By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called magic 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. That's my story an' Imma stickin' to it.
The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed. Pick me! Pick me!
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. Tambourines and elephants were playin' in a Band!
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. I took a ride on a Flyin' Spoon, dot dot doo.
"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." A Dinosaur Victrola listnin' to Buck Owens.
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 Clearwater Revival 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. I just sat back and watched the pretty pictures.
While psilocybin is widely outlawed, many U.S. states and some countries overlook its use by indigenous people in religious ceremonies. I'm Indigenous. I've lived here all my life.
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. Me either.
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. Except for the desire to sit on a cowpie.
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. It was, like, WOW, dude.
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.
The report included some comments from the volunteers.
"Surrender is intensely powerful. To 'let go' and become enveloped in the beauty of — in this case music — was enormously spiritual," one volunteer said. Listening to Dark Side of the Moon was very interesting.
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07/04/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
...none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm.
They should have interviewed the girl that took mushrooms and fell off a 300 foot cliff on Mount Sopris. Oh wait, she is dead.
#2
While psilocybin is widely outlawed, many U.S. states and some countries overlook its use by indigenous people in religious ceremonies.
NO! Indigenous people used Peyote in religious ceremonies. Similar effects but not religious ritual. One's a cactus, one is a fungus then there is that weed nobody talks about that grows in the jungle in Mayan areas that actually has LSD in its sap. (sh....)
#3
How could they not mention the VILE tastes of those mushrooms? No mention of the elephant killing bad breath. Nothing about how the only way to down them is inside a peanutbutter sandwich swallowed in one chew followed by chugging a beer or two....
VILE... Even worse for Peyote. Puke city....
Yeah. Talking to the toilet could be a "spiritual" experience.
Its like talking about smoking and not mentioning lung cancer.
Oh and its a really good at causing yeast infections for some women.
Russian border guards reportedly found a weapon depot this week that even they didn't know about, on Russia's side of its northern border to Norway.
The depot contained two "Osa" type missiles and a 76mm bomb at the site near Liinakhamary, just three kilometers (less than two miles) from the Russian-Norwegian border. Electronic detonators were also said to have been found at the site.
The weapons, according to BarentsObserver.coms version of a Russian report on Russian web site Newsru.com,were found on Tuesday and were destroyed by the Federal Security service of the Russian Federation (FSB). The FSB is responsible for internal security within Russia, including border security.
FSB officials in Murmansk told Newsru.com that they did not know why the missiles were on the site or who put them there. An investigation was underway.
The Osa guided missiles have been produced since the early 1960s. A Norwegian military spokesman said the missiles probably came from a naval base in the area that was shut down a few years ago.
"This is really a maritime weapon, probably used on several of their vessels at the naval base," said Kjetil Eide of the military.
Others at the military research institute FFI criticized the apparent lack of control over weapons, especially near the border. "Missiles shouldn't just be left lying around" said Jan Erik Torp told Aftenposten.no, but he added that the discovery wasn't all that dramatic.
"This is probably old equipment, and unusable," Torp said. He said the OSA missile found had a range of only 15 kilometers and was "very ordinary."
BarentsObserver.com describes itself as "an open Internet news service," offering daily updated news from and about the Barents Region. The project is run by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes, which long has been affiliated with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and has invested nearly NOK 350 million in the region since 1993, through more than 3,000 grants and cooperating programs.
The Barents Secretariat is now run by the Norwegian counties of Finnmark, Troms and Nordland.
NEWSMAX > ANY ATTACK ON IRAN NUCLEAR SITES MEANS WAR, + WAFF.com Threads > ADMIRAL MULLEN - AN ATTACK AGZ IRAN MAY OPEN UP A "THIRD FRONT" IN THE MIDDLE EAST + IRAN MAY ATTACK BOTH THE USA AND ISRAEL.
More Moves + Countermoves:
*KOMMERSANT > GEORGIA CALLS FOR NATION-WIDE/NATIONAL MOBILIZATION + SEVEN/SEVERAL UN-IDENTIFIED PLANES SPOTTED IN SOUTH OSSETIA;
+ TOPIX > RUSSIA CALLS GEORGIAN ACTION "OPEN AGGRESSION" + GEORGIAN BREAKAWAY REGION CALLS FOR GENERAL MOBILIZATION AFTER CONVOY ATTACK, DEATHS + BREAKWAY REGION ACCUSES GEORGIAN GOVT. OF AGGRESSION IN CONVOY ATTACK.
Also on TOPIX > ARMENIA NEWS > POLISH PRESIDENT -BAKU: ALIEN IMPERIALIST MILITARY FORCES ENTER NAGORNO-KARABAKH. Azerbaijan + Armenia vv Nagorno-Karabakh + Tunkushetia + SOssetia regions.
Gaaawd, I don't think I drank enuff Coffee for this morning.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
