Psychedelic Anxiety Syndrome

Figure 1. A stepwise approach to overcoming PAS.

Psychedelic Anxiety Syndrome or PAS is the anxiety one feels before taking a psychedelic. Whilst in some cases PAS is warranted as there have been reports of negative effects of psychedelics, it is argued in many cases the anxiety felt is disproportionate to the benefits one might encounter.

Exposure Therapy

It is thought by introducing patients to controlled versions of different parts of the psychedelic experience anxiety can be substantially decreased. This is done by subdividing the psychedelic experience into subsections and then rating them against perceived anxiety (See Figure 1), these include:

• Optical illusions
• Holotropics
• Stroboscopics
• Out of body experiences
• Astral projections

The ultimate goal is to allow the public to participate in a series of controlled experiments during the physical showing of the Fundamentals of Psychedelics lecture series.