How some dedicated scientists and former flower children managed to bring hallucinogenic drug research back to mainstream labs after more than 30 years.
Comment: I have been using mushrooms for about 5-6 years for cluster headaches and they have been life-saving. When I stay on schedule (every 6 months) I can go 20 months without getting a cycle of CHs. If I forget a dose or under dose (no heightened visual, auditory or sensory perception) the cycle hits me twice a year. I have no idea why mushrooms help, but I'm glad I have them!
Comment: I have been using mushrooms for about 5-6 years for cluster headaches and they have been life-saving. When I stay on schedule (every 6 months) I can go 20 months without getting a cycle of CHs. If I forget a dose or under dose (no heightened visual, auditory or sensory perception) the cycle hits me twice a year. I have no idea why mushrooms help, but I'm glad I have them!
mageable.
Comment: Le sourire persuasif de la modernité.
Ici il y a une
grande couleur qui
me prend doucement
dans l'aube de
mes rêves, comme
une frele harmonie
qui rappelle la jeunesse;
et quand le vent
disparaît en donnant
cette poésie, là-bas,
dans mon coeur,
un sourire corporel
invente la tempête.
Francesco Sinibaldi
Comment: Did you know that if McCain is elected you will have to pay income tax on the value of the medical insurance that your employer gives you? Worse still, he is offering a tax break for people who pay their own insurance, BUT only $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families.
Let's say you have a family of four. Your insurance policy costs would be at least $1,500-2,500 per month under a self-pay plan, which cost more than employer group plans. So, you pay $18,000 -$30,000 per year for insurance, and you get to deduct only $5,000 of that. If you paid $25,000 for you insurance, you would be out of pocket $20,000 per year. This is FAR WORSE than the current system, where if you are self employed you can deduct 100% of you medical insurance costs.
So, if you're not self employed, you would stick with your Employer's plan. Employer plans for a family of four have a value of $900-$1,500 per month totaling 10,800-$18,000 per year. Surprise! On April 15th, you owe tax on all of that as INCOME to you. Say your bracket is 25%, and the value of your Employer medical plan is $14,000. You will OWE THE IRS an additional $3,500, and that's ON TOP of whatever monthly premium you already pay to your employer for your insurance.
Many analysts say that McCain's new rules would encourage employers to stop offering health benefits. If that happened, then far fewer Americans would be insured than are insured today, because what family of four can afford $18,000-$30,000 out of pocket per year for self-pay health insurance?
Furthermore, McCain's plan does not require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions of people who self-pay their insurance. People under employer group plans have all of their pre-existing conditions covered. This is a hugely unfair aspect of the current system. Insurance companies can afford to cover the pre-existing conditions of the much larger pool of people with group insurance, but they refuse to pay the pre-existing conditions on the smaller pool of self-pay customers. They have been allowed to price gouge the self-pay customers, which is a form of market manipulation that should be illegal.
So let's say one of your kids had diabetes and you have high blood pressure, then your employer stops offering insurance. You now have to buy your own, but you and your child are INELIGIBLE due to pre-existing conditions. Oh, yeah, they will let you buy the insurance, but you can't use it for any pre-existing condition until you have paid on time every month for two years. And you know what happens at one year and 11 months? You get a letter saying your policy has been cancelled. I have many patients this has happened to.
McCain's plan SUCKS.
It does nothing to help middle class working Americans afford or obtain medical insurance. In fact, it makes the current system WORSE.
Comment: There is a new psilocybin study underway at Johns Hopkins University that is recruiting volunteers with a past or present diagnosis of cancer. According to Roland Griffiths Ph.D.; "the primary mystical experience might fundamentally change the perception of disease and perhaps quality of life in people distressed by life-threatening diagnoses of cancer." Visit: http://www.bpru.org/cancer/insight/ Or call: 410???550???5990
Comment: There is a new psilocybin study underway at Johns Hopkins University that is recruiting volunteers with a past or present diagnosis of cancer. According to Roland Griffiths Ph.D.; "the primary mystical experience might fundamentally change the perception of disease and perhaps quality of life in people distressed by life-threatening diagnoses of cancer." Visit: http://www.bpru.org/cancer/insight/
It looks like the study will only accept a limited number of volunteers so contact the researchers today:
http://www.bpru.org/cancer/insight/
http://www.bpru.org/cancer/spiritual/
Comment: Why is there no discussion of LSD use to cure alcoholism in this article? From the reading I have done about the subject it seems that the most successful experiments in the 60's with this stuff was done in Canada and was reported to fully cure 30 percent of alcoholics and help another 30 percent. I believe it was Humphry Osmond who did the research, which included a couple thousand patients.
