Subcortical Parturition Activity I & II
Rare Hallucinogen Effects and Twilight Sleep Birth 2: Fetal Activation in the Adult on LSD.
Rare Hallucinogen Effects and Twilight Sleep II: Adult LSD Experience of Fetal Activation
Bruce McConnell PhD
INTRODUCTION
While the clear effects of a conventional pharmaceutical like aspirin are predictable according to dosage and efficacy for virtually everyone, they are not for LSD, owing to the unpredictable variety of its psychological influences at different times within the same individual and between different users. However, another rare effect of LSD has been mentioned in early books, describing a “somatic” effect that takes the inebriant into intense muscular “twisting” and different body positions. In a more recent review this modality has been associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (Grof, 2001). Rare occurrences of the same muscular repeats have been seen with individuals on LSD during weekend retreats for a kind of abreaction therapy popular in the 1970s. Without resolution, occurring time after time, it was as if the subject was “stuck” in some mental and neuromuscular infrastructure that responds only one way to LSD at moderate doses and in the same set and setting.
The same repeating “somatic” effects are described here for the same human male used as the experimental model in the first report of this series, “Rare Hallucinogen Effects …I”. Unlike the result of the first report, memory retrieval is not observed. Instead, the indoles, LSD and psilocybin and the phenethylamines, 2C-B and DOI inaugurated measured increases in physiological activation, followed by muscular contractions of prodigious force and energy and a remarkable recovery period of integration and consolidation. These three distinct events are biologically coupled. It became apparent that LSD and these hallucinogens were really acting as conventional drugs by exhibiting approximate dose dependence and reliable predictability within a similar set and setting. This is the discovery of a new hallucinogen-specific pharmacological entity that activates the parturient fetus for a sequence of four biologically coupled phases of movement, presumably in sync with the mother’s contractions.
The clue for the explanation is seen in the commonality of this rarity with that of the birthing method used for this subject, i.e., Twilight Sleep (TS). The anticholinergic effects of scopolamine and its potentiation of morphine provide an explanation as to why the TS-born retain this hallucinogen target into adulthood. The normal process of hypothalamic secretion of developmental hormones was interrupted, leaving the functional entity for fetal movement undestroyed, as it normally would have in normal birth.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The same human experimental model of the first report, having no cerebral access during birth, was used.
2C-B was synthesized (then legally) by the author in his laboratory according to the protocol of Shulgin & Shulgin, 1991) and checked by NMR and mass spectroscopy in the chemistry department, University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus, Honolulu, HI. The then legal phenethylamine DOI was purchased from Aldrich. Psilocybin was taken in the form of dried Psilocybe cubensis mushroom stems or a tea made from the whole fungus.
Progressive doses of 100 to 250ug LSD were taken from the same street lot of LSD used in the first report. The drug was taken by oral mastication of the blotter squares and a few ounces of water. The settings for all trials were similar and all LSD sessions were in a comfortable and private downstairs “den” of the subject’s home with large shaded windows, single bed and shag rug. On two sessions blood pressure was taken with a drugstore electronic monitor calibrated against a medical sphygmomanometer, heart pulse was counted for 30 seconds and oral temperature was taken with a generic drug-store thermometer. These measurements began with LSD intake.
RESULTS
THE FIRST PHASE: AUTONOMIC MEASUREMENTS
In the first and third of eight LSD sessions, blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), oral temperature and pupil diameter were measured, starting immediately after oral Ingestion of LSD. The data (Figure 1) show the rise, beginning well within 15 minutes after drug intake, reaching a maximum in the next minute and returning to normal in less than three minutes. Peak values were: BP 160/110 (normal was 125/80 with medication), HR rose to100 from 72, and oral temperature +3.5 deg F above normal. Midriasis was measured with a small metric ruler under the eye reflected by a parabolic mirror, but it was too variable to record. Notably, it was not until these autonomic parameters fell to normal that the second muscular phase began.
As a subjective experience, the subtle onset of the muscular phase (shown as the mauve area in Figure 1) may have been delayed by the mental concentration needed for the measurements. However, the somatic phase always appeared about 30 minutes after drug ingestion, while the first activation phase began ten minutes earlier and ended just before the muscular phase.
SECOND PHASE: “SOMATIC” OR MUSCULAR EFFECTS
The second phase was introduced as a profound sense of “healing”, muscular relaxation, calm, and positive anticipation followed by a surge of unaccustomed energy and a very subtle initial suggestion for the shoulders to move upward. At this point a choice presented itself. By following this suggestion voluntarily, movements began to occur permissively and with progressively more Intensity, culminating in an alarming force of muscular contraction of the arms, abdomen and legs. On the other hand, if these suggestions for movement were ignored, a price was paid in the third phase, as will be discussed below.
