Binary
Binary
Desire drives effort, accomplishment and attainment of goals.
It is when this desire overwhelms us with unrealistic or delusional goals that this desire can become toxic. It can also be the desire to escape what is perceived as an unescapable situation.
It can drive us to see the world in a binary way.
There is only a top score on a test.
There is only one school that you want to get into.
There is only a doctorate.
There is only a noble prize.
You were severely traumatized by an inescapable situation and you continue to re-experience it as uncontrolled PTSD.
You can never see yourself as thin enough.
There is only one desirable girl or boy.
There is only male and female.
There is only one desirable social group.
You are smart or dumb.
You can never be enough.
In this case you may become obsessed with your binary perceptions and unable to see or experience alternative realities.
This can lead to tremendous stress and depression.
In this case it may be important to see different paths that are not controlled by our ego.
The use of psychedelics in controlled settings has shown promise in treating some of these conditions.
From https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/
“Johns Hopkins is deeply committed to exploring innovative treatments for our patients. Our scientists have shown that psychedelics have real potential as medicine, and this new center will help us explore that potential.”
- Paul B. Rothman, M.D., Dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Scientists today are entering a new era of studying a truly unique class of pharmacological compounds known as psychedelics. Although research with these compounds was first started in the 1950s and ‘60s, it abruptly ended in the early 1970s in response to unfavorable media coverage, resulting in misperceptions of risk and highly restrictive regulations.
After a decades-long hiatus, in 2000 our research group at Johns Hopkins was the first to obtain regulatory approval in the United States to reinitiate research with psychedelics in healthy, psychedelic-naive volunteers. Our 2006 publication on the safety and enduring positive effects of a single dose of psilocybin is widely considered the landmark study that sparked a renewal of psychedelic research world-wide.
Since that time, we have published further groundbreaking studies in more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in respected scientific journals. This makes Johns Hopkins the leading psychedelic research institution in the U.S., and among the few leading groups worldwide. Our research has demonstrated therapeutic effects in people who suffer a range of challenging conditions including addiction (smoking, alcohol, other drugs of abuse), existential distress caused by life-threatening disease, and treatment-resistant depression. Studying healthy volunteers has also advanced our understanding of the enduring positive effects of psilocybin and provided unique insight into neurophysiological mechanisms of action, with implications for understanding consciousness and optimizing therapeutic and non-therapeutic enduring positive effects.
At the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, researchers will focus on how psychedelics affect behavior, mood, cognition, brain function, and biological markers of health. Upcoming studies will determine the effectiveness of psilocybin as a new therapy for opioid addiction, Alzheimer's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (formerly known as chronic Lyme disease), anorexia nervosa and alcohol use in people with major depression. The researchers hope to create precision medicine treatments tailored to the specific needs of individual patients.
Additional references.
https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/index/#research
https://www.psycom.net/psilocybin-magic-mushrooms
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/benefits-of-medical-mushroom
Psychedelics
Visualization of the brain connections in the brain of a person on psilocybin (right) and the brain of a person not given the drug. Journal of the Royal Society Interface
Standard connections in the brain were muted including the sense of self while unusual areas were chattering each other up resulting in seeing sounds or hearing colors. This sense of self or ego is what we attempt to see around with the study of science and meditation. The dualistic nature of the ego is the source of our suffering and being able to experience the universe without the blinding needs of the ego allows us to feel the connects to all things. The original aim of this book is to help one see the unity of existence through knowing without the need of any psychedelics.