Turning the corner in psychedelic