FRANCISCO X. GUARDERAS S.
UNIVERSIDAD SAN FRANCISCO DE QUITO
En el año 1953, al famoso escritor Aldous Huxley se le presento la oportunidad de experimentar con la droga psicodélica mescalina, una experiencia que cambio su forma de percibir el mundo y la realidad. Huxley redacto su experiencia en un ensayo llamado “The Doors of Perception”, donde analiza y comenta sobre su experiencia desde un punto de vista científico y filosófico. Debido a las controversias y los riesgos del consumo de este tipo de drogas, se han realizado muy pocos estudios desde entonces y los misterios del efecto de la mescalina en el cerebro no han sido resueltos. Esta investigación toma la información científica sobre la mescalina, el cerebro humano y lo que conocemos sobre su funcionamiento en aéreas como la atención y la percepción sensorial para hacer un análisis neuropsicológico de la experiencia de Huxley en 1953 y los efectos de la mescalina en el ser humano.
Introduction to the Problem
In the spring of 1953, the renowned writer Aldous Huxley seized the opportunity to serve as a subject for experimentation on the effects mescaline, a psychedelic hallucinogenic drug (Huxley, 2004). Huxley reported and analyzed his extraordinary experience with the substance in an essay named “The Doors of Perception”, where not only did he review his experience but also introspected about human nature, the limitations of “normal” human perception and the importance to expand our boundaries and open our eyes to a different reality.
The essay follows a scientific and formal structure, however, it is based upon the limited knowledge and discoveries regarding mescaline up until 1954 (Huxley, 2004). This presents a problem to contemporary readers because new advances and discoveries in the subject have provided new information which is not compatible with the information presented in Huxley’s essay (Olive, 2007). The information that Huxley used respecting mescaline’s metabolic action mechanism has little scientific value nowadays, nonetheless his conclusions and observations on the human perception of reality have endured and can be found in current investigation in areas such as psychology and philosophy, while neurophysiologic discoveries can be used to explore and understand how this chemical compound can give place to such a deep and disturbing experience.
The goal of this study is to explore and understand the neuropsychological realms of perception and how they may be altered by mescaline. Once we understand what perception is and how it may be distorted it is possible to explore the effects and the implications of expanding and altering our ability to perceive our environment and existence.
A Brief History of Mescaline and Huxley’s Essay “The Doors of Perception”
Mescaline is the principal psychotropic component of the cactus Anhalonium lewinii better known as peyote (Huxley, 2004; Olive, 2007). This chemical compound is naturally synthesized by several cactuses beside peyote including San Pedro cactus, the Peruvian Torch cactus and other plants found predominantly in the American continent (Olive, 2007). Evidence shows that these plans have been used in several cultures for thousands of years for psychedelic effects, not as a recreational drug but rather as an entity capable of providing a divine religious experience (Olive, 2007). Peyote is found in large numbers in the dry desert areas in the western border between the United States and Mexico, where Native Americans used to culture, consume it in ritual ceremonies and venerate the cactus as a deity (Olive, 2007). Since this cactus has at least other 50 “potentially bioactive” substances contributing to its psychedelic effects, this study will treat specifically with mescaline and not with the peyote cactus where it was first discovered (Olive, 2007).
The first systematic study of peyote was done by the German scientist Louis Lewin during the late XIX century (Huxley, 2004; Olive, 2007). The growing interest in the substance effect over consciousness and perception motivated distinguished psychologists such as Havelock Ellis, W. Jaensch and Weir Mitchel to experiment with the substance while others used it with the purpose of understanding how the mind of mentally altered patients work (Huxley, 2004). The chemist Dr. Ernst Spath was the first to synthesize mescaline in a laboratory allowing access to an unlimited supply of the substance independent of the cactus (Olive, 2007). During the mid XX century, scientists devoted plenty of attention to mescaline among other psychedelic substances. Human experimentation with these drugs which were legal at the time attempted to understand the drugs way of acting in the brain as well as acquiring insight of the sane and the insane mind (Olive, 2007). Aldous Huxley was given the opportunity to serve as a “guinea pig” for experimentation, which he embraced and used as a chance to expand the boundaries of his mind (Huxley, 2004). Huxley was given 400 mg of mescaline in the comfort of his home under the supervision of Osmond; a voice recorder was used to keep a record of the experiment which was later used by Huxley to document his experience in “The Doors of Perception” (Huxley, 2004; Olive, 2007).
