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Comment by abyssin | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been disappointed lately by the strategy of some lobbying organizations to use science to push an agenda that has nothing to do with science, and more to do with some spirituality coming as a consequence of individual psychedelic awakenings. The psychedelic community still has a lot of work to do in order to manage noetic insights in a rational manner.

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Except there are pretty strong indications of medical benefits to MDMA and psilocybin in therapy for things like PTSD and treatment resistant depression. Studies are frustratingly limited because of the extreme scheduling of the drugs that lasted for decades.

I believe in the medical potential of compounds like MDMA and I don’t think the science is especially flawed. What I’m questioning is the motivation of some lobbying organizations’ members.

But do you believe it because of the science or because you really really want to believe it? That's a serious question. I don't expect a ready answer.

I started with really wanting to believe it, and personal experiences have made it more mixed. I keep believing because of science, but the antiscientific attitude of some of the psychedelic community makes me wary about the future.

Your forgot to mention one more possible case: it is not science because of some political reasons.

Research was made impossible for 30 years but now there’s a thriving literature.

How much time and how many countries are there in your definition of "now"? And how on Earth the Pihkal has been published exactly 30 years ago if the research was "impossible"?

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