Magic mushrooms really cause 'spiritual' experiences
05:01 11 July 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

Commonly abused drugs, NIDA
Psilocybin and Psilocyn and other Tryptamines
Roland Griffiths, Johns Hopkins University
Psychopharmacology

“Magic” mushrooms really do have a spiritual effect on people, according to the most rigorous look yet at this aspect of the fungus's active ingredient.

About one-third of volunteers in the carefully controlled new study had a “complete” mystical experience after taking psilocybin, with half of them describing their encounter as the single most spiritually significant experience in their lifetimes.

However, psilocybin use has been associated with side effects such as severe paranoia, nervousness and unwanted flashbacks and so experts warn against experimentation. “Once you’ve started down the path, you might not like where it ends,” comments Herbert Kleber, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York, US. “These are powerful agents that are just as likely to do harm as to do good.”

Psilocybin is found in mushrooms such as the liberty cap (Psilocybe semilanceata and about 186 other species. Hippies embraced the compound during the 1960s, after its mind-altering potential was touted by Timothy Leary, then a researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But as its use grew, US lawmakers took action. It is now generally illegal to sell or possess psilocybin drugs in the US.

Demonised compound

But Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, US, and his colleagues believe there is a need to revisit the biological effects of psilocybin, which have been virtually ignored by the scientific community for about 40 years. “It so traumatised our society that we’ve demonised this compound,” he says.

Griffiths's team recruited 36 healthy volunteers who had not experimented with the drug before. They were informed that they would receive a hallucinogen but did not know in which of two or three sessions they would receive it. Each session was separated by two months.

They either received a substantial dose – about 30 milligrams – of psilocybin or a similar dose of an "active" placebo, Ritalin. The latter has a stimulating effect but is not known as a hallucinogen. An inactive placebo would be easy to identify by the volunteers when compared to psilocybin, which could bias the experiences they reported.

The researchers used psychological questionnaires and found that 22 of the 36 volunteers had a “complete” mystical experience after taking psilocybin – far more than the four who reported this type of experience after taking Ritalin.

More than one-third of the volunteers said that their encounter with psilocybin was the single most spiritually significant experience in their lifetimes – no person given Ritalin said the same. Experts say the study is the most rigorous study of psilocybin’s potential to elicit spiritual feelings because it is the first to use an active control.

Spiritual shortcut

However, more than 20% of the participants described their psilocybin sessions as dominated by negative feelings such as anxiety. And while psilocybin appears to mimic the brain signalling-chemical serotonin, its precise action on mind function remains elusive.

Griffiths says that in the future psilocybin might have a therapeutic use, perhaps helping people who have just learned they have cancer come to terms with the news. But he is quick to add that “the therapeutic application is very speculative”.

“My guess is that there will be people saying ‘You’re looking for a spiritual shortcut’” says Griffiths. He stresses that the drug is no replacement for the mental health benefits of continuous personal reflection: “There’s all the difference in the world between a spiritual experience and a spiritual life.”

Journal reference: Psychopharmacology (DOI: 10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5)

Oooooooooooooo..... Hups.....

A journalist reporting on work done at Johns Hopkins University quotes a Columbia University psychiatrist on the danger of using psiloscybin. Typical.

Can anyone enlighten me with some examples of the 'spiritual experiences' that these volunteers experienced?

I mean, do they see what they think is a god?

There's one way to find out for sure, but please avoid the poisonous variety of mushroom.

But surely Rick, if the objective is to have a spiritual experience, there can be none greater than to meet with ones Lord having taken of poisonous (the fully toxic ones) mushrooms?

Great point, rhymer. Just today I was pondering why religious zealots claiming that heaven is their true goal are just as apt to say (about growing old), "Well, it's better than the alternative."

Death is nonexistence, and is not to be desired. Life struggles against death.

Primarily, it struggles to achieve reproduction, that for some organisms is synonymous with death.

Without reproduction, all species will die. With the unconscious species, intelligent adaptation is via reproduction only. With the conscious ones, intelligent adaptation can also be in realtime.

Of course, the higher (!) organisms can reproduce by 'cloning' nowadays. This is actually analogous to the lower organisms' vegetative reproduction. Both have problems with variability and diversity to suit new challenging environments.

No problems with that.

Oh Mr. Rhymer, it is extremely provocative question.