In following the “suggestions” i.e., doing the “work”, one movement gave smoothly into another with very pleasurable visceral cues to change position and focus of effort. These movements took place In a rather mixed sequence of arm clamping, thorax twisting, back arching, shoulder raising, head turnings, body extensions and abdominal contractions. These led to certain body arrangements including the “fetal position” initiated by contraction of the abdominal muscles. Following this (usually), the urge to extend the legs and thorax facing upwards into a stiff, convex backward arch and then rolling over to a face-down position with arms extended behind the back and head arched backwards or forced into the right shoulder. Specific details of transitions are described in the website, www.biosublime.com. (Note that this link also takes the reader to more detailed descriptions accessible as links in its “Contents”.)
THIRD PHASE: AFTEREFFECT
In six to seven hours, as the muscular commands gradually disappeared, they were replaced by a growing sense of well-being, fulfillment, relaxation and lack of fatigue despite the strenuous six hour effort. This transition into the third phase led to a remarkable existential departure from the subject’s life perception in all but two sessions devoted to ignoring the muscular urges. The following onset of well-being, visceral confidence and physical coordination were unique in the subject’s lifetime memory. The intuitive sense of fulfillment, as that following completion of a good job and time well spent, pervaded other perceptions of complete relaxation and unquestionable confidence in starting any activity. There was no hint of the visionary or spiritual. Instead, it was the experience of being the original animal phenotype, strong, completely coordinated and free from neurotic physical or mental interferences, completely in the moment, relaxed and ready for any immediate undertaking with unforced effort. Colors were enhanced and there was a unification of focused attention and coordination of movement, no matter what the activity in the ordinary sense, e.g., performing music or playing sports during this time. For this period of two to three days a change in appearance provoked uncharacteristic positive interactions with family and coworkers. Specific details are presented in the website mentioned above.
The remarkable rewards of this third phase were prevented on two occasions by deliberately ignoring the call for muscular contraction, i.e., not doing the “work”. Instead of acquiescing to the spontaneous urges for energized contractions, other issues were forced into attention to determine if the physical bouts would be replaced by more broadly expected hallucinogenic effects. This was not difficult, as long as the urges for contracting muscle were ignored early on when they were still low in intensity. During this time, nothing happened psychologically other than some vague change in visual perception and the occasional hints to contract. The next two or three days were notable for the subject’s usual mental and physical irritability, amplified into annoying levels. The quality, but not the time of the third phase was drastically changed. During this time a residue of the muscular urges appeared, but attempts at physical activity were notable for the lack of stamina and their irrelevance to the “work” done in other sessions. As always, in the third or fourth day following all sessions, the old neurotic patterns returned.
Variability of Drug Encounters.
Not all hallucinogen encounters within the time span of this series were dominated by the “somatic”, three phase events described above. Two sessions in the same setting with small doses of mushroom psilocybin (part of a stem) produced memorable visionary effects, but no “somatic” effects. On the other hand, one larger dose of the mushroom extract, taken as a tea with others, forced continuance of the session alone in a tent to spend the entire night of intense muscular contortions. The phenethylamine hallucinogen, 4-bromo-2,5 –dimethoxy phenethylamine (2C-B) elicited none of the somatic phases unless the dosage was greater than 15 milligrams (0.3mg/kg). DOI (4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxy amphetamine), a long-lasting phenethylamine hallucinogen, elicited the same somatic effects, which lasted so long (>12 hours) that the third phase was effectively eliminated by fatigue. As to LSD dose, it was 100ug, progressing to >200ug for the series, represented as moderate or higher, presumably sufficient to reach the threshold for the somatic effects. Two sessions of “Holotropic Breathing”, attended under the watchful eye of seasoned personnel trained by S. Grof, produced the same muscular phase in both sessions, but with lesser force without obscuring altogether other psychological effects, which resembled the third phase aftereffect of previous sessions more than psychedelic effects possibly expected from brain hypoxia.
Discussion
It goes without saying that repeated experiments performed on a single animal are highly unlikely to inspire further pursuit into expensive research on the implications so derived. Nevertheless, this glimpse into the residues of birth and their connection to endogenous hallucinogens introduces an interesting question as to what constitutes unimpeachable data outside the rigors of statistical analysis. Here, a pharmacological target specific for LSD and three other hallucinogens has been found and its natural function is to initiate fetal activation and movement. It is difficult to imagine how else the relation between birth and endogenous hallucinogens could be conceived, even with non-human models. The subjective effects of this target originated from a highly improbable combination of LSD, historical birth information and an experimental animal able to communicate sensory nuances. For this reason, credibility and the inspiration to pursue this further is expected. A section of the US population, represented by a large number of TS births between 1910 and 1970 await testing to satisfy the statistical fiats for confirmation or denial. Administering hallucinogens to this demographic can now be done with government approval. Also, many birth records must exist for the epidemiologist, particularly in the files of psychiatric clinics that have covertly used psychotropic drugs over the past three decades. The etiology of many chronic illnesses and sub rosa handicaps might be resolved with the use of these drugs as a diagnostic tool to establish how the patient was born, as well as for those knowing of their TS birth.
