The use of mushrooms by man for practical, culinary or recreational purposes is said to date back to at least Paleolithic times, with perhaps the best-known variety in recent times being Amanita muscaria or Fly Agaric. Nibbling on one side of this fungus made Alice grow in size and the other made her shrink, leading to some rather bizarre adventures and inspiring one of my favorite songs – White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. The favored psychoactive mushrooms of the drop-out 1960s, though, were members of the Psilocybe genus. Researchers now believe that they have found the optimum dose of the pure chemical found in those so-called magic mushrooms, a level which offers maximum therapeutic value with little risk of having a bad trip.
Psilocybin is produced by over 200 species of fungi and its hallucinogenic, often spiritual, influence has long been well known. It’s said to lead to a feeling of oneness with nature and the universe, of a great inner peace and calm. But, as if proof of the old adage, too much of this good thing can also result in powerful negative episodes marked by fear and anxiety, and has led to strict regulation or outright prohibition in many countries throughout the world.
The latest Psilocybin study at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine set out to discover the “sweet spot” dose of pure chemical Psilocybin that would offer users all the positive benefits while minimizing the negative effects. Researchers screened volunteers between the ages of 29 and 62, ensuring that they were of sound mind and body (as the saying goes), and chose 18 to undergo five sessions lasting eight hours each and timed a month apart. At four of these, the volunteers would receive varying doses of the chemical and a placebo (no drug) at the remaining session.
Lie back and look inward
In common with other studies at Hopkins, volunteers in this one were settled into a comfy couch in an aesthetically-pleasing, living-room-like environment during each session and were accompanied by trained monitors. The subjects were encouraged to lie back and relax, with mood-complementing classical and world music being played through headphones. Neither the volunteers or the monitors knew beforehand how much Psilocybin they were to receive at each session but subjects were given preparatory guidance and coaching.
The Latest on: Psilocybin
via Google News
The Latest on: Psilocybin
- UW-Madison program to study psychoactive drugs in treatmenton April 9, 2021 at 10:01 pm
A new master's degree program starting this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will prepare students for careers studying the therapeutic effects of psychoactive drugs to treat mental ...
- Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposureon April 8, 2021 at 7:58 am
Acutely, psilocybin increased ratings of (spontaneous) creative insights, while decreasing (deliberate) task-based creativity. Seven days after psilocybin, number of novel ideas increased.
- Aikido Secures Sublicense For Psilocybin Treatment of Neuro-Inflamed Tissue in Cancer Patientson April 7, 2021 at 7:39 am
Aikido Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: AIKI) has been granted an exclusive sublicense to technology related to the use of the central nervous system (CNS) homing peptides to treat neuroinflammatory disease in ...
- California Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Possession Of Psychedelics Like LSD, MDMA And Psilocybinon April 6, 2021 at 1:05 pm
Scott Wiener (D), by a vote of 4-1. If enacted into law, it would remove criminal penalties for possessing or sharing a wide range of psychedelics—including psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, LSD ...
- Oregon Health Authority advisory board discusses plan for legal psilocybinon April 6, 2021 at 6:08 am
The Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board convened for the first time Wednesday to begin the long process of integrating legal psilocybin therapy into the state’s mental health care system.
- ‘Psilocybin Service Centers’ In Oregon Will Explore And Exploit The Therapeutic ‘Magic’ Of Magic Mushroomson April 5, 2021 at 4:17 am
Psilocybin service centers’ are not drive-through places where mechanics check the enchantment pressure of your magic mushrooms. They will be centers where psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is ...
- Denver dabbles with magic mushrooms, but using them to treat mental health disorders remains undergroundon April 5, 2021 at 3:00 am
Mushroom proponents see the absence of backlash as a key selling point in their push to eventually legalize psilocybin — the active ingredient — as a mainstream treatment for various mental ...
- Hawaii Lawmakers Seek Marijuana Exemption From DEA While Also Requesting Legal Psilocybin Planon April 1, 2021 at 8:31 am
Separately, the Senate approved two resolutions calling on state officials to study the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin mushrooms and create a plan that would provide equitable access to the fungi ...
- Case report: Consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms results in amelioration of OCD symptomson March 29, 2021 at 8:00 pm
A report recently published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs presents the case of a 30-year-old man who showed clinically significant reductions in treatment-resistant OCD symptoms after consuming ...
- Oregon’s in Uncharted Territory with Therapeutic Psilocybin Useon March 29, 2021 at 12:33 pm
Often, Carter witnessed people experience major breakthroughs while using psilocybin, the hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms. “The brain is more active, there’s more connections being made ...
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