Cure for Fascism: Psychedelic Mushrooms May Lower Authoritarian Tendencies, Study Suggests

(ANTIMEDIA) — A small, experimental study from researchers at Imperial College-London suggests that in addition to helping treat depression, psychedelic mushrooms may actually reduce politically authoritarian leanings. Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, Head of Psychedelic Research at the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Division of Brain Sciences, led a small investigation into the effects of mushrooms on seven individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). […]

After Legalizing Marijuana, Colorado Moves To Decriminalize Mushrooms

(TT) — In 2012, Colorado sparked a movement when it voted to legalize medical marijuana. Now, the state is in the spotlight again — but this time, for its potential decision to decriminalize psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms.” The initiative is being led by the group Denver for Psilocybin. Soon, they may receive the all-clear to gather signatures […]

After Legal Weed, Colorado Now Taking Steps to Legalize Magic Mushrooms

After making history by fighting off the reefer madness less than six years ago and legalizing weed, Colorado citizens may soon be voting to legalize magic mushrooms.

The post After Legal Weed, Colorado Now Taking Steps to Legalize Magic Mushrooms appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

New Study Reveals Mushrooms Cure Depression by Doing the Exact Opposite of Anti-Depressants

A recent study shows that psilocybin-assisted therapy mitigates depression by increasing emotional connection—the exact opposite of anti-depressants.

Landmark Study Shows Psychedelics Far More Effective at Reducing Crime Than Police

Science is already showing that classic psychedelics can treat various mental illnesses, and now we"re finding clear benefits to society as well.

Mainstream Media Just Admitted Magic Mushrooms are Safest Recreational Drug

Obliterating the war on drugs in one decisively earth-shattering move, an unprecedented new survey cited by the corporate press found that — of all recreational drugs available — magic mushrooms can be considered safest.

Of an astonishing 120,000 participants from 50 nations, researchers for the Global Drug Survey found the percentage of those seeking emergency treatment for ingesting psilocybin-containing hallucinogenic mushrooms to comprise just 0.2 percent per 10,000 individuals.

Rates of hospitalization for MDMA, alcohol, LSD, and cocaine were an astounding five times higher.

“Magic mushrooms are one of the safest drugs in the world,” Global Drug Survey founder and consultant addiction psychiatrist, Adam Winstock, told the Guardian, noting the biggest risk users face is misidentification — ingesting the wrong mushroom — not from the psychedelic fungus, itself.

“Death from toxicity is almost unheard of with poisoning with more dangerous fungi being a much greater risk in terms of serious harms,” he asserted.

Annually, the Global Drug Survey queries the planet about its drug habits — covering type of substances used and in what quantity, patterns of drug use, and whether they experienced negative effects.

Reports the Guardian, “Overall, 28,000 people said they had taken magic mushrooms at some point in their lives, with 81.7% seeking a ‘moderate psychedelic experience’ and the ‘enhancement of environment and social interactions.’”

Winstock noted the greatest risk posed by magic mushrooms comes from combining psilocybin with other substances — or careless disregard for the drug as a powerful hallucinogen — as he explained,

“Combined use with alcohol and use within risky or unfamiliar settings increase the risks of harm most commonly accidental injury, panic and short lived confusion, disorientation and fears of losing one’s mind.”

Indeed, because ‘shrooms’ can induce flashbacks and panic attacks, Winstock advised those considering experimentation to plan “your trip carefully with trusted company in a safe place and always know what mushrooms you are using.”

Just because a trip devolves into a negative experience doesn’t guarantee the user will come away reeling with long-term psychological consequences, as Roland Griffiths and Robert Jesse of Johns Hopkins discovered in a 2016 survey of 2,000 people.

Quizzed about challenging or difficult magic mushroom experiences, just 2.7 percent of users reported having sought medical attention, while 7.6 percent were treated from enduring psychological symptoms — mere fractions of the 84 percent reporting beneficial effects from the psychedelic.

That finding concurs with two additional studies deeming magic mushrooms palliative for severe depression and anxiety.

Unintentionally lambasting the U.S. farcical war on drugs, Winstock pointed out that LSD — whose users, the 2017 GDS found, were hospitalized at a rate of 1 percent — came with problems due to variance in quality.

“LSD is such a potent drug,” he told the Guardian. “It’s so difficult to dose accurately when tabs you buy vary so widely. It’s easy to take too much and have an experience beyond the one you were expecting.”

