OK, thanks. Do you have any papers you would suggest on these matters?

There is some really interesting and promising research being conducted using MDMA for PTSD, as well as LSD and psilocybin for anxiety. I suggest taking a look at MAPS (maps.org) and mdmaptsd.org.

I suggest _LSD Psychotherapy_ by Stanislav Grof.

Also _Ketamine: Dreams and Reality_ by Karl Jansen.

I'll find some studies on MDMA later today.

www.maps.org/mdmd/protocol (FDA approved study of MDMA to treat PTST)

"MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Treatment Manual Draft, Additional submission for Protocol #63,643" dated 12/12/02

June M Ruse PsyD

Lisa Jerome PhD

Michael C. Mithoefer MD

Rick Doblin MD

(I don't know where I got this and if it was properly published)

Doblin, R. (2002). A clinical plan for MDMA (ecstasy) in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Partnering with the FDA. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Vol 34(2) Apr-Jun 2002, 185-194.

Anything by Alexander Shulgin - he introduced MDMA to psychology.

I can email you a short review I wrote on MDMA and emotion, if you're interested.

I hope that's enough to get you started. :)

The therapeutic mechanism depends of the type of content that the person is confronting.

Biographical issues have different mechanisms than perinatal experiences (which are sometimes related with intense body symptoms and philosophical questions). Transpersonal experiences also open new transformative mechanisms related with spiritual understanding, archetypal experiences and so on. I haven't found any better material about this than the work of S.Grof, who is the only one who embraces the type of questions that you are asking.

Gendlin's work is also great in terms of explaining how people change, but he does not include non ordinary experiences.

In my opinion the common factor between these mechanisms is that all of these process involves an embodied spirituality or a body-centered awareness, which is the requisite of a good outcome (like gendlin's explanation of change).

Another significant point is the Self who is having the experience. That is what Wilber says. I have seen people having intense experiences but not being able no get something significant for them. Maybe the capacity to see the personal process in a 3rd position may help, and to go beyond "my truth", "my experience", and that kind of experiential self-centered narcissism that doesn't help for a transpersonal development... but I haven't seen research on this topic.

I'm currently writing a paper on the research being done on the analogues of the "Classical Hallucinogens". For example, by definition, 4-AcO-DMT is a classical psychedelic. It's just newer and has had less time to built up safety profiles. We should be doing SARs on all these "Classical Psychedelics". Who's to say that 4-PO-DMT is less efficient than 4-PO-MET. The only reason I see that 4-AcO-DMT is not being studied for the same therapies as psilocin, is that it pretty well accepted that use of psilocin does not cause problems I the later years of life. From what i've read, I get the general suspicion that it would actually be a better therapeutic drug than 4-HO-DMT and 4-PO-DMT. I've been doing part time research into pretty much what your question was. If you want further information, I've got it. 

Devin

Another good review that addresses this issue as well:

http://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-41-02-139.pdf