At least three different formal psychiatric studies on the effects of psilocybin, extracted from “magic mushrooms”, were performed on voluntary subjects who had never experienced psychedelics before. All had similar positive results. The motive for these studies was investigating the potential for treating depression and other psychiatric maladies with psilocybin.
Two of the studies (done in the UK) were conducted by Professor David Nutt, who was considered nutty by superiors when he was chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). He was fired from the ACMD by Home Secretary Alan Johnson for resisting the decision to toughen laws on cannabis and publicly stating that alcohol was more harmful than cannabis and the magic mushroom compound, psilocybin.
The other study was performed by Johns Hopkins University Medical School, an institution that is never considered nutty. All three studies were conducted circa 2011 – 2012. All of them did follow up surveys 14 months after the subjects’ psilocybin experiences. The compound was often administered while participants were in MRI (magnetic resonance imagery) machines that were scanning their brain activity.
Surprising Results
The researchers were personally unfamiliar with psychedelic experiences, and they had expected increased frontal lobe activity. Frontal lobes are the brain parts used in day to day conscious activity and thinking, and excess frontal lobe activity is common among those who are depressed. Instead, things slowed down, both under MRI scrutiny and from study subjects’ feedback.
Read: 5 Natural Solutions for Avoiding and Treating Depression
The subjects were advised to look inward. To help turn their attention away from medical machinery, they were usually given blindfolds and headsets piping in pleasant music. Around 60% of the subjects reported mystical experiences while all of them felt they were in a strange but pleasant world. And they all experienced a greater degree of openness, awareness, or empathy.
Here are the study results:
- 83% given the higher doses of psilocybin said they felt greater well-being
- 89% reported improvements in their behavior
- 94% ranked the experience as one of the most “spiritually significant” in their lives
- None of the subjects went crazy despite their prior inexperience with psychedelics
The study concluded:
“Under supportive conditions, 20 and 30 mg/70 kg psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences having persisting positive effects on attitudes, mood, and behavior. Implications for therapeutic trials are discussed.”
Big Pharma Relies on Ineffective, Harmful Antidepressants
I should note that LSD is a manufactured drug, while both mescalin and psilocybin are extracted from plants. Since they are plant derived, there is no patent potential until Big Pharma figures out how to synthesize them.
But for now, they’re making big bucks off anti-depressants that are no more effective than placebos and create adverse physiological side effects as well as manic, depressive, suicidal, and homicidal impulses that are too often carried out.
Reporting in the follow up surveys 14 months after, almost all of the subjects stated that the experiences were among the most significant life changing episodes of their lives, and their sense of well being, behavior, and relationships with others in their life had improved significantly.
All this without having to daily dose pharmaceuticals that demand other pharmaceuticals for side effects for those 14 months. No wonder this research isn’t going anywhere within Big Pharma controlled psychiatry.
Additional Sources:
http://jop.sagepub.com/content/22/6/621.abstract
No comments from RealityCheck?? Shocking! Well, in case you have not gotten to negating this article yet, here is some feedback for you from other articles:
Shut up already! I am SOOO tired of reading EVERY reply you post where you negate EVERY article!!!! Why are you wasting your time reading these articles? What is your goal here? Do you really think people are listening to your negativity? Even if you do bring up good points, I DO NOT want to analyze them because of your attitude. What qualifications do you possess to question others? Do you have facts to back up your claims that “Most of this article is not true..”?
This is a reply I posted in response to one of your other replies, which I am sure you did not see. Can you address my last question?
RealityCheck, are you on a mission to debunk every article on this web site that MAY help people improve their health? Instead of negating every article, do you have any valuable suggestions? Do you have resources to back up your claims? I don’t necessarily agree with all that is written in these articles and in fact, I find that information is often omitted or not presented clearly, but I analyze what I read and I draw my own conclusions. Why are you reading these articles if you find faults with just about every single one? Isn’t this a waste of time for you? I am curious, do you find issues with the idea of allowing the body to heal naturally and avoiding toxic “medications” that our conventional medical doctors are so quick to prescribe these days or is it something else?
Sounds great. I’m eager to read further studies on this compound’s benefits. Great article.
Better to actually try it rather than read about it. It grows in the August-September time frame, so you may have to wait awhile if you want to pick your own.
Who knows? You may become less pedantic after you have done so.
Here’s hoping.
LSD is a manufactured drug …… Please explain what ERGOT is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ergot is a fungus that causes ergotism.
A particularly horrifying affliction…
I thought ERGOT IS A FUNGUS IN FRESH CORN, ISN’T IT?
Not really. It mainly affect rye and similar grains.
and I don’t know but I thought it was toxic.
does anyone knows for real? can someone give more information?