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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,840
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
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Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Study Will Find Out
#24539013 - 08/08/17 11:54 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Study Will Find Out inverse.com
For years now, trendy Silicon Valley bros have been sustaining a slight buzz by microdosing, claiming a few potent hits of LSD can supercharge a workday.
Until now, there hasn’t been much in the way of science to back it up, but Amanda Feilding hopes to change that.
Feilding is founder of the Beckley Foundation and a leading researcher in the field of psychedelics and consciousness. She’s got a plan to prove that microdosing LSD makes you a better problem solver. She’s throwing the established protocols for evaluating cognition and creativity out the window in favor of a much more straightforward objective: How do test subjects fare when playing the ancient Chinese game of Go?
It’s a protocol imagined from her experiences among friends as students of physiology and psychology more than 50 years ago. “We were working very, very hard,” she tells Inverse. “And as recreation in the evenings, we used to play the ancient Chinese game of Go. I found that I won more games if I was on LSD, against an opponent I knew well. And that showed me that, actually, my problem-solving, my creative thinking, was enhanced while on LSD.”
Microdosing is the phenomenon of taking small, controlled doses of psychedelic drugs — usually just 1/20 to 1/10 of the sort of dose you would take to go on a magical hallucinatory trip. LSD is frequently the drug of choice, but psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and mescaline (peyote) are also in use. The idea is that the dose is too small to produce noticeable effects of being high but big enough to change your thought patterns and behaviors. If it works like it’s supposed to, you just function a little better than normal — happier, more productive, less full of worry. At its best, you have “A Really Good Day,” as Ayelet Waldman puts it in her recent book of that name.
The best evidence collected to date on the effects of microdosing comes from James Fadiman, a researcher with Sofia University. He’s received thousands of self-reports of people’s experiences microdosing and has recently begun collecting and analyzing more rigidly with his research partner, Sophia Korb. They presented early results of that work at Psychedelic Science 2017 in April. People reported less depression, less procrastination, more energy, and more creative thinking.
Fadiman denies the results are some incredible placebo effect, saying the proof is in the unexpected results seen across individuals who’ve never met. But drug regulators in the United States and around the world won’t take him or his study participants at their word; they require rigorous, repeatable, controlled research.
Feilding’s study, to be run through the Beckley/Imperial Research Programme, is designed to have 20 participants take a dose of LSD at 10, 20, and 50 micrograms (a typical recreational dose is 100 micrograms) and also a placebo. Each time they will complete questionnaires on their mood and other vectors, will undergo brain scans, and will play Go against a computer.
Go is a complex game, because the number of possible moves on a given turn is so large. Even the world’s fastest computers couldn’t calculate the consequences of all the possibilities, which is why beating humans at Go was such a lauded feat in the world of artificial intelligence. The best moves in the five-game standoff between Google’s AlphaGo and human Go champion Lee Sedol weren’t the ones that followed the usual script, they were the ones that were so far outside of the box that no one — especially the opponent — would ever have predicted or even considered them.
“The tests of creativity, which are current, like Torrance Test, they don’t really test for creativity. They test more for intelligence, or word recognition, or whatever,” says Feilding. “They can’t test those ‘aha’ moments in putting new insights together, whereas the Go game does test for that. You suddenly see, ‘Aha! That’s the right move to enclose the space.’”
It would be a remarkable feat if Feilding can show that microdoses of LSD do indeed enhance our ability to tackle complex problems — that would be astounding. These days, it seems everyone’s looking for the magic pill to kick human brains into high gear, but a lot of promising research has come up short. The massive brain training industry, for example, has largely failed to demonstrate that its computer games, designed specifically to boost cognition, do much besides improve your skill at playing those video games.
The immediate hurdle is money. LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline aren’t patentable, which means there’s almost no incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive clinical research trials.
Advocates have turned to philanthropy and crowdsourcing to fill the gap. A group called Fundamental is currently raising money for Feilding’s project, along with others investigating the potential of psychedelics to boost mental health. If funding comes through, the next step will be to go through ethics approvals before beginning the trials.
In the meantime, Feilding plans to clear up some of the debate over what is, and isn’t, a placebo effect. She’ll have people dose themselves and write about their experience, much like in Fadiman’s study, but the protocol will be set up so that participants could either be taking a placebo or a microdose, and they don’t know which.
The gold standard of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, large-scale trials is still a distant, expensive dream for the psychedelic activists. In the meantime, a wealth of anecdotal evidence suggests that microdosing works for a lot of people and is safe. It’s enough to convince thousands of people to try, whether it’s proven by science or not.
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SleepyE
DMT is metaphysical



