Our focus on the renaissance in research into psychedelics continues on this episode of Raise the Line, but instead of looking at their potential therapeutic applications, we're going to hear about using them as a tool for learning how the brain works. “We don't have a great idea about the neural basis of self-conception, and psychedelics make us question so many of our fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality,” says Dr. Michael Silver, director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Dr. Silver, who is also a professor of Optometry, has the advantage of using the extensive knowledge we already have of how visual activity works in the brain as a predicate for his research. “We have the ability to do human neuroimaging and objectively define many areas in the visual cortex, while it’s still unclear how some higher order areas of the brain are defined,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. The Center was established in 2020 in part to fill a need for credible information about psychedelics and its work is informed by a wide range of disciplines including molecular and cell biology, psychology, neuroscience and journalism. In fact, one of the Center’s founding members is journalist Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling books How to Change Your Mind and This is Your Mind on Plants. This is a truly fascinating conversation on the nature of visual perception, standards for training psychedelic facilitators and the possible recategorization of mental health disorders, among other implications of psychedelic research.

Mentioned in this episode:
UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Psychedelics

UC Berkeley Online Course: Psychedelics and the Mind

Sam Harris Podcast

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Using Psychedelics to Learn How the Brain Works - Dr. Michael Silver, Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics