2CB

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

The occurrence of transpersonal experiences with psychedelic substances is well attested, and several surveys have consistently found a small relationship between paranormal experiences and the use of such drugs in general. Isolated investigations of experiences with specific drugs exist, but no surveys have systematically examined whether particular experiences relate to particular drugs. In an online survey, 139 respondents were recruited through parapsychology or psychedelic interest groups and completed a questionnaire detailing psychoactive drug-use behaviour and the frequency of occurrence of a number of paranormal, shamanic, and mystical type experiences. Patterns of drug-induced transpersonal experiences reported elsewhere were mostly corroborated, particularly the proclivity for telepathic experiences with cannabis, out-of-body experiences with ketamine, entity encounter experiences with N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and plant-spirit encounters with a host of psychedelic plants. Several small correlations were found between drug-use frequency and experience frequency with certain drug and experience types, particularly those termed mystical. As expected, alcohol and opiate/opioid-use did not correlate with any transpersonal experiences although, surprisingly, no sizable correlations were found for psi experiences and the use of any one type of drug, possibly due to the high rate of occurrence of psi experiences among both drug users and non-drug users with this particular sample.

The past decade has seen many exciting new developments in neurobiology.  Three particularly paradigm-rattling revelations reviewed in this report include; first, the elucidations of 'functional receptivity,' which expand multi-fold the elegant complexity of receptor function by showing that, not one, but rather, myriad unique cascades of intracellular signals leading to discrete profiles of gene activation can result from multiple receptor conformations, as opposed to merely an active or inactive state.  Second: epigenetic and state-dependent neuroplasticity which suggests monumental therapeutic potential and challenges the status quos of biological reductionism and pharmaceutical industry.  And last: receptor heteromerization wherein metabotropic receptors belonging to separate families form complexes engaging in functional, allosteric co-modulation and neurotransmitter signal integration, humbling the current level of neurological comprehension while presenting the potential for vastly improved pharmacological interventions.  The author makes use of psychedelics as a vector connecting these exciting areas noting how they have played, and will continue to play, an indispensable role in their exploration.

Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object self-ignites. The cause may be chemical, as when lithium oxidises explosively in water, or biological, as when a haystack catches fire due to heat generated from bacterial fermentation. There is no scientific evidence that the human body can self-ignite. However, spontaneous human combustion (SHC) as an alleged cause of death has a long and controversial history. If true, the mechanism of ignition is mysterious and challenges what we know about the human body.....