Registered: 07/21/08
Posts: 8,760
Loc: Ontario, Canada,
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Re: Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Syudy Will Find Out [Re: Ythan]
#24539271 - 08/08/17 02:37 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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im skeptical about the benefit of microdosing but a proper psychedelic dose obviously does we know this already. just like how we know psychotic states are associated with enhanced creativity.
i donno why people dont just trip instead of wasting product with micro dosing 
imo you'll get way more out of it.
if you are not having visions with the dose you are missing a HUGE part of its enhancing effects.
-------------------- My Drawingzz Draw DMT!
   Trip Report: SHROOMS DMT---- My Youtube Psychedelic Channel
Edited by SleepyE (08/08/17 02:45 PM)
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LittleDaddy



Registered: 11/20/13
Posts: 1,072
Last seen: 3 years, 18 days
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Re: Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Syudy Will Find Out [Re: SleepyE]
#24539644 - 08/08/17 05:42 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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I've had good experiences microdosing. It's a subtle, but profound effect.
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The hotter the battle, the sweeter Jah victory. Put the heathen's back upon the wall.
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Fractal420
Psycellium



Registered: 06/21/13
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Last seen: 1 year, 9 days
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Re: Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Syudy Will Find Out [Re: LittleDaddy]
#24540718 - 08/09/17 05:43 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Someome should probably correct the typo ("syudy") :P
My view is no drug makes you "smarter" or "dumber" but certain substances can make you more concentrated or use abilities more or less. For example, the other day im sitting there trying to watch Game of Thrones but cant pay attention, just going back 30 secs, again, and again, and finally i had enough, popped an Adderall. That was the answer to my problem. I spent the day being super productive, even did some writing, was concentrated like a laser. And yes, i do have ADHD but most people become more aware/"super-sober".
So basically if you come to class on adderall all the time vs just coming in after doing dabs, you will have a very different experience, the teacher will likely think "spun you" is more intelligent, but nothing has actually changed. Thats why language like "makes you smarter" i always think is misleading, even with Nootropics. They might bring out potential in that same way, or modifinil/analogs but its not like your IQ just went up
For me, LSD makes me contemplate. Psilo does this even more. On LSD for whatever reason, im always thinking about my parents/fam and ways to improve relations and such. More than "intelligence", what i typically feel is an MDMA-like compassion but more realistic. Suddenly emotions matter a whole lot more, and i feel bad for people easily, as well as being aware of all these little things in people's personality and being accepting of them, unless i start to get bad vibes, then its time to "retreat to safety"
PS: i forgot to add, these arent microdose quantities, more like 100ug, 125ug, etc. but still LSD at reasonable doses (i consider up until 150ug to be manageable, for me, 150 starts to get serious)
I remember reading about this phenethylamine nootropic with a funny name. Related to 2CD but completely a "smart drug". Its called 2cd-iet (lol). I have heard some amazing things.
I think the closest thing to a "smart drug" is modifinil.
-------------------- Dreaming of That face again. It's bright and blue and shimmering. Grinning wide And comforting me with it's three warm and wild eyes. Prying open MY third eye
Edited by Fractal420 (08/09/17 05:51 AM)
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AGUARES



Registered: 02/16/15
Posts: 107
Last seen: 4 months, 30 days
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Re: Does LSD Microdosing Make You Smarter? This Syudy Will Find Out [Re: Fractal420]
#24544121 - 08/10/17 04:11 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Glad to hear scientists are beginning to research the topic. Have known some people who micro dosed every day. I believe that it doesn't make you smarter in today's standards of smart. It does however give the user a different orientation or outlook if you will, on the task at hand. They are more likely to think abstractly and are capable of unique thoughts not as easily accessible to the every day thinker.
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