Mescaline is usually referred to as a hallucinogen; however, it not considered a strict and usual hallucinogenic substance because its effects usually present an alteration of sensory perception rather than in sensory hallucinations such as the ones that characterize LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms (Olive, 2007). A hallucination is the identification through any of the senses of a stimulus that does not exist, such as seeing, hearing, smelling and even tasting absent stimulus (Sacks, 2009). Mescaline has been classified for its chemical properties as a phenethylamine and resembles the chemical structure of adrenaline as well as other drugs such as amphetamines and ecstasy (Olive, 2007). Large doses of the substance are required to produce the psychotropic effects; the effects kick in after around an hour after ingestion and last up to 12 hours (Olive, 2007).
Little was known about mescaline and the way it acted upon the brain by the time Huxley experimented with the drug. It was thought that mescaline acted over an enzyme which regulated the blood flow to the brain, limiting the amount of oxygen and nutrients available to the organ causing impaired cognition and the characteristic changes in perception (Huxley, 2004). Huxley emphasizes a theory which is at a certain level still accepted nowadays; “ the suggestion is that the function of the brain and the nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive” (Huxley, 2004). It was said that the brain had an intrinsic “reducing valve”, which was capable of filtering the incoming stimulus and selects only the ones that are truly relevant four our survival and normal functioning to be processed by the brain. The decreased supply of oxygen to the brain was supposed to alter the brains reducing valve, resulting in the changes in perception and the ability to see and experience things that are usually inaccessible to the normal brain (Huxley, 2004).
Huxley’s experience with the substance was not what he expected. He had no visual hallucinations other than a “slow dance of golden lights”, but as mescaline consumers usually experience, he presented an enormous change in his focus of attention, his sensory perception and his perception of time and space (Huxley, 2004). Huxley turned his attention into objects which are normally unnoticed, finding infinite fascinating radiating beauty and life towards everything he turned his attention. It is a common effect of mescaline intoxication to perceive three dimensional objects as two dimension geometric figures resembling a cubist work of art (Olive, 2007). Time and space lose their importance and protagonist under the effects of mescaline. Huxley was still able to maintain a real time conversation and move around his environments without tripping and crashing around, but the predominance of time and space in every situation was so degraded that became irrelevant obliterated from his conscious mind (Olive, 2007).
Huxley view his experience under mescaline as an opportunity to open a door which gave him access to world which is only available to the mentally gifted and the insane. Everybody lives and experiences his environment in a unique and private way, and the only way for two or more people to communicate and understand each other is through the use of symbolic representations such as language which may hold place for common ground for empathetic thinking (Huxley, 2004).
How can the sane get to know what it actually feels like to be mad? Or, short of being born again as a visionary, a medium, or a musical genius, how can we ever visit the worlds which, to Blake, to Swedenborg, to Johann Sebastian Bach, were home? … by taking the appropriate drug, I might so change my ordinary mode of consciousness as to be able to know, form the inside, what the visionary, the medium, even the mystic were talking about.(Huxley, 2004, p. 3)
This study is meant to provide a better and updated understanding of what Huxley and many others have experienced through the use of mescaline not only at a neurological level, but also at a psychological and philosophical level and explore its implications.
The Problem
Though the cactus peyote and many others have been used for thousands of years with religious and cultural reasons by native tribes in America, little is known about the mechanism through which mescaline alters consciousness and sensory perception (Olive, 2007). Growing interest in the psychotropic substance motivated several scientists with different areas of interest to investigate the effects of the effects of the drug during the late XIX century and the first halve of the XX century; however, as technology evolved providing new tools which may contribute with great insight for this ambiguous topic, the prohibition and illegalization of mescaline among other psychotropic drugs has tremendously limited our capacity to study it (Olive, 2007). Given the plausible short and long term effects of the substance in the users state of mind it is not ethical to administrate mescaline to humans and then use imaging techniques such as PET scans to find further information about the drugs effect in the central nervous system.
This limited ability to test and study mescaline’s effect on the human brain gives place to a deficit of information about the topic, forcing us to look back at previous studies from several decades ago and rely on indirect investigation to draw conclusions over how mescaline and many other consciousness altering drugs work. It is very hard to find any current and updated information from recent studies using mescaline; since it has become a taboo topic, most of the information comes rather from few drug consumers and fanatics which experiment illegally with the substance and give accounts on their experience, lacking of any sort of scientific structure to validate the reports.
