The 60s are Gone But Magic Mushrooms Might be Back

Magic Mushrooms might be a controlled substance enjoyed in the psychedelic era, but new studies show they may have medical benefits in this day and age.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, the chemical that occurs in some psychedelic mushrooms which induces transcendental states.

Now, they say, they’ve zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.

Why Magic Mushrooms?

The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin for a range of valuable clinical functions, such as easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and more.

Already, studies of cancer patients with depression were given the drug have reported positive results.

The Johns Hopkins study involved giving healthy volunteers varying doses of psilocybin in a controlled and supportive setting, over four separate sessions. More than a year later, 94% of participants rate it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes.

Moreover, 89% reported lasting, positive changes in their behavior; better relationships with others, for instance, or an increase in care for their own mental and physical well-being. Those assessments were corroborated by family members and others.

According to Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who led the study, identifying the exact right dosage for hallucinogenic drugs is crucial,

A “bad trip” can trigger hazardous, self-destructive behavior. However, low doses don’t produce the kind of transformative experiences that can offer long-term benefits.

By trying a range of doses, Griffiths said, researchers were able to find the sweet spot, “where a high or intermediate dose can produce, fairly reliably, these mystical experiences, with a very low probability of a significant fear reaction.”

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The 1960s: Psychedelia’s Bad Rap

In the 1950s and ’60s, scientists became interested in the potential effects of hallucinogens like psilocybin, mescaline, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on both healthy and terminally ill people.

Mexican Indians had, since ancient times, used psychedelic mushrooms with similar chemical structures to achieve intense spiritual experiences. But by the mid-’60s, counterculture gurus like Dr. Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley were talking up mind-altering drugs as a way of expanding one’s consciousness and rejecting mainstream society.

By the early ’70s, the US government had essentially banned all hallucinogenic drugs.

The Future of Magic Mushrooms

Recent years have seen the beginning of a revival of mainstream scientific interest in mind-altering drugs. Particularly since study participants show improvements in relationships, energy, mood, cognition, productivity, creativity, and spiritual awareness.

A 2004 study by the government of Holland (pdf) found psilocybin to have no significant negative effects.

Griffiths thinks the drug may have the potential to alleviate the suffering of terminal patients.  He’s currently leading a separate Johns Hopkins psilocybin study, using volunteers who are struggling with depression after cancer diagnoses.

The hope is that the experiences associated with psilocybin could help ease patients’ fear and anxiety, therefore allowing them to approach death with a greater sense of calm.

“So far we’ve had–anecdotally only–very positive results,” comparable to the study with healthy volunteers, he said. Likewise, a study from the University of California, Los Angeles last year reported similar positive results.

A Case in Point

The experience of one volunteer in Griffiths’s study offers a glimpse of the potential benefits.

Lauri Reamer, 47, told The Lookout that she participated in two Johns Hopkins psilocybin sessions last September. This was after ending intensive chemotherapy and radiation to treat a rare form of leukemia that had almost taken her life.

Reamer, an anesthesiologist from Ruxton, Md., with three young daughters, said that although her disease was in remission by that time, she was still suffering psychologically from the trauma of the illness and the treatment. Because of this, she had walled herself off emotionally and was unable to show empathy for others or even for herself.

The psilocybin had an immediate impact. “At the end of the session, I was just in this joyous, happy, relaxed state,” she said. “The drug was gone–what was left was just this peaceful calm.”

That calm had lasting benefits. Reamer said the experience–what she called “an epiphany”–gave her the impetus to get out of a failing marriage. Since doing so, she said, both she and her daughters have been much happier.

Can Magic Mushrooms Give Clarity and remove Fear?

“I don’t think it was the drug that did it,” she said. “It was the drug that helped me find clarity.”

Moreover, that’s not the only improvement. “My sleeping has gotten better. My relationships have gotten better with people,” she said. “The fog has lifted.”

“The best thing it did for me was heal me psychologically and emotionally and allow me to be back in my kids’ lives, be back to being a mother,” Reamer concluded.

As she spoke, she was taking her daughters–two 15-year old twins, and a 6-year-old–on a trip to Hershey Park.

And although doctors tell her that, thanks to the effect of the illness and the treatment, she likely has only 10 or 15 years to live, she’s able to approach that challenge with equanimity.

“My fear of death kind of disappeared,” she said. “I’m not afraid to die anymore.”

What’s Next?

Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins, says Reamer’s experience isn’t an outlier among psilocybin volunteers, both sick and healthy. “People feel uplifted, and very often have a sense that everything is O.K. at one level,” he said. “That there’s sense to be made out of the chaos.”

“When you see people undergoing that kind of transformation,” he added, “it’s really quite moving.”

Okay, good news, right? Well, maybe.

Here’s something to consider. Some advocates of psychedelics say that the reason they’re illegal is that they open your mind’s perception enough to question the dominant paradigm. As a result, this may be a threat to those making big bucks off of you & me. Including, ahem, Big Pharma.

While magic mushrooms still remain illegal in the US, several cities have signed legislation to decriminalize them. The intent is that by decriminalizing them, researchers can better explore their potential medical benefits.

You can view the mushroom laws by state, here.