It is an interesting article, it made me think about a few things. I agree with void also as a person diagnosed with severe depression and having undergone many crises in my life, I can say that depression indeed is a state of consciousness. As the article implies, a very subtle one in opposition to dreams or the psychedelic state, but a alter-worldview all the same. It changes the way a person perceives time and their own experience in it, creates irrational distortions of perception, modifies behavior and in one of it's most insidious machinations, nullifies the ability to creatively think in a future-oriented postive direction. Paraphrasing a quote within the article: it exists outside of time, in a state in which the experiencer cannot imagine themself in any other way, even if they were a week ago and will be again in a matter of hours somehow removed from the depressed state. It is
transitorily eternal. Like a singularity of emotional pain; within the darkness there is no escape in any way- the person in cannot perceive the out of it because to them it literally extemds out in all directions forever, but to an outside observer, it is a self-contained moment of temporal circumstance, escapable by any number of possibilities.
Saying that depression is a consciousness state does not in way dilute the fact that it is a life-threatening serious condition that requires strong personal attention and professional support to get through and resolve. Nor should it imply in any way that a depressed patient can just "change their mind" and not be depressed any more than they can change the past. And going forward in this post I do not want to imply that I think psychedelics will cure it or any serious condition in and of themselves. Taking a psychedelic is
not taking medicine, they are neither inherently good nor bad. They do not address any physical condition and treat it through a mechanism of their pharmacology. They do things that can be directed and channeled in a beneficial manner to guide a person toward wellness and a healed state. They are simply tools that can be used for this, among many, many other things, both good and not so good.
The article seems to cut a either/or scenario with how psychedelics may be working to achieve the effectiveness they have been shown to have in treating and resolving depression at a root level, that seems overly reductionist, especially considering that psychedelics are metaphorically spectral in nature, not black and white:
But why might psychedelic therapy work as a treatment for depression? One common suggestion is that psychedelics provide individuals with an uninhibited space or window for insight and emotional release. Yet the idea that depression is an altered state of consciousness suggests a different explanation: it could be that psychedelics work by forcing a transition between global states of consciousness. First, they propel a depressed patient into a new state of consciousness, the psychedelic state. At the end of the episode, the patient must transition out of it – but into what? Perhaps, after a psychedelic trip, the patient can emerge into a state of ordinary consciousness, rather than the ‘nightmare’ of the depressed state.
I think neither is the case but rather both, with an added facet of experiential spirit-based intuition. The removal of cognitive inhibition causes a deep introspection applied under a symbolically illuminated lens. The unfettered creative mind, using all of it's archetypal and individual symbol language discloses to the individual the secrets of both the universe and their person under the colorful jackhammer of psychedelic gnosis and the insight obtained in such a state is so deeply meaningful on so many levels within a person's psycho/spiritual makeup that carrying it back into 'normal' state is desirable. So, both uninhibited insight
and global state change can be
part of the basis for how psychedelics treat depression outside of a purely neuro-pharmacological mechanism like some current medical treatments. Good luck to all the paid and volunteer lab coats in measuring the nanograms of divinitory revelation per unit of psychological resolution on the gnostic scale, it just
seems to work...
I also find using psychotropics to be far less beneficial and to have far too many destructive side-effects versus using psychedelics for depression and related syndromes and conditions. Also psychedelics are far more inline with my value for autonomy- I can self-treat, within reason, and not have to be reliant upon daily medication for equilibrium. Using them as part of a complex practice of self-care, professional and social support, I think they are very useful agents of change.
Thanks for sharing the article...