Coming up with an updated revision of Huxley’s experience with mescaline and its documentation in “The Doors of Perception” from a neuropsychological point of view has become a tedious and complicated investigation process due to the lack of valid information sources and the need to engage in indirect investigation of parallel topics, such as time and space perception, to draw speculations on how analogous processes may occur through the use of mescaline. That is why the goal of this study is to provide a better and updated source of information which incorporates all the insight that new discoveries have provided to the understanding of Aldous Huxley’s essay.
Beside the strictly scientific investigation on mescaline and its effect on human perception, this study will also focus on human perception itself, how, and why it is important to get out of our day to day basic routine and expand our realms of knowledge and our capacity to experience and perceive situations. The systematization of education and our learning environment limits our capacity to experience reality from different perspectives, making it necessary to find new education and development models which expand instead of limit our growing environment and our view of the world and reality.
Hypothesis
Though the knowledge and information Huxley used holds little validity nowadays do to its placement outside of controlled lab conditions, he described in a very accurate way the theoretical mechanism through which mescaline may alter our sense of perception of reality and our environment. Huxley stood correct when he talked about and made references to studies were it was said the brains main function is eliminative and not productive.
Our senses are the only way at our disposal to experience and evaluate our environment; they have evolved as highly accurate systems designed to provide all the important information four our survival (Purves, 2008). However, our senses are able to perceive an infinite amount of stimuli simultaneously, but our brain does not have the processing capacity to process all of them at the same time (Purves, 2008). The human brain has evolved to become a sensory processor with the primary goal of providing all the tools and information needed to ensure our survival. Therefore, the brain’s primary perceptual function is to filter and select the incoming sensory perception and focus only in the information which is critical for survival and normal functioning. Any sensory stimulus with no survival and replication value is unconsciously discarded and cannot be experienced without a voluntary focus of attention. The hypothesis of this study is that mescaline acts upon the intrinsic function of the brain to which Huxley refers to as the “reducing valve” which filters and selects the incoming sensory perception, allowing the processing and attention to be directed to sensory stimuli which are usually filtered due to its lack of survival value and allowing access to a new realm of perception.
Changes in our perceptual capacity are fundamental for our personal growth and development, for they are the source of all the creative capacity. We should not limit our ability experience reality through the incorporation of systematized and strict education and learning environments; the goal of our education and lifestyle should be to naturally motivate and allow us to expand our view and appreciation of reality without limiting our perceptual focus to a single face of what is actually a multidimensional image.
How and to what extent are the basic mechanisms that drive human perception influenced by the use of mescaline?
Context and Theoretical Background
The research question to of this study can be analyzed and answered through many different perspectives. This study in particular will focus on a neuropsychological perspective, where the neurological basis of perception and the effects of mescaline in the nervous system will be used to understand how perception drives behavior and controls our experience of reality. Huxley’s essay “The Doors of Perception” incorporates several perspectives, starting with a historical and scientific approach to mescaline which progressively transforms through the narration of his experience into a rather philosophical and existential view of reality and perception. This study will not only provide a current review of Huxley’s experience under the intoxication of mescaline, but it will also explore the implications and consequences in our modern society of Huxley’s conclusions and view of perception and reality.
Purpose of the Study
This study attempts to explore the basic mechanisms that drive human attention and how this mechanisms can be altered by the use of mescaline to change the perception of reality. The human brain has the capacity to perceive and process stimuli in a selective way which ensures that ensures that attention will be driven only to the stimuli which have survival value and are therefore necessary for our survival. By altering this mechanism mescaline allow the brain to perceive and process stimuli which would normally be filtered due to their lack of relevance for survival, allowing the consumer o experience reality and the world he lives in way that has never been seen before.
Significance of the Study
This study has an immeasurable importance for a wide spectrum of areas of knowledge. It will provide an updated scientific review of one of the most influential and insightful works of literature of the XX century. It will also provide a useful analysis of human perception of reality, its importance to our daily life and a way by which it might be altered and modified. This study is not limited to the consumption of mescaline itself, but to the need of modifying our view of perception of reality and the understanding that what we see is not necessarily what is real but what is useful. Hopefully this study will have important impact in areas such as neuropsychology, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, philosophy and the overall understanding of the human nature.
