ps418

I read a book a few years ago by a chemist named Alexander Shulgin. The name of the book is <a href="http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml" target="_blank">Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story.</a> Pihkal is an acronym for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved. Apparently Shulgin, along with his wife, has spent most of his life synthesizing and experimenting with new psychoactive phenethylamines. He's probably best known for resurrecting MDMA from obscurity.

ps418

One more example from Manford and Andermann (1998). A 50 year-old woman with a brain lesion began having nausea, hemiparesis, dysphasia, and hallucinations.

The hallucinations ceased following brain surgery, but were replaced by severe amnesia with confabulation, identical to <a href="http://www.ehendrick.org/healthy/00054130.html" target="_blank">Korsakoff's syndrome.</a>

Jackalope

I know someone who was foolish enough to eat half a jimson weed pod (datura). The major components in datura are atropine and scopolomine. He said that he hallucinated for three days straight and felt lucky to come back to "normal" reality afterwards. One of the things he reported seeing were lizard men dressed in gold lame disco suits (okay, it was the 70s). They told him they were the lords of the outer darkness. One notable thing about intoxication with scopolomine and related alkaloids is that they produce delirium, not hallucination. One cannot tell the difference between the drug-induced perceptions and reality. With most hallucinogens, one knows one is tripping, and this definitely isn't normal life. With a deliriant, one could be taking tea with the panda bears and not notice anything was wrong.

Talking to one anthropologist who'd taken ayahusca, he also reported meeting lizard men who claimed they were the lords of the outer darkness (but no disco suits). When the anthropologist told the shaman he was working with about his vision, the old man replied, "Oh they're liars. They're always saying that."

Be careful of quoting anything from Carlos Castenada's books. It's pretty well established that he lied about just about everything. In fact, Professor Lockhart from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was pretty closely based on good old Carlos.

[edited to fix a spelling error]

[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: Jackalope ]</p>

Jackalope

Gabapentin is primarily used for neurological problems, most commonly for pain caused by nerve damage. It's also used for migraine prevention and as an add-on to anticonvulsant therapy. Considering that the drug appears to damp down extraneous nerve impulses, the idea to try Neurontin (gabapentin) in this case seems sound.

Marduk

". Neuroscientist Michael Persinger has induced the 'sensed presence' with his magnetic helmet, by stimulating the temporal lobe with a 40hz magnetic signal."


Anyone know the frequency of a drum beat? Shamans would use a steady prolonged drum beat to induce a translike state as well as drugs.
Dreams Drums & Drugs.

Marduk

“Talking to one anthropologist who'd taken ayahusca, he also reported meeting lizard men who claimed they were the lords of the outer darkness (but no disco suits). When the anthropologist told the shaman he was working with about his vision, the old man replied, "Oh they're liars. They're always saying that."


Infamous spoonbender Uri Geller, who worked with the CIA in the 1970’s on their ESP and Remote Viewing experiments, said something similar. When asked about the beings he encountered during a trance he said “they are a civilization of clowns”
From the book “The Stargate Conspiracy” Picknet, on the Government experiments with such things.

ps418

Drumming at 40hz would require 20 drum beats per hand per second, I think? That'd be hard to dance to. . .

Marduk

Keith Moon could have done it!

thebeave

I think we're getting off-track here. The 40 Hz frequency described earlier was a magnetic field frequency, not an audible beat frequency. Big difference.

On a related note, I've heard that some scientists are speculating that much so-called "paranormal" experiences that people encounter in "haunted houses" are due to perhaps, a) stronger than average magnetic fields (from say electrical devices and wiring in the house), and/or b) vistors/occupants who's brains are, genetically, much more sensitive to a changing magnetic field than the average person. Keep in mind that the AC delivered to your house is generally 50Hz or 60Hz... not too far off from the 40 Hz magic number! This seems reasonable to me as haunted houses are generally older homes with wiring and appliances that utilize older and outdated wiring methods (e.g. widespread "knob and tube" versus tightly bound Romex cable) that will produce significantly higher magnetic fields. Many people in haunted houses report feelings of being watched, or followed, just like the effects from the 40Hz mag field applied to their brains in the lab.

Also, it may be that a famous haunted house will attract visitors who believe the house is actually "haunted" (and are thus highly suggestible people) or those who routinely experience "paranormal" events because their brains are more sensitive. This could really exacerbate the reputation of a "haunted house".

[ November 30, 2002: Message edited by: thebeave ]</p>

ps418

On whether the ears still work during an NDE, its clear that they often do. Even people in non-NDE surgical contexts who have been placed under general anethesia and appear to be completely unconsciousness can retain auditory consciousness, and form and retain memories of the procedure and the conversations going on around them (hearing is the last sense to go and the first to return). So I suspect that people who are unconscious and near-death are often hearing what's going on around them.

The most common hallucinated sounds in NDEs are apparently ringing, buzzing, or whistling. These very same auditory hallucinations are common in DMT and ketamine as well, especially DMT. Hallucinations of speech or music (complex auditory hallucinations)are much less common in NDEs and drug experiences, but are common in schizophrenia.

As an aside, there is a condition known as 'musical hallucinosis,' usually associated with aquired deafness. In this condition, the patient often hears full-blown music (complex auditory hallucinations), as if the music was being 'played back' from memory. This is often so vivid as to be mistaken for real music, at least at first. The patients profiled in Griffiths (2001) heard everything from rugby songs to gospel songs to Pink Floyd (abstract below). Musical hallucinosis has also been evoked by some seizures, direct electric brain stimulation, and rarely by psychoactive drugs.

Griffiths TD., 2001. Musical hallucinosis in acquired deafness. Phenomenology and brain substrate. Brain 123 pp 2065-2076.

<a href="http://www.mayo.edu/proceedings/2001/apr/7604cr1.pdf" target="_blank">Oberts et al., 2001. Musical Hallucinations Associated With Seizures Originating From an Intracranial Aneurysm. Mayo Clinic Proc. 76, pp. 423-428.</a>

Douen AG, Bourque PR. Musical auditory hallucinosis from Listeria rhombencephalitis. Can J Neurol Sci 1997;24:70–2.

Douen AG, Bourque PR. Musical auditory hallucinosis from Listeria rhombencephalitis. Can J Neurol Sci 1997;24:70–2.

[ December 04, 2002: Message edited by: ps418 ]</p>