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Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

nytimes.com

61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve used micro doses of psilocybin as a depression treatment and found it effective. Be definition the microdose meant I never had a “trip”, let alone a strong one with lots of introspection. It improves mood and increases energy even at low doses.

I've begun to prefer the term "experience" anyway. "Trip" is outdated, and harmful to public opinion, I think.

Ok but irrelevant to my point. The experience isn’t always necessary to have positive effects.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#62
A kind of a problem with "LSD-like" psychedelics (seemingly doesn't apply to "meth-like" MDMA) as well as with the weed is the experience with them depends hugely on your pre-existing vision, what do you actually want and where do you drive yourself during the trip. If you are a kind and loving person by nature (even if depressed and confused at the moment) sensations of beauty, joy and love will probably overwhelm you and you'll end up happy and kind but if you're a psycho like Manson you end up even more psycho. If you consciously stick to the positive emotions and vision during the trip the trip is going to be amazing and may have a profound positive therapeutic effect, but if you stumble upon fear or sorrow inside you and don't know you can and should consciously choose positive emotions it can be nightmarish. I only know of one tryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) and one rare Hungarian mushroom (can't even remember the species name now, perhaps I'll add it later) that seem to always yield positive experience, with all the others one should never forget to "use the steering wheel" during their trip. One can rely on the setting and the sitter instead but I believe this is less reliable and people should really learn basic compassion meditation and being mindful about their feelings before trying psychedelics).

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#63

I have a friend who used to be quite involved in the ayahuasca church. He now knows five people from the church who have committed suicide. The fifth just hung himself last weekend. He was 25, and was the son of one of the priestesses in the church. Spent his childhood in the church, being fed ayahuasca regularly. One of them was also a friend of mine. By the time he killed himself he was clinically insane and should…

Lifetime psychedelic use is associated with reduced suicidality.

"Lifetime classic psychedelic use was associated with a significantly reduced odds of past month psychological distress (weighted odds ratio (OR)=0.81 (0.72-0.91)), past year suicidal thinking (weighted OR=0.86 (0.78-0.94)), past year suicidal planning (weighted OR=0.71 (0.54-0.94)), and past year suicide attempt (weighted OR=0.64 (0.46-0.89)), whereas lifetime illicit use of other drugs was largely associated with an increased likelihood of these outcomes."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25586402

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#64
I generally dislike mushrooms but I was pretty moved by Joe Rogan's podcast #1035 with Paul Stamets. Despite being over 2 hours long I suggested it to and watched it in it's entirety with several different people and each time we end up discussing the content off and on for weeks or months afterwards. Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#65
I have a question about mushrooms that I don't often see get addressed. Psychedelic mushrooms nearly always are touted as medicinal tools and powerful substances for curing PTSD or depression. However, in my own life, I don't suffer from any of these things. I am healthy, don't suffer from depression in any way, and am pretty satisfied with life. I am mainly interested in psychedlic mushrooms out of curiosity. I have never had any experience similar to that, and it all sounds fascinating to me. Is it a good idea for a healthy person to try these "mind altering" substances strictly out of curiosity?

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#66

I have a question about mushrooms that I don't often see get addressed. Psychedelic mushrooms nearly always are touted as medicinal tools and powerful substances for curing PTSD or depression. However, in my own life, I don't suffer from any of these things. I am healthy, don't suffer from depression in any way, and am pretty satisfied with life. I am mainly interested in psychedlic mushrooms out of curiosity. I have…

Just the opinion of an internet stranger here, but I think the medicinal benefits are touted because they're a way to get a foot in the door and start the conversation about the utility of these substances. Society still has PTSD (pun intended) from the out-of-control utopianism and concomitant criminalization / smear campaign of the 60s and 70s. Therefore using the substances to help those in desperate need is much more palatable for most people than the less urgent "betterment of well persons." But the latter is (or at least should be) a goal of the psychedelic community, for sure. I for one have been helped hugely, _tremendously_, by psychedelics...and never would have been diagnosed as mentally unwell beforehand.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#67

I have a question about mushrooms that I don't often see get addressed. Psychedelic mushrooms nearly always are touted as medicinal tools and powerful substances for curing PTSD or depression. However, in my own life, I don't suffer from any of these things. I am healthy, don't suffer from depression in any way, and am pretty satisfied with life. I am mainly interested in psychedlic mushrooms out of curiosity. I have…

Definitely.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you describe what you mean by "....-- if that is what _they feel they need to experience_ in order to realize the intention that they have brought with them into the ceremony", perhaps with an example intention?

With mood disorders, there is a moment where an individual decides: "yes, I am going to get better." For many reasons, getting to this pivotal choice is very difficult. In metaphor, each person keeps their affliction locked within a box. And each person must be the one to create their own key. A person must be willing to open this dark box and release whatever is in it -- the sexual abuse, the long lived depression,…

Do you have any kind of a feel (from direct observations, or hearing through the grapevine) for how much more effective going in with an explicit, conscious intent to meditate on a particular topic or problem is, versus going in with no specific intent but rather to just "catch a glimpse into the delightful madness that is beyond self"?

Of course, there's no way of doing a direct comparison, but curious if you have a feel or opinion on it, or might know of anyone who writes on that topic.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#69
post #19

I have a friend who used to be quite involved in the ayahuasca church. He now knows five people from the church who have committed suicide. The fifth just hung himself last weekend. He was 25, and was the son of one of the priestesses in the church. Spent his childhood in the church, being fed ayahuasca regularly. One of them was also a friend of mine. By the time he killed himself he was clinically insane and should…

What is the ayahuasca church? I’m not familiar.

Santo Daime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Daime)

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#70

I have a friend who used to be quite involved in the ayahuasca church. He now knows five people from the church who have committed suicide. The fifth just hung himself last weekend. He was 25, and was the son of one of the priestesses in the church. Spent his childhood in the church, being fed ayahuasca regularly. One of them was also a friend of mine. By the time he killed himself he was clinically insane and should…

Do you think that heavy psychedelic use is what caused them to commit suicide, or do you think that these people had their own inner demons, which they tried to combat with psychedelics? In my experience a lot of people with their own issues are drawn to psychedelics as a means managing their demons. In the right setting, they can be incredibly healing. However, for some people, psychedelics become a means of coping,…

Very good point. I know two were abused as children. Two others were raised in the church, so were taking ayahuasca from birth.
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