Introducing Macrocosmic Quantum Theory to Explain How Psychedelics Work  Carl Johan Calleman (Chemistry, Northern New Mexico College, Espanola, NM )   C17

Research about the mechanism of action of psychedelic substances has mostly taken as its point of departure that the altered states produced can be explained as an effect on the brain in isolation from the cosmos at large - a neurological paradigm. Yet, a consistent feature discovered in recent research into the treatment of addiction, depression and compulsive-obsessive disorder using psychedelics is that the effectiveness of the therapy is strongly correlated to the spiritual experience of the individuals studied. This raises the question if the neurological paradigm is really the best one to describe how psychedelics work, since it would imply that the spiritual experience is merely an illusion created by serotonin receptors inside the brain. But then again if the spiritual experience is only an illusion how come it plays such a significant role in the healing of the mental disorders studied? In the study of psychedelics there has for a long time however existed an alternative model to the neurological, which goes back to Henri Bergson and Aldous Huxley. This is to look at the mind or brain as a 'reducing valve' that in our default state limits our experience of reality. In this view, psychedelics disengage the reducing valve and open the brain up to receive experiences that come to us at another frequency than in our default state and so generates an altered sate of consciousness. While this model in principle may account for experiences brought about psychedelics of both spiritual and cosmic nature it has until now at least been essentially a philosophical speculation. The questions as to the nature of such 'frequencies' have remained unanswered as well as how such frequencies would be related to altered states of consciousness. Yet, it is clear that all shamanic traditions, including those that employ psychedelic plants to travel to the spirit world, embrace a view of reality as inherently multidimensional in which there are different states of consciousness that exist in parallel and may be accessible for instance through the use of psychedelics. This clearly broadens the perspective outside of the neurological paradigm, but can we just ignore this possibility? In my recent book Quantum Science of Psychedelics, empirical evidence is provided in support of a multidimensional view of reality through the development of a macrocosmic quantum theory. In this, the various quantum states and wave frequencies are mathematically defined as well as how these are connected to different states of consciousness. The waves involved have according to a pre-set scheme been sequentially activated during the course of evolution. While these waves indeed are quantized, they exist on a very different scale than the objects of traditional quantum physics, such as photons and electrons. Taking such states into account it has been possible to provide an explanation for how the chemical, pharmacological, phenomenological levels are connected to the cosmic level in bringing about the psychedelic experience.