Dr. Paul Conti

that so many people change for the healthier or even change their lives.

I think we're likely to see that they are powerful anti-trauma mechanisms, again, used clinically in the right hands.

And I think that we're also going to see that they're a heuristic for understanding our brain that goes against what I see as some of the reflexive hubris of, well, the outer parts must be the best because that's what makes us human and other animals don't have it and we're better because we're human.

I mean, it makes no sense, you know?

This is very different than the psychedelics, right?

Which are seeding our consciousness in these deep centers of the brain, right?

Whereas what MDMA is doing is sort of flooding with positive neurotransmitters, right?

In certain parts of the brain.

And I think what that creates is a greater permissiveness inside to entertain or approach different things.

And when these systems are flooded with these neurotransmitters, it's more permissive to sort of think about that, right?

And to think about that without, again, all the chatter of that's your fault, or you're never going to get anywhere because of that, or you know what that means, right?

They can kind of go away.

And then we can think about it in a way that isn't through the lens of fear.

And I think that's the power there is that it's permissive of approaching something, contemplating something, you know, a novelty.

We talk about a de novo approach.

And I think that's also why the experience can vary because you could also see how if you're not thinking about something,

right?

So there's not a clinical guidance to it.

You could be in a state where like, I just feel good, but that's not necessarily problem solving.

So the clinical guidance says, hey, let's take that state and do something with it, right?