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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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People who took magic mushrooms were still feeling the love more than a year later, and one might say they were on cloud nine about it, scientists report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
"Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," comparing it with the birth of a child or the death of a parent, says neuroscientist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who led the research. "It's one thing to have a dramatic experience you say is impressive. It's another thing to say you consider it as meaningful 14 months later. There's something about the saliency of these experiences that's stunning."
Griffiths gave 36 specially screened volunteers psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. The compound is believed to affect perception and cognition by acting on the same receptors in the brain that respond to serotonin, a neurotransmitting chemical tied to mood.
Afterward, about two thirds of the group reported having a "full mystical experience," characterized by a feeling of "oneness" with the universe. When Griffiths asked them how they were doing 14 months later, the same proportion gave the experience high marks for transcendental satisfaction, and credited it with increasing their well-being since then.
But some scientists noted that this psilocybin study was just the first trip on a long journey of understanding. "We don't know how far we can generalize these results," cautions neuroscientist Charles Schuster of Loyola University Chicago and a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "To attribute all of this to the drug, I think, is a mistake and to expect the same effects from simply taking the drug without this careful preparation in these kinds of people would be a mistake."
Herbert Kleber, who directs the division of substance abuse at Columbia University also notes that it is difficult to assess the mushroom's impact without detailed information on how individual lives were changed. For example, it remains unclear from the study whether volunteers really were more altruistic or simply claimed to be.
But the findings do seem to support reports of recreational users and what LSD guru and 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary made famous in his psychedelic lab at Harvard University.
Griffiths and Schuster are proponents of future research on psilocybin to determine whether it has long-term influence on the brain—and whether the reported mystical effects affect memory alone or stem from other physiological changes. This study is among the first of so-called "shrooms" in four decades, coming after the widespread, illegal use of hallucinogens as recreational drugs in the 1960s, which turned off corporate and academic researchers.
"I don't think the evidence is sufficiently strong for any beneficial effect in general for us to consider changing the legality of these substances until a great deal more research is done," Schuster says. "But the illegality should not interfere with this research."
For his part, Griffiths is now recruiting terminally ill cancer patients for a trial that will test whether psilocybin mitigates the existential anxiety that comes with facing death. Strangely enough, he says, it may also be a salve for alcoholism and drug addiction.
"It does sound counterintuitive," Griffiths says. But, "six of the 12 AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] steps are related to a higher power and surrendering to it. Many people don't engage fully into the 12-step program because they don't have a connection to a higher power. One can't help but wonder whether an experience like this might be useful."
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21 Comments
Add CommentVery interesting! I believe it's about time more research is done in the field of psychedelic substances and therapy. We lost a lot of possible research since the 50's and mid 60's. Of course we need to proceed with caution and safety, but I can only imagine some of the amazing results found from further study into substances such as psilocybin, mescalin, LSD, Ibogaine, & Ayauashca(DMT).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdont forget MDMA it was once used as a drug to help relationship counceling for its
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThats right yellowlemoned, MDMA was used in Psychiatric circles in the late 50's and 60's, for relationship issues due to making clients feel more empathetic towards one another..........sounds like a good thing to me!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just wanted to let people know that there is a new psilocybin study underway at Johns Hopkins University that is recruiting volunteers.
For more information visit:
http://www.bpru.org/cancer/insight/
Thanks
Yeah, it turned off corporate and academic researchers, (probably those working in medicine) and drug companies, they think it's safer to use their hallucinigentics that cause drug dependancy, strokes, diabetes and heart attacks. Their chemicals are far more better than what nature has to offer because they can profit from it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy didn't they just ask someone in Northern California?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI once attended a press conference at a drug research lab in the San Fernando Valley. They demonstrated the ESP enhancing effect of psilocybin, very impressive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe group they should use for this study are those with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have a few problems with this particular research structure and aim:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Griffiths gave 36 specially screened volunteers psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms."
The only thing we can discern from this passage is that the researcher selected a very small sample of people by an undisclosed criteria probably designed to ensure he elicited a desired outcome. Indeed the article goes on to summarize highly subjective reports which reveal nothing about what effect psilocybin has on the human brain:
"Afterward, about two thirds of the group reported having a 'full mystical experience,' characterized by a feeling of 'oneness'with the universe. . . . 14 months later, the same proportion gave the experience high marks for transcendental satisfaction, and credited it with increasing their well-being since then."
I believe we would learn a lot more about psilocybin and its effects by finding out exactly what psilocybin does to the brains of rats, which may already be known, judging by this statement from the article:
"The compound is believed to affect perception and cognition by acting on the same receptors in the brain that respond to serotonin, a neurotransmitting chemical tied to mood."
The author of this research has a culture-bound ideology that has a place in cultural anthropology and social psychology, but is of little or no value at all in neuropscychology:
". . . six of the 12 AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] steps are related to a higher power and surrendering to it. Many people don't engage fully into the 12-step program because they don't have a connection to a higher power. One can't help but wonder whether an experience like this might be useful."
If we pursued such a research structure and aim applied to the effects of nicotine, we may also conclude that nicotine use may be a beneficial and health-promoting practice, at least psychologically. Similar results could be gathered from subject's reports of what they find rewarding from using marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs of abuse.
Good Heavens, haven't they heard of the work of Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.,? He is a psychiatrist with over forty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness (induced by psychedelic substances and various non-drug techniques) and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. Born and trained in Czechoslovakia, he completed a two-year fellowship in the US, then stayed and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. He worked with LSD with both dying cancer and alcoholic patients and has written numerous books. His research, while not scanning brains as can now be done, and using LSD, not psilocybin, would give extraordinary information to these new researchers - or anyone else who is interested for that matter!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous worked with researchers in the 1950's on the effect of psychedelic drugs, especially LSD on a "cure" for alcoholism. My understanding is that the results were mixed, although I believe the same thinking, achieving a kind of spiritual transcendence effect, was what was been sought by researchers at that time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisForcing people to get religion seems a bit evil to me. There isn't enough infomation in this article to really develop an opinion on this research either way. The article does say this is preliminary work which would tend to target a tiny group filtered to eliminate known risk factors. Obviously larger studies need to follow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore all of the junkies out there get too happy just remember that natural does not equal better. Nightshade is natural but it will still kill you in an unpleasant way. The pharmacological field has developed and rejected many drugs over time. I trust long term studies a lot more than some careless idiots that ended up getting stoned and then bragging about it.
One more hulluanciation creative drug added to the list. It may helpful to the mankind or may abused for drug addiction. It is sure that this(psilocybin) is not the natural product of brain to some extent giving effect of serotonin but it can replace it .
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismy own experiences with psilocybin mushrooms were very interesting. i believe i experienced reality directly. my gerneral pre conceptions and relations with reality dissolved. internal dialogue ceased. karl jung was right about the archetypes of the collective unconscious as these became particularly evident as i watched them wax and wane, almost like breathing in and out. i learned a lot but i went too far, i took a lot frequently and anually
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisas they grow locally in ireland. i think a culture of mushroom use, research and discussion is imperative too prevent this. remember drugs are not illegal because they are dangerous but rather they are dangeous because they are illegal. a culture of consumption is imperative to help with the future development of ethneogens and hallucinogens to fully realise thier potential.
Nothing is black or white.....but shades of Grey.......opening ones mind, may be the start of a better humanity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSure, experiment. You just have to find a large group of people who don't want to use their brains again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey, maybe that might not be as hard as it sounds!
Bradley - Have you ever smoked a cigarette and then experienced "God?" I don't think any heroin addict or pothead has either. Whether or not people are ready to admit it, psychedelics do have an important place in our culture. They have been used for thousands of years, not as drugs, but as medicine. It's mind medicine. SWIM is a user of psychedelics, and claims they have benefited him in ways that no psychiatrist or psychotherapist ever could. They have helped him heal mental scarring and answer internal questions about life and the universe without ever having opened his mouth to another person. He says a single experience, say once a year, is his religious sacrament, despite the fact that his use of these chemicals has allowed him to see beyond the petty purposes of organized religion. They've benefited him more than any antidepressant that he has been on, which really shouldn't make sense, should it? I mean, seeing how big pharma made those "perfect" lab-grade chemicals (compounds specifically made to create a chemical dependancy in the brain, drugs that need taken everyday just to put off the problem and create a new one when the time comes to discontinue use), and the earth made psilocybin containing mushrooms (Which have had the same effect as these lab grade drugs, aside from the seretonin depletion and addiction, and with an added and ongoing sense of happiness, without any prolonged drug use). I think before you go spouting bullshit about the practicality of using illegal drugs or drugs of abuse for these purposes, you need to do a little more research into the wonders psychedelics (NOT NARCOTICS, there's a difference) can do. Maybe you should embark on a trip yourself! Or are you too afraid of what your mind could show you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI had a very serious and destructive alcohol problem. i was many times drunk and could not stop drinking till i lost my consciousness. one day i took Magic Mushroom for fun, and i really liked it so i took a very big dose. the onset of this trip wasn't easy, because i had the sensation that i was dying, but the experience was the most beautiful thing that i ever experienced in my live. and after that i was cured from my alcohol addiction. now 10 years later i can drink alcolhol and stop before a i get drunk. in all those 10 years there was one day in a very difficult time for me when i slipped back and drank to much, but i could stop before i lost my consiousness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am very thankfull to the Magic Mushroom for healing me, to God for creating Magic Mushrooms and to the fact that i could buy Magic Mushrooms legally in a so called Smartshop in the Netherlands. Thanks for your attention, Benno
"Drugs of abuse?" Sounds like a culture-bound ideology based on the idea that governments know best and alcohol is a harmless drug, or not a drug at all, whereas illegal drugs are always misused!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt was very interesting. Magic mushrooms are hallucinogenic fungi primarily of the genus Psilocybe. There are five primary substances found in these mushrooms which make them famous for their effects on the mind, including euphoria, lethargy, increased appreciation of music and colour, amplified emotions and visual and aural distortion. These substances are tryptamines, related to the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPsychotherapeutic drugs could be costly to produce and rather unstable. One study, however, has discovered that the normal narcotic in magic mushrooms could be used to treat some psychological problems. The research found that spiritual participants that took psilocybin, the active narcotic in magic mushrooms, noted mystical experiences and better life fulfillment 14 months later. <a title="Controlled magic mushroom doses could have psychotherapeutic uses" href="http://www.newsytype.com/12143-magic-mushroom/">Controlled magic mushroom doses could have psychotherapeutic uses</a>. Psilocybin is the active ingredient in what are usually referred to as “magic mushrooms,” or “God’s Flesh.” Magic mushrooms are just one of several drugs being studied for their potential uses in treating everything from cancer, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and a host of other mental disorders. LSD, ecstasy and magic mushrooms are all being studied by researchers as potentially therapeutic drugs.