MAPS: Conditioning and Psychedelic Experience

[John Lolis <drbombay@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

There has been some discussion about hypnotherapy and the psychedelic
experience, but does anyone know of any studies involving conditioning an
individual to have a psychedelic experince on cue?

One could employ multiple types of cues--auditory, visual, olfactory,
etc.--every time a subject trips.  Naturally, the cues would have to be
selected and controlled so that there is reasonable certainty that they
would not appear at any other time except when the subject was tripping.
At some point, I would expect that one could introduce the cues alone and
consequently cause the subject to trip.

It would also be interesting to see if the subject would experience any of
the side effects of a given drug, say, the physiological changes that
accompany MDMA use.  I have read of someone getting addicted to a placebo
just recently, as well as people who were receiving a placebo in place of
chemotherapy--and whose hair was falling out all the same.  While I may be
comparing suggestion (possibly hypnotic) vs. conditioning, I believe that
the two would be similar in effect.

As an aside, what would happen if someone patented and could sell a
sure-fire method for inducing an altered state of consciousness at will, in
particular, euphoria, and possibly also lead one to question our most
well-established paradigms.  Would the government not try to ban something
such as this, despite the fact that it does not involve trafficking in a
controlled substance?

pax, amat, lux.
bombay

------------------
MAPS-Forum@xxxxxxxx, a member service of the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies (to become a member, see www.maps.org/memsub.html).
To [un]subscribe, email the message text,
[un]subscribe maps-forum youraddress to majordomo@xxxxxxxx