Higher Self: Psychedelics in Psychotherapy

Psychedelic therapy will be increasingly available in the years to come, be it through FDA approval of psychedelics such as MDMA and psilocybin or by legalization of psychedelics for medical purposes. This has already started to occur in Oregon and Colorado. As a result, there is a need for an accessible book to serve as a clear and heartfelt introduction to the use of psychedelics in therapy. As a trained psychotherapist with many years of experience with psychedelics in therapy, a background in neuroscience and psychopharmacology, and experience with writing popular books, I feel I am the right person to write that book. The goal of the book is to give an introduction into the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy to laypeople, healthcare professionals, and spiritual seekers. It summarizes the current knowledge on psychedelic therapy based on neuroscience, psychopharmacology, clinical psychology, holistic medicine, anthropology, religious science and spirituality. In addition, I share my experience as a therapist using psychedelics in psychotherapy with patients suffering from severe mental disorders in order to illustrate the scientific and clinical knowledge, as well as the spiritual experiences, related to the therapeutic process. A central theme of the book is psychedelics’ capacity to enhance neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain’s ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, as well as to recover from stress and traumatic experiences. At the neuronal and the clinical levels, I show how neuroplasticity can be used to catalyze effective psychotherapy, as well as what is needed to avoid the unwanted side effects such as excessive mental openness, derealization and re-traumatization. Regarding the immediate psychological effects of psychedelics, I use the influential relaxed beliefs under psychedelics (REBUS) theory to explain the increase in mindfulness, improvement of direct sensory perception, and ego dissolution. I describe how these effects can cause mystical-type experiences, which may have spiritual significance and the power to catalyze healing. It is important to me to appreciate and explain clinical and neuroscientific findings against the background of ancient healing and spiritual traditions, such as Schematism and the Rigveda. To my knowledge, I show for the first time that the Rigveda’s rich knowledge of the psychedelic Soma helps us understand and assess current psychedelic experiences in a larger context. Additionally, Jung’s transpersonal psychology helps me to bridge the gap between spiritual traditions and current psychotherapy.

Gregor Hasler, M.D. was born in Basel, Switzerland. He studied medicine at the University of Zurich and did his psychiatric residency in Paris, London, Lausanne and Zurich, before receiving his medical degree in 1995. Professor Jules Angst of Zurich trained him in psychiatric epidemiology. From 2003 to 2006, he was a visiting scientist at the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of the National Institute of Mental Health, specializing in molecular neuroimaging. Since 2010, he has been a full professor of psychiatry at the University of Bern and Chief Medical Officer at the Psychiatric University Hospital of Bern. As of January 2019, he became a full professor and chair of psychiatry at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he is currently a practicing psychiatrist specializing in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and head of the Psychiatry Research Department at the University of Fribourg where he supervises researchers in psychiatric and psychedelic research. He is also the author of five books and more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, for which he has received numerous awards, including the NARSAD Independent Investigator Award and the Robert Bing Award of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. As President of the Swiss Society for Bipolar Disorders and the Swiss Society of Pharmacovigilance in Psychiatry and as the Secretary of the Affective Disorders Section of the World Psychiatric Association, he has been organizing scientific conferences, educational courses and advanced training for many years.