Term Definitions
A couple of terms must be understood and defined for the proper interpretation of this study. First of all it is necessary to notice the difference between mescaline and peyote, because mescaline is only one of more than 50 psychoactive compounds found in the peyote cactus, therefore the experience of intoxication with peyote may differ from the experience of pure mescaline intoxication (Olive, 2007).
The word perception is actually a very broad and amble term which might be given several meanings. In this study, perception stands for the way a human experiences reality at a given moment and place in time. As Alwar Balasubramaniam states in his conference for TED in 2010, perception depends entirely on its context and in our previous experiences. Our previous beliefs alter the way we experience a sensory stimulus and the meaning we attach to it. It is also important to distinguish the different areas of perception. This study will focus only on sensory perception (the way our senses react to a stimulus), and our temporal and special perception (our experience of the flow of time and the physical space that surrounds us).
Author’s Presumptions of the Study
This study will allow a better understanding of Huxley’s essay and its implications for humanity. Perception or reality does not reflect reality itself, for the human being is designed to filter and modify every stimulus to suit the context and to provide a survival value. Our view of the world is nothing but a creation of our minds, which is why it is important to expand our realms of perception and not be deceived by what our senses reveal to us.
The vast majority of information regarding the use of mescaline and its effect on consciousness lacks of any scientific background, making it hard to find useful sources which would contribute to the development of the study. The sources for this study where limited to strictly scientific and reliable sources that had been published within the last few years.
Besides Huxley’s essay “The Doors of Perception” which was published in 1954, this study uses several sources including scientific journal articles published within the last decade. A couple of scientific textbooks on Neuroscience, Neuroanatomy and a textbook about mescaline were used. Several video conferences from TED.com by eminent figures who study the human brain from different perspectives provided insightful ideas with a critical contribution for this study.
The literature review process took a long time and a lot of work. In the first place it was very difficult to find valid sources which a scientific trustworthy focus, most of the information found as written by people who experimented with the drug and write about their experience without any validity in this study. Since very few current information was found regarding mescaline and its effects on perception, most of the information that aided for the construction of this study was related to the study in an indirect way. This made it necessary to consult a wider range of documents, most of which were not useful and many others with very little information regarding the topic of this essay. It was an investigation process in which every bit of information gathered lead to a new idea that needed to be investigated, making it a very long and tedious process.
Huxley’s essay had to be read and analyzed a couple of times. The topics and part of the essay that were relevant for this study were underlined and analyzed with further detail. Both of the books on Neuroscience and Neuroanatomy had already been studied in their entirety, so it was only necessary to review the subjects which were relevant for this study. The textbook on mescaline was read and studied all the way through to ensure a proper understanding of the studied compound. The video conferences found on TED.com also provided an important source of ideas and information which aided the investigation process immensely.
Once all the information had been gathered, selected and studied thoroughly, it was all put together and revised next to Huxley’s essay to draw the conclusions needed for this study.
This study was designed under a qualitative methodology as a revision of literature and its analysis to draw new conclusions and solve the investigation’s question. It would have been very useful to have an updated study which focuses on the effect of mescaline in the human brain. The prohibition of mescaline consumption in the year 1970 ended with the investigation of the substance using human subjects, limiting the research to case studies of people who have consumed the compound and other studies which provide information in an indirect way (Olive, 2007). The new imaging techniques used to monitor the activity of the brain could provide valuable information about how mescaline affects consciousness, but it is impossible nowadays to take human subjects and give them psychedelic drugs as mescaline, which limits the interest of scientists on studying the drug.
By means of information recollection and its analysis it was possible to answer the investigation research question and provide a better understanding of Huxley’s experience with mescaline and the implications of altering our sense of perception.
Potential and Anticipated Results
It is complicated to speculate in advance what the results and the answer to the question would be, but can be anticipated that, due to mescaline’s similarity to other drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamines and its structural resemblance to adrenaline, it might act as a neurotransmitter or as some sort of neuromodulator which will alter synaptic communication upon specific neurons in both the central and peripheral nervous system. The consequences of this action mechanism will be to alter the way in which incoming stimulus are selected and filtered, allowing the processing of information different than the one the brain is used to deal with. There are many ethical and moral issues concerning the use of mescaline, and this study in no way is meant to promote the use of psychotropic drugs; however, it will explore the importance of expanding our minds and looking at things from different perspectives and not only by what we have been conditions to see.