BTW I can suggest series of extremely not expensive experiments. Anyone can conduct that experiments. Even Rick can do that (I am sure that Rick will get happy to know that he can play in chess with God even in the other world as well, and even drink a cup of tea with interesting gentlemen, e.g. with Descartes). The experiment will inevitably lead to interesting scientific discovery, which some gentlemen think better to keep unpublished for keeping the tranquility of the world order. But the Cats from far away country have other opinion on the subject.

The experiment may help to find the Philosophic Stone.
I even can publish the experiment procedures online.

Who wants to make the experiments?
I calculated it will maximally cost approximately 50-70$ (or even less than 25$), it will take 21 days, absolutely safe. No special instruments are needed. Even people living in Africa can conduct the Experiments of Enki.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

Besides that will be an excellent demonstration of how the words of Enki still can move mountains.

The structure of simplified, non-expensive experiments of Enki.

1. Buy pillows of three different very bright solid colors: Red, Blue and Green.
2. Buy a small notebook.
3. First seven days sleep putting your head on the Red pillow and describe the dreams you will see in the notebook; Second seven days sleep putting your head on the Blue pillow and describe the dreams you will see in the notebook; Third seven days sleep putting your head on the Green pillow and describe the dreams you will see in the notebook. Reflect the mood of the dreams and the feelings you will be experiencing during the dreams.
4. Analyze your records you put in the notebook during the 21 days.

You will note that the dreams can be thematically parted on several segments. You will note that some specific "unexplainable" interesting correlation between the colors of the Pillows and your recorded dreams topics exists.

And if you are smart enough and have healthy imagination, then you will be able to cross the unimaginable and maybe come to an idea that it is possible to drink a cup of tea with Descartes, Pascal, and Sir Francis Bacon. And even with such a modest being like me.

With best wishes of good dreams,
Eternally Yours Enki,

2006 AD, Enki's DreamWorks Entertainment Matrix (EDEM)

PS: Welcome to our Invisible College.

PPS: If someone wants to make other more interesting experiments, then I can provide contact information of a person who for some sum of money e.g. 1000-10000 USD can sell to you different interesting experiment profiles online. Such service will be available possibly after November 2006.

I decided to commercialize my ideas via a Broker, some sort of Merchant of Light.

"Oh Mr. Rhymer, it is extremely provocative question."

Hi Enki,

The only thing I wished I to provoke, was an answer to my question.
I suspect that what people call 'spiritual effects' should more realistically be called 'mysterious effects' in their dreams.
Some people then choose to refer to these effects as spiritual or mystical because they are different from those peoples norm.

Only when someone can relate the content of these effects will I be able to consider my own explanation for them. (I do not presume that I will be so enabled).

Hope you are doing well.

Ok. So how do you like my experimental scheme with Red, Blue, Green Pillows?
The most interesting thing is that it is working.
It is much safer than the mushrooms.

Hi Enki,
I am doin fine thanks, and trust you are too!

Your response is in the 'spirit' of an answer to my question, but offers no spiritual definitions I'm afraid. Neither do I believe that coloured pillows will give me any (....and 3 weeks is a long time to find out anyway).
In any case, how does a colour-blind person cope with such an experiment?
(..no I am not colour-blind, just 'spiritual'-blind).

Thank you I am doing so so, I am in constant state of fight with the reality.

I do not ask someone to believe me, as a scientist I suggest to make an experiment. Three weeks is not a long time for such an important thing. I wonder, you do not want to buy three pillows of different colors or you do not sleep at nights?

It does not matter whether a person is color-blind or not. The best experiment can be conducted by a person who is absolutely blind, e.g. like John Milton was in his old ages, that will rule out all the questions. It works even in that case. But let me withstand from writing online how it works, it should be researched.

You can bind your eyes by a black ribbon before entering the room where you sleep, so to avoid to see the color of the pillow. That is in case if you fear that seeing the color will affect your perceptions before getting asleep.

BTW I am not joking.

There is no mystic on this planet, all is Physics and Politics. The Metaphysics is the part of the Physics not discovered and elaborated yet.

I just suggested an extremely simple experiment. I strongly recommend not to ignore the Experimental Scheme of Enki.

