. Scientists call this “REBUS”⁶, or relaxed beliefs under psychedelics. This allows your high-level thinking mind to quiet and make room for more awareness from areas of the brain like your limbic system (responsible for basal behavioral and emotional responses like fight or flight, hunger, reproduction, and more). Researchers theorize that this temporary shift in the brain during the psychedelic experience allows you to revise and de-weight high level ideas that have essentially taken up too much space in your mind, thus contributing to mental illness or pathological distress.     

This means REBUS has the potential to help us observe our beliefs from a distanced perspective and in turn update unconscious tendencies and shift long-held life assumptions, resulting in a healthier life trajectory.

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Although the brain returns to the DMN following a psychedelic experience, its ability to change is altered and residual neuroplasticity from the experience may allow an individual to grow new neural networks and sprout healthy nerve endings to reinforce new learnings. This means the strength of these connections are contingent on how much the individual can reinforce the neural pathway. 

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While neuroscientists and psychedelic researchers continue to examine the impacts of psychedelics on the brain, the research can only theorize what is happening based on the neural imaging and outcomes they have the capacity to study at this time. Future research will undoubtedly uncover more about the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual impacts of psychedelics in the short and long term. In the meantime, psychedelic research will continue to shape policy and therapeutic paradigms related to use of these powerful medicines.

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While psychedelics have the capacity to change the future of mental healthcare, they should always be supported by proper set, setting, and integration support. 

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Learn more about how to create a positive set and setting for psychedelic experiences.

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