Research and academia
Find in minutes what would take an afternoon of cross-searching, with the reference in front of you. The graph also shows which lines of work connect and which stand alone — useful for spotting gaps.
How Noosphere works
Noosphere is Psiconáutica’s document search engine on psychoactive substances. It retrieves documents from its own corpus and generates answers with references you can check.
What it is
A document brain on psychoactive substances — psychedelics, cannabis, opioids, stimulants, depressants, dissociatives, traditional plants and animal-derived preparations — covering their pharmacology, neuroscience, clinical use and risk reduction. Every document that comes in is split, indexed and turned into a network of connected concepts. When you ask, Noosphere retrieves the relevant fragments — whatever language they're in — and writes an answer citing its sources.
How to cite and verify an answer
To cite research, open the reference and cite the original document with its authors, title, year and DOI or URL. When describing the tool, cite “Noosphere, Psiconáutica” with its link and your access date. A generated answer can contain errors or omit studies: review the sources and method before reusing it. It does not replace professional medical advice.
Example: from the record to the original publication
- Open the record for The pharmacology of psilocybin (Passie and colleagues, 2002) and check its title, authors and year.
- Compare those details with the original PubMed record. To cite a claim, consult and cite the original publication.
- Explore other references in the public catalog or use bibliographic search.
The record describes a publication; it does not reproduce its full text or validate its findings.
Why multidisciplinary
Almost everything written about these substances is written from a single discipline. A pharmacology paper says nothing about ritual context; an anthropology paper cites no receptors; a legal report ignores the neuroscience. Noosphere brings those views together and cross-references them, because real questions rarely fit inside just one.
Pharmacology and neuroscienceMechanisms, receptors, dosing, interactions, long-term effects.
Clinical and psychiatryTrials, indications, contraindications, outcomes and their limits.
PsychologyTherapeutic process, experience, personality, trauma, measurement.
Botany, mycology and ethnobotanyWhich species it is exactly, what it contains, how the plant or fungus builds its alkaloids, and what traditional knowledge surrounds its preparation.
Anthropology and historyTraditional use, ritual, colonial trade, counterculture.
Law and policyRegulation, prohibition, markets, criminalisation, reform.
Risk reductionReal risks, dangerous combinations, drug checking, overdose.
One example: asking about ayahuasca can return its pharmacology (the Banisteriopsis MAOIs and their dangerous interactions with antidepressants), its ceremonial use as documented by anthropology, its legal status across countries and the specific risk-reduction precautions — all at once. That answer exists in none of those literatures on its own.
What you can ask
It works better with specific questions than with single words. These are real, and they get good answers:
- “What does the evidence say about psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression?”
- “Risks of combining opioids with benzodiazepines”
- “What is known about kratom and its long-term safety?”
- “Differences between therapeutic and recreational MDMA”
- “How has medical cannabis regulation changed across Europe?”
- “Traditional peyote use and its conservation status”
- “What interactions does ayahuasca have with SSRIs?”
- “Evidence on supervised consumption rooms and overdose deaths”
- “What doses of psilocybin were used in treatment-resistant depression trials?”
- “What is MDMA cut with, and what shows up in drug-checking analyses?”
How to use it
Ask naturally
Write as you'd speak: "what does the evidence say about psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression?". It answers in the language you ask in.
Read the sources
Under each answer you'll find the documents used, numbered and linked to the original. The bracketed numbers in the text point to that list.
Keep asking
It remembers the conversation: you can say "and what are the risks?" without repeating the topic.
Explore the graph
On the right you'll see the concept network behind each answer. Click any of them to open its card: what it is, what it relates to and which documents back it up.
Ask for the list, not the answer
In “Search documents” you get the list of what has been published on a topic, with authors, journal and year, filterable by year, evidence level, source, author or journal, and exportable to BibTeX, RIS or CSV. With an account you can ask to be emailed every Monday with whatever new arrives on that search.
Check and take every citation with you
For each source you can read the exact passage the model used and copy the reference ready for Zotero or Mendeley. If you are doing a review, tick “Extended answer” in the filter: fourteen sources and a section-by-section answer.
Who it is for
Journalism and science writing
Check a claim before publishing it and reach the original source, not the headline that summarised it. Every fact comes with its document so you can cite it properly.
Risk reduction
Look up interactions, risky combinations and warning signs with the literature behind them. Built to answer without scaremongering and without advocacy, which is how you actually inform people.
Clinical and therapy
Review the state of the evidence for a specific indication, with its trials, sample sizes and contraindications. As a documented starting point, never as clinical judgement.
Students
Enter a new subject through the right door: a clear explanation, the sources to go deeper, and a map of the concepts you need to master.
Informed curiosity
If the subject interests you and you are tired of forums and headlines, here the answers come with their provenance and you can check them yourself.
The graph's three tools
Hubs
The most connected concepts in the corpus: the field's pillars.
Map
Thematic blocks the system detects on its own, such as kappa receptor pharmacology or PTSD therapy.
Path
The chain of relations linking two concepts — say, from ibogaine to opioid addiction.
Where its knowledge comes from
90,000+indexed documents
300,000+connected concepts
400,000+relations between them
Livecoverage by year
The corpus combines references from PubMed and Europe PMC, Crossref and OpenAlex with other documents added to the project. It includes different disciplines and document types. A record’s presence does not certify peer review or relevance to every question. Depending on the source, metadata, abstracts or other passages may be available. Check coverage and content in the original publication.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from asking ChatGPT?
Noosphere retrieves passages from a specialist document corpus and generates an answer with linked references. Citations let you check the answer, but do not guarantee a correct interpretation or that all relevant evidence has been retrieved. Check the original documents and their limitations. Coverage includes anthropology, history, law and risk reduction alongside biomedical literature.
Does it search the internet?
Answers are generated from the project’s document corpus. Publications and materials added by the team are indexed for retrieval and citation. A query is not an exhaustive search of the whole web.
Why does it sometimes say it does not know?
The system is designed to acknowledge when it does not find enough evidence in the retrieved documents. It can still make mistakes: failing to find an answer does not prove that no evidence exists, and a cited answer still needs checking.
What languages does it work in?
The interface and information pages are available in Spanish and English. Queries can retrieve documents in different languages; answer quality depends on coverage and the evidence retrieved.
Which substances does it cover?
The corpus includes literature on psychedelics, cannabis, opioids, stimulants, depressants, dissociatives and traditionally used plants, among other psychoactive substances. Coverage is uneven and not exhaustive; consult the corpus datasheet and method.
Does it give doses, interactions and adulterants?
It helps locate literature describing trial doses, interactions and substance analyses, with references for verification. This is documentary information: it does not establish a personal dose, prescribe treatment or replace assessment by a healthcare professional.
Can I trust what it answers?
References allow you to check an answer; they do not guarantee it is correct. Open the original documents, review the study type and its limitations, and compare the findings before reusing a claim.
Does it store my questions?
The handling of queries and conversation history depends on usage and plan. Consult the privacy policy for the data processed, retention periods and how to exercise your rights.
Can I contribute documents?
You can suggest relevant literature, such as theses, reports or risk-reduction material, through the project’s contact page. Contributions are reviewed before inclusion in the corpus.
What does it cost?
There is a free plan with a limited number of daily queries, enough to try it out and for occasional use. Paid plans raise that limit and sustain the project: the corpus, the server and the work of maintaining them are real costs that advertising does not cover, because there is no advertising.
Noosphere is a document research tool by Psiconáutica. References let you check an answer; they do not guarantee correctness or exhaustive coverage.
How to verify and cite · Corpus fact sheet · Method and limitations