Some people without using drugs or magic mushrooms have since their early childhood a predisposition for mystical and spiritual experiences. Everyone can notice that these people in all their ways are different from the majority. "Science" likes call them "schizophrens, paranoids, etc. These people could see things, invisible for others , and some of them had the same spiritual experiences than Noah, Abraham,Moses, Jesus and other prophets had in their encounter with "God". Now if "ordinary" and "normal" persons by using some hallucinogenes or mental technics, reach spiritual or mystical experiences , is it not a proof that humans are fondamentaly spiritual beings and they possess in the "unknown" section of their brain an "heritage" or a "memory " of the spirituality and familiarity with "God" ?

Noah, Abraham,Moses, Jesus et la are deities, not 'real' people in the sense that there was actually a human being with that name and who lived when and where it was alleged that he/they did (and did all kinds of miraculous things). So, as deities they were attributed properties not common to humans. Now, as for the person or persons who wrote these stories, nobody knows what kind of mind altering substande they could have been on; as it was and still is common amongst native civilizations for their high priest to enter into a chemically-induced trance (peyote comes to mind when dealing with the native American Indians).

Are you talking about serial killers? They are often quoted as hearing 'voices' telling exactly how to go about their dirty deeds. These voices can't surely be from God above, are they? If not God, where from?

The experience is said to be ineffable.

EXACT Rick .

And just because it's ineffable, it doesn't mean that it ever stops anyone from trying to explain the experience.

Dear Sapientia,

If I tell you that I am the God. Will you believe me? Certainly not. Certainly not even in case if it be true. Because you are 100% sure, that
1) God does not uses e-mail or registers on Forums,
2) God is All-mighty he does not need such advertisement,
3) It is not written in the Bible that God can have e-mail address and live among men.
So in any case you are predisposed not to believe anyone who will tell you personally that he is the God. In case if you suspect that it is so, you will ask him to make a miracle and if God tells you that he is not All-Mighty in a way you understand All-Mightiness (see our discussion in the thread What is God? e.g



), you will definitely not to believe him.

Now about Moses. Moses was suspecting that God is God up to the last moment, he even asked him to show up. If you remember according to the Bible God asked Moses to locate himself in a mountain crack and God just passed nearby showing him his shoulder (Moses could see only the shoulder from the crack). Actually that crack was needed to avoid undesirable curiosity of Moses... So Moses himself was not sure with whom he was talking for such a long period of time.

Actually when the Americas were discovered, many priests were preaching their religion on the new continent. The technological advancement of the Old World in comparison to the New one was so great that the Spaniards for the locals were like extraterrestrial beings.

If a small Extraterrestrial spaceship crew arrived on our planet, then definitely, if they had their own understanding of what God is, they would preach their religion to people of Earth just like Spaniards did the same after discovering Americas. Who knows maybe God himself told them (the Extraterrestrials) "Go and preach".

If it were Extraterrestrials who were speaking with Moses that does not mean that God as a Universal being does not exist. In matters of preaching about the God there is not difference between continents and planets. Allians could preach their religion as well as Spaniards was preaching their one.

But that all, if one day get proved, will not meen that God does not exist, that spirits does not exist etc. It is very important not to discard possibility that God can exist alongside with existence of the Allians. And who knows that maybe the spirits of the Hell as well as the spirits of the Heavens can use extraterrestrial civilizations in the fighting process against each other (if the Hell and Heavens exist at all).

The main and the primary problem of the all religions of the world was and is to establish reliable communication with God. Some people say God talks with them, some say they pray but do not get any information from God, some say that God does not exist because God never gave interview on TV.
Freemasons have meditation technique, Sufis have their own technique. But what scientists have? Do we have a communication device? Maybe it is possible to create one working e.g. in the terahertz range?
Who knows maybe all this comes from wrong understanding of what God really is.

I am sorry for diverting from the thematic of the discussion.

But I VERY strongly recommend to make the experiment I have suggested above.

Strange, no reaction... People, auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Where are youuuuu?

The ineffable must be made effable. Even for the atheists, in a result of scrutinized scientific studies.

I think that gentlemen in asymmetric shirts must understand the crucial importance of pushing mankind into new plateau of the reality perception.

If not, then I guess that the Great Old Democrate will do that himself and will never forget and forgive the betrayal.

I suspect that spiritual experiences are ineffable (sounds like one can't swear about them!)
indicates that they are 'dream-like' experiences. It's not that words can't describe them; it is as if the very act of trying to verbalise them erases them.

I need some of your lysergic acid diethylamide, Enki! I really mean it!

