Categories: Science

Researching ‘shrooms’: The magic tripping dose, mystical experiences and the tech community

Johns Hopkins reveals the most beneficial dose for the active ingredient in magic mushrooms for treating depression while best-selling author Tim Ferriss pledges $100K to support psychedelic research that is tapping-in to the realm of the mystical.

The magical dose

Instead of administering conventional anti-depressants, with 30% of the population showing complete resistance, researchers at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine have been conducting clinical trials with psilocybin-containing mushrooms with great success, despite the fact that they are a Schedule I drug in the US.

Ironically, Schedule I means that they are illegal and have “no currently accepted medical treatment” with a “high potential for abuse,” although academic research is definitely saying otherwise.

The “magical” dosage in which mystical experiences were reported was between 20mg and 30mg of psilocybin per 70kg of body weight. That is roughly between 2.5-4 grams of dried “shrooms” for someone who weighs about 154 pounds on the lower spectrum and 4-6 grams on the higher spectrum if the mushroom in question is the most common, Psilocybe Cubensis.

This is what the late psychonaut, Terence McKenna called “a heroic dose,” in which the ego is dissolved and where the real spiritual healing begins.

While popular antidepressant medications have significant adverse side effects, magic mushrooms have been used for millennia, and may even be the key to the spiritual evolution of humanity, when our shamanic ancestors encountered ecstatic states of consciousness that they represented in beautiful cave art found ubiquitously throughout the world.

Psychedelics in the tech and business world

Hopping on the psychedelic research donation wagon is the best-selling author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” Tim Ferriss. Ferriss has pledged to donate $100,000 to researching psychedelic drugs as a treatment for depression with a portion of those funds going to Johns Hopkins.

“I hope you’ll join me— and the above thought leaders—in this campaign. It could spark a huge shift in the national conversation about entheogens and their place in medicine,” said Ferriss.

The thought leaders that Ferriss was referring to include Eric Weinstein, Managing Director of Thiel Capital; CEO of AngelList, Naval Ravikant; and Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automatic and the lead developer of WordPress.

Heavy hitters of business and tech have thrown their support left and right over research into entheogens, a word that comes from Greek meaning “generating the divine/god within,” and this comes as no surprise as many industry leaders attribute psychedelics as having a positive effect in the creative process.

Psilocybin treats the soul, not the symptoms

One of the most controversial aspects of psilocybin treatment is more of a conflict of business and political interests rather than one of science. The so-called “war on drugs” has failed, and it is more of a “war on consciousness” as best-selling author, Graham Hancock puts it.

What magic mushrooms allow you to “see” is what is at the heart of the emotional distress — the underlying cause of the neurosis. Instead of being put on antidepressants for symptoms relating to a traumatic event, psilocybin allows you to revisit that event from a safe, alternative perspective in order to bring about a better understanding of the events that unfolded, which is a major part of the healing process.

Even terminal cancer patients are finding comfort in what the mushroom shows them, and that is a realm beyond death that isn’t as terrible as they think, and that this life is just one of many on the journey of the soul.

According to the Johns Hopkins study, “US adults with a history of using some nonaddictive psychedelic drugs had reduced likelihood of psychological distress and suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts.”

However, there have been “serious adverse reactions,” but these were very few, and psychedelic research does not encourage the use of entheogens for patients with a history of psychosis or schizophrenia.

The author of the study, Dr. Matthew Johnson, said of clinical psilocybin studies, “These could be breakthrough medical treatments that we’ve been ignoring for the past 30 years. We need to carefully examine these cautiously and thoroughly.”

A ‘higher’ calling

The healing power of psychedelics is so vast that science is now acknowledging the mystical properties of drugs like psilocybin, going as far as recruiting religious leaders of all backgrounds to volunteer for magic mushroom sessions.

These day-long sessions at Johns Hopkins take place in a “comfortable, living-room-like setting” surrounded by a highly-trained, supportive staff.

Going back to 1962 when psychedelic research was in its infancy and before its widespread ban, an experiment was conducted at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel where psilocybin was given to 20 Protestant divinity students.

Under the direction of none other than Timothy Leary and Walther Pahnke, whose names will forever be linked with “the psychedelic experience,” both hypothesized that magic mushrooms would induce a mystical experience in religiously-inclined volunteers.

The study, which would later be known as “The Good Friday Experiment” was conclusive. “The persons who received psilocybin experienced to a greater extent than did the controls the phenomena described by our typology of mysticism,” according to Pahnke.

Even the 25-year follow-up that was conducted determined that the recipients received a genuine mystical experience that had a long-term, positive impact on their lives.

Like the re-opening of the X-Files, research is picking up where it left off in the 60s, yielding phenomenal results with insights into the mystic, treatment for depression, and is breaking open “the doors of perception” with undeniable scientific evidence that leaders from all walks of life in all parts of the globe are calling for its immediate decriminalization, and a return to taking back personal responsibility over one’s own consciousness.

Tim Hinchliffe

The Sociable editor Tim Hinchliffe covers tech and society, with perspectives on public and private policies proposed by governments, unelected globalists, think tanks, big tech companies, defense departments, and intelligence agencies. Previously, Tim was a reporter for the Ghanaian Chronicle in West Africa and an editor at Colombia Reports in South America. These days, he is only responsible for articles he writes and publishes in his own name. tim@sociable.co