Adriana BartonGlobe and Mail Blog
Posted on Monday, October 3, 2011 8:45PM EDT
Talk about a boomer drug user’s dream come true.
Magic mushrooms can bring on lasting personality changes, causing those who munch them or sip them in tea to feel younger and more open-minded, Time reports.
The personality benefits persisted for more than a year in 52 volunteers who took psilocybin – the active ingredient in the illicit fungus – according to research led by Katherine MacLean, a postdoctoral student at Johns Hopkins University.
“It was sort of like an anti-inflammatory for the ego,” says Brian, a 50-year-old scientist who participated in the research (but declined to reveal his full name). “The swelling went down and I got to see what was underneath.”
There is science behind his airy-fairy claim.
Volunteers in the study (average age: 46) took psilocybin during two to five sessions under hospital supervision. Their personalities were assessed before taking psilocybin, a couple of months after each drug session and then again about a year later.
“The most surprising thing was that we found a change in personality that is really not expected in healthy adults, not after such a discrete event,” Dr. MacLean said.
“It ended up being the best experience of my life,” Maria Estevez, a 67-year-old volunteer, told Time. “It was marvelous, radiant. I felt like I was coming into a magnificent palace, expansive and joyous.”
The catch is that those who didn’t have a full “mystical” trip showed no personality change. Hippies will relate to the researchers’ definition of a mystical experience: a sense that “all is one,” “time has no meaning” and “everything is connected” in a way that can’t be described in words.
Luckily, bad trips on ’shrooms – which can trigger anxiety and fearfulness – don’t appear to have long-term consequences, according to Roland Griffiths, a co-author of the research at Hopkins. “We haven't seen [any evidence of lasting negative effects] in our studies.”
Although it remains illegal in Canada and the United States, psilocybin is being studied as a treatment for cancer-related anxiety and cluster headaches, and as an aid to help people quit smoking, The Globe and Mail has reported.
Nevertheless, people with mental problems, such as paranoia, should steer clear of psilocybin, notes shrooms.com, a Canadian website that sells psychedelics spores and mushroom-growing kits.
Indulging in “fungus delight” may cause light-headedness, nausea and vomiting, numbness, chills, panic attacks, disorientation and loss of urinary control, according to deal.org, a website produced by the RCMP.
Of course shroomheads might argue it’s worth enduring the potential side effects – and nasty taste – to sip from the psychological fountain of youth.
Picture: Magic mushrooms are seen at the Procare farm in Hazerswoude, central Netherlands, Friday Aug. 3, 2007. Peter Dejong/AP
Source: The Globe and Mail
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