New Theory: Psychedelic Law Flips the Hemisphere Advantages of the Brain

A new theory suggests that psychedelic matter may achieve its profound impact by temporarily shifting the brain’s balance of power from the typical left hemisphere to the right.

This proposed explanation, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, can help explain why these drugs always produce similar patterns of empathy, creativity, and connections across different individuals and substances. The model challenges the traditional view of how psychedelic drugs work in the brain and may bridge the gap between modern neuroscience and ancient healing traditions.

Introducing a healing model

Adam Levin, a psychiatrist and postdoctoral scholar at the Ohio State University Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education, said his proposed framework cures: hemisphere annealing and lateralization under psychedelic drugs. The theory suggests that psychedelic drugs fundamentally change the relationship between the brain hemispheres.

“In a psychedelic state, the unique combination of hemispheres fuses together in a way that does not usually happen in a normal state of consciousness,” Levin explained. “This is almost a new encounter between thinking and perceived worlds between the left and right hemispheres.”

Unlike the “left brain logic, right brain creativity” department of popular psychology, Levin’s model focuses on how each hemisphere approaches perception and process information. Although traditional consciousness prefers narrow, concentrated approaches to the left hemisphere, psychedelics may temporarily enhance the broader, interconnected view of the right hemisphere.

The “worldview” of two hemispheres

Neuroimaging studies analyzed by Levin show that the activity of the right frontal lobe increases, and under psychedelic drugs, the overall brain metabolism shifts to the right. This pattern is consistent with the unique cognitive and emotional changes commonly reported in psychedelic experiences:

• A wider attention span with higher interest in novelty and biology
• Enhanced emotional and social intelligence
• Improve creativity, psychological flexibility and insight
• Greater connections to others and the natural world
• Appreciation towards metaphorical thinking and music enhancement

According to Levine, these changes closely reflect the natural perception pattern of the right hemisphere, which usually operates in the context of everyday consciousness. “These general patterns are very similar to those of the right hemisphere,” he said. “And I think psychedelics can access the whole picture, which is the whole view that would have run in the background – that’s the correct hemisphere view.”

Clinical observation supports this theory

Levin’s clinical experience in stroke patients provides striking similarities. “In people who have lost their right hemisphere stroke, the attention window becomes so narrow that they don’t even recognize half of the world. And people who have full right hemisphere lose their left hemisphere, but still have a broader general situation for things,” he said. “In my opinion, many of these people’s experiences are similar to what I’ve seen in my psychedelic study.”

Therapy model may help explain why psychedelic experiences are often paradoxically both novel and familiar. Rather than creating a whole new mental state, these matters enhance existing perceptions that are usually subordinate to the left-hemisphere dominance.

Connection with mindfulness and traditional healing

Interestingly, this theory links psychedelics to other practices known to enhance right hemisphere function. For example, mindful meditation has been shown to build new neural networks over time and increase brain thickness in the right hemisphere.

Levin observed that only one or two uses of psychedelic drugs are related to improvements in mindfulness. Sometimes these abilities are almost in line with those of practicing meditators. “For me, this is likely to be enhanced briefly or longer with the enhancement of many core right-hand networks with practice meditation. ”

This view may also explain why indigenous healing traditions often describe psychedelic traditions as restoring natural balance rather than creating artificial states. As one researcher described, if psychedelics temporarily enhance existing but suppressed perception modes, they will indeed “rediscover aspects of survival.”

Supplementary other theories

Although existing psychedelic action models focus on top-down versus bottom-up processing or the dorsal and ventral axis of the brain, Levin theory explores the relationship between the lateral axis-left and left hemispheres that are usually ended. Rather than replace the current framework, supplement them by explaining why psychedelic experiences follow predictable patterns rather than leading to random neural activity.

Could this new perspective open the door to more targeted therapies, or would it help to incorporate psychedelic insights into everyday consciousness? Levin believes that expanding research will stimulate more problems and theories that together paint a more complete picture. “I think to explain things as complex as the brain, especially in humans, you need various theories to be more similar to what actually happens,” he said. “If we focus too much on one explanation or another, we lose track of reality.”