Dear Enki , it is almost impossible for a believer to demonstrate through arguments an Entity which overpasses human intelligence , it's just a matter of faith . It also happens for some people who had spiritual experiences to become mute for all their life. Only "believers" could understand each-other , if not dialogue between "believers" and "non-believers" is something vain .

Dear Sapientia,
I absolutely disagree with you, the nature of the God can be disclosed via scrutinized scientific study (in case if he exists).

One day the existence of God will be discovered scientifically, I am 101% sure. At that day everything will change on our planet. The God will become objective reality and a factor impossible to be ignored in Politics and everyday life. Actually not only the God will become the objective reality... The problem is the following “on whose side the people will stand?”. Actually that uncertainty is the only problem as that scientific investigation may reveal that human perceptions of what God is and God description in the Bible and Quran are very, very far from the reality.

I do not have that stuff man. Sorry. Only a spring of pure and murmuring waters. Do you want some water from the waters of Enki?

Find a pure Spring in your district and drink its pure waters. Those waters can crush any spell of the witch from the Narnia.

Well. I asked bacause your imagination runs so wild sometimes, I figured you must be on something. Thanks for reply nonetheless.

I am not a religous person in the typical sense. I do not pray to a personified God or deity. God has and never will, in my opinion, directly talk to me. However, I have come to an understanding of a universal life force that I could easily call god, if one likes that label more. These understandings stem from my personal experiences with people, places, science(chemistry, biology, neuroscience, etc), plants, animals, fungii. Just like my spiritual experiences on mushrooms, my daily life experience encompasses the understanding, and more importantly, the FEELING of the life force, god, whatever you want to call it. Could I ever explain to you what that feeling is? No. But I could express to you in hours and hours of conversation all the experiences that led me to the understanding and feeling of god.

The feelings involved in the mushroom experience are similar. The way in which the experience breaks down barriers between yourself and every aspect of life, every plant, every rock, every drop of water, the sky, the wind, every breath of air.... It indeed reinforces my understanding and feeling of a life force, of god. It envolopes me in a feeling and perspective that allows me a more direct connection to my own understandings of life and god.

This is an extremely poor expression of the experience, but it is the best I can muster at this point. Another thing that is important to note is that the approach to the experience is EXTREMELY important. A dumb kid can eat some mushrooms and "trip balls" and not get anything out of the experience except some "weird feelings" and some stuff moving around in his or her visual field. If you, however, approach the experience with respect, you have the possibility to gain much.

Thanks for response batineacid!

I suspected the situation you describe.
It does mean that it is almost impossible to decide if one has just 'realised' something or 'been given new knowledge' from an unown source.

I too have the greatest respect for all things natural but don't believe in a spiritual god.
I do however seek truth and don't want to miss something real, so continually search for new information and 'decoded' experience, to increase my own understanding.

I have little doubt that our language is inadequate in the sense that it does not allow us to quantify thoughts and experiences. This means we find it very difficult to compare experiences and thoughts except by, as you say, 'many thousands of words and descriptions'.

You are welcome! I agree with your statement. It is impossible to truely tell. This brings up two related points in my head. First, the experience is COMPLETELY subjective, and completely up to interpretation by the subject. Secondly, every realization, every piece of knowledge gained, comes from within. Psilocin might put you in the right state of mind, but anything spiritual must be brought out, or realized, by the subject.

I've had probably 15 experiences of this sort, and no two have ever been the same. Some experiences have been absolutely mind blowing, some have left me simply bewildered and slightly anxious. The outcome is completely dependent on what happened to be on my mind at the time, what answers I was looking for, where I was at the time, what I was doing, etc etc. Also to note, like is mentioned in the article, most experiences have unpleasant aspects to them. But then again, what experience in life doesn't?

Excellent reading material on these compound (Psilocin, Psilocybin) can be found here:
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online.../tihkal18.shtml

This section is a chapter from a book entitled TiHKAL by Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin. The rest of the book is available online via erowid.org and several other websites. It contains similar entries for many other related compounds.
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online...al/tihkal.shtml

For entries related to Phenthylamines, compounds similar in structure to Mescaline, Amphetamine, MDMA, etc. check out PiHKAL: http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online...al/pihkal.shtml
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online...al/pihkal.shtml

Agreed. Experience is what you make of it. What you experience, in all experiences, is a form of self-expression. If someone has a lousy trip, they have themselves to blame.

Well put, and you are absolutely correct. Those statements reach much farther than just that of a mushroom experience. They are applicable to daily experiences as well.