A couple of entries today…
This being the first…
For every revolution there
comes a sacrifice…
(Dedicated to Syd)
Blessings.
Gwyllm
Magic mushrooms can induce mystical effects, study finds
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 11 July 2006
A universal mystical experience with life-changing effects can be produced by the hallucinogen contained in magic mushrooms, scientists claim today.
Forty years after Timothy Leary, the apostle of drug-induced mysticism, urged his hippie followers to “tune in, turn on, and drop out”, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, have for the first time demonstrated that mystical experiences can be produced safely in the laboratory. They say that there is no difference between drug-induced mystical experiences and the spontaneous religious ones that believers have reported for centuries. They are “descriptively identical”.
And they argue that the potential of the hallucinogenic drugs, ignored for decades because of their links with illicit drug use in the 1960s, must be explored to develop new treatments for depression, drug addiction and the treatment of intolerable pain.
Anticipating criticism from church leaders, they say they are not interested in the “Does God exist?” debate. “This work can’t and won’t go there.”
Interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is growing around the world. In the UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists debated their use at a conference in March for the first time in 30 years. A conference held in Basel, Switzerland, last January reviewed the growing psychedelic psychiatry movement.
The drug psilocybin is the active ingredient of magic mushrooms which grow wild in Wales and were openly sold in London markets until a change in the law last year.
For the US study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a non-hallucinogenic stimulant, Ritalin, in the other. They were not told which drug was which.
One third described the experience with psilocybin as the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes and two thirds rated it among their five most meaningful experiences.
In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a “full mystical experience” based on established psychological scales, the researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.
The effects persisted for at least two months. Eighty per cent of the volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.
The study is one of the first in the new discipline of “neurotheology” – the neurology of religious experience. The researchers, who report their findings in the online journal Psychopharmacology, say that their aim is to explore the possible benefits drugs like psilocybin can bring. Professor Roland Griffiths of the department of neuroscience and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, said: “As a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time.
“I had a healthy scepticism going into this. [But] under defined conditions, with careful preparation, you can safely and fairly reliably occasion what’s called a primary mystical experience that may lead to positive changes in a person. It is an early step in what we hope will be a large body of scientific work that will ultimately help people.”
A third of the volunteers became frightened during the drug sessions with some reporting feelings of paranoia. The researchers say psilocybin is not toxic or addictive, unlike alcohol and cocaine, but that volunteers must be accompanied throughout the experience by people who can help them through it.
A universal mystical experience with life-changing effects can be produced by the hallucinogen contained in magic mushrooms, scientists claim today.
Forty years after Timothy Leary, the apostle of drug-induced mysticism, urged his hippie followers to “tune in, turn on, and drop out”, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, have for the first time demonstrated that mystical experiences can be produced safely in the laboratory. They say that there is no difference between drug-induced mystical experiences and the spontaneous religious ones that believers have reported for centuries. They are “descriptively identical”.
And they argue that the potential of the hallucinogenic drugs, ignored for decades because of their links with illicit drug use in the 1960s, must be explored to develop new treatments for depression, drug addiction and the treatment of intolerable pain.
Anticipating criticism from church leaders, they say they are not interested in the “Does God exist?” debate. “This work can’t and won’t go there.”
Interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is growing around the world. In the UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists debated their use at a conference in March for the first time in 30 years. A conference held in Basel, Switzerland, last January reviewed the growing psychedelic psychiatry movement.
The drug psilocybin is the active ingredient of magic mushrooms which grow wild in Wales and were openly sold in London markets until a change in the law last year.
For the US study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a non-hallucinogenic stimulant, Ritalin, in the other. They were not told which drug was which.
One third described the experience with psilocybin as the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes and two thirds rated it among their five most meaningful experiences.
In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a “full mystical experience” based on established psychological scales, the researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.
The effects persisted for at least two months. Eighty per cent of the volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.
The study is one of the first in the new discipline of “neurotheology” – the neurology of religious experience. The researchers, who report their findings in the online journal Psychopharmacology, say that their aim is to explore the possible benefits drugs like psilocybin can bring. Professor Roland Griffiths of the department of neuroscience and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, said: “As a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time.
“I had a healthy scepticism going into this. [But] under defined conditions, with careful preparation, you can safely and fairly reliably occasion what’s called a primary mystical experience that may lead to positive changes in a person. It is an early step in what we hope will be a large body of scientific work that will ultimately help people.”
A third of the volunteers became frightened during the drug sessions with some reporting feelings of paranoia. The researchers say psilocybin is not toxic or addictive, unlike alcohol and cocaine, but that volunteers must be accompanied throughout the experience by people who can help them through it.
______________
For Syd…
Thanks for the music
the madness
the dreams
The passing came first
in my dreams
2 days you were on
my mind…
Oh how the time changes
and the wind is up
and calling in the hills
Gentle Madman
go peacefully
to the Western Isles.
(Gwyllm)
ARNOLD LAYNE
(single)
Arnold Layne had a strange hobby
Collecting clothes
Moonshine, washing line
They suit him fine
On the wall, hung a tall mirror
Distorted view, see through baby blue
Oh, Arnold Layne
It’s not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know –
Why can’t you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Now he’s caught – a nasty sort of person.
They gave him time
Doors clang – chain gang – he hates it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It’s not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can’t you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
————-
SEE EMILY PLAY
(Single)
Emily tries but misunderstands, ah ooh
She often inclined to borrow somebody’s dreams till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let’s try it another way
You’ll lose your mind at play
Free games till may
See Emily play
Soon after dark Emily cries, ah ooh
Gazing through trees in sorrow hardly a sound till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let’s try it another way
You’ll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Put on a gown that touches the ground, ah ooh
Float on a river forever and ever, Emily
There is no other day
Let’s try it another way
You’ll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
———
DOMINOES
It’s an idea, someday
in my tears, my dreams
don’t you want to see her proof?
Life that comes of no harm
you and I, you and I and dominoes, the day goes by…
You and I in place
wasting time on dominoes
a day so dark, so warm
life that comes of no harm
you and I and dominoes, time goes by…
Fireworks and heat, someday
hold a shell, a stick or play
overheard a lark today
losing when my mind’s astray
don’t you want to know with your pretty hair
stretch out your hand, glad feel,
in an echo for your way.
It’s an idea, someday
in my tears, my dreams
don’t you want to see her proof?
Life that comes of no harm
you and I, you and I and dominoes, the day goes by…
—–
ASTRONOMY DOMINE
Lime and limpid green, a second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew.
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground.
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania.
Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten.
Blinding signs flap
Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow.
Stairway scare, Dan Dare who’s there?
Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters under
Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters underground.
—–
LUCIFER SAM
Lucifer Sam, Siam cat.
Always sitting by your side
Always by your side.
That cat’s something I can’t explain.
Jennifer Gentle you’re a witch.
You’re the left side
He’s the right side.
Oh, no!
That cat’s something I can’t explain.
Lucifer simba go to sea.
Be a hip cat, be a ship’s cat.
Somewhere, anywhere.
That cat’s something I can’t explain.
At night prowling sifting sand.
Hiding around on the ground.
He’ll be found when you’re around.
That cat’s something I can’t explain.
