Psilocybin and man: research findings from 1999 to 2017
I briefly present the most important conclusions of various studies from 1999-2017 on the effect of psilocybin on human psychological functioning. Psilocybin is a psychoactive substance of psychedelic nature occurring naturally in colloquially called "hallucinogenic" mushrooms.
Research report 1999-2014
Robert Jesse and Roland Griffiths published a report in 2014 on long-term research on psylocybin at Hopkins University. In total, the researchers examined more than 200 participants, each of whom had at least once a full-day therapy session with a high dose of psilocybin. 2/3 of the participants described at least one of the sessions as one of the most important events of their lives, which was attributed to positive changes in their mood, behaviour and general well-being. Most of the participants had never used psychedelics before, some studies involved cancer patients and others involved cigarette addicts who were looking for ways to quit their addiction.
Below are the most interesting graphs from Jesse's and Griffiths's publication concerning various studies:
In the abovementioned study, as many as 83% of participants claimed that their well-being and satisfaction with life increased moderately or significantly, and 90% claimed that their behaviour had changed to moderately better or much better. 44% described the change as very significant or extreme.
However, the researchers also decided to verify to what extent third party will positively evaluate the changes that have taken place. Each participant selected three adults who evaluated the changes in the participants based on their observations after a month and after 14 months. The results are equally beneficial:
It was found that if the psychedelic session is accompanied by mystical experience, it could result in changes in personality - such people showed higher rates of Openness (taken from Big Five personality traits):
Other research
- Neuroticism can enhance the intensity and frequency of challenging experiences ("bad trips") during psychedelic sessions (Barrett, Johnson & Griffiths, 2017)
- A single high dose of psilocybine used during a therapeutic session can significantly improve the functioning of individuals in palliative care - it can reduce depression, anxiety, fear of death and increase well-being and other indicators of healthy psychological functioning. (Kelmendi et al., 2016)
- Psilocybin increases the so-called social cognition, i.e. the understanding of social and interpersonal processes and also it increases empathy (Pokorny et al., 2017)
- Psilocybin increases the understanding of emotional processes in people with treatment-resistant depression, which can lead to a decrease in anhedonia (Stroud et al., 2017)
- Mystical experiences during the sessions with psylocybin seem to be crucial in the treatment of nicotine addiction (Carhart-Harris et al., 2017)
Literature:
- Carhart-Harris, R. L., Bolstridge, M., Day, C. M. J., Rucker, J., Watts, R., Erritzoe, D. E., ... & Rickard, J. A. (2017). Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six-month follow-up. Psychopharmacology, 1-10.- Garcia-Romeu, A., R Griffiths, R., & W Johnson, M. (2014). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences in the treatment of tobacco addiction. Current drug abuse reviews, 7(3), 157-164.
- Griffi ths, Roland R., William A. Richards, Una McCann, and Robert Jesse. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual signifi cance. Psychopharmacology , 187(3): 268–283.
- Griffi ths, Roland R., William A. Richards, Matthew W. Johnson, Una D. McCann, and Robert Jesse. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual signifi cance 14 months later. Journal of Psychopharmacology , 22(6): 621–632.
- Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., Jesse, R., MacLean, K. A., ... & Klinedinst, M. A. (2017). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 0269881117731279.
- Jesse, R., & Griffiths, R. R. (2014). Psilocybin research at Johns Hopkins: A 2014 report. Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and to God, 29-43.
- Kelmendi, B., Corlett, P., Ranganathan, M., D’Souza, C., & Krystal, J. H. (2016). The role of psychedelics in palliative care reconsidered: A case for psilocybin. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1212-1214.
- Pokorny, T., Preller, K. H., Kometer, M., Dziobek, I., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2017). Effect of psilocybin on empathy and moral decision-making. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.
- Stroud, J. B., Freeman, T. P., Leech, R., Hindocha, C., Lawn, W., Nutt, D. J., ... & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2017). Psilocybin with psychological support improves emotional face recognition in treatment-resistant depression. Psychopharmacology, 1-8.
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thank you very much :)
Thanks to you for using DropAhead channels :D @saunter
Great overview.
You also vindicated our cow's hard work making all those psylocybin grow boxes here in Florida! My father used to thoroughly enjoy catching harvesters and asking them why they liked to play in cow manure. He of course knew why but the answers were hilarious.
More seriously, I'm bothered by terms like "spiritually significant" and "mystical experience"! No question these agents will alter your perception of input coming from your senses and will cause you to think differently from that point forward (and to review past thought processes).
But what is a "spirutal significant" event? Is it in opposition to a "spiritually insignificant" event? What is simply "spiriit"? Is it feelings for my football team? A creature with no physical body? A mood that sweeps over my nation? Or even God entering into whatever I am or me entering into whatever God is?
Our notions of "spiritual" are heavily dependent on our culture and socio-economic backgrounds.
I'm begging for some definitions; or minimally some constraints!
Thank you for you comment!
I'm sure these was based only on subjective reports of participants and were pretty different for each of them. You can find few questionnaires "measuring" spiritual/mystical experiences but they of course have nothing to do with spirituality per se - they only treat on psychological nature of this kind of experiences, not ontological.
Jesse and Griffiths used mostly Mystical Experience Questionnaire and Persisting Effects Questionnaire.
Cool analysis. It is great that people experience a phenomenal spiritual experience; however, the personality effects are scary to me. I personally want to stay away from anything that can change me at the core.
Yes it is quite scary especially for people who prefer not to be more open than they are atm.
You have some brains to stay away from it))
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One of the beauties of biodiversity. How many of such are out there yet to be discovered? hundreds, thousands or perhaps millions?
We still don't really know what kind of psychedelic plants were used as Soma in India and during the Eleusis rituals in Ancient Greek. I've read that they discovered some kind of psychedelic algae in the sea somewhere. But the biggest mystery is how the tribes from Amazonia discovered how to prepare Ayahuasca - a brew that uses two plants which grow in completely different places and has to be prepare very strictly to work - and they do that for thousands of years. If asked, they answer that plants told them how to do it :)
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u have a great information, thanks for sharing bro
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