The first compelling evidence for the generality of these three coupled phases in parturition is seen here in the brief “spikes” in physiological measurements preceding the second, somatic phase (Fig. 1). Their time span is 1 to 2 minutes, identical to spikes in fetal heart rate (FHR) detected routinely in hospitals as an indicator of fetal health and readiness (Figure 2).
FHRs fall into three categories: “accelerations” (or “accels”), “decelerations” and “variable” (Cunningham et al, 2001). Decelerations are reassuring only when they coincide with the mother’s contractions; Otherwise, they are ominous, indicating a parasympathetic (vagus) response to high uterine pressure, umbilical chord choking, etc. Variability (change in FHR over a minute or so) is reassuring as an indication that the fetus is responsive to intrapartum conditions, e.g., changes in uterine pressure and maternal blood acidity.
It is the accelerations or “accels” which are the most important indicators of fetal readiness (Precastaing, 2008; Krebs et al, 1982) and these are identical to those seen here in terms of magnitude and time span (Figure 2). They sometimes occur in association with uterine contractions resulting in a consistent pattern (Hutson & Mueller-Heuach, 1982), but are commonly more sporadic rather than universally synchronous with the mother’s contractions. They occur more closely with fetal movement as indications of a healthy fetus and a good outcome (Rabinowitz et al 1983; Sadovsky et al, 1984). However, the commonly implied notion that fetal movement is the cause of the “accels” is contradicted by the results of this report. Here, they precede the onset of movement as indications of autonomic activation and adrenal activity for initiating and serving the energetic muscular work that follows. This is consistent with finding that early sporadic “accels” in 99 % of 2000 births are not specifically related to fetal movement (Cunningham et al, 2001). “Accels” are so important that, if they are not detected, the fetus is submitted to irritants to stimulate them (Pencastaing, 2008; Cunningham et al, 2001). Failing this, intervention is imminent and labor can be halted. According to the results of this report, “accels” seen in hospital practice (Figure 2) are the key sign that the fetus is beginning not only its movements, but embarking on a coupled sequence of three phases that respond negatively to any intervention (Hutson & Mueller-Heuach, 1982). Fetal movements, like those seen in this case, are repetitive in nature and appear within 40 to 90 minute intervals, suggesting the corresponding appearance of additional spikes in FHR as labor proceeds. In two of these sessions, attempts to measure were made only once within 10 to 12 minutes after hallucinogens intake.
The pleasurable energetic urges to contract skeletal muscle in the second phase, always beginning about 30 minutes after hallucinogen ingestion, are likely shared by the mother. The mother’s urge to “push” by contracting her abdominal (skeletal) muscles is also pleasurable, encouraging a strong effort. This urge is often seen by midwives, provided the mother isn’t coerced into pushing when she’s not ready. “…….. I greeted the next contraction with satisfaction. Surprised by its intensity, I let my body do it” and “it feels marvelous to push when you want to” (Kitzinger, 2001).
It is noteworthy that the time it takes for tolerance to LSD is the same as that of the third phase, two to three days. This would argue against the notion that tolerance originates from down-regulation of the receptor. Instead, this time may be the experience of the third phase time in those users born conventionally and not experiencing the second phase. Subcortical events mediated by the hallucinogen may occur in everyone, regardless of how they were born and would be experienced after the cerebral effects no longer dominate. Also, recalling the diminishing flashbacks in the first paper, it is possible that continued secretion of DMT+ occurs to launch the third phase and its superb mental and physical effects. These effects are similar to those mediated by dopamine. A delayed LSD effect has been reported in rat discrimination studies that is mediated by the dopamine D(2) receptor (Marona-Lewicka & Nichols, 2007).. Since the delay is 90 minutes after injection and the third phase begins at least six hours after LSD intake, the conclusion of continued DMT+ secretion is not impaired, but clarified in terms of the quality of the third phase.
The probability that the exceptional hallucinogen effects of this report do occur in an unknown percentage of individuals is based on to the likelihood that, like the author, cerebral access was excluded at birth by the inhibition of hippocampal and hypothalamic functions from the TS protocol. Otherwise, cerebral hallucinogen effects for the adult would obfuscate sensory details of movement and recovery. Accordingly, the possibility cannot be excluded altogether that these subcortical residues of these fetal effects might be present, but be obscured by cerebral effects for those more naturally born. The next question arises as to whether the pharmacological target seen here is still functional in those born conventionally. Some evidence for this may be taken from hormone secretion in DMT volunteers (below) and occasional experiences similar in time and kind to the third phase have been recorded (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1991). Additional examples are discussed in relation to induced labor (www.biosublime.com).
