For millennia, people have used the psychedelic mescaline as a spiritual and religious tool.
New research from Northeastern University suggests the drug may not just help understand the divine, mescaline may also contribute to hallucinations and changes in sensory perception that are similar to those reported in some psychiatric conditions.
“The power of mescaline to me is that it is doing something different than other psychedelics,” said doctoral student Noah Cavallaro, who conducted the study with professor Craig Ferris, who specializes in psychology and pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern.
Cavallaro noted that mescaline and psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin produce similar “hallmark effects” such as visual distortions, altered perception and changes in cognition. But mescaline appears to be doing something different in the brain compared to these other classical psychedelics.
Read more at Northeastern Global News
Illustration by Renee Zhang