Importance of the Study
This study will have a potentially immense contribution to humanity because it will explore human evolutionary nature and how human behavior in the modern world has self limited our own potential for impartment and development in all areas where humans act in a regular basis. This study will help the reader understand the truth about reality; the way in which our most important mean of communication, our senses, are not designed to present the reality but instead to provide information which has survival value for the specie. All hallucinogenic drugs have been stigmatized and become a taboo because of their use as recreational substances and all of the consequences of their use. It is very important to take into account the huge downside and negative consequences of drug consumption. Mescaline as well as other strong hallucinogenic and psychedelic drugs has been illegalized because they are potentially harmful to the mind. It is known that the use of drugs may induce psychosis and many mental disorders in people with a fragile and susceptible mental state (Purves, 2008). This study does not intend by any means to deny the possible effects that drug consumption may bring, but it is meant to demonstrate that there is a lot to learn about human behavior and human nature by studying the changes that a psychedelic substance as mescaline has on human consciousness and perception. The study of mescaline and perception inspires the possibility of finding a harmless and secure way to expand our realm of perception and look things from different perspectives.
Information Analysis
As Beau Lotto demonstrates through his conference for TED, “sensory information is absolutely meaningless, there is no inherent meaning in information, and it’s what we do with that information that matters”. Anything that is presented to us as stimuli is absolutely dependent of the context it’s in, so it is the context in which a stimuli is presented and all of the attached memories, experiences and conditioned behaviors and not the stimuli by itself which gives meaning to everything we perceive on a daily basis. The brain has evolved to search and create patterns which are given significance and meaning which can be associated with a specific behavior (Lotto, 2009). We are born with sensory abilities, like the ability to see, to capture our environment with our eyes, but it is not until we assign meaning to the emerging visual patterns that we are able to see and use our sense of vision to interact with our environment. Lotto uses optical simple optical illusions to deceive our optical perception and demonstrate how our perception changes depending on the context (Merzenich, 2009). The question that should be asked is why context controls our perception. The brain has evolved for millions of years to perceive not as it really is but as it is useful to see it (Lotto, 2009). Humans, as well as all the other species, are designed to have a complex intrinsic survival mechanism which ensures its survival and increases the possibility of replicating and giving birth to a better and stronger generation which has better odds of survival. We have no direct access to the physical world that surrounds us other than through our senses; therefore our senses must be designed to transmit information about the outer world to ensure our survival (Lotto, 2009).
Though our senses are our only access to our environment, the only function of the senses is to transmit that information to the brain. the central nervous system is the real primary sensory organ, for it is in the brain that all the sensory stimuli are gathered, processed and given meaning, making useful information out of a large complex wave of electric impulses (Purves, 2008). Perception is a complicated term to understand and it is determined by two major components. The first component of perception are our senses, such as our eyes, our ears, our sense of touch, smell, taste and dynamic equilibrium of our bodies. Our peripheral nervous system gathers all of this information with a series of specialized receptor and transmits the information as electric impulses to our brain (Snell, 2006). The brain would represent the second component necessary for perception; there are a series of mechanisms which act upon the brain giving place to perception. Many of these stimuli are designed to create an automatic unconscious response, such as the way your pupils contract when exposed to an excess of light or how your arm unconsciously retracts when one of your fingers senses intense pain (Purves, 2008). There is another fraction of these stimuli which do not elicit an automatic response, but rather engage through a complex wired pathway through the central nervous system processes this information (Purves, 2008).
The amount of information that is transmitted to our brains every second is monumental, but the brain manages to filter in a selective way all of this information and turn our attention only the relevant and important information (Purves, 2008). This mechanism is what Huxley refers to as the brain’s “reducing valve” which is affected by mescaline. In this very moment, you could intentionally turn your attention into a certain specific sensory perception, such as the temperature in your hands, the air upon your cheeks, the tension on your back, the clothes in contact with your skin, your breathing or the beating of your hear, and this could go on forever. But under normal circumstances, we have no conscious perception of all these stimuli that are reaching our brain, and this is caused because they don’t provide any useful information that would in any way improve our odds for survival and reproduction, but it would still be useful under specific circumstances. If you, for example, are trying to find a small object that has fallen in the ground, having an acute sense of touch in the palm of your hand immediately becomes important and attention is driven into this sensory perceptions.
