When He Said It, I Wonder If He Knew?
When Screamin' Howie Dean said we were about to enter the '60s again, I wonder if he already knew about this? A brand spanking new study into psychedelic drugs! Timothy Leary would be so proud!
NEW YORK - People who took an illegal drug made from mushrooms reported profound mystical experiences that led to behavior changes lasting for weeks — all part of an experiment that recalls the psychedelic '60s.
Many of the 36 volunteers rated their reaction to a single dose of the drug, called psilocybin, as one of the most meaningful or spiritually significant experiences of their lives. Some compared it to the birth of a child or the death of a parent.
Such comments "just seemed unbelievable," said Roland Griffiths of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, the study's lead author.
But don't try this at home, he warned. "Absolutely don't."
Almost a third of the research participants found the drug experience frightening even in the very controlled setting. That suggests people experimenting with the illicit drug on their own could be harmed, Griffiths said.
Viewed by some as a landmark, the study is one of the few rigorous looks in the past 40 years at a hallucinogen's effects. The researchers suggest the drug someday may help drug addicts kick their habit or aid terminally ill patients struggling with anxiety and depression.
It may also provide a way to study what happens in the brain during intense spiritual experiences, the scientists said.
Funded in part by the federal government, the research was published online Tuesday by the journal Psychopharmacology.
Give me a break. Taking psilocybin is credited with extraordinary reports of profound spiritual experiences that last for extended periods. How's about looking at how the volunteers are doing in the real world objectively instead of by anecdote? This has all been puffed before, hasn't it? Get the tie dye ready.
By Neo, Tuesday, 11 July , 2006 @ 12:20 pm
Syd Barrett, the original acid casualty and the former lead singer of Pink Floyd and one of the key figures of the 60s, has died at the Cambridgeshire home.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 11 July , 2006 @ 12:26 pm
Excellent point.