Gaywallet (they/it)A white supremacist took MDMA for a study, and it snapped him out of his beliefs: 'Why am I doing this?'
withersailorNuwer pointed out that Brendan's "seemingly spontaneous change" appears to be an exception to the norm. MDMA releases the chemical oxytocin, which our bodies naturally produce. The chemical causes animals to fiercely love their own, but also protect them from others — which can mean a disdain for outsiders may actually increase.
The CuuuuubeMaybe he felt a surge to protect humans in general, and that intense feeling changed his outlook. Yeah, definitely, we should treat this as an exception not the rule, but I find myself wondering if he was already open to change, even if he didn't realize
I was wondering if he was already wanting to change and that's why he signed up to the study.
HalvdanI think that's likely as well. It may have been the thing that gave him a push to change, but I don't think anything would have happened if he hadn't had doubts beforehand.
Interesting. I took MDMA is in college once. It wasnt a game changer or anything.
Now LSD. The one time I did that, it definitely altered the "lens" i viewed the world in, for the better. I did this with some friends to make sure it wasnt a bad trip, but mostly in solitude. Im not sure that it really changes much of my political leanings, but i did have some deep introspective thought and it did affect how I viewed others and the world, and generally in a more empathetic way.
That said, after having some friends that arguably abused it, i avoided too many more further interactions with it which was good. Because around the 4th time I did it, i was in a bad way, and had an awful trip, which turned me off to most mind altering substances for a while.
I did xtc a few times and it profoundly changed the way I viewed myself and the world. I was very lonely and extremely depressed, and it helped me see that my intense self hate wasn't based on anything and wasn't justified. It also gave a huge boost to my empathy for other people, especially my cognitive empathy which I struggle with as an autistic person, and made it so I could actually open up to other people. The first time doing lsd it was like a nuclear bomb of empathy and understanding and perspective went off in my head. With both substances though, consequent trips were fun, but never as profound as the first (few) time(s), and I lost interest. I knew a bunch of people who did massive amounts of either or both every weekend. Can't say I understand why, they must get something different out of it then me.
Then I discovered amphetamine and had a massive struggle with that for 8 years, lol. Different brains react very differently to the same substances.
Sea of TranquilityHe literally got blue-pilled... The greatest fear of these guys😂
BizarrolandKind of seems like we should dose the entire planet in MDMA for a day and just see what happens. Might be really good.
Shift_Or, huge amounts of people will kill themselves or die due to medical completications.
smellythiefThere is no medical basis to think for a second that that would happen.
Mhhm, yup, people already on a myriad of medications definitely won't have any adverse reaction to MDMA and there are no medications that have negative interactions with it at all. And people with incredibly fragile mental states, the already suicidal, and people of varying different psychoses also definitely aren't already close to being a danger to themselves and others. Oh and how can we forget all the people who absolutely don't have unknown medical conditions that could be exacerbated by getting dosed with MDMA
Totally safe, totally cool
Do you want Reavers? Because this is how you get gorram Reavers.
we finally found a cure
I've taken MDMA and didn't change my beliefs.
I've read some people on the other site that became vegan after trying shrooms... lmao I've taken plenty of cubensis and I enjoy meat like it's my last day on earth.
I see you've reached a conclusion with a sample size of 1.
The case suggested that MDMA has the potential to "influence a person's values and priorities," the authors wrote in a case study about Brendan. They hypothesized that if extremist views are fueled by fear, anger, and cognitive biases, they could potentially be treated with drugs.
It's interesting to learn, what this paragraph seems to suggest, that for some people holding extremist views is actually the result of mental illness. It is probably hard for people to realize and/or even admit that they are ill until something drastic happens.
Fear, anger, and cognitive biases are not mental illness. Experiencing emotions is a completely normal human experience. All humans have cognitive biases because of how our brains our wired.
Yes thats true.
That's not what they said though.
They said extremism. Which is absolutely not a completely normal human experience.
Extremist views are not normal, correct. I was addressing the quote and response because I want to be clear about the implications of a single anecdotal finding amongst a study on a drug being used for a very different purpose than the context being examined here. I don't want people jumping to too many conclusions.
I'm not sure that the case, the brain is very complex so there lots of places thing can go wrong.For example damage in the limbic system could cause increased fear responce or damage in part of the brain that could down regulate the limbic system. We tend to acknowledge this in the case of brain injury. But there does seem to be a bias when it comes to neurological defects that don't have any known direct causes. But it super possible to just have a brain that emotion processing is abnormally predisposed to fear responses to that point that is should be considered a mental illness
bumblyOne human does not make a trend, but it is interesting. They'd have to test many more white supremacists to see if the effect will be same for the majority of test subjects.
If it were a "cure" then the right-wingers would become very scared of getting drugged.
Of course his name is "Brendan". hmmm
But in the case of Brendan, he had recently been exposed as a white supremacist and lost his job when he was enrolled in the study. He was full of regret about getting caught out.
I imagine that this person was already contemplating personal growth, and the drugs just kicked his not-fully-conscious or not-fully=acknowledged feelings into conscious, actionable thought.
MDMA releases the chemical oxytocin, which our bodies naturally produce. The chemical causes animals to fiercely love their own, but also protect them from others — which can mean a disdain for outsiders may actually increase.
I would have to see more data or examples to take this last clause as real. It sounds like some off-the-cuff dualist BS conjecturing. I can’t imagine oxytocin increasing disdain of outsiders just because it induces the opposite feelings toward your in-group.
Dr CogNeuroscientist here. Neuropeptides always have dozens of different uses, and oxytocin is no exception. The idea that it is a "love hormone" is a simplification for the lay person.
Do you have specific knowledge that oxytocin actually does this though?
Sure, here's a review article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X11002868