Consciousness research, theme by theme

Memory and the default mode network

“Deep within each of us, the past slumbers on.”Seaich · Introduction, 1959

Seaich’s central claim is that the drugs did not invent new content. They lifted the lid on memory, letting early and forgotten material rise into awareness.

Research today

Brain-imaging studies found that psilocybin reduces activity and connectivity in the default mode network, a set of regions linked to self-reflection and autobiographical memory.

Carhart-Harris et al., PNAS 109(6), 2012

Glossary: Default Mode Network (DMN)

Childhood habits and “relaxed beliefs”

“Childhood is our first experience with life; it will therefore be obvious that our deepest attitudes are the product of a childlike intellect.”Seaich · Chapter II

He argued that adult perception runs on patterns laid down in childhood, and that the drug experience loosens them.

Research today

The REBUS model proposes that psychedelics relax the brain’s high-level assumptions (“priors”), letting lower-level information flow more freely.

Carhart-Harris & Friston, Pharmacological Reviews 71(3), 2019

Glossary: REBUS (“relaxed beliefs under psychedelics”)

Ego dissolution

“The drug has removed the barrier of ego.”Seaich · Journal, December 17, 1959

In the fourth session he records the boundary between self and world giving way, and reality coming through “clear, transparent, and vivid.”

Research today

Ego dissolution is now a defined and measured dimension of the psychedelic state, with a validated questionnaire.

Nour, Evans, Nutt & Carhart-Harris, Front. Hum. Neurosci. 10:269, 2016

Glossary: Ego dissolution

Mystical-type experience

“For me, it has been the supreme religious experience.”Seaich · Chapter XI

Seaich treated the religious character of the experience as genuine rather than illusory, and read it through mystics, poets and comparative religion.

Research today

Mystical-type experience can be measured, and its intensity predicts therapeutic outcome in clinical trials.

Barrett, Johnson & Griffiths, J. Psychopharmacology 29(11), 2015

Glossary: Unitive experience (unio mystica)

The dark night: difficult experiences

“Robbed of its illusions, the naked soul stands dead and alone.”Seaich · Chapter VIII

He described emptiness and despair as a stage to pass through, not a failure of the experience.

Research today

Challenging experiences are common and, when well supported, can correlate with positive long-term outcomes.

Carbonaro et al., J. Psychopharmacology 30(12), 2016

Glossary: Set and setting

Music

“Music, of all the human arts, is alone capable of expressing the ineffable.”Seaich · Chapter IX

Wagner, Mozart, Mahler and Strauss run through the journals. A trained composer, Seaich noted how music fused with color, feeling and memory.

Research today

LSD enhances emotional responses to music and changes the imagery music evokes; music is now a planned part of therapy sessions.

Kaelen et al., Psychopharmacology 232(19), 2015; Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 26(7), 2016

Glossary: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy

Light, color and geometry

“Light! Pure light! Just to sit and stare into translucent Being!”Seaich · Journal, March 5, 1960

Kaleidoscopic forms, flowing patterns and radiant light recur across the sessions and anchor Chapter VII, “The Inner Light.”

Research today

Recurring visual “form constants” (lattices, cobwebs, tunnels and spirals) were catalogued by Heinrich Klüver from mescaline reports.

Klüver, Mescal, 1928; Mescal and Mechanisms of Hallucinations, 1966

Glossary: Mescaline