Psychedelics-Tripping into More Consumer Adoption and Profits
Interview with Christina Kaufmann
Christina Kaufmann’s journey with plant medicines started in 2017 after years of having a traumatic childhood that extended into adulthood manifesting with huge physical problems in the body. After attending several plant-medicine retreats from 2017-2019 and with energetic healing work by an experienced practitioner, she experienced very quickly a full healing from her trauma and physical symptoms.
Her team’s focus today is to build healing centers in both in various places of the world with the first rollout in Europe (Italy) and Asia (Bali) to support people in their healing with the aid of plant medicines and neo-shamanic healing. They can also achieve quick solutions to their problems such as: Depression, OCD, anxiety/panic attacks, fatigue syndrome, PTSD, burn out, physical symptoms for which no medical reason has been found or where healing was unsuccessful, physical diseases that originate in trauma.
More information can be found at https://christinakaufmann.com/“Psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy are promising new paradigms for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.”
“Some studies are showing that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy using psilocybin and MDMA to treat depression and PTSD are helping patients manage symptoms of these conditions. In some instances, these treatments are leading to remission of the condition itself.
Psychedelics may help. But the mechanism through which they appear to help people has left doctors scratching their heads and some scientists deeply uncomfortable with their findings: These drugs appear to use chemical pathways to trigger often deeply spiritual experiences that seemingly lead to tangible, measurable, long-term changes in behavior. That is not, to say the least, how traditional medicines typically function.
But the findings from many studies, which can involve months or years of follow-up, are promising — albeit not definitive A much smaller study found psilocybin treatment helped people diagnosed with alcohol dependence cut back on their drinking days. Another study found that psilocybin may have helped treat depression for patients who had proven resistant to other treatments.
And here’s what really remarkable: In the studies, it only seemed to take one or two doses to produce months of benefits. Unlike psychiatric medications that require regular, often daily doses, psilocybin treatment — if it really works — appears to require just one or two sessions with one dose of the drug to have a months-long impact.
A new set of studies, published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology, which had some of the largest sample sizes in the psychedelic research so far, showed the potential. The patients, which totaled 80 in both studies combined, all had advanced cancer and end-of-life anxiety or depression, driven in large part by their looming deaths. After a psilocybin treatment session, most of the patients — as many as 80 percent — generally showed improvements on metrics used to evaluate mood, depression, and anxiety.1
AV: How do the plant medicines work? What is the empirical evidence in your experience?
CK: The way the plant medicines work differs from modern medicine and most other alternative healing modalities which either only treat the symptoms (the disease) or only work on one or two levels. Neo-shamanic healing on the other hand focuses on the root cause of the problem and approaches it on all 4 levels - the body, the energy field, the mind and the soul. This is the reason why we have such quick and long-lasting results. The transformation can happen within one session. 12 sessions have been proven to be perfect to stabilize the person, clear trauma and help people to expand their mind and evolve their consciousness.
Empirical evidence from neo- shamanic transformations in our healing sessions:
Depression: Ayahusaca, Mushrooms, Kambo - paired with 1:1 healings sessions
Panic attacks / Alcohol addiction / depression: Ayahuasca, Kambo - paired with 1:1 healings sessions
Chronic Joint Inflammation: Ayahuasca, Bufo, Kambo - paired with 1:1 healings sessions
There are risks to psychedelic drugs:
One study on psilocybin and a review of the psychedelic research found no major physical effects besides dizziness, headaches, and exhaustion for a few days after use of the drugs.
Still, the existing risks are why researchers emphasize that these drugs should only be used in supervised clinical settings. So far, the studies to date have only found benefits to psychedelic drugs in these settings, where trained experts oversee the experience to make sure nothing goes wrong. And researchers expect that if the drugs eventually make it out of research settings and into the real world, limiting their use to a supervised clinical environment will be crucial to their success.
"Most of psychology and medicine are, believe it or not, focused on the negative. The only time you go see a psychologist is if you have a mental illness, or the only time you go see a doctor is because you’re sick," Garcia-Romeu said. "But that’s 50 percent of the spectrum. The other 50 percent of the spectrum [is] people who are well or are even optimal, functioning at a higher than average level. And I think those people who are just fine … can certainly benefit from these types of experiences."2
AV: What is the risk for giving patients small doses of a particular plant medicine vs. a big dose?
CK: In general, there is no risk as you can´t overdose in the classical sense. Furthermore, there is also no risk of physical or psychological addiction. Contrary to the usual recreational drugs there is no “high” or any feeling of numbness, artificial happiness etc. which makes you crave for more once the drug leaves your system. People can have challenging moments as the plant brings out their fears and trauma into the open to be processed. This creates a great relief. With each piece of their past processed and transmuted, they move closer to their goal to become whole, loving and free. And this is the motivation for people to come back and do another session.
There are indications big pharma wants a piece of the psychedelic pie. Meanwhile, industry is taking notice.
On Oct. 22, Numinus Wellness Inc., a Vancouver-based company researching and developing psychedelics for psychotherapy, announced it has completed the first legal harvest of magic mushrooms by a public company in Canada. It is the first publicly traded company to be granted a license by Health Canada to conduct research into extracting psilocybin from mushrooms for research purposes.
In the upcoming U.S. election, psychedelics are on the ballot in two jurisdictions. In the District of Columbia, a piece of legislation proposes making plant-based psychedelics such as psilocybin the lowest enforcement priority for law authorities. A measure in Oregon would go even further, creating a regulated industry for psilocybin therapy.3
Peter Thiel backs Berlin start-up making psychedelics in $125 million round. Peter Thiel had led a $125 million funding round into a start-up aiming to make psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders. Total investment in the company now stands at over $210 million. Almost a billion people suffer from mental health problems worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.4
AV: As evidenced above, there is more capital being poured into the psychedelic space? Why now?
CK: In the past few years people have become more aware that we are not simply flesh and bones but that there is a driving force behind every human being that is not tangible. The HeartMath Institute has proven that the heart´s magnetic field is 5000 bigger than that of the mind and the heart is sending more messages to the brain than the other way around. There is more and more knowledge about alternative methods that bleed into the mainstream medicine. People are tired of medical drugs and conservative methods as it has been shown over and over that they are only good to cover up symptoms for a while but often do not heal. The logical result is that companies start to reach out to methods that have been proven effective since hundreds and thousands of years ton completely heal people and this without significant side effects.
1. https://www.vox.com/2016/6/27/11544250/psychedelic-drugs-lsd-psilocybin-effects?fbclid=IwAR0entx3YpvZFUmxaSKvnWyaVWi9ZTfc4O6LqnbOdcjES9BDu5brBIwVNs0
2. https://www.vox.com/2016/6/27/11544250/psychedelic-drugs-lsd-psilocybin-effects?fbclid=IwAR0entx3YpvZFUmxaSKvnWyaVWi9ZTfc4O6LqnbOdcjES9BDu5brBIwVNs0
3. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/10/25/mental-illness-is-on-the-rise-due-to-covid-19-could-psychedelic-drugs-be-the-game-changer.html
4. https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/11/23/peter-thiel-backs-psychedelics-startup-atai.html