Medical Value of Mystical Experiences and the Neutron’s Lifetime
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2021
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about why scientists study “mystical experiences” in psychedelics; and precisely measuring a neutron’s lifetime.
Mystical experiences might be key to the power of psychedelic therapy -- but they're really hard to study by Grant Currin
- Natan Ponieman. (2021, October 12). How Science Is Making Sense Of The Mystical Experience In Psychedelic Medicine. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/natanponieman/2021/10/01/how-is-science-making-sense-of-the-mystical-experience-in-psychedelic-medicine/?sh=6e0166623b7b
- Natan Ponieman. (2021, October 12). Is Mysticism Becoming A Problem For Psychedelic Medicine? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/natanponieman/2021/10/12/is-mysticism-becoming-a-problem-for-psychedelic-medicine/?sh=6c502c6448a4
- Wighton, K. (2016, April 11). The brain on LSD revealed: first scans show how the drug affects the brain. Imperial College London. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/171699/the-brain-lsd-revealed-first-scans/
- Barrett, F. S., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2015). Validation of the revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire in experimental sessions with psilocybin. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(11), 1182–1190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881115609019
Scientists made the most precise measurement of a neutron's lifetime by Briana Brownell
- Physicists lead world’s most precise measurement of neutron lifetime. (2021, October 13). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/931482
- Gonzalez, F. M., Fries, E. M., Cude-Woods, C., Bailey, T., Blatnik, M., Broussard, L. J., Callahan, N. B., Choi, J. H., Clayton, S. M., Currie, S. A., Dawid, M., Dees, E. B., Filippone, B. W., Fox, W., Geltenbort, P., George, E., Hayen, L., Hickerson, K. P., Hoffbauer, M. A., & Hoffman, K. (2021). Improved Neutron Lifetime Measurement with UCNτ. Physical Review Letters, 127(16). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.162501
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy. (2021). Ultracold Neutrons. Lanl.gov. https://lansce.lanl.gov/facilities/ultracold-neutrons/index.php
- The Mystery of the Neutron Lifetime. (2020). Energy.gov. https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/mystery-neutron-lifetime
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. |
| 0:05.8 | I'm Cody Gough. |
| 0:06.8 | And I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:07.8 | Today you learn about how scientists study mystical experiences and why they want to do it in the first place, and how |
| 0:14.2 | researchers made the most precise measurement of a neutron's lifetime. |
| 0:18.0 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:20.0 | We've talked before about how psychedelics, like LSD or silicibin, can really help people who suffer from conditions like PTSD, severe depression, and alcoholism. |
| 0:33.1 | When they use the drugs, these people often have |
| 0:36.2 | mystical experiences that seem to treat unheelable wounds. |
| 0:41.8 | Well, that poses a bit of a problem for researchers because the mystical is, by its definition, |
| 0:48.4 | inaccessible to science. But they're doing their best to examine it through a scientific lens. |
| 0:54.3 | So let's talk about how. |
| 0:57.3 | And for the record, researchers have made a lot of progress in figuring out what psychodelics |
| 1:02.4 | do to the brain. |
| 1:04.0 | For example, people often experience dream-like hallucinations |
| 1:08.0 | while they're on LSD. |
| 1:10.0 | A 2016 study with 20 participants explains why. |
| 1:14.0 | Usually a person can see because information from the eyes is processed in the visual cortex. |
| 1:21.0 | Brain scans taken during the 2016 study show that when a person is taking LSD, their |
| 1:27.4 | visual cortex is getting information from all over the brain, not just the eyes. And that probably explains visual hallucinations. |
| 1:37.1 | But it's not always so easy to draw connections between what's happening in a person's brain |
| 1:42.2 | and what that person is experiencing in their mind. |
... |
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