It is thought that mescaline acts upon the brain in a similar way to other hallucinogens such as LSD, altering the chemical functioning of the brain and affecting the liberation and reception of certain neurotransmitters which leads to all of its effects on perception (Delgado, 2010). The idea presented in “The Doors of Perception” stating that mescaline decreases via enzymatic inhibition in the blood and oxygen supply to the brain has been absolutely discarded, but the idea of altering the brains “reducing valve” still holds a surprising validity and can be used to understand how perception works on a normal or an altered brain.
Serotonin is one of the principal neurotransmitters in the brain which is involved lots of functions, including the control of mood, pleasure, hunger, sex drive among other sensory perceptions (Olive, 2007; Purves, 2008). A wide variety of serotonin receptors encoded independently has been discovered as well as many substances capable of modifying the chemical and electrical activity in the synaptic junctions and the function of the neurons (Olive, 2007; Purves, 2008). Hallucinogen substances are capable of mimicking and activating serotonin receptors, but the wide variety of serotonin receptors gives place to several different effects (Olive, 2007). Unlike LSD which activates several serotonin receptors, mescaline can only activate the serotonin 5-HT2 receptor (Olive, 2007).
Two critical areas of the human brain have been found to have large quantities of serotonin 5-HT2 receptors. An area of the brainstem known as the Locus Ceruleus (LC) has large quantities of norepinephrenic neurons (Purves, 2008). This is known as the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine system (LC-NE), which emits large quantities of amply distributed ascending projection to the neocortex (Nieuwenhuis, et.al., 2007). The LC-NE is highly regulated and can be affected by several substances and neuromodulators to alter the functioning of this neurons, such as clonidine or mescaline which affect the widely distributed serotonin 5-HT2 receptors in the LC-NE (Nieuwenhuis, et.al., 2007; Olive, 2007). The LC-NE system is thought to have a crucial role on decision making and engaging in tasks and motivation (Nieuwenhuis, et.al., 2007; Olive, 2007). This has led to classify the LC as “temporal attention filters that selects for the occurrence of task relevant or unexpected events” (Nieuwenhuis, et.al., 2007; Olive, 2007). The LC-NE also projects connections to areas of the brain that are involved with spatial attention, linking this system with both temporal and spatial perception as well as several areas of the neocortex (Nieuwenhuis, et.al., 2007; Olive, 2007). This information is vital for the understanding of mescaline’s effect on spatial and temporal perception. As Huxley documented, during the mescaline that time and space had lost their predominance. Huxley reported sporadic shifts in time when he focused his attention into something which appeared never-ending, just as if time had ceased to exist. The sense of space had also been drastically altered; though his vision was almost normal, the special component of the images had disappeared completely. Huxley had no trouble in walking around or handling a real time conversation, but his interest in time and space had been diminished to the point where time and spaced disappeared. Though the exact mechanism of how this occurs is yet uncertain, it can be presumed that modulation of the neural activity of the LC-NE leads to this altered sense of perception and affects the motivation and drives of the mescaline intoxication.
The other area of the brain with large quantities of serotonin 5-HT2 receptors is the cerebral cortex where thinking, planning and many other high functions reside and are regulated (Olive, 2007; Purves, 2008). The areas of the cortex that are linked to sensory perception of incoming stimulus is full of 5-HT2 receptors over which mescaline can have an effect by activating the neurons and increasing the release of glutamate, the major stimulatory neurotransmitter of the brain (Olive, 2007). A hyperactivity of the neurons linked to sensory, temporal and special perception cause the changes in logic thinking, hallucinogenic effect and perceptual altering experience of mescaline intoxication (Olive, 2007).
Henry Markram is the director of a project known as the Blue Brain, which attempts to build a supercomputer that recreates the mammalian brain, neuron by neuron, which can be programmed to run and work as an actual brain. Through studies of the neocortex and the creation of neuronal models that simulate its function, a theory has emerged which states that the main function of the brain and the neocortex is to create a representation of the universe that is perceived and serve the development of the mind (Markram, 2006; Markram, 2009). This theory not only supports the theories of perception that have been discussed through this study, but also provides an explanation to many psychological disorders with a neuronal basis such as autism and schizophrenia (Markram, 2006; Markram, 2009).
There is a new theory of autism called “The Intense World Syndrome” which evidences the presence of hyperactivity in the neuronal complexes of the neocortex, which would result in an altered perception and the creation of a perceptual universe which is unimaginable to the sane (Markram, 2009; Markram, Barkat, & Markram, 2007). The symptoms presented in children with autism are to a certain degree similar to the ones presented in mescaline intoxication. The perceptual realm available for both the autistic and the mescaline consumer takes over and creates a general introspection into a fascinating and captivating world which can’t be accessed under normal circumstances.
Synesthesia has also been reported as one of mescaline’s most fascinating effects, giving the mescaline consumer to merge certain senses and experience sensory juxtaposition, such as seeing sounds, tasting colors and smelling music (Huxley, 2004; Olive, 2007). There is a normal degree of synesthesia found in the general population. The sense of smell and taste work together along with the sense of touch to allow as experiencing food in our mouth as a unique and complex experience. Ramachandran also demonstrates in his conference for TED in 2007 this innate synesthetic capacity by showing how a specific visualized shaped can be matched with a sound which simulates the shape of the image. The severe cases of synesthesia, which have been found in different kinds of artists with an incidence eight times greater than in the rest of the population, can be explained by the brains neuroplasticity and its capacity to generate new neuronal connection, which in this case connect the areas of the brain associated with different sensory perceptions, linking them together (Ramachandran, 2007). The synesthetic experience of mescaline can be associated to the hyperactivity of the neocortex, which increases the probability of sensory neurons to be stimulated and fired together.
The effect of mescaline is known to have a long lasting effect because, even after the intoxicating effect is gone, the perpetual mind-blowing experience it produces changes the way they perceive and interpret reality forever. Mescaline creates a door to a real of perception to which there was no access before. The hyperactivity of the neocortical neurons and the increase in glutamate release promotes neuroplasticity during the mescaline intoxication, which increases the probability of long lasting effects of the substance. This show the evident downside of mescaline consumption, specially while talking about prolonged and frequent use of the drug or a previous susceptibility to develop a mental disorder. As Huxley explains in his essay, many psychiatrists consumed this drug because it provides a window into the mind and perception of the mentally insane.
Conclusions
Some of the information regarding mescaline and its action mechanism used by Aldous Huxley in his essay “The Doors of Perception” lack of current validity. Huxley’s experience under mescaline intoxication and his insightful conclusions to explain the changes in perception nonetheless provide valid information about the human nature. Mescaline interferes with the brains normal ability to filter and select the information that is useful at a specific moment and provides survival and replication value. This gives place to changes in perception and cognition characteristic of mescaline intoxication, allowing stimuli which are usually discarded to bypass the brain’s “reducing valve” and access the conscious mind, opening up a new previously inaccessible realm of perception. The hyperexcitation of neurons in the neocortex and the LC-NE result in an impaired special and temporal perception, the perceptual disappearance of time and space along with the other effects of the compound. The effects of mescaline in the brain can also be used to explain and understand the normal and the abnormal functioning of the brain. The source of many mental disorders such as schizophrenia or autism may be caused because the subject experiences an abnormal way of perceiving the world. As Markam stated, the brain does not perceive the surroundings just as they are, but instead uses the incoming sensory information to create a model of the universe. An alteration in this normal function of the brain would distort in unimaginable ways the subject’s perception of reality, which is what happens during mescaline intoxication, autism and many others mental disorders.
The brain has evolved with the amazing capacity to create a perceivable model of the universe and the world that surrounds us. What we perceive of our environment is not necessary a reflection of reality but rather a selected interpretation of which provides us useful information for our development and normal functioning. Mescaline intoxication causes a bypass of this mechanism which allows access to a realm of experience where time and space lose its predominance allowing the entrance to a different reality.
Answer to the Investigation Question
The “normal” realm of perception is a representation of the universe created by the brain, which has the purpose of providing us with the capacity to perceive sensory stimuli under a constant and predictable temporal and spatial background. Our brain has evolved to give us the capacity to select out of all the incoming stimuli only the ones which are useful and provide survival and replication value from an evolutionary stand point. Mescaline acts by bypassing this intrinsic mechanism and providing the capacity to consciously experience sensory stimuli which are normal unavailable under a distorted time and special environment, opening up a new realm of perception. Therefore, this review is limited by the downside and dangers of human experimentation with the drug which limit our capacity to use technology to explore this phenomenon.
