How do Medication affect psychic abilities, Intuition etc.?

[baylicex3]

One question that keeps coming up for me personally—and that I feel directly affected by—is the following, and I’d really appreciate hearing other people’s experiences or opinions on it.

What do you think are the effects of drugs or medications—such as opiates, antidepressants, or ADHD medications (like amphetamines or methylphenidate)—on things like magical practice, intuitive or psychic abilities, and one’s overall energetic state? For example, many of these substances are known to cause a certain degree of emotional flattening.

I’m also very interested in the neuroscience behind this and often wonder which areas of the brain are active during meditation, altered states of consciousness, or in people who engage in intuitive or psychic work.
I’d be grateful for any thoughts on these topics, as well as recommendations for further reading or sources.

 

[Amadeus]

I've used a bit of all of them in the past. I'm not really a fan of these things.

Methylphenidate, as quick release makes you very hype, energetic, focused. At least for a while. Then you might get either a chill slightly tired state or rage and anxiety.
Practices, it makes you overly confident and you might be able to meditate with a fierce inner madness, for longer than you normally would. However the quick release will be gone very fast, lasts for maximum 45-60 mins. Senses felt slightly weird but better than with the next ones.

Opiates. I used them against pains. In moderation they took away physical pain and made me slightly more motivated. A bit sleepy though. Practices, the senses became strange. Not so good. I felt less.

Antidepressants, benzos. The worst effects. Nothing good. Screwed senses, less connection, numbness. Side effects after a day or two, very bad.

Just tobacco, numbed senses but boosted the motivation. Also used nicotine pouches. I did some mantra marathons on them.

Weed, I never liked it. Experimented a little. Numb disconnected feeling but a boost to feeling upcoming events. Mystical cases where information came out of nowhere.

Alcohol. Nothing good. Lowers everything, no use. Giving away control of yourself, bad.

Conclusion: better to do the practices without strange substances. Due to health it might be unavoidable, but don't go mad with the dosages.
Some of these substances immediately triggered lower "everything", strange entities to come, weakened defense. Entities saw it as an opportunity to screw around. You weaken yourself and risk with attachments. It's easier to control somebody like that.

Meditations, which areas? Good question. Pineal gland, somewhere inside, neurological pathways in there. The more you do the stronger connections you establish. Over time there will be permanent changes.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Amadeus nailed it but I want to talk a little bit about THC and how it effects the brain. THC makes it extremely difficult to get into deep states, meditation and sleep are shallow neurologically speaking when there is THC in the body. Habitual use of marijuana will kill a person's ability to enter into REM and hypnagogic hallucinations. Given that THC has an extremely long half life it can take up to a month for a person's ability to experience hypnagogic and REM imagery to bounce back. This might seem counter-intuitive given marijuana's mild hallucinogenic and relaxing effects, but when you look into what is happening in the brain of a habitual marijuana user they are not entering into hypnotic trance or REM, exhibiting decreased Delta (associated with Deep Sleep) and Theta coherence (this is the realm of imagery, trance, and deep meditation).

Now the ability of the occultist or magician to enter into this state of trance consciously is incredibly important during practices like scrying, evocation, and astral projection. So there is something to be said about how habitual THC use (daily) can definitely disrupt a person's abilities in magic and mysticism.

 

[embitca]

After I started working with entheogens I decided to taper off my antidepressants. After a few months I noticed a huge difference in my connection to nature spirits in particular and just being more emotionally present and observant to what was going on around me energetically. At first I did not like it because I'd grown very used to the emotional flattening of the antidepressants, but I have started to embrace it and really have been working on moving my spiritual practice to be more mystically oriented which I think is something that was basically impossible for me to achieve while taking the antidepressants.

I recently stopped vaping THC as well and I look forward to noticing how that improves my meditation and sleeps states as Abammon mentioned.