Jason KingMagic Mushrooms are Good For You
July 5th 2008 02:39
Category: No Category
I know this is completely movie UNRELATED but I am bored waiting for friends to pick me up to go to a picnic that just screams rained out and am reading news articles online and found this article I pretty much cut and pasted word for word. So thanks for all the leg work Reuters but this is interesting and topical so thought I would share with more people (because I would definately have more readers than Reuters - LOL)
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.
In 2006, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues gave psilocybin to 36 volunteers and asked them how it felt. Most reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.
More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths said in a statement. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."
The findings may offer a way to help treat extremely anxious and depressed patients, or people with addictions, said Griffiths, whose work was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.
"This gives credence to the claims that the mystical-type experiences some people have during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression and may serve as a potential treatment for drug dependence," Griffiths said.
While psilocybin is widely outlawed, many U.S. states and some countries overlook its use by indigenous people in religious ceremonies.
Supervision of its use is key, the researchers noted.
"While some of our subjects reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their day-long psilocybin sessions, none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm," Griffiths said.
Hallucinogens should not be given to people at risk for psychosis or certain other serious mental disorders, the researchers said.
But Griffiths stressed that even those who reported fear said a year later they had no permanent negative effects.
Of the volunteers who took the one-day test of psilocybin, 22 of the 36 had a "complete" mystical experience, based on a detailed questionnaire.
Griffiths said 21 continued to rate highly on this standardized scale 14 months later.
"Even at the 14-month follow-up, 58 percent of 36 volunteers rated the experience on the psilocybin session as among the five most personally meaningful experiences of their lives and 67 percent rated it among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives," the researchers said.
"Surrender is intensely powerful. To 'let go' and become enveloped in the beauty of -- in this case music -- was enormously spiritual," one volunteer said.
(Editing by Will Dunham and Vicki Allen)
My only question is: Where can I get some?????
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.
In 2006, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues gave psilocybin to 36 volunteers and asked them how it felt. Most reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.
More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths said in a statement. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."
The findings may offer a way to help treat extremely anxious and depressed patients, or people with addictions, said Griffiths, whose work was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.
"This gives credence to the claims that the mystical-type experiences some people have during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression and may serve as a potential treatment for drug dependence," Griffiths said.
While psilocybin is widely outlawed, many U.S. states and some countries overlook its use by indigenous people in religious ceremonies.
Supervision of its use is key, the researchers noted.
"While some of our subjects reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their day-long psilocybin sessions, none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm," Griffiths said.
Hallucinogens should not be given to people at risk for psychosis or certain other serious mental disorders, the researchers said.
But Griffiths stressed that even those who reported fear said a year later they had no permanent negative effects.
Of the volunteers who took the one-day test of psilocybin, 22 of the 36 had a "complete" mystical experience, based on a detailed questionnaire.
Griffiths said 21 continued to rate highly on this standardized scale 14 months later.
"Even at the 14-month follow-up, 58 percent of 36 volunteers rated the experience on the psilocybin session as among the five most personally meaningful experiences of their lives and 67 percent rated it among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives," the researchers said.
"Surrender is intensely powerful. To 'let go' and become enveloped in the beauty of -- in this case music -- was enormously spiritual," one volunteer said.
(Editing by Will Dunham and Vicki Allen)
My only question is: Where can I get some?????
| 94 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
cool pic!
Comment by Cheryl J
Rhythmatism
Budget Centsability
Interesting stuff. Hmmm, wonder how they'd go in a risotto?
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Cheryl - If you is cooking the risotto I am so expecting an invite!!! I will bring really chronic chemically enhanced pot just in case Morgan does not have a mental psychosis breakdown!!
I think things would be fine with an anxiety disorder, give some to a paranoid schizophrenic and I think things might get a bit dicey.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
Cheryl we need to invite Jason to all our parties!
Comment by Cheryl J
Rhythmatism
Budget Centsability
Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
Comment by Mountain Fog
This article sounds like they want to dose people up again, interesting....
They abandoned research in this area in the late sixties, in the army etc, but the psyops side, the dark side of our "democractic" forces, continued on with it as an instrument of torture and information gathering, and there has been continued spin offs in this area, with police forces using it, without the "target's (victims) knowledge of course! Oh, and the Americans used it in Vietnam, on their own GI soldiers, which they said made them less afraid, but also turned some into homocidal maniacs and lunatics, then they were sent home...without proper psychiatric follow up, well, you can imagine the result of that little social experiment!
Other side affects of tripping are;
increased clairvoyance/ESP and mental telepathy, no pain, massive increase in acumen/IQ, massive increase in athletic ability (I out sprinted a school 100 metre champion across an oval once, and he had a clear head start and I never did sport!) on that last comment, I did nearly have a heart attack however, as the body does not 'feel' what is your actual physical endurance limit when on LSD, and when I stopped, we heard this 'noise', like a drum beating, it was in fact my heart rate, the pulse, beating so fast and hard, it was collapsing and opening my oesophagus!!! Lucky for me, I was young.
Anyway, there we are..
Would I take it again, no, not really, been there and done that, besides, it really is a dangerous drug for anybody, besides what this article tries to imply, that only some people should not take it. they do not make it clear that, besides some people having borderline pre-existing psychiatric conditions, who definitely should not take it, it is also the amount taken, strength, and therefore the length of duration of the trip is what counts, and how often one partakes of this drug, can and will, permanently affect your ability to reason clearly.
I remember seeing a psychologist university lecturer in a psyche ward, when visiting a friend in there for addiction, and his mind was totally blown away, scarey stuff!
There is one situation that I might consider taking it again, right at the end of my life, as I lay dying, now that could be an interesting experience!!
cheers
fog
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Another time, me and some friends had music blaring while swinging from the roof beams of my house at about 4am in the morning when the land lord walked in the front door. He was dumbfounded at what we were doing and why we were sitting in the roof. My only plausible reason and response was "I have no idea but f**k it's dusty up here." I was crying with laughter so hard that he closed the door and walked out. Let's just say our lease was not resigned that year.
Thanks for the comments guys and gals! Awesome stuff Fog, damn scary about the heart thing!!
Comment by Mountain Fog
I must try and find a post I did on an acid trip, the green volcanoes one, it was amazing, and everything changed totally! Roads were rivers of molten bitumen, millions of dinosaurs sprouting out of the carpets, statues coming alive etc etc, great fun, but only because I was with the right people who were looking after me, who were not tripping at the same time, that was particularly important when you took your first trip.
Hearing some younger people describe today what they call an 'acid trip' left me amazed, because what they described was more akin to strong speed.
anyhoo, a bit of a laarrff eh wot!!
cheers
fog