I am also convinced of this and the trend in healthcare to try and reduce all psychiatric disorders to sheer imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain or similar purely chemical causes seems dangerous to me (and a sad reflection of the extreme materialism that characterizes our modern societies). Because it's recently been discovered there's harmine in psychedelic mushrooms and it's a MAOI, for example, I've read researchers seriously suggesting that this was the reason mushrooms seem to help tremendously with depression (among others). Ignoring, as an aside, the fact that many of the trials that showed such effects used pure (extracted or synthesized) psilocybin. It can't be the introspection and the immense life-transforming experience that helps people reflect on themselves, consciousness and the world in general; it has to be a MAOI anti-depressor effect. That continues working for months after you only took it a few times, apparently.
I think you're right, and I now feel I misinterpreted his comment.
And what the pharmacologists are trying to figure out is why you’re both having this ostensibly life-changing experience with the shrooms
On that though, my point was that the "feeling more positive" / helping against depression aspect is in my mind purely the result of the experience itself - that is, the actual events you experience while under the effect and your own self-reflection and integration on them - and not a "direct" pharmacological consequence of the compound being administered. Software (consciousness), not hardware (chemical reactions in the brain on a lower scale) - yes, I know the analogy sucks but I'm not sure I'm expressing myself properly. As such, I don't see how pharmacologists could figure out such a thing given our current abysmal understanding of consciousness itself - perhaps psychologists could venture a guess, but that's about it.
Yeah, most mental illnesses are more ‘nurtured’ rather than ‘nature.’
I am also convinced of this and the trend in healthcare to try and reduce all psychiatric disorders to sheer imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain or similar purely chemical causes seems dangerous to me (and a sad reflection of the extreme materialism that characterizes our modern societies). Because it's recently been discovered there's harmine in psychedelic mushrooms and it's a MAOI, for example, I've read researchers seriously suggesting that this was the reason mushrooms seem to help tremendously with depression (among others). Ignoring, as an aside, the fact that many of the trials that showed such effects used pure (extracted or synthesized) psilocybin. It can't be the introspection and the immense life-transforming experience that helps people reflect on themselves, consciousness and the world in general; it has to be a MAOI anti-depressor effect. That continues working for months after you only took it a few times, apparently.
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I think you're right, and I now feel I misinterpreted his comment.
On that though, my point was that the "feeling more positive" / helping against depression aspect is in my mind purely the result of the experience itself - that is, the actual events you experience while under the effect and your own self-reflection and integration on them - and not a "direct" pharmacological consequence of the compound being administered. Software (consciousness), not hardware (chemical reactions in the brain on a lower scale) - yes, I know the analogy sucks but I'm not sure I'm expressing myself properly. As such, I don't see how pharmacologists could figure out such a thing given our current abysmal understanding of consciousness itself - perhaps psychologists could venture a guess, but that's about it.
Absolutely