Magic Mushrooms -- Good for You??

Study finds long term benefits in illegal mushroom drug

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20.../D91L2LS80.html

Jul 1, 8:59 AM (ET)

By MALCOLM RITTER

NEW YORK (AP) - In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project.

She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open.

But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day.

"I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected."


Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience.

Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they'd ever had.

The drug, psilocybin, is found in so-called "magic mushrooms." It's illegal, but it has been used in religious ceremonies for centuries.

The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit. It's one of the few such studies of a hallucinogen in the past 40 years, since research was largely shut down after widespread recreational abuse of such drugs in the 1960s.

The project made headlines in 2006 when researchers published their report on how the volunteers felt just two months after taking the drug. The new study followed them up a year after that.

Experts emphasize that people should not try psilocybin on their own because it could be harmful. Even in the controlled setting of the laboratory, nearly a third of participants felt significant fear under the effects of the drug. Without proper supervision, someone could be harmed, researchers said.

Osborn, in a telephone interview, recalled a powerful feeling of being out of control during her lab experience. "It was ... like taking off, I'm being lifted up," she said. Then came "brilliant colors and beautiful patterns, just stunningly gorgeous, more intense than normal reality."

And then, the sensation that her heart was tearing open.

"It would come in waves," she recalled. "I found myself doing Lamaze-type breathing as the pain came on."

Yet "it was a joyful, ecstatic thing at the same time, like the joy of being alive," she said. She compared it to birthing pains. "There was this sense of relief and joy and ecstasy when my heart was opened."

With further research, psilocybin (pronounced SILL-oh-SY-bin) may prove useful in helping to treat alcoholism and drug dependence, and in aiding seriously ill patients as they deal with psychological distress, said study lead author Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins.

Griffiths also said that despite the spiritual characteristics reported for the drug experiences, the study says nothing about whether God exists.

"Is this God in a pill? Absolutely not," he said.

The experiment was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The results were published online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Fourteen months after taking the drug, 64 percent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 percent reported at least a moderate behavior change in what they considered positive ways.

That second question didn't ask for details, but elsewhere the questionnaire answers indicated lasting gains in traits like being more sensitive, tolerant, loving and compassionate.

Researchers didn't try to corroborate what the participants said about their own behavior. But in the earlier analysis at two months after the drug was given, researchers said family and friends backed up what those in the study said about behavior changes. Griffiths said he has no reason to doubt the answers at 14 months.

Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, called the new work an important follow-up to the first study.

He said it is helping to reopen formal study of psychedelic drugs. Grob is on the board of the Heffter Research Institute, which promotes studies of psychedelic substances and helped pay for the new work.

Sherifu

Shroooooooommmmmmmmmssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

ThE_IVIAcIVIAIV

when i lived in amsterdam last year they were legal there and i took them on new years eve and to this day i agree with the above statement. what a beautiful experience.

biko

Shrooms - do they enhance you, or make you dumb enough to think so?

Dragan

The Scientist wrote: »

Any psychedellic that makes you hallucinate(sp?) cannot be good for long term mental health.

The dangers of anything are rarely if ever it's immediate effect on the body....moreso the after affects. Such as what is depleted and what might remain in your system.

Wazdakka

bmbm wrote: »

Magic Mushrooms, Good for you?

Yes.....

Yes they are,
I vote we bring them back to Dublin shops :mad:


Now If you will excuse me, I have had a magical alien fairy perched on my shoulder for quite some time now.
He seems a little more worried than I am that my LCD is melting at the corners. Apparently I am the only one who can translate his frantic clicking noises into words and he is telling me to douse the room in petrol, light a match, and fly out the window...

jester77

Just don't eat the ones with the black tips

FlexiLexi

my friends had a reaaaaalllly bad experience with them recently, they were all convinced they were dying!!!!:eek:

Dragan

FlexiLexi wrote: »

my friends had a reaaaaalllly bad experience with them recently, they were all convinced they were dying!!!!:eek:

The most common cause of any type of bad trip is either getting your dose wrong or taking them under the wrong circumstances.

Your friends need to be more careful.

Also, the simple fact is that some people shouldn't take shrooms....sometimes folk just react badly to them and should stay away.

tuxy

Dragan wrote: »

Also, the simple fact is that some people shouldn't take shrooms....sometimes folk just react badly to them and should stay away.

Cool, so how would one go about finding out without taking them?

Dragan

tuxy wrote: »

Cool, so how would one go about finding out without taking them?

Thats kind of the problem.

It's like how most people have one or two types of booze they shouldn't drink. For me it's lager and sambucha, i tend to get a bit punchy on them so i don't drink them.

Sadly, the only way i know this is from having drank them.

jester77

tuxy wrote: »

Cool, so how would one go about finding out without taking them?

The magic mushroom gallery in Amsterdam is a great source, explains everything about them and the type of trip you can expect.

nataliehun

out of anything i would only do these again!!........had an amazing experence....everything was just so beautiful and colourful!!! altho my mates face did look like candle wax!!!

bring shrooms back!!

Thrill

tuxy wrote: »

Cool, so how would one go about finding out without taking them?

I suppose all you can do is have the sense to give them up if you've had a bad reaction the first couple of times.

Duggy747

If anything, Mario has taught us that Mushrooms make you bigger and stonger and can protect you from the onslaught of turtles and koompas!

http://www.pippoburro.com/mailart/images/gallery/sent/heather_dawkins/decos/mario_mushroom.jpg

Degsy

Proper Liberty Cap mushrooms are the bees knees,none of the neck cramps or keening paranoia of acid and they dont last as long.

ntlbell

tuxy wrote: »

Cool, so how would one go about finding out without taking them?

It's a bit like drink, don't start out drinking whiskey.

with shrooms take ones that don't cause massive visuals go for a more "giggly" buzz and take a much smaller doseage than recomended, it's fairly easy to work out if they suit your or not withouth taken a load and throwing yourself out of a 3 storey window

Tinytony

I saw in a report somewhere recently they that they were only behind smoke and coke as the most commonly taken drug in Ireland. Would that be true? Are they still relatively easy to get despite being banned?

Manic Moran

I watched the news report on CNN yesterday. What the article doesn't mention is that the volunteers undertook 9 months of psycheval before being given the one and only dose over an 8 hour period. After the report concluded, CNN then went onto a good 45 second spiel as to Things Which Can Go Wrong if you take the stuff.

I might caution people not to draw the wrong conclusions from this thread.

NTM

dr.bollocko

Dried shrooms tend to be a bit weaker than freshly picked ones.
Also mind the dosage. Dont take too much. Weigh them.
Jaysus though, once you are over the nausea.....
****in trippin the light fantastic.

Korvanica

They are the best drug out there and they can be picked anywhere!! Took em with some mates a while ago and had one of the best and craziest nights of my life!! Spent ages on the stairs laughing at the windowsill.

Dragan

Dragan wrote: »

The most common cause of any type of bad trip is either getting your dose wrong or taking them under the wrong circumstances.

Your friends need to be more careful.

Also, the simple fact is that some people shouldn't take shrooms....sometimes folk just react badly to them and should stay away.

Very true. Same with most, if not all, recreational drugs. Also, Flexi - your mates are lightweights

dr.bollocko wrote: »

once you are over the nausea.....

I've said this before on here but here goes anyway.....

For me, anyway, the main and probably the only source of queasiness/nausea comes from the fact that the mushrooms themselves are very hard to digest ('specially the dried ones) and kind of sit in your stomach bubbling away. This makes me belch and feel a bit ill and I usually end up 'parking a tiger'. I only copped this after the 2nd or 3rd time when we made soup out of them instead of just chomping them down on a slice of batch or whatever.


Also, Mexicans for the win.

Tinytony

I wonder where people get them from these days? It's hardly the same guys selling coke and pills who are selling mushrooms?

dr.bollocko

They grow in Ireland.

Degsy

dr.bollocko wrote: »

They grow in Ireland.

In closely guarded locations at very specific times of the year.Some years you get none at all.

dr.bollocko

They are also quite easy to grow for yourself from spores using a trerarium.

...
So I have heard.

Degsy

dr.bollocko wrote: »

They are also quite easy to grow for yourself from spores using a trerarium.

...
So I have heard.

i've heard they're quite diificult to grow yourself.

Tinytony

Degsy wrote: »

i've heard they're quite diificult to grow yourself.

According to the ads for them that are now appearing on my Gmail they are really easy to grow!!

wudangclan

check out the statues on top of the bank of ireland on college green,the one,without windows,going around the corner ,across the road from trinity.there are three statues and the one on the right is holding what is unmistakably a liberty cap mushroom in his/her hand.
go bank of ireland

Jack Sheehan

A study of 36 people isn't really scientifically valid is it?

sunnyse

Tinytony wrote: »

I saw in a report somewhere recently they that they were only behind smoke and coke as the most commonly taken drug in Ireland. Would that be true? Are they still relatively easy to get despite being banned?

I think it's mdma that's the third most popular in ireland, according to the latest report I read.
As for Musshies-I LOVE THEM:D

I wonder where people get them from these days? It's hardly the same guys selling coke and pills who are selling mushrooms?

Like most things, if you have internet access then you have access to just about anything;)

celticwe

ThE_IVIAcIVIAIV wrote: »

when i lived in amsterdam last year they were legal there and i took them on new years eve and to this day i agree with the above statement. what a beautiful experience.

are they illegal now:eek:

brundlefly

shroom are like all drugs, MODERATION works wonders ...use them to enhance an experience not to get completely wasted...and as for trying to fly... take off from the ground on your first attempt...not as messy as launching yourself from a 12 story building and flapping your arms like a budgie!
if however you feel you can acomplish this after a few trips go ahead knock yourself out... darwin should have a word or two to say to you when you meet him.

stewie01

i HATE the b*tch that got them banned. A complete busybody without a clue.

Dragan

Smoking ban is in there now as well, no more tobacco in the cafes.

Full green only.

nonamemark

Degsy wrote: »

Proper Liberty Cap mushrooms are the bees knees,none of the neck cramps or keening paranoia of acid and they dont last as long.

Yea if you take 100 or so....

Wertz

I've always regretted doing acid (usually about 2 hours after I take it ) but I've never regretted taking mushies.
Of course it's completely inconceivable that something that's been made illegal by forward thinking modern society could possibly have any beneficial effects...

J.S. Pill

Degsy wrote: »

i've heard they're quite diificult to grow yourself.

They're not too difficult to grow if you follow the instructions to a tee. Temperature is a very very important factor so if you don't have lamps etc. a hot summer is an absolute must

...or so I've been led to believe

Bottle_of_Smoke

I found they increased my perception & allowed me to not care about what the perceptions where. Very happy experience

Funny they mentinoed the spiritual thing, I felt much more like I was no different from other animals & that there definitely was no god, and it didn't bother me at all!

The one downside was I in the next few months I got night terrors a few times. Happened to another guy in work too.

ntlbell

Dragan wrote: »

Smoking ban is in there now as well, no more tobacco in the cafes.

Full green only.

what an amazing country it is really

"Stop diluting your drugs folks"

humbert

Shrooms are great. Some people should not be let near them but some people shouldn't be let out the door unaccompanied. Alcohol is no different in that respect except that people on shrooms are unlikely to cause harm to others.

psilocybe

Here's a link to the full study if anyone's interested.

Sofaspud

Had a really bad trip myself in amsterdam a few weeks ago.

At first everything was great, colours were brilliant, the tissue from the box of mushrooms was the best thing ever to lie down tearing into little bits, then the other half of the box kicked in.

I thought I was going mental, therewere too many thoughts in my head that couldn't fit in it, and I was worried about everything.
It was honestly the worst I've ever felt in my life.

psilocybe

I always thought A'dam, or any strange city for that matter a horrible setting to take mushrooms, or any psychedelic for that matter. Have heard so many stories of people having difficult experiences over there with mushrooms.

Sofaspud

psilocybe wrote: »

I always thought A'dam, or any strange city for that matter a horrible setting to take mushrooms, or any psychedelic for that matter. Have heard so many stories of people having difficult experiences over there with mushrooms.

That's what we think the problem is, it was the first thing we did there, in the hotel room which was pretty claustrophobic, unfamiliar etc

Ruu_Old

They worked for Mary Moran.