05 Jan FINDING A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PSYCHEDELICS | OUPBLOG
A recent article in OUPblog, the online source for news and commentary from the Oxford University Press, covers changing attitudes towards psychedelics. In “Finding a New Perspective on Psychedelics,” editor Matt Turney notes that “The reputation of these compounds is undergoing rehabilitation, but we can’t know how long it will take to shrug off the weight of the mischaracterizations that have been heaped on them for years.” Turney mentions the work of Heffter researchers Anthony Bossis, Roland Griffiths, and Michael Bogenschutz.
“Psychedelic inquiry hasn’t yet gone mainstream, but it is no longer restricted to the fringes of the research community. Oxford University Press’s own JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published an editorial in 2012 recognizing a number of early-stage psychedelic studies, such as the NYU cancer study, that show promise. More recently, UK-based medical journal The Lancet encouraged readers to “turn on and tune in to evidence-based psychedelic research.” A TED talk from Roland Griffiths, as well as an article by Michael Pollan in the New Yorker, have been other sources of good press. And though these substances could still be better understood, there is strong evidence that their effectiveness is linked to measureable activity they cause in the brain, wherein a mystical experience—indistinguishable from those experienced by the devoutly religious—is induced in the test subject.”