1. Why do I have a qualified opinion on this research?!
*You can jump over this part if you trust my evaluation, or simply don't care*

For those that does not know, I'm a former brain "scientist" myself: My real field of study was/is in Cognitive Semiotics.

I started out studying engineering in biomedicine technique because I was coaching atlets for a living and it connected well together - never completed it, dropped out when my father died. Then I took an education as a designer, specialised myself in business, branding & webdesign (mostly because strength training lead me into the field of marketing). Then a bachelor in philosophy - specialized in philosophy of mind related to aesthetics, which opened the door for studying cognitive semiotics. And later I took a leader degree in lean and agile (MBA equivalent) while working at advertising agencies which helped advance into higher places.

Anyways, I studied Brain & Cognition in relation to Semiotics / Branding / Marketing / Design & Communication for a very long time - under literally the worlds leading experts in these fields - and have an elite candidate/master degree in the field as a result.

As of such I know and talk to many leading scientists on these topics, almost daily.
I have close friends that does these studies.

[I'm still working on a doctorate / not phd, under guidance in my spare time: but not sure I will ever complete it, or get it approved], my life focus is in advancing my small agency (or rebuilding it really, after several catastrophically events), working as a consultant and so on (and of cause I'm rather well known for using to much time on the opposite sex as well).

The elite part of the university educations is rare in Denmark, there is 12 of them in total (that is university degress with the label elite). It means 1) that the education is aimed at research of the highest level: already from the start of your bachelor you study as you would under a phd at the same level, and you get to take part in preforming actual research. 2) it has a special status as a "hard" science (the most objective level of science there is) 3. and it's of higher level than other degrees at master/candidate level... Even fields like clinical psychology does not get even close to the elite status in denmark).

For those interested in the Elite degrees:
http://www.au.dk/?id=284407

For those interested in the education of Cognitive Semiotics.

http://kandidat.au.dk/en/cognitivesemiotics/

ANYWAYS:

2.
What I think about the points made.

Yes ketomine, LSD and DMT can have a huge effect on depression.

I would however suspect the explanations for these studies are semi wrong: LSD and Ketamine works for depression because it gets stuck in the serotonin receptors (thereby activates the receptors almost the same way serotonin does it - except it can last 20 hours or forever).

[url]https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31749-4[/url]

Yes, most often that means that the body will break down the receptor and reconstruct it (and if allot of receptors was damaged to start with, yes this will fix something) - thats why your brain will often turn almost normal again after LSD use.

But it's also why it sometimes wont. Won't like in never ever!

3.
Warning.
As already indicated it's not like you can be certain that it always will ... some receptors might just become serotonin hi-jacked permanently or for a very long time.

4.
The horror scenario.
Remember psycosis and skizofrenia is especially characterised by having so high serotonin levels that openness is so high all your concepts gets mixed together.

Visit a mental hospital and talk with some of these patients.

Then evaluate if your condition is so bad that you will risk ending up that way.

I'm not saying that you will ... I'm saying there is there is a risk if you lose the lottery and your brain can't break down some of the receptors after you have made ketomine molecyles get stuck into them.

5.
Be careful.

Brain chemistry is like a fine wrist watch ... it's not like an engine you rough tune with wrences ...
Shooting yourself up with lsd or ketomine over a long time, can easily become like trying to fix a fine wrist watch with a wrench.
Be very careful! If your brain is bad at braining down it's receptors (normally brains only do this when they get damaged) or building them up again: levels of activated receptors will build up over time, or you might end up permanently with lower levels of serotonin receptors in the brain.

It's just like with SRIs ... there is a reason SOME ppl have a hard time getting off these again once they start using them.
For others it's a walk in the park.

AND SRIs are much better at escaping the serotonin receptors after some time, than LSD, Ketomine or DMT.

At least make sure you use high grade meds, some goes having sharmans and witches cook DMT in a pot, without any certainty of how much you shoot your brain up with ... perhaps you brain will normalise after, but probably it won't (for good and worse, you might not become the same person ever again after such high levels of DMT).

6.
Some of you might be wondering what's the main mechanism of serotonin is anyways?!

Well brain chemicals always have many functions in diffrent part of the brain.
BUT in short: it's the chemical your brain use to evaluate your social status in the hirachies you are in.
It does so in diffrent part of the brain, so it's a detailed image it draws.

If your brain evaluates that you have low status / as of such that you are at risk in all sorts of ways, you will have low levels of serotonin.
As of such you will often become high in the trait of neuroticism, can get high levels of anxiety, and depression.
Think of it as an alert state, your biology is trying to make you sensitive to all risks while at the same time trying to motivate you (with pain) to climb the social hirachy.

If your brain evaluates you have high status / that you have low social risk, you will be a high level of serotonin.
As of such you will become low in the trait of neuroticism, and your emotions will be more positive, you won't get a depression (almost no matter the situation and so on).

AND yes, much of this seams to happen relative to your thoughts, or what underlies your thoughts.

7.
The trait openness also seams related to serotonin.
That is high level of serotonin IN SOME PARTS OF THE BRAIN opens up the brain.

You can actually be low status and still high in openness ... the diffrent part of the brain part is the reason for that.

It's usually due to actual injuries in the brain or heritage.

8.
All of this is not just circumstantial, though circumstances have a huge effect.

Brain biology can be somehow inheritable (no mystery really, most of human history status was something you was born into).

Damages of the brain also happens to ppl constantly, even in childbirth, or trough dna damages, or mutations.

Especially we know that your hippocampus shrink under longer periods of depression.
We also know that when it shrinks below a certain level, no natural things can make it normal again.
It's like your brain have labeled you for the trash can (which might made sense 100.000 years ago, but not today).

Meds and in worst case electrochock can restore it fully (as the only two was we know of today).

So if you are in a permanently depressive state - and you can't change it by climbing in status (or moving into a hirachy where you can) or with your thinking. - Then do use meds right away.

9.
Conclussion:

These things where ment as a warning, but I actually do think you should use what you have available to better yourself under these conditions.

Just don't do it lightly ... don't use a wrench on your brain to try and gain a little more openness as a trait and so on.

But for SOME ppl SRIs and similar are really a magic pill that just fixes all their problems.
For some it's not ...


I hope this helps some of you guys.

- Helio