Comment: Why is there no discussion of LSD use to cure alcoholism in this article? From the reading I have done about the subject it seems that the most successful experiments in the 60's with this stuff was done in Canada and was reported to fully cure 30 percent of alcoholics and help another 30 percent. I believe it was Humphry Osmond who did the research, which included a couple thousand patients.
Comment: Damn, if the ancients used it to get to an altered state, please where can I get my dose?
Comment: I think there's definitely some benefit in shrooms; most times I did them I had a good time, although they did make me feel sort of dull-brained and depressed as they wore off. They're not for everyone though; you have to have at least a degree of open-mindedness and the ability to appreciate different perspectives or you're likely to weird yourself out fighting with it. I think testing these things in a lab setting is a bad idea too-- I've always eaten mushrooms out in nature if possible, and the few times I have done them in cities or in people's houses I didn't really have a good experience as I found the strangeness and artificiality of the human landscape unsettling. The day may yet come when the Puritans lose their iron grip on American society and hallucinogens become acceptable, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting...
Comment: good point about not testing these plants in just a lab. Get out of the lab and test them "in the field." Where they came from. Where we came from. This article did not discuss the theories that Psilocybin may have actually been part of our evolution. Ancient man discovered these mushrooms and had the same feelings of connectedness then as well. May I also say that mushroom spores can travel through space and Psilocybin may not even be terrestrial. I'm just saying, ... it's possible.
Comment: Okay, let's look at some history. I actually was involved in the Stanford University testing of LSD and Bio-feedback programs in the 60's. I first had "real" LSD given to me by a person who said: This will not do anything to you. It is a key to unlock your sub-conscience and allow you to alter and visualize your own conceptions.
This it did, indeed! Took 3 weeks to find anyone who even knew about LSD. This person was Stanley Owlesly, and he made the real stuff. Not the bogus product of the late 60's/70's. We went to San francisco and met with Dr. Tim, Alan Ginsburg, and Richard Alpert {Baba-Ram-Dass}. Turn on, tune in and trip!
that is the key: YOU are doing the visioning.
On the Hopi Reservation I partook a sweat and spirit quest using pulque, a mix of peyote, and mushrooms, and did have a remarkable time. I have a more attuned concept of life than most people, and don't understand why they would not want to be "enlightened". I am 56 yrs. old, and still smoke pot regularly.
If the product {LSD} they are testing is truely the original formulation with the original ingrediences, then It will produce the effects it was designed for. It's your trip, make it the way you want. Blame your own mental failings, if you have a bad time. Synthetic derivations are not the way to go. It has to be the real stuff.
Comment: The first time I took LSD back in the early 70's I experieinced something so profound it changed the course of my life. I spent the next 10 years presonally invovled in psychedelic research and psychologic and philosophic exploration. I used the drug to overcome many of my personal limitations, both socially and intellectually. I am exstatic to hear that new research is being done in this much maligned field.
Comment: Nothing against magic mushrooms, but back in the day when I used to indulge in such thing I recall very well how CONFUSED they made me and you lose ALL track of time for the next 4-6 hours. Tripping on LSD wasn't even always as INSANE as shrooms.
The last time I took mushrooms I also recall having a horrible headache and depression while coming down.
Felt completely fine and back to "normal" the next day.
I believe that psychedelic drugs DO have some possible benefits for some people but NOT everyone. What things are going on in a person's life at the time they trip on LSD or shrooms or mescaline will greatly affect just HOW enjoyable or terrifying their trip will be.
Also....the SETTING and WHO is with the person is crucial while tripping since these drugs DEFINITELY can and will make a person extremely paranoid while they are peaking on a trip.
Glad someone is able and willing to research these drugs again though.
Comment: "God" is just more seperation, the worst kind of seperation. According to your own teachings God is seperate from you. Dissolve those boundaries with Psilocybin or simply sit and and listen to your own breath (meditation) and you will feel your connection to everything and everyone. No holographs, no white man with a beard called God, no projections of any kind. That is the point. Your mind doesnt get to decide what is reality anymore. Reality reveals itself as the ultimate truth. If you want to try to give it a name, try "Tao" instead and see how your mind opens up to an indescribable truth.
Comment: I agree, I go to an accupuncturist and study Taoist, Toltec, Mayan and many, many other philosphies. I only use god as a generic term, like the great spirit but I believe the subtle energy is more like the Taoist or Toltec's see it. Chi gung teaches me how I can quit thinking and feel it. Robert Monroe's last book kind of confirms these similar ideas and some modern physicist have described the universe as a holograph. Mr. Monroe has seen the emiters, who would sometimes look like the sleeping brahmas, then like the Toltec Eagle and then as an energy transmitter.
