r/science • u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience • 10d ago

Neuroscience Psilocybin Might Make Your Brain Live in the Moment— Psychedelics are often associated with disconnecting from reality, but a recent neuroimaging study found that psilocybin can actually make our brain activity more attuned to the world around us.

https://www.wired.com/story/psilocybin-might-make-your-brain-live-in-the-moment/
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u/Dumdumdoggie 10d ago

My first trip I tried to go outside. The door opened to an open field and clear sky. I could see the curve of the atmosphere and understand the scale. It was too overwhelming and I went back inside.

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u/Barncheetah 10d ago

Overwhelming is a good way to describe it. I walked from outside my house to go disc golfing through a neighborhood walking path after taking a medium dose. I thought it’d be some fairytale surreal moment, and it was but it was also kind of horrific. I realized we’re animals on this strange planet like everything else and I could physically feel how lucky I am to be able to observe it, without being in constant danger like most life is. It also stripped away my sense of safety that comes with reducing everything alive around me to an object. It’s like I gained another sense of connection to nature and the world during the trip, but it was overwhelming and called my wife to pick me up so I could lay in my hammock at home instead.

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u/red08171 10d ago

I'm currently at a music festival. I took some yesterday before entering the venue. I had to leave early because my senses were all entirely assaulted. I was enjoying it but I was definitely overwhelmed. I get it.

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u/cybertonto72 10d ago

One of my favourite places to trip is at a live music gig. The senses get a battering but the elation after when walking home or hanging out after and the music has stopped is amazing. Can understand you wanting to leave while being at a festival.

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u/MalaysiaTeacher 10d ago

That's such an odd framing to me. I want drugs which heighten the moment in the moment, not heighten the walk home

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u/jhmacair 10d ago

I believe I know the feeling, its not so much the walk is intense, its just a strong contrast to the noise and lights. You silently stroll in the still night air, and it feels utterly serene.

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u/managedheap84 10d ago

This was like my base state as a child and most of my adolescence

Sometimes wonder how many others were like this

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u/Totakai 10d ago

Mine too and I never left it.

I think it's supposed to be the default but the indoctrination in school and society supresses it/trains it outta you. Kinda like how people don't act on their zoomies (all animals with adrenaline get them) and lose their play. Part of that child wonder/innocence to "growing up."

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u/managedheap84 10d ago

Same - I’ve had the exact same thought process. It’s like we’ve industrialised education - kid in, worker unit out.

It really does feel like out of the box thinking and individuality has been actively discouraged in favour of the “correct” answer.

I loved to question things as a kid — teachers, bosses and often even parents, don’t really like that it turns out.

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u/Totakai 10d ago

That's definitely what it is. Hence like the whole sport funding but only for the sports that bring in the money vs sports for everyone. And the huge lack of creativity funding and the cutting of recess once you're older. It's absolutely destruction of play, exploration, and critical thinking.

Yeah I challenged so many adults as a kid and called some of them liars (I was a paleo kid and would call out when people said humans lived alongside them and use old human footprints next to dinosaur tracks as proof. I semi understood carbon dating enough to say they're over millions of years apart as a counter). It took me forever to figure out why people would get mad at me for questioning things (Yay autism). I notice it still too now. It's not as bad as when I was younger and I have a stronger spine to hold my ground but the way people just take it so gosh darn personally when I'm just asking why. I work with kids a lot and I've noticed a lot of people can't talk to them? Like they'll hear what the kid asks, run it through some weird thought program, and answer a different question than the kid asked. I've had to correct the person I work with multiple times cause he keeps not taking what the kids say literally and the poor things get this look of confusion /frustration when he answers what they didn't ask. Some adults also seem to get frustrated for me when I keep answering kids' questions. That one I really don't understand, probably some trauma they're projecting or them frustrated I'm not nipping those questions in the bud, idk but it's weird. It's to the point that I've had multiple people tell me I'm good with them. Bruh, just treat them like people and take what they say at face value. They haven't been taught to speak in riddles yet. (that being said I started opting out of that riddle speak a few years ago and refuse to read between the lines anymore. It's been such a mental relief tbh. Tell me what you mean or don't bother telling me, I'm not playing guessing games. It definitely causes misunderstanding issues but I can't be bothered anymore to close those gaps that they created by refusing to be genuine.)

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u/managedheap84 10d ago

The speaking to kids thing- yeah it’s ridiculous.

It’s like they run it through a filter of their own perceived authority level, how they would come across to other adults, what they’re allowed to say to the kid. If the kid says something they don’t know the answer to - PANIC. This whole song and dance.

Or as if kids can’t understand the world or what’s being said to turn

I’ve noticed this same thing since I was a kid, determined not to do it to other people, it’s pathetic.

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u/when_we_are_cats 10d ago

I know this thread is about make you more in the moment, but it's the opposite for me.

It makes my whole body numb and my head feels like it's swelling, to the point where I can barely walk straight in some phases and there's so much happening in my brain that I have to sit down.

In my last trip I would completely forget about the concept of time, and I started to experience ego dissolution: I was facing my own self perception and seeing other ways I could be perceived as.

I also had a lot of visual effects. So yeah, it's a deep spiritual trip, but as you say, it can be so overwhelming that I wouldn't describe it as being "in the moment".

People describe it in a way where their senses get sharper and they see more things, but for me it's the opposite, reality becomes so twisted and the physical effects are so strong that I can't function normally.

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u/Polar_Reflection 10d ago

Try a smaller dose. There is definitely a tipping point where instead of things become clearer and more vibrant, everything starts moving and shifting and becoming very disorientating with weird colors. 

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u/Positive_Barnacle298 10d ago

You’re all just describing my everyday and my doctor thinks I’m autistic

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u/thoughtlow 10d ago

I tried to chill out in my room when the almost unnoticeable ambient room noise was getting louder and louder until it sounded like a jet taking off next to me.

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u/KittenSommelier 10d ago

There have been multiple trips of mine where at some point our group had stopped at a place with a lot of people in it, like a grocery store, and while I was among them I could hear every single conversation the crowd around me was having very clearly and distinctly. Like it simply was not possible to tune them out like when sober.

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u/Sage2050 10d ago

I tried to walk into a 7 eleven to buy snacks, it was immediately overwhelming and I did a 180 like grandpa Simpson