Senior-Ex: Links Between Psychedelics & Perceived Health

Overview:

I presented on the topic of Psychedelics and achieving “Enlightenment” in May of 2022 for my Senior Thesis at Thacher. After talking to multiple accredited researchers, scraping publicly available data points, and comparing similar studies, I produced a research distillation and a 30 minute presentation on the topic.

My research is principally divided into four sections: The history and scientific groundwork of psychedelics, the scientific literature on psychedelics’ effect on consciousness and the ego, its applications in regard to psychedelic enlightenment, and the pitfalls of the research done on psychedelics. In this research distillation, I provide more context into the mystical world of psychedelics through a scientific lens, attempt to convince readers that psychedelic enlightenment is a worthy scientific endeavor, and hope to prove that psychedelic enlightenment is possible. It is with this sentiment that I attempt to answer the question: How do psychedelics affect our consciousness?