Then (1954), The Doors of Perception
Mescaline and Schizophrenia: The Psychotomimetic Theory
The mescaline experience illuminates schizophrenia from the inside. The schizophrenic, Huxley argued, is permanently in a state analogous to what the mescaline session temporarily produces, unable to filter the overwhelming flood of unmediated experience.
partially-confirmed
The schizophrenia-psychedelic analogy remains active in research but is more nuanced than Huxley described. Classic psychedelics and schizophrenia both involve 5-HT2A receptor activity and both show increased thalamocortical activity, but the phenomenologies differ significantly: psychedelic states are typically accompanied by insight and preserved reality-testing, while acute psychosis often is not. The Osmond, Smythies and Hoffer model of LSD and mescaline as 'psychotomimetic' for training clinicians has been partly revived, Johns Hopkins now trains therapists partly through psychedelic experience, but the mechanistic claims are disputed.
Sources
- Vollenweider & Preller, Nat Rev Neurosci (2020)
- Osmond & Smythies, J. Mental Sci. (1952)
- Murray et al., Psychol. Med. (2012) [Source not found; under review]