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Psychedelics Today

PT490 – Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris – Plasticity, the Role of Set and Setting, and the Influence of Psychedelics

Psychedelics Today

Psychedelics Today, LLC

Life Sciences, Science, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.6598 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2024

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Joe interviews Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: founder and head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, founding director of the Neuroscape Psychedelics Division at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and founder of the Carhart-Harris Lab.

A legendary researcher, he talks about his psychedelic origins: studying Freud, Jung, and eventually Stan Grof and depth psychology to try and better understand the unconscious. He discusses the growth of psychedelics and the cultural shifts he's noticed (especially in the U.S.), as well as what he's working on today: researching the influence of psychedelics on set and setting by studying experiences in both enriched and unenriched environments.

He also talks about:

  • Plasticity: how he defines it, how it relates to critical reopening periods, and how it's a fundamental thing that transcends the metrics we use to measure it
  • Early LSD studies, the nervousness surrounding he and David Nutt dosing Ben Sessa, and the youthful energy that kept them going
  • How plasticity could be exploited to help relieve chronic pain
  • The potential of psychedelics to help with fibromyalgia and anorexia
  • How psychedelic-assisted therapy brought care back to health care

and more!

UCSF is seeking survey volunteers, so if you've had more than three experiences with ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin (must have experiences with all three) and want to contribute, do so here.

Click here to head to the show notes page

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Seged Alex Day. This is Joe Moore coming out from

0:14.6

Breck Ridge, Colorado. Today on this show, we have Robin Carhart Harris, the famed neuroscientist and researcher at UCSF. I went to San Francisco

0:25.4

and Robin was gracious enough to host me for an interview in his office. It was beautiful and

0:30.3

I just loved getting time with Robin. It was great. So a lot of gold in this one. I think you're

0:35.8

going to love it. So go all over the map, kind of Robin's origin story, kind of some stuff on plasticity and other gems as well.

0:44.6

The Freudian origins of interest in Groff as well.

0:47.6

So all right, that's it for the intro.

0:49.6

Thank you all for tuning in to psychedelics today.

0:51.1

We will see you on the other side.

0:56.2

All right. Welcome back to you, Psychedelics today. We will see you on the other side. All right. Welcome back to you Psychedelics today. Joe Moore here with Robin Carhart-Harris. How are you doing? I'm good, Joe. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. Thanks for being willing to have me record in your office. This is super fun for me. Yeah. It's a sunny day as well, isn't it? Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's been like really weird weather here.

1:13.8

Has it been raining a ton?

1:14.9

Yeah. It's a sunny day as well, isn't it? Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's been like a really

1:12.1

weird weather here. Has it been raining a ton? Yeah. It's reminded me very much of England,

1:17.4

but we're back in California mode now. Right. Yeah. That's great. And you've been here,

1:22.9

we said about two years now? Yeah, just over two years. Yeah. And is this part of the Neuroscape Center?

1:30.7

Is this part of something slightly different?

1:32.5

There's a little edge away, but, you know, with friends and part of a happy extended

1:38.0

family.

1:39.0

Awesome.

1:39.5

Yeah, they do some interesting stuff too.

1:42.1

Yeah, it's interesting you're here.

1:43.8

And I think what I caught maybe in the rumor mill is there's like more high-end equipment here than perhaps you had access to Imperial.

...

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