Mushrooms; the most slandered earth medicine around. Bring up magic mushrooms to a friend or family member at dinner and be sure to be met with a bewildered eye. "Don't those make you crazy" you may hear from a sibling or "those will rot your brain" from a well meaning, though misinformed grandparent.
Through a very effective United States propaganda campaign beginning in the 1950s. Mushrooms beautiful name has been tarnished widely in the public eye.
Magic mushrooms are being rediscovered for their incredible healing and mind opening abilities. As the public consciousness shifts and becomes more and open minded. Activism and leading research, from some of the worlds foremost universities have mushrooms poised for legalization and re-acceptance of their role in a healthy society. Mushrooms may just be good for you we're realizing, maybe even, very good for you.
In one example of mushrooms powerful, positive effects, cancer patients in a study at NYU Medical School have seen dramatic and long-lasting reductions in depression and anxiety. Remarkably, these effects were achieved after just a single dose of psilocybin (1), and it is astounding to hear personal testimonies from patients: “I don’t think I’ve experienced—ever—the gratitude that I felt. Gratitude for what? It was just gratitude. I don’t like to talk about it, because it’s really beyond words.”(2)
In another well documented study Johns Hopkins researchers published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology a stunning success rate in a pilot study using psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, to help heavy smokers quit. The 12 of 15 recidivist smokers managed to stop smoking for six months after three psychedelic sessions which represented an 80% success rate—unheard of in the notoriously difficult treatment of tobacco addiction. The most successful current treatment—the drug varenicline, which reduces nicotine cravings—only has a 35% success rate.(3)
To speak from personal experience, this comes as no surprise. Taken in a safe environment with an intentional mindset, magic mushrooms have had profound effects on my life and helped me to be more mindful with how I treat myself and the world around me. They allow for powerful insight on inner truth and spurn imagination.
These ancients creatures have been living amongst us for many centuries and may have even inspired our brains to grow as rapidly as they have.
"We know the brain tripled in size about 2 million years ago, and probably the ecosystems which put hominids, cattle and mushrooms together were around that old," Dennis McKenna says, referring to the cattle dung from which psilocybin mushrooms emerged.
The world is a mysterious place, full of all kinds of wonderful and magical living things. I for one am truly excited for this dawning of a psychedelic renaissance and the powerful reverberations this will have on our consciousness, society and interaction with the planet we call home.
[1] “Magic Mushrooms and the Healing Trip.” The New Yorker (2015). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am12fHnOhXQ
[2] Pollan, Michael (2015, February 9). The Trip Treatment. The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment
[3] John Hopkins Medical School (2014).
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