JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
A new study shows evidence that psychedelic drugs can induce a heightened state of consciousness, The Guardian reports. Brain scans from healthy participants who took ketamine, LSD, or psilocybin—a compound in “magic mushrooms”—had increased random brain activity after taking the drugs. The increased random activity came with sensations like floating, suddenly finding inner peace, a “sense that the self was disintegrating,” and distortions in perception of time. “What we find is that under each of these psychedelic compounds, this specific measure of global conscious level goes up, so it moves in the other direction. The neural activity becomes more unpredictable,” said Anil Seth, a professor of neuroscience at Britain’s University of Sussex. “Until now, we’ve only ever seen decreases compared to the baseline of the normal waking state.”