When partakers practice moderation, ingesting small amounts until one becomes well-acquainted with their effects; procure shrooms only from a “reliable, trustworthy supply”; and taking only “a tiny dose to start,” the ingestion of mushrooms can be made exponentially safer.

Brad Burge, of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), pointed out the self-reporting by users upon which the Global Drug Survey relies should not be taken as documented medical data — particularly as users sometimes ingest multiple substances, thus making the determination of cause and effect murky, at best.

Additionally, what someone could cite as the need to seek emergency treatment vastly differs according to the substance, as Burge explained,

“With a drug such as heroin, a trip to the emergency room is a life-or-death situation requiring resuscitation and medication. With LSD or mushrooms, there is no toxicity and the effects wear after a few hours.”

However, he added, “There is no known lethal dose for LSD or pure psilocybin.”

“People don’t tend to abuse psychedelics,” Winstock asserted, “they don’t get dependent, they don’t rot every organ from head to toe, and many would cite their impact upon their life as profound and positive. But you need to know how to use them.”

“Drug laws,” he added, “need to balance the positives and problems they can create in society and well crafted laws should nudge people to find the right balance for themselves.”

Report: LSD Can Replace Years of Depression & Addiction Therapy — In Mere Hours

It appears that modern culture is embracing the exploration of generally “outlawed” treatments and brushing aside more commonly prescribed medicines to address certain health issues. On the heels of cannabis being recognized as a more widely accepted medicine, new research is pointing to psychedelics as effective medicine as well. A new groundbreaking documentary has recently been released utilizing much of this research, illustrating how once-abhorred psychedelics can act as a powerful tool to address overwhelming anxiety, depression and other debilitating effects that are prevalent in individuals facing terminal illness.

“A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin” is a documentary that takes an extensive look specifically at the drug psilocybin, derived from a variety of mushrooms, and how it shows promise in treating anxiety and depression terminally ill individuals. “My ambition is that the research documented in this film may in some manner help alleviate human suffering,” producer Robert J. Barnhart noted in a statement found on the documentary’s website. 

The documentary is based on FDA-approved research studies from The Heffter Research Institute at UCLA, New York University, and John’s Hopkins University. What’s particularly remarkable about this documentary is the indication that psilocybin is not only effective for a number of people, but it produces results more quickly than more conventional antidepressants. This distinction is especially valuable for people with limited life expectancy, as one terminally ill patient remarked in the documentary that “what we did, it probably would have taken me years of therapy.” 

Psychedelics have been recognized throughout history for its therapeutic uses, and countless individuals have used them as pathways to alter and expand consciousness and perception. Extensive research conducted over many years has long indicated varying degrees of support for what humans seem to have been aware of for thousands of years: psychedelics, like psilocybin mushrooms, are much more than a recreational adventure or escape from reality; for some, they serve a multitude of purposes to support overall mental wellbeing.

Recent reports in addition to the information contained in”A New Understanding”  represent an encouraging renewal of interest in utilizing psychedelics to treat a plethora of issues related to mental health. A PBS Newshour episode, released in January, explored research into psychedelics as an option to help people suffering from anxiety related to terminal illness as well as PTSD. A Newsweek report, published in December 2016, provided additional insight into psilocybin as a solution for individuals suffering from cancer.

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Studies pointing to psilocybin as a substance that may greatly benefit individuals reaching the end of life parallel similar studies that suggest psilocybin may also benefit individuals who suffer from substance abuse, particularly opioid addiction. A new study, recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Journal of Psychopharmacology, noted that its results “suggest that psychedelics are associated with positive psychological characteristics and are consistent with prior reports suggesting efficacy in treatment of substance use disorders.”

Once we look at the potentially detrimental effects that psychedelics have on the bottom lines of pharmaceutical companies, it becomes blatantly obvious as to why government, who is beholden to these big pharma special interests, will kidnap and cage you for possessing them.

It remains to be seen whether the government will ease restrictions which would allow the medical community to make even further progress in exploring how psychedelics can ease suffering for people suffering from addiction. However, this newly available research appears to signal an encouraging and growing push for truly revolutionary treatments and solutions.

Watch the trailer, or the entire film below, now:

A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin from A New Understanding on Vimeo.

Govt’s Own Data Finally Admits Magic Mushrooms & LSD Can Stifle Opioid Addiction

Before the War on Drugs cast its shadow across humanity, a collective mind expansion was being achieved in part thanks cannabis and psychedelics. For decades the military-corporatist state has suppressed the human right to ingest “illicit” substances – while profiting from this prohibition – but the pursuit of knowledge has a way of thriving despite fascism.

While research on the medicinal uses of cannabis has increased at a tremendous pace, therapeutic research into psychedelics has also garnered more interest in recent years. In 2014, advanced cancer patients “experienced immediate and dramatic reductions in anxiety and depression, improvements that were sustained for at least six months” with a single dose of psilocybin (the “magic mushroom” active ingredient).

Psilocybin is successfully treating patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Dec. 2016, clinical trials showed that psilocybin can heal mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, like a “surgical intervention.”

Addiction, too, can be treated with psychedelics. Psilocybin has a far better success rate at helping people quit smoking cigarettes than any nicotine-replacement therapy. As one study participant said, “Smoking seemed irrelevant, so I stopped.” This comes as no surprise; in the 1960s and 70s LSD was being shown to help people overcome alcohol addiction.

Now, as the opioid epidemic rages in America, psychedelics are again telling us they can help.

The Drug Policy Alliance reports on a new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. According to the government’s own data, people who have experienced psilocybin or LSD have a “decreased risk of opioid abuse and dependence.”

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From the study:

“Among respondents with a history of illicit opioid use, psychedelic drug use is associated with 27% reduced risk of past year opioid dependence and 40% reduced risk of past year opioid abuse. Other than marijuana use, which was associated with 55% reduced risk of past year opioid abuse, no other illicit drug was associated with reduced risk of past year opioid dependence or abuse.”

Researchers analyzed “44,000 illicit opioid users” from a six-year timeframe, finding a “pervasive and significant” association between psychedelic use and decreased opioid misuse. The authors note that their results are consistent with other studies showing psychedelics can treat substance use disorders.

What makes this study so glaring is the fact that it is based on six years of data from the federal government’s own National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which surveys 70,000 people each year.

How ironic that two drugs deemed illegal by the federal government – cannabis and psychedelics – clearly help people overcome addiction to legal opioid drugs and heroin.

As we reported in August 2015, a major study showed that deaths from prescription painkillers plummeted in states with legal cannabis. Other studies confirmed that the use of prescription pills drops in states with legal cannabis, which explains why big pharma fights against cannabis legalization.

Based on the facts, any measure to combat opioid abuse should include the use of medical cannabis. However, the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act or ‘opioid bill’ passed by Congress in 2016 did not contain a single reference to cannabis, and lawmakers actually rejected an amendment to “potential for marijuana to serve as an alternative to opioids for pain management.”

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Clearly, there’s something about psilocybin and LSD and cannabis which, when taken responsibly, can allow a person to break free from strangleholds on life.

“I understand love is the most powerful force on the planet.”

“I had an encounter with my cancer, this black cloud of smoke.”

“I was bathed in God’s love, and that continued for hours. I really had no other way to describe this incredibly powerful experience.”

These are some quotes from people in clinical trials taking psychedelics, and the last one is from an atheist.

Albert Hofmann, who discovered LSD in 1938 and accidentally touched some with his finger, described the first-ever LSD trip as follows:

“At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.”

The mystical experience of psilocybin described by patients can be thought of as the opposite of PTSD, where a single event has a lasting negative effect on the mental state.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is helping to understand the mechanisms of how psychedelics can treat addiction and depression. Stimulation of serotonin 2A receptors by psychedelics decreases activity in certain areas of the brain, especially the “default mode network” (DMN) which is involved in our ingrained thought patterns and behaviors. Decreasing DMN stimulation can allow people to break free from destructive brain patterns.

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An exhaustive survey carried out by Johns Hopkins Medicine supports the conclusions of clinical research, finding that “A history of psychedelic drug use is associated with less psychological distress and fewer suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts…”

Fascinating research using fMRI shows that, under the influence of psilocybin, the brain enters a pattern of activity similar to the dream state. Primitive areas of the brain linked to emotions, memory and arousal become more synchronized, while higher-level thinking and the “sense of self” become unsynchronized.

As long as the nonsensical War on Drugs continues to be waged by government, the power of psychedelics to free people from opioid addiction and numerous other mental ailments will remain out of reach for millions.