Psychedelics change our conscious experience of the world – that is part of their attraction. Now a new study out of John Hopkins Medicine has analysed data on attributions of consciousness to other animals and innate objects by those using psychedelics and how this changes over time.
The study analysed data from 1,606 people who had had a belief-changing psychedelic experience. What they noticed was a large increase in attributions of consciousness to other animals, such as insects, but also to plants, inanimate natural objects, and inanimate manmade objects. Not surprisingly the largest consciousness attribution was for animals, e.g. 57% attributed consciousness to insects compare to only 15% with inanimate manmade objects.
What is surprising is that these changes persisted over time with the average experience being 8 years previously. This shows that part of the experience of these psychedelics and in line with descriptions of the impacts (of the world coming to life) is related to attributions of consciousness.
Of note is that this can change with a single psychedelic experience!
Reference:
Sandeep M. Nayak, Roland R. Griffiths.
A Single Belief-Changing Psychedelic Experience Is Associated With Increased Attribution of Consciousness to Living and Non-living Entities.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022; 13
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.852248
More Quick Hits
Do We Lose Brain or Muscles First?
As we age things start to decline, we all know that – happens to the best of us…
Cravings for Fatty Food and the Gut-Brain Connection
Research hot off the presses is showing something interesting happening with our desire for fatty food….
How to Form Optimal Groups for Learning
There has been a long-standing debate and discussion in learning contexts for what is the best way to form groups for optimal learning when there are different abilities in those groups…
Extreme Temperatures Increase Hate Speech Online
I am sure we all know that feeling of getting more irritable when temperatures rise – well we now have evidence that…
News Addiction is Bad for Your Mental (and Physical) Health
Many years ago I first heard the advice of “Don’t watch the news if you want to be happy”…
Fresh Teams are More Effective and More Innovative
We all know that just about anything in the world is produced by teams. This has never been more true than in scientific disciplines…
Too Much of a Good Thing – Why Leaders Can be Too Extraverted
Extraversion is considered a positive trait particularly in leadership – but can there be too much of a good thing?
Gene Mutation Leads to Being “Clueless”
Researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Centre have discovered a genetic mutation that impacts memory and learning.
Humble Leaders Make Teams More Effective
This study showed that those in groups with leaders who showed the highest humility reported multiple positive results all of which can be directly correlated to higher performance.
Micro Breaks Improve Performance and Wellbeing
We all know that taking breaks is good for our brain and wellbeing – in fact we absolutely need to take breaks. It is just the way our brain and body is designed.