Greetings Nexus!
Today I completed the second of my study days...each a week apart. Last week was the placebo...today definitely wasn't!!
I'm not at liberty to divulge specific details until February time when all the data for the study is in, then I'll publish a piece for The Nexian on my experience.
To give y'all the short version, my experience today...while gentler than some previous...was really beautiful and positive, have to say I really do like the IV route...straight to the point, no messing!! Felt very wholesome and benign...although my dosage was lower than occasions I have experienced previously, a little goes a long way with this ROA. The blast off was powerful, but I felt very safe and secure in the setting I was in.
I felt very well looked after by the Imperial College neuroscientists and medical doctor overseeing the study. I was just wearing an EEG skull cap and undergoing surveys before, during and after the experience, as well as blood tests to check hormone levels (not beta-endorphin though like Strassman's research which I flagged them on!). So no MRI for this this study, that is the next one...this study was a pilot dosing and EEG study only.
I have been invited back though to take part in the MRI study, and definitely intend on doing so...I was considered a good participant as I did not move much with the EEG on (movement induces noise in the data...even more of an issue with MRI scans).
It was funny, my friend who is partly funding this study, paying for the MRI scans had a lysergic and nitrous induced vision at a music festival during the summer, and during this vision he got this powerful message to connect with me (we'd only messaged very briefly online before...he invited me to participate in the study) and also to connect and collaborate with Prof David Nutt (the Principal Investigator of this study). Well as I was nearing the research hospital, I just so happen to arrive at the same time as David, and he takes me into his office block an we have a good natter as we go in, and I mention briefly our connection through our mutual friend's lysergic-festival vision. On arrival, I chow down on my breakfast (same breakfast consumed at the same time previously last week to keep things controlled...which just so happened to be coco pops not something I've eaten for breakfast in many years)...then Dr Robin Carhart-Harris appears on the scene and say hello. I moved out of the room to allow them to set things up, and Robin came to see me to wish me all the best before he leaves. I also gave a book on 5-MeO-DMT to the study lead to try and inspire some interest (I think Imperial should do a 5-MeO study with an adapted DMT protocol), and he was very thankful for the book, and had been meaning to buy it...so watch this space!
I've probably said too much as it is!! All in all, a really positive and interesting experience, I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to experience this and contribute to the science, it was a privilege. It also warmed my heart encountering such a high calibre bunch of humans working to carry the psychedelic torch forward into new realms of science.
Lots more to come from the Imperial team, and elsewhere...exciting times y'all!! :thumb_up: