Last week’s news about a new study by Johns Hopkins University researchers, showing that psilocybin (‘Magic’) mushrooms offer positive spiritual/mental effects for more than a year, has certainly made things difficult for the mainstream media. So often an excuse to throw out negative or scare-mongering clichés, this particular study offered no such opportunity to news outlets. Check out this story, just to see a CNN anchor say people will be lining up to sign up for a shroom trip:
You’ll still roll your eyes at comments suggesting this is a “surprising” result, and the regular hippie/spaced out ‘humour’, but still a good step away from the ‘demonising’ of these substances, and moving more towards understanding and education.
You can download and read the actual study here: “Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later” (PDF). Here’s the abstract:
Psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes; however, little is known scientifically about its long-term effects. We previously reported the effects of a double-blind study evaluating the psychological effects of a high psilocybin dose. This report presents the 14-month follow-up and examines the relationship of the follow-up results to data obtained at screening and on drug session days. Participants were 36 hallucinogen-naïve adults reporting regular participation in religious/spiritual activities. Oral psilocybin (30 mg/70 kg) was administered on one of two or three sessions, with methylphenidate (40 mg/70 kg) administered on the other session(s). During sessions, volunteers were encouraged to close their eyes and direct their attention inward. At the 14-month follow-up, 58% and 67%, respectively, of volunteers rated the psilocybin-occasioned experience as being among the five most personally meaningful and among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives; 64% indicated that the experience increased well-being or life satisfaction; 58% met criteria for having had a ‘complete’ mystical experience. Correlation and regression analyses indicated a central role of the mystical experience assessed on the session day in the high ratings of personal meaning and spiritual significance at follow-up. Of the measures of personality, affect, quality of life and spirituality assessed across the study, only a scale measuring mystical experience showed a difference from screening. When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences that, at 14-month follow-up, were considered by volunteers to be among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives.
I’m not sure whether the results say more about the positive effects of psilocybin mushrooms, or the spiritual vacuum we live in these days…perhaps a combination of both.
On a related note, as I’ve mentioned previously, the next Daily Grail publication is a reprint of Paul Devereux’s amazing book detailing the history of entheogen use throughout world cultures, The Long Trip. Definitely one to look out for, I’ve really enjoyed putting this one together.
