This post is to help us understand which parts of the brain are affected and how they cause our shift in consciousness. The knowledge of the brain mechanisms does not make our experiences any less legitimate or merely biological. The reality is that these experiences are facilitated by our working brain.


Many studies show the lowered blood flow to the posterior cingulate cortex during a trip. This article shows the function that I think is being affected during a trip.

Explaining the novel change in autobiographical memory:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11440800


I encourage you scientists to do research and post your findings in this topic, since the government won't allow the research of these important plants effects on our consciousness it is up to us.

Quote from above link: "The posterior cingulate cortex has strong reciprocal connections with entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices."



This connection may be the alteration responsible for the novelty phenomenon. The hippocampus is said the be the novelty detector in our brain.

http://knightlab.berkele...6/Knight_Nature_1996.pdf

If you have tripped around friends before you may not always be aware of what is socially acceptable. Revealing personal feelings and information, or even sharing too much narration of your experience while being unaware of its effect on others. When I first tripped I felt the social barrier become broken, I found myself screaming with hysteria at times, and crying openly at other times. Social communication becomes very challenging. Once for me I somehow don't know what what I'm saying, but just watch how the person responds to me to see if you are actually speaking English or illogical.

Social alterations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parahippocampal_gyrus

"indicate that the lobe may play a crucial role in identifying social context as well, including paralinguistic elements of verbal communication.[8] For example, Rankin's research suggests that the right parahippocampal gyrus enables people to detect sarcasm"