Love Is the Drug: Scientists Trip Over Psychedelics and Arousal
Research suggests many potentially positive therapeutic and recreational uses
A new study was recently conducted by University at Buffalo researchers who found that, among their many discoveries, a significant number of participants reported an expanded openness to same-sex experiences.
Daniel J. Kruger of the university’s Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions, led the research, which was published in the Journal of Sex Research. The online survey questioned nearly six hundred individuals on their use of ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, psilocybin-containing mushrooms, and other psychedelics.
Magic carpet ride
Specifically, the participants were queried whether their psychedelic use positively or negatively affected their gender identity, sexuality, or intimate feelings toward others.
In a University of Buffalo interview, Professor Kruger, a research associate professor who studies medical uses of cannabinoids and psychedelics, referred to international clinical trials and anecdotal acocunts of people who report all sorts of emotional benefits from consuming mind-altering drugs, such as “greater self-insight and feeling more connected to other people.”
A major research question was, “could there be benefits for intimate relationships in the long-term?”
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The survey explored many other aspects of human sexual behavior and found that 70% of those surveyed said their psychedelic experiences impacted their sexual feelings and behavior. 65% of those respondents reported short-term effects while under the influence and 53% reported extended effects.
“I think the biggest surprise for me was the increase in same-sex attraction,” Professor Kruger continued, “reported by a quarter of women and about one in eight men.”
As Kruger further explained, “A third of those with other gender identities also reported changes.” He added, “Most people did not experience this, but the fact that so many people did is striking.”
Interstellar Overdrive
Psychedelics may hold promise for treating a host of different sexual conditions or be used to enhance sexual self-awareness, but Kruger reminds us his and his team’s work is just the beginning:
Psychedelic use may be at an all-time high among young adults, and many older adults are trying psychedelics for the therapeutic benefits. There are huge implications for public health when so many people are using psychedelics. We need to reduce risks and protect people from harm and educate people so they know what they are getting into.
Meanwhile, those interested in furthering the University of Buffalo’s research can participate in a new, wholly anonymous, updated version of their initial survey on sex and psychedelics.
Are you experienced?
Though it looks like magical, mystical aphrodisiacs will likely remain a cliched sexual fantasy—as our reporting on the current more-miss-than-hit state of its development seems to show—perhaps Professor Kruger and his team’s preliminary investigations could get us a smidge closer to one pill that’ll make us not larger but more aroused?
If psychedelics can indeed alter our sexual identities, why shouldn’t it be possible to refine and focus their effects, eventually helping us explore new sexualities, attractions, and gender expressions?
With, of course, safeguards put firmly in place to prevent their nonconsensual use, as we also covered a short time ago. While we didn’t mention it at the time, a security solution might lie in biochemistry; like today’s gene-matching medications, tomorrow’s sexually-expanding psychotropics might not do anything at all—unless they were created especially for you.
Likewise, mind and sexuality-expanding drugs could be uniquely formulated to increase what turns us on while decreasing anxiety—or whatever mental applications we might want or need.
Strawberry Fields Forever
Even if love drugs remain frustratingly out of reach, the University at Buffalo team’s work remains amazingly exciting, showing that there are substances that could actually provide us with the keys to unlocking our sexualities: to change what we think of our bodies, our genders, our orientations, or ourselves—not to mention other people’s bodies, genders, sexualities and the limitless ways we’ll be able to intimately, and erotically connect with one another.
After all, psychedelics basically means manifesting a person’s mind or soul, and what better way to remind us that sex isn’t what’s between our legs but what lies between our ears—and like the universe is almost infinite with sensual and emotional possibilities.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
