Welcome to LIT UP, our November theme week. We'll be dialing into the state of altered states over the next few days, with a range of reported stories, forgotten histories and oddities, and speculations on the various inputs (and outputs!) lighting up our brainboxes these days.It's a vast topic. Drugs are mysterious! And the way our brains react to them—on them—is perhaps even more of an unknown. But we've uncovered some of the hidden architecture of our brains just by prodding them, and perhaps the more we scratch them with different mind-altering substances the more we'll come to understand their secrets.
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Here's a quick set and setting to help guide you through the week.Real drugs in real labs. Kaleigh Rogers has a story about how to legally purchase a kilo of pure MDMA for PTSD psychotherapy research. Zoe Cormier will look at using that same psychoactive substance to treat autism. And Jason Koebler has cooked up a brief history of microdosing, which entails ingesting imperceptible amounts of, say, LSD on a near-daily basis, something proponents say sharpens the mind and spirit without tripping face.Simulated and make believe drugs. A hit of soma, anyone? Brian Merchant, co-editor of Terraform, our future-fiction portal, amassed a catalog of various drugs from science fiction. We've also got an adaptation from Andrew Smart's new book on AI on acid. Meanwhile, Emanuel Maiberg went experimental with the various substances in Fallout 4 (teaser: he tried all the drugs in Fallout 4) and Meg Neal will introduce you to the psychonauts tripping in Oculus Rift. Real drugs, meet virtual reality.Who needs real drugs, anyway? More and more it seems we're forgoing actual drugs in pursuit of altered states. We've got an essay from Damien Echols about meditating his way off of death row, and David Kordahl will try out so-called "psychedelics for suburbanites," the sort detailed in Mind Games (and which John Lennon swore by).We've also got stories on ayahuasca divorce ceremonies, the meaning of "psychedelic parenting," and whether hacking can be addictive, and we'll be tackling crowd favorite topics including nootropics, binaural beats, and transcendental meditation.That's just the start of it. So, hold on. And if things start to get weird, we're here. Drop us a line at letters@motherboard.tv.Lit Up is a series about heightening—and dulling—our sense of perception. Follow along here.Image: David Perezcassar