Comment: I apologize for making the assumption about you being monotheistic. It's not very often I meet someone in my neighborhood who is not monotheistic so I made that assupmtion about you. But, I guess I'm not just in my neighborhood anymore on this NEWSWEEK comment board. I can tell you are a "well read" person who embaces cultures from around the world. (if you dont mind I make that assupmtion of you) I am going to look up Robert Monroe. Did he write "The Holographic Universe", I've read through a copy of that years ago. What an interesting model of space and time! That book summarizes that the whole is not the sum of it's parts but that every part is a small version of the whole! Just like a holograph. A scientific metaphor for viewing the Universe the same way you or I can when we ingest mushroooooms!
Comment: Yea you're right, (sorry, I'm listening to wwoz) We could all just be holographic projections of the mind of god, definitely connected.
Comment: Consciousness is reality and our egos just plain get in the way. We have Psilocybin to to gently reveal that reality that is hidden behind our egoic minds, if one cannot lift the veil without it. The cancer patients who are ingesting these plants live closer to reality than we normally do with the VH1 and Diet Dr Pepper reality we live in. How can we ignore their testimonials anymore? I have to ask the question, who is afraid of the realization that "we are all connected?" The obvious answer is those same people who preach seperation of any kind. Let go of that false idea (with or without Psilocybin) and see what happens.
Comment: The Huichol Indians AKA "Toltecs of the 21st Century"
Comment: This is great news for some Cluster headach sufferers
Comment: This is great new for Cluster Headache sufferers.
Comment: 'oh the laaaand of the freeeee.........., just remember that big brother's always watchinggggggggg.'
Comment: There is risk when you take a shower, or walk outside to check your mail, yet you still do these things right.?
Big Brother has no business telling citizens what to eat, the constituion protects it.
Besides, with the housing crisis and the economy and war, who in their right mind thinks the feds are competent and choosing wisely?
Comment: How many types of phama drugs have purported to help when they actually kill. How many children have committed suicide over chemicals approved by the FDA. The Supreme Court upheld the right to own firearms knowing fullwell that children sometimes are accidentally killed in homes with unsupervised guns, and that guns are used to commit acts from burgulary to rape, to genocide.
Yet these little wonderful mushies are so dangerous you will go to prison for growing your own supply, regardless if you EVER shared them with anyone.
It's high time America woke up, and allowed adults to make their own decisions.
Stanton Friedmen and 30 or so collegues of his wrote a paper dertailing that by legalizing pot, America would net 15 billion per year, enough to double the number of community and state colleges every 5 years.
Every single person I have EVER met who tried mushies loved them, and said it made them a better person, myself included.
Anecdotal perhaps, but there is no evidence that vitamin C does anything beneficial.
Yet we still give our children juice to make them healthy.
Comment: Clearly these compounds can exert powerful effect. For any treatment or intervention effect there will be some situations where that effect will be beneficial and other situations where the effect will be unhelpful or harmful--this is true for all interventions generally. The challenge is for us to develop competence and expertise in determining the circumstances in which the benefits of using these substances can outweigh the potential risk, which risk can never be zero. This is very important work for basic and clinical neuroscience to undertake.
Comment: I don't believe Charles Grob, was studying the religious use of peyote by indigenous tribes in Brazil. Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) isn't native to South America. It was probably either ayahuasca or yopo.
Comment: The Huichol indians of Mexico use peyote. It is referred to as the "Sacred Deer".
Comment: a sacrament made by the hand of God.
Comment: Synchronicity,,,the elusive unified field,,, it's all within the mind, why not explore this connectedness ? Perhaps, nature has given us a bridge.
Comment: NEWSWEEK supports drug junkies.
Comment: I did the "magic" mushrooms back in the 70's. I finally stopped after having a very brutal "BAP TRIP."
The only lasting effects I got was occasional fluid vision accompanied by a dullness of brain processes.
Comment: Hey Gary: What is a 'BAP TRIP'?
The P isn't anywhere near the D on the keyboard, bro.
Sure there's no lasting effects?
Comment: I think that it's great that this substances are being studied again for the purpose of helping people out. . There is must to learned from these studies. It's funny how things come back around again. Maybe we can learn and grow from the experience this time around. Very Cosmic!
Comment: "and more importantly, everything in the world is interconnected." This is the reason I disagreed with the Newspeak conclusion that the contribution of Abraham Lincoln was greater than that of Darwin. The recognition of our interdependence within the great matrix of Consciousness and Being is becoming ever more crucial to our continued existence as a species. And yes, it is cosmic.
Comment: Duuuuude! That's like, Wow man, Cosmic. :-)
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