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Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

thetyee.ca

71–80 of 204 posts

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that in many western cultures suffering is being regarded as a virtue and happiness as a great sin especially if achieved by using substances rather than through other actions. You can glaringly see that where people with chronic pain are denied access to medicinal cannabis, for example here in the UK. You can only receive treatment through a private medical clinic which costs hundreds and sometimes th…

> Do they fake chronic pain to get high? Not trying to undermine the other part, which is true and I wish more countries would move faster. But this may be part of the problem officially. Yes, people routinely seek regulated drugs from doctors by faking symptoms. Enough to create systems where you can register people receiving prescriptions so that other doctors know not to prescribe multiple overlapping doses.

Are there any data what "routinely" means? It took me a couple of years of going from doctor to doctor and being treated as one of those drug seekers to get help. It was extremely painful experience and I had to go through it just so that a drug seeker won't get drugs prescribed if they could just get them on the street with much less effort? It makes no sense to me.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that in many western cultures suffering is being regarded as a virtue and happiness as a great sin especially if achieved by using substances rather than through other actions. You can glaringly see that where people with chronic pain are denied access to medicinal cannabis, for example here in the UK. You can only receive treatment through a private medical clinic which costs hundreds and sometimes th…

> Do they fake chronic pain to get high? Not trying to undermine the other part, which is true and I wish more countries would move faster. But this may be part of the problem officially. Yes, people routinely seek regulated drugs from doctors by faking symptoms. Enough to create systems where you can register people receiving prescriptions so that other doctors know not to prescribe multiple overlapping doses.

The company that produced Oxycontin, Purdue, gets to pay a $8.3 billion penalty for pushing addictive opiates, and encouraging doctors to over-prescribe these: https://apnews.com/article/purdue-pharma-opioid-crisis-guilt...

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#74
post #36

Story time. I recall one afternoon my friend and I picked and took some mushrooms (they grow in abundance at a certain time of year where I live), when I was perhaps 15 years old. We didn't take a huge quantity, but enough for a mild, pleasant experience. That same evening I realised that I had to write an essay for school - it wasn't like me, but I'd completely forgotten about it, and now had a single evening to wri…

Have you thought about trying to find that teacher today and explaining him what actually happened back then with the mushrooms and the essay? Would make for an incredible story

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#75
post #36

Story time. I recall one afternoon my friend and I picked and took some mushrooms (they grow in abundance at a certain time of year where I live), when I was perhaps 15 years old. We didn't take a huge quantity, but enough for a mild, pleasant experience. That same evening I realised that I had to write an essay for school - it wasn't like me, but I'd completely forgotten about it, and now had a single evening to wri…

Another aspect which is absolutely need to good is the company that you take the drugs in. Once, I took LSD with a couple of "friends" of mine, which turned out to be a sort of devil-worshiping ritual to indoctrinate me into their cult. Apparently all of them had went through this process where they played a niche genre of music called "darkpsy" which is absolutely horrendous to your ears.

From my experience of the event, I can say with complete confidence that when they were drugged and this ritual was done to them, they had no will-power to break away because the potency of the drug is quite high and the power of suggestibility is through the roof. You become the group on LSD. I think to perform such a evil thing another person, you absolutely need to have lost your soul and I'm pretty sure they were hard-core devil believers at that point.

The moment I started getting the "bad vibes" I just got the out of that house and had to trip alone by myself in a strange area for the next 12 hours. I had one of the worst experiences of my life for that 12 hours where I was rampantly paranoid about what went down and couldn't trust anyone for a week. Currently seeking therapy for this now.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#76

With all these articles I wonder about survivorship bias: where are the ones about people which had a bad experience with psilocybin?

When you are dying of cancer, a bad trip is a small inconvenience. A therapist will make the chance of that very small anyway.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#77
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments and regulations. They've even created poster designs to make it visually evil. https://mashable.com/2016/04/18/anti-weed-film-posters/

Wow. That's tax payer money at work?

The notorious film Reefer Madness was actually privately financed by a church group.

As an example of how forbidding something can make it attractive, it was re-cut into an "exploitation" film...

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#78

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

The problem is that in many western cultures suffering is being regarded as a virtue and happiness as a great sin especially if achieved by using substances rather than through other actions. You can glaringly see that where people with chronic pain are denied access to medicinal cannabis, for example here in the UK. You can only receive treatment through a private medical clinic which costs hundreds and sometimes th…

Exactly. Medical protestantism: if it feels good, it must be bad for you. This is all over the diet industry.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#79

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

To be honest it is more harmful than beneficial, these drugs can have a short term side effect of racing thoughts, distorted reality, increased heart rate, paranoia, etc, these effects are well known but people like riding rollercoasters. Long term harmful side effects include onset of schizophrenia, bipolar and psychosis, lung cancer, etc. More people are using drugs like shrooms and weed recreationally than medicinally and at an age where the brain isn’t fully developed. Considered yourself lucky not being exposed to anyone with problems caused by these substances.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#80
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would recommend unvarnished Buddhism, not mindfulness in a pill that is being taught by these crazy apps. Buddhism teaches mindfulness in the context of wisdom and morality, not just mindfulness. Moreover the word itself is a horrible translation of the Pali word “Sati” which means “remembering to be aware of the state of your mind”. The key is “remembering to be aware”, not just “awareness”.

Why is that difference in phrase key?

You can become aware on your own by accident. In fact a lot of us do that. Remembering to be aware means there is a muscle memory that does automatic mental state check, there is an intention behind this state check.
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