However, it is the persistence of this hallucinogen target and the overwhelming intensity of energetic movement that points to subcortical damage unique to the TS drug, scopolamine. The inability of the fetus to move or sense wholesome sensation has been discussed in the previous report. The repeating and predictable clarity of autonomic activation, intense muscular movement and a two to three day recovery with every hallucinogen tested point to an interruption in the overall progression of neural and hormonal events at a stage previous to the exercise of this target as the mother’s labor proceeds. The target remains in the TS-born, because it was never used and then destroyed to allow for the next neural phase of parturition. The argument follows:
It has been shown by c-Fos immunohistology that new DNA sequences are opened to produce specific proteins appropriate for a given phase of parturition as DNA sequences used for the previous completed phase are destroyed (Lin et al, 1995, 1998). Examples of timed sequential hormone secretion include that of prepartum endorphin to suppress secretion of (uterine contracting) oxytocin (Russel & and Brunton, 2006), progesterone conversion to allopregnalone for activation of (inhibitory) GABA(A), increased vasopressin and removal of opioid suppression of oxytocin (Fenelon & Herbison, 2000), switching off GABA inhibition prior to secretion of inflammatory prostaglandins (Leng G & Russell,1999) for additional contraction and cervical ripening and adjuncts also appear, e.g., as oxytocin in conditions of hypoxia at birth (Gibb, 1998). Once labor begins, the opioid – oxytocin relationship is reversed; now, secretion of opioids is called for by increasing levels of blood oxytocin. Key supportive hormones during labor, i.e., corticoid releasing factors, ACTH are all initiated by the hypothalamus, in this case seriously burdened by the anticholinergic effects of scopolamine.
It is in the timing of this sequence that the damage would be produced by Twilight Sleep birth in two ways: First, the sequence continues postpartum in the newborn to provide the late hormones that include human growth hormone and those of the hypothalamus-adrenal-pituitary-gonadal axis, the gonadotropin, leutinizing and follicle stimulating hormones. Clearly, an interruption of this kind by hypothalamic inhibition would interfere with the long-term development of the newborn. Strassman and Qualis measured the time course of the appearance of a few hormones in the blood of volunteers injected with DMT (Strassman & Qualls,1994). Their emergence in the blood followed the order, beta-endorphin, corticotrophin, (both within 5 minutes), prolactin (10 min.) and, lagging far behind, human growth hormone, reaching a plateau at 60 minutes. Although truncated in time by the rapid effects of injected DMT, these are some of the same hormones (above) necessary for support of the parturient mother and fetus and would be representative of normal birthing, with gonadal hormone secretion far down the line. Thus, stopping the sequence before full expression of the HPA-gonadal axis by morphine and scopolamine could account in part for the author’s 4 to 5 year delayed puberty and diminished physical development in his youth. In regard to the RaRN model proposed in the first report, it is noteworthy that pineal melatonin also inhibits gonadal development (Reiter, 1981). The second way of damage (hypothalamic function loss with scopolamine) is seen by the fact that the fetus born by TS retains this hallucinogen target for fetal activation and movement well into adulthood indefinitely. Since each of the molecular ensembles activated in sequence during parturition are destroyed to allow expression of the next, this operational entity must have escaped destruction by an interruption in the hormonal sequence before this point.
The identity of the receptor is not clear, but a major effect of the 5-HT1a receptor and its strongest agonist, 5-methoxyDMT, is the associated anti-depressive and positive mentality similar to that reported here in the third phase recovery (James, 2010). As shown in the first report of this series, continued secretion of DMT after initial exposure to LSD has been suggested as the origin of ongoing flashbacks as monitors of autonomic healing. Likewise, secretion of endogenous hallucinogens may continue on to welcome the newborn and reward the mother in a deep visceral way qualitatively different and much more profound than cerebral celebration.
This report embodies a lesson about our ignorance of fetal vulnerability to damage by drugs and excessive anesthetics, implying re-examination of other unconventional and unnatural obstetric procedures such as induced labor and elective Caesarian section (Liu et al, 2007). Infant mortality in the US ranks second among eight developed countries and first among seven, these countries adhering to midwife home births by a large percentage. Here, a new kind of perinatal influence is introduced, not based on stored and erasable fetal memory, but on the persistence of an unused pharmacological target, adding to Dr. Grof’s “perinatal” matrix for examination of pathological human behavior (Grof, 1981). Finally, these results also teach the necessity of considering birth history for selecting human experimental subjects in this new era of approval for psychedelic research.
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