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  Counterculture Drug Provides Spiritual Boost
Posted by CN Staff on July 11, 2006 at 06:51:46 PT
By Denise Gellene, Times Staff Writer 
Source: Chicago Tribune  

NIDA USA -- Using the active ingredient in illegal hallucinogenic mushrooms, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have induced a lingering sense of spirituality that they believe has the potential to help patients struggling with addiction or terminal cancer.

Researchers said that the 36 subjects in the tightly controlled experiment — none of whom had ever taken the drug before — already had deep religious convictions, which primed them for a mystical experience.

About a third of them experienced feelings of anxiety and depression during their single, hours-long drug trip.

Despite the dangers, researchers concluded that psilocybin, the compound in the mushrooms, might have therapeutic value in improving the outlook of addicts and terminal cancer patients under enormous psychological burdens.

The study, published today in the medical journal Psychopharmacology, is one of a handful looking at the potential of a classic 1960s counterculture drug. Neurological discoveries in the last decade have revived scientific interest in the drug's ability to alter the chemistry of the brain. At UCLA, for example, researchers are studying the drug as psychological therapy for cancer patients.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Council on Spiritual Practices, a Berkeley-based organization that studies drugs and spirituality, funded the research.

The findings are in some ways unsurprising, as the hallucinogenic effect of the drugs — used by some Native American groups for religious rituals — has been known for centuries. Some experts said the results harkened back to the decades-old utopian visions of Timothy Leary, who urged a generation to tune in and drop out.

"This is old stuff," said Father Harvey D. Egan, a professor of theology at Boston College, adding that it didn't take a scientific experiment to know that psilocybin users felt that their experience under the influence was at times transcendent — whether it really was or not.

Psilocybin acts on a part of the brain stimulated by serotonin, a brain chemical associated with mood and a sense of well-being. It is in the same drug class as LSD. Drugs such as Prozac regulate serotonin, but in a different way.

The Johns Hopkins researchers were interested in inducing a mystical experience because of the widely recognized value of creating a sense of spirituality to help people overcome fears and psychological problems.

For some addiction treatment groups, surrendering to a higher power is a key step toward a patient's rehabilitation. Alcoholics Anonymous uses spirituality as part of its 12-step treatment program.

The researchers recruited well-educated middle-aged people who had never taken hallucinogenic drugs. They advertised in newspapers and posted fliers in churches and meditation halls in the Baltimore area.

It took the researchers six years to come up with 36 subjects.

Volunteers took the drug while listening to classical music in comfortable rooms. A trained monitor stayed with each participant until the drug trip ended.

Afterward, they were asked to rate their experiences for sacredness, transcendence, unity and intuitive knowledge. Two-thirds of them described their drug trip as among the five most profound events in their lives, rivaling the birth of a child.

The subjects were surveyed two months later and reported that they continued to feel a sense of well-being.

Some said they had the same feelings a year later.

Lead author Roland R. Griffiths said psilocybin was no "God pill," but rather a chemical process. The interplay of brain chemicals sparked by psilocybin could explain the biology underlying spiritual experiences.

The process "could be the basis of ethics and morality," he said.

Dr. Richard P. Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research, said it was a mistake to reduce spirituality to a function of brain chemistry.

"I would think religious people would find it objectionable to describe the religious experience as a product of neurochemistry with no intrinsic truth," he said.

David E. Nichols, a Purdue University chemist who synthesized psilocybin for use in the study, said the effects of psilocybin could vary greatly, depending on the mood of the user, and could be dangerous.

"If you take psilocybin and go watch 'Friday the 13th,' I can guarantee you won't have a mystical experience," he said.

Note: Mushrooms may help patients struggling with addiction or terminal cancer, researchers say.

From the Los Angeles Times

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Denise Gellene, Times Staff Writer
Published: July 11, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

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Comment #9 posted by runderwo on July 11, 2006 at 23:19:51 PT
Wayne
You are correct.