Limitations of the Study
The prohibition of human experimentation using illegal substances limits the investigation capacity and the use of modern imaging techniques which would provide valuable information of the effects of mescaline in the brain. This study had to be done using the little information that is available about mescaline and other studies which don’t study mescaline directly but normal and abnormal perception itself.
Recommendations for Future Studies
Since the future will probably not present the opportunity to do human experimentation with mescaline, Makrams Blue Brain project offers an amazing possibility to study this and many other subjects which find ethical and moral limitations nowadays. If it would be possible to do human experimentation with mescaline, using imaging techniques such as PET scans under mescaline intoxications or using mescaline marked with radioactive isotopes to observe specific areas of the brain which are stimulated and where mescaline acts could provide invaluable information for this and future studies.
Thanks to Huxley’s doing over 50 years ago, we can now find new models and explanations necessary for understanding the human mind in both normal and abnormal conditions. Mescaline alters attention, driving it from a normal focus into stimuli which provide some kind of survival value into stimuli which are usually filtered and not taken into consideration because of their lack of survival value. Both genetics and evolution as well as conditioning have taught us to perceive the universe in a certain standardized way; however, by altering our attention, the perception of the universe can open a door to a new reality, a different realm of perception.
References
Balasubramaniam, A. (2010, September). Art of substance and absence | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 12, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/alwar_balasubramaniam_sculpture_of_substance_and_absence.html
Delgado, J. (2010). Intoxication from LSD and other common hallucinogens. In UpToDate. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
Eliasson, O. (2009, July). Playing with space and light | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 12, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/olafur_eliasson_playing_with_space_and_light.html
Huxley, A. (2004). The doors of perception and Heaven and hell. New York: Perennial Classics.
Kahneman, D. (2010, March). The riddle of experience vs. memory | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html
Laeng, B. (2009). Searching through synaesthetic colors. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 71(7), 1461-1467. doi: 1876799821
Lotto, B. (2009, October). Optical illusions show how we see | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
Markram, H. (2006). The Blue Brain Project. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(2), 153-160. doi: 10.1038/nrn1848
Markram, H. (2009, October). Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/henry_markram_supercomputing_the_brain_s_secrets.html
Markram, H., Barkat, T. R., & Markram, K. (2007). The intense world syndrome %u2013 an alternative hypothesis for autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1(1), 77-96. doi: 10.3389/neuro.01.1.1.006.2007
Markram, K., Rinaldi, T., Mendola, D. L., Sandi, C., & Markram, H. (2007). Abnormal Fear Conditioning and Amygdala Processing in an Animal Model of Autism. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(4), 901-912. doi: 10.1038/sj.npp.1301453
Mauk, M. D., & Buonomano, D. V. (2004). The Neural Basis Of Temporal Processing. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27(1), 307-340. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144247
Merzenich, M. (2009, April). Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_merzenich_on_the_elastic_brain.html
Nieuwenhuis, S., Van Nieuwpoort, C., Veltman, D., & Drent, M. (2007). Effects of the noradrenergic agonist clonidine on temporal and spatial attention. Psychopharmacology, 193, 261-269. doi: 1298806851
Olive, M. F. (2007). Peyote and mescaline. New York: Chelsea House.
Purves, D. (2008). Neuroscience (3rd ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.
Ramachandran, V. (2007, October). VS Ramachandran on your mind | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html
Robinson, K. (2006, June). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. TED. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Robinson, K. (2010, May). Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 22, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html
Sacks, O. (2009, September). What hallucination reveals about our minds | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 17, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_sacks_what_hallucination_reveals_about_our_minds.html
Snell, R. S. (2006). Clinical neuroanatomy (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Spence, C., & Crisinel, A. (2010). As bitter as a trombone: Synesthetic correspondences in nonsynesthetes between tastes/flavors and musical notes. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 2(7), 1994-2002. doi: 2194510001
Sutherland, R. (2009, October). Life lessons from an ad man | Video on TED.com. TED. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html
Szalavitz, M. (2008). Welcome to my world. The New Scientist, 199(2674), 34-37. doi: 10.1016/S0262-4079(08)62375-1
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario