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Scientists Show Hallucinogen in Mushrooms Creates Universal Mystical Experience
Rigorous study hailed as landmark
(Links to all of the papers discussed here may be found at end of this article.)

Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in "sacred mushrooms" can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries. . . . The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least. The agent, a plant alkaloid called psilocybin, mimics the effect of serotonin on brain receptors—as do some other hallucinogens—but precisely where in the brain and in what manner are unknown. . . . An account of the study, accompanied by an editorial and four experts’ commentaries, appears online today in the journal Psychopharmacology. Cited as "landmark" in the commentary by former National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) director, Charles Schuster, the research marks a new systematic approach to studying certain hallucinogenic compounds that, in the 1950s, showed signs of therapeutic potential or value in research into the nature of consciousness and sensory perception. "Human consciousness…is a function of the ebb and flow of neural impulses in various regions of the brain—the very substrate that drugs such as psilocybin act upon," Schuster says. "Understanding
what mediates these effects is clearly within the realm of neuroscience and deserves investigation." . . . "A vast gap exists between what we know of these drugs—mostly from descriptive anthropology—and what we believe we can understand using modern clinical pharmacology techniques," says study leader Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor with Hopkins' departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Behavioral Biology. "That gap is large because, as a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time these last forty years." All of the study's authors caution about substantial risks of taking psilocybin under conditions not appropriately supervised. "Even in this study, where we greatly controlled conditions to minimize adverse effects, about a third of subjects reported significant fear, with some also reporting transient feelings of paranoia," says Griffiths. "Under unmonitored conditions, it's not hard to imagine those emotions escalating to panic and dangerous behavior." The researchers' message isn't just that psilocybin can produce mystical experiences. "I had a healthy skepticism going into this," says Griffiths, "and that finding alone was a surprise." But, as important, he says, "is that, under very 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’s an early step in what we hope will be a large body of scientific work that will ultimately help people." . . . Griffiths is quick to emphasize the scientific intent of the study. "We're just measuring what can be observed," he says; "We're not entering into 'Does God exist or not exist.' This work can't and won't go there." In the study, more than 60 percent of subjects described the effects of psilocybin in ways that met criteria for a "full mystical experience" as measured by established psychological scales. One third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes; and more than two-thirds rated it among their five most meaningful and spiritually significant. . . . Griffiths says subjects liken it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent. . . . Two months later, 79 percent of subjects reported moderately or greatly increased wellbeing or life satisfaction compared with those given a placebo at the same test session. A majority said their mood, attitudes and behaviors had changed for the better. Structured interviews with family members, friends and co-workers generally confirmed the subjects' remarks. Results of a year-long follow-up are being readied for publication. Psychological tests and subjects' own reports showed no harm to study participants, though some admitted extreme anxiety or other unpleasant effects in the hours following the psilocybin capsule. The drug has not been observed to be addictive or physically toxic in animal studies or human populations. "In this regard," says Griffiths, a psychopharmacologist, "it contrasts with MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamines or alcohol." The study isn't the first with psilocybin, the researchers say, though some of the earlier ones, done elsewhere, had notably less rigorous design, were less thorough in measuring outcomes or lacked longer-term follow-up. . . . In the present work, 36 healthy, well-educated volunteers—most of them middleaged-with no family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder were selected. All had active spiritual practices. "We thought a familiarity with spiritual practice would give them a framework for interpreting their experiences and that they’d be less likely to be confused or
troubled by them," Griffiths says. All gave informed consent to the study approved by Hopkins' institutional review board. Each of thirty of the subjects attended two separate 8-hour drug sessions, at two month intervals. On one they received psilocybin, on another, methylphenidate (Ritalin), the active placebo. . . . The study, Griffiths adds, has advanced understanding of hallucinogen abuse. As for where the work could lead, the team is planning a trial of patients suffering from advanced cancer-related depression or anxiety, following up suggestive research several decades ago. [ALSO SEE: The report of Dr. Charles Grob's Cancer Anxiety Psilocybin Study currently underway at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.] . . . They’re also designing studies to test a role for psilocybin in treating drug dependence. The study was funded by grants from NIDA and the Council on Spiritual Practices. Una McCann, M.D., William Richards, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Robert Jesse of the Council on Spiritual Practices, San Francisco, were co-researchers. The commentaries on this study that appear in this issue of Psychopharmacology, include remarks by: Hopkins neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience, Solomon Snyder, M.D.; Former NIDA head Charles Schuster, Ph.D., now Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the Wayne State University School of Medicine; Herbert Kleber, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and a former deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP); David Nichols, Ph.D., with the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Harriet de Wit, Ph.D., at the University of Chicago Department of Psychiatry. DeWit is the editor of Psychopharmacology.

FULL TEXT of the research findings and commentaries in PDF format:

Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance
by R. R. Griffiths &W. A. Richards & U. McCann & R. Jesse (333KB)

Johns Hopkins Press Release

Towards a science of spiritual experience (de Wit Editorial)

Schuster Commentary

Snyder Commentary

Kleber Commentary

Nichols Commentary

posted by LoZo 10:31 AM