Psychedelotropism

Second Edition: Sept. 19, 2024 | Psychoactive Press | ISBN: 978‑1‑7773485‑3‑3

Formats: eBook (fixed, reflowable), Audiobook, Online (learn more)

E. M. Fortier, BA (Hons.)

Classical psychedelics exert their effects primarily via the serotonin system. Yet, attempting to identify a unifying function of serotonin has led many researchers into despair. Among the determined attempts to resolve this perplexing mystery, some have come forth to propose that it acts, much like its chemical cousin auxin in plant tropisms, to orient us toward relevant sources of stimuli, and integrate mind, body, and outside world. But this conception of serotonin has not yet been applied to understanding psychedelic experience. This work therefore begins with an overview of the evolution of the serotonin system, its ancient relation to light, roles in orienting growth, attention, and behaviour, in modulating energy metabolism and resource access priority, and offers a brief outline of how its involvement in all these aspects of animal life relates to a modern model of the Mind. The second part of this work draws on a variety of cognitive, behavioural, and neuropsychological investigations with classical psychedelics and explores the implications of interpreting their various effects in this context. Altogether Psychedelotropsim (psykhē: mind, spirit; dēloun: to manifest, light up, or reveal; tropos: to orient, a turning, a way) touches on the nature and dynamics of simple and complex visionary restructuralization, experience of unity, expanded semantic and autobiographical memory, impaired cognition and control, and paradoxically, insight, problem-solving, meaning-making, mystical experience, and more, to explore how carefully controlled psychedelic provocation of the serotonin system might provide a distinctive opportunity for the mind and body to re-orient, and re-adjust our priorities, attitudes, attention, and behaviour.

Keywords: value-based cognition, interoception, rhodopsin, neuroplasticity, ego dissolution, self-transcendence, creativity, dreaming, connectedness, cortical midline, prefrontal cortex

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

I thank Franz Vollenweider, Katrin Preller, Alan K. Davis, and many others whose continued thoughtfulness in sharing findings, insights, clarifications, and ongoing research throughout the years has been incalculably helpful, Alexander Belser as well as Kyle Buller, whose encouragements have been especially meaningful, and the ingenious investigators whose pioneering research on serotonin helped establish the foundations in which this work is rooted. But most of all, I thank Maude, for keeping my serotonin levels stable throughout the entire process, and for making sure this work was not written on a diet of black coffee alone.

Declarations

This work received no funding, and the author holds no affiliations with or financial support from any organization, company, or entity. Psychoactive Press maintains full editorial independence and relies on reader support, allowing us to pursue research topics based on public interest rather than external funding priorities.

This work was researched and written by a human, not by AI.

References

References (202) for this work are available in the full text.