Thank you! Yes, the trip is caused by activation of the HTR2A receptor. It is not magic. everything you experience is both affected by and affects the biology of the body.
You know, I have a fried, diagnosed with depression 15 years ago, tried everything, nothing worked. Know what they finally found her problem was? Familial (genetically caused) hypoglycemia.
We cannot even diagnose depression, it is still too subjective nad personalized. Stop looking for these one size fits all miracle cures and look at your own body.
I think I see what you mean, in the sense that without the substance the trip does not exist. The distinction I was trying to make was between the subjective experience compared to potential brain changes induced by chemical reactions.
The "chemistry" side of the debate would be that the trip is a side effect of the substance modifying neurological pathways (or similar), but what is actually important are those physical modifications to the brain, not the experience.
The "trip" side of the debate would be that the only important thing is the experience, and that whether it is induced by drugs, fasting, meditation, prayer, video games, etc. does not matter that much.
Obviously, there is also the possibility that both sides are valid: the fact that the experience can be transformative in itself does not prevent the physical effect of the molecule on the brain to be beneficial as well. There is even the possibility that one of the two has a positive effect, while the other is rather negative.
They are not looking at creating a "trippy" experience per se, but rather to generate an experience that produces a potential shift in the way to relate with the world
This might be true if what you want is to emulate the experience under actual psychedelic drugs; I do not think that this is necessary if your only aim is to create _transformative_ or _healing_ experiences.
One of the core concepts of Rob Burbea I mentionned above is the idea of "imaginal middle way", which, in short, consists in seeing mental images as "neither real nor not real", "simultanously discovered and created". Going deeper into that topic would require way too much text and time for a simple comment here, but I can tell from experience that this way to engage with imaginative faculties can have deep and long lasting effects. And the important aspect here is that, while engaging with the image, one is constantly balancing between reification (considereing the image, for instance of a divinity, as having independent reality) and disdain (considering the image as "just made up").
The trip is (also) the chemistry!