The first time I ate shrooms, I ate a lot. I was at a music festival and had a wonderful time. Didn't really have supervision and there was someone else I had to supervise (...) I was slightly freaked out at how intense it was, but all I had to do was keep reminding myself that it was okay and that it would wear off. I wouldn't say it was a 'trip' in that I did not break from reality. Reality was just VERY strange. Now that I know what that heavy experience is like, I stay below that threshold and simply enjoy the mind warp, silliness, and plain strangeness that is the mushroom.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #8 posted by FoM on July 11, 2006 at 08:02:22 PT
Sam
Ok I won't worry too much. I believe that this shouldn't be an issue. All I want is to let people live and be themselves.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on July 11, 2006 at 07:58:10 PT
mass.
FOM, I wouldn't worry too much. Yes, the gay marriage opponents are still fighting, but from what I read, it's going to be very difficult for them to win. At this point, they're hoping a referendum in 2008 would take away gay marriage.

But the state legislature, which overall approves gay marriage, may intervene & keep the referendum off the ballot. I think it's going to be decided in the next couple weeks. Even if they don't, opinion polls that I"ve seen have been 55-45 in favor of gay marriage, despite a couple years of propaganda against it. I think the average person has already accepted the situations, since gay marriage has been legal now for a few years & absolutely nothing bad has come of it.

In fact, if you didn't hear about it in the news, you'd never know anything had changed. Which is also the case when medical MJ becomes legal, btw.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 11, 2006 at 07:39:54 PT
Sam
I didn't know if you knew that they are putting a gay marriage bill in your state to vote on. They want it on the ballot in 08. Republicans are so shifty. They feed on hate. I sure hope they get voted out soon.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 11, 2006 at 07:29:04 PT
Wayne
I guess that old saying is true. The more things change the more they stay the same.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by afterburner on July 11, 2006 at 07:28:06 PT
Exactly Right, Sam
"After the Viet Nam war was halted, and the Social Revolution completed, the rich elite knew their solution was to fix the media. So they bought it out. Almost all of it."

The Press, all the TV networks and most of the radio stations too.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by Wayne on July 11, 2006 at 07:25:11 PT
FoM
I must say, it was a BIG hit in the 90s when I was in college. Anytime someone said the word 'shrooms', you should have seen all the kids flock to it.

I never tried them myself, but sometimes I wish I had. I've heard they can be pretty fun. But then, you're never too old to try something new, right?

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 11, 2006 at 07:18:34 PT
Sam
That was a popular substance from the 60s. I didn't know anyone after the 60s that ever tried it.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on July 11, 2006 at 07:15:08 PT
propaganda
It would be so laughably funny if it wasn't frightening.

Now mushrooms are a "counterculture drug" from the "60's"???? That's funny, to me, mushrooms are the "rich white kids getting wasted at college in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s drug".

Another media foray into the magical land of drug war make-believe. The only people to use cannabis and shrooms were raging counterculture lunatics back in the 60s. It's not like every lawyer, businessman, nurse, doctor, cop and politician of today all used them when they were 18.

And apparently, shrooms are now only a mystical, worth-while experience for religious folks! No one else is allowed to be spiritual, I guess.

I saw Fahrenheit 911 all the way through for the 1st time last night. All I could think was, nothing's changed since Viet Nam. All the same players are doing the same things - military-industrial complex defense contractors, oil companies, the government. What's changed is the media. After the Viet Nam war was halted, and the Social Revolution completed, the rich elite knew their solution was to fix the media. So they bought it out. Almost all of it.

Now, even though the movie was widely available to everyone, we voted him in again. As a society and culture, we are insane. No sane person would vote for Bush after watching the movie.

The government doesn't even really need the Patriot Act, or militarized law enforcement at home. They don't need those things at all. The brainwashing of most people is so complete, it doesn't matter if they see the truth. It will bounce right off without sinking in.



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