This is an archive version of 'Psychedelic Information Theory' Alpha chapters. The final version of this text can be found at:

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Chapter 19: Psychedelic Information Theory

When discussing the cognitive effects of psychedelics, there is no getting around the fact that many psychedelic states very closely resemble schizophrenia. While schizophrenia is a term that covers a wide range of perceptual, cognitive, and emotional disorders, schizophrenia is generally characterized by: a cognitive break from reality; illogical and irrational ideation; delusional beliefs; hallucinations; and a variety of uncontrolled, unpredictable, or inappropriate emotional outbursts or reactions to stimuli. Pharmacologically, schizophrenia is often caused by either a dopamine imbalance (as in the dopamine model of psychosis) or by improper functioning of the frontal lobe, either due to neural damage and degeneration, inherited genetic traits, or acquired conditioning. Since some of the most "profound" psychedelics states can be linked to enhanced dopamine supply and a corollary interruption of function in the frontal lobes, the link between psychedelics and schizophrenia seems quite obvious.

However, while some psychedelic states are essentially indistinguishable from schizophrenia, others are not schizophrenic at all, and this causes some legitimate confusion in both medical professionals and recreational psychedelic users alike. How can we tell the difference between a genuine psychedelic epiphany, a life-changing mystical experience, and a schizophrenic break from reality? Some might argue that there is no difference at all, and that "epiphanies" or "mystical experiences" are just a specific kind of schizophrenia that are beneficial and generally welcome to the user, while paranoia or inappropriate emotional responses are types of schizophrenia that are unwelcome and horrific to the user. But there is a distinct element which separates true mystical epiphanies from delusional schizophrenia, and this is the element of control. Control comes into play in various aspects of the psychedelic trip, and it can be a very tricky issue to sort out, but on the most basic level control refers to how comfortable the user is with what they are experiencing. For instance, control comes into play when trying to decide if  the psychedelic is making you calmer and more at peace, or if it is giving you anxiety and panic. If you become anxious, are you able to calm yourself down again, or are you overwhelmed to the point of constant distraction? If you are loosing control, do you have grounding elements to help regain control, or are you left to spiral out into the void without a life-line?

Schizophrenia is, by definition, a condition where the brain is operating beyond the control of the user. Generally, it is the lack of control that causes anxiety and paranoia in the user, and it is common for schizophrenics (and users of psychedelics) to credit this lack of control to an external force, such as spirits, aliens, the secret government, etc. In all of these elaborate schemes, the alien force has somehow infiltrated the mind (implants, psychic control, brainwashing, etc.) and is now using it for their own purposes. While this type of paranoid ideation may be easy to "shake off" in a low-dose psychedelic trip, the inability to control the anxiety spiral of paranoid delusions is one of the major traps of high-dose psychedelic experimentation. This lack of control, and the delusional paranoid anxiety spiral, are the two key element which separate the schizophrenic bummers from the trips which are remembered as mystical and mind-expanding.

To get at the root of these paranoid anxiety spirals, it is important to understand how the amygdala operates, and how it exerts influence on the brain at large. In both The Emotional Brain and The Synaptic Self, Joseph LeDoux illustrates the delicate interplay between the amygdala (the primary organ for stimulating fear and lust responses), and the pre-frontal cortex (which is the seat of reason and rational thought). Between the amygdala and the pre-frontal cortex there are a series of redundant feedback networks that control emotional response to stimulus. If the amygdala is confronted with emotionally salient data (anything which might stimulate the primal fight/flight or mating responses), it readies itself to start the process of alerting the rest of the brain and body to cope with the given threat or opportunity. However, the amygdala lays off if it hears back from the PFC that the threat or opportunity is false. So in essence, even though the amygdala is upstream from the PFC, the PFC has a downstream feedback override over the amygdala's response to stimulus, which means that in most situations, rationality wins out over purely emotional response. However, if the threat/opportunity is real (or if the rational brain can be convinced the threat/opportunity is real) then the PFC confirms the threat and the amygdala goes into high gear alerting the body's panic response.

When we look at this feedback regulation between amygdala and PFC, it becomes clear that if the PFC is not functioning correctly, the amygdala is in control, and emotional response wins out over rational response. In The Dream Drugstore, J. Allen Hobson argues that this very same diminishing of rationality occurs while dreaming, when the PFC is essentially off-line, which is why dreams are so emotionally salient, logically paradoxical, yet total accepted as true. The same can be said of schizophrenics, and the extent of the schizophrenia can often be attributed to the loss of rational functioning in the PFC. One of the reasons schizophrenics have emotionally inappropriate responses to stimuli is because the override mechanisms in their PFC are no longer functioning properly, or the feedback links between the PFC and the amygdala have degenerated or been dissociated in some way. And by matching the schizophrenic response to stimulus to the high-dose psychedelic response to stimulus, it becomes fairly easy to guess what is happening in the high-dose state: a schizophrenic overdose.

Now some fans of the high-dose psychedelic experience may be offended by the term overdose, but if you are a fan of the high-dose psychedelic experience you have already demonstrated that you are perfectly comfortable with schizophrenia, and very likely enjoy psychotic delusions as long as they are temporary. But the temporary part is the key here. Even if you are perfectly willing to take high doses and "kill your ego" and "submit control" to the experience, just knowing that the drug will eventually wear off is a kind of control over the experience, something you can seek solace in when everything else seems lost. However, when you forget the fact that you are on a drug, or start to believe that you will be stuck in the psychedelic space forever, then you have crossed the boundaries of mind-expansions and are now stepping into the land of the schizophrenic. This, of course, is very different from a mystical experience or a valid epiphany about your life, this is crazy territory.

The Psychedelic Rules I laid out earlier were essentially very basic guidelines for how the user can keep control over the psychedelic experience, and not spiral out into the land of paranoid schizophrenia. And though it may take a while to get the hang of control issues in the psychedelic space (When do I relinquish control? How do I regain control?), it basically comes down to learning how to measure your dose, how to manage your ingestion context, and how to mediate freak-outs when they happen. High-dose experimentation in an uncontrolled environment is almost a recipe for paranoid schizophrenia, while low-to-medium dose experimentation in tightly-controlled rituals is the basis of most (if not all) psychedelic spiritual practice. This, of course, begs the question: Is there any benefit to high-dose experimentation at all? And the answer, of course, is not always as easy as you would expect. I will talk a little bit more about therapeutically induced schizophrenia and psychedelic catharsis in a later section on psychedelics and medicine, but for now we can assume that nobody would willingly choose to make themselves schizophrenic, so if this sounds a lot like your trips, you may want to adjust your dose accordingly.

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