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Study: ‘Shrooms’ Confer Lasting Positive Effects
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findingDulcinea Staff
Subjects who took the psychedelic drug psilocybin, the key ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” said that they felt and behaved better more than a year after taking the drug.
30-Second Summary
On Tuesday, scientists released their findings on a recent survey of volunteer psilocybin users 14 months after they took the drug.
“Sixty-four percent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 percent reported at least a moderate behavior change in what they considered positive ways,” reported Discovery.
In addition, two-thirds of the 36 participants said that the drug had caused one of the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives.
Psilocybin research was halted following recreational abuse in the 1960s, and the drug, used throughout history in religious rituals by a variety of indigenous cultures, is currently illegal. The project was one of just a few hallucinogen studies conducted in the past 40 years.
Johns Hopkins scientists last year found that psilocybin from mushrooms produces universal mystical/spiritual experiences that are similar to spontaneous ones that people have reported throughout history.
“The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least,” it was reported.
One of the new study’s participants described her lab experience, remembering first a feeling of losing control, then lifting, intense colors and patterns, and then the sensation that her heart was tearing apart. Yet, “it was a joyful, ecstatic thing at the same time, like the joy of being alive,” she said.
“Sixty-four percent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 percent reported at least a moderate behavior change in what they considered positive ways,” reported Discovery.
In addition, two-thirds of the 36 participants said that the drug had caused one of the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives.
Psilocybin research was halted following recreational abuse in the 1960s, and the drug, used throughout history in religious rituals by a variety of indigenous cultures, is currently illegal. The project was one of just a few hallucinogen studies conducted in the past 40 years.
Johns Hopkins scientists last year found that psilocybin from mushrooms produces universal mystical/spiritual experiences that are similar to spontaneous ones that people have reported throughout history.
“The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least,” it was reported.
One of the new study’s participants described her lab experience, remembering first a feeling of losing control, then lifting, intense colors and patterns, and then the sensation that her heart was tearing apart. Yet, “it was a joyful, ecstatic thing at the same time, like the joy of being alive,” she said.
Headline Link: ‘Study Reveals Benefits’
The results of the experiment were published Tuesday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. Experts warn that people should not take psilocybin without proper supervision, due to possible harmful effects.
Source: Discovery
Background: Psilocybin research; prescriptions for psychedelics?
Psilocybin, a plant alkaloid, mimics the effect that serotonin has on brain receptors, but scientists are unsure of specifically where in the brain or in what manner.
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Kristen Philipkoski in Wired predicted in 2004 that psychedelic drugs such as ecstasy and psilocybin would start “inching their way slowly but surely toward prescription status” due to the effort of scientists who think the drugs can help relieve diseases such as cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Source: Wired magazine
Reference: Psilocybin
Psilocybin is created synthetically or extracted from a variety of mushroom species. Chemically related to LSD although considered gentler and more natural, it is often sold in mushrooms and is known by monikers such as “psychedelic mushrooms,” “magic mushrooms,” and “shrooms.” Its users often experience a mild euphoria, tingling physical sensations and increased sensitivity to music and visual stimuli.
Source: Brown University
Related Topic: ‘Inventor of LSD Dies at 102’
Albert Hofmann, the chemist who synthesized the hallucinogenic drug LSD in 1938, died of a heart attack April 29 at his home in Basel, Switzerland.
Source: findingDulcinea
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