Psychedelic mushrooms work their magic on many

[Celebration]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-11T160215Z_01_N11252078_RTRUKOC_0_US-MUSHROOMS.xml&archived=False

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Magic mushrooms," used by Native Americans and hippies to alter consciousness, appear to have similar mystical effects on many people, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

More than 60 percent of volunteers given capsules of psilocybin derived from mushrooms said they had a "full mystical experience."

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A third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes. Many likened it to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.......

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Two months after getting the drug, 79 percent of the volunteers said they felt a moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction, according to the report published in the journal Psychopharmacology

[gizmo1979]

1. Wooohooo!

Something I thought was bad is actually ok for me.Doesn't cancel all the things I didn't know were bad for me that were,but it's a start.

[lindisfarne]

3. In 30% of the participants, the experience wasn't good, and could have

been disastrous in less controlled circumstances. The authors strongly cautioned against interpreting this article as an ok to use the mushrooms (note that they synthesized the active ingredient; they didn't actually give people the mushroom).

See this article
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Fpublic%2Farticle_print%2FSB115258280486902994-MMZExq97GSAbAXcXe2mZEi5MBwM_20070711.html

[gizmo1979]

4. Dammit!

Gotta bring me down.

[lindisfarne]

5. No, just making sure you have all the facts available to make an

informed decision! :)

[gizmo1979]

6. This was 20 years ago

in my wid and wooly days,These days I'm just wooley.

[trekbiker]

8. I'll bet most of that 30% were small minded Freeper types..

anything that challenges thier small world and distorted "reality" would be perceived as a dangerous threat. Only on shrooms they would not be able to control it till the drug wore off and the cycle of paranoia would intensify. I've seen it myself back in my drug "experimental" days. I grew up in a small foothills town and many of my friends back in the 70's had a redneck tendency and likely grew up into Freepers and neo-cons. We just didnt care about politics back then in our teens, only partying, hot cars, etc.. Those friends who couldnt handle the shrooms were by and large the insecure redneck types. They also could'nt handle their booze very well and made for lousy drunks.

[lindisfarne]

2. It's interesting that they got permission for this study, yet the gov't

refuses to give permission for providing patients with marijuana to study medicinal uses of marijuana.

The key difference may be that the active ingredient was synthesized - the participants weren't given the mushroom. In the same way, synthesized THC is allowed to patients, but for some patients, it doesn't work as well as marijuana itself (suggesting the effect is due to something more than or other than THC).

[Warpy]

7. Big DUH here for those of us who were wild characters in the 60s

It's hard NOT to have some sort of mystical experience on psychedelics, it's rather the point. However, the interpretation can vary widely. In my case, it just showed me where my meditation practice could take me (and eventually did). For others, it's proof positive that a god or gods exist.

The biggest risk is for those with latent psychiatric problems. The drugs can trigger those problems ahead of time. That happened with a tiny percentage of folks in the 60s who experimented with psychedelics.

My guess is that it's an incredibly scary thing for the 25% or so of people who are rigid conservatives. Conservatism bespeaks a fear-based personality, and discarding all normal paramaters of reality terrifies them.

It might have been a more interesting study had they done personality and belief profiles in the subjects beforehand.

[greenman3610]

9. biggest thing is proper set and setting

idiots who use these drugs in uncontrolled
settings have given them a bad name.
The shamans used them in carefully
controlled ceremonial circumstances,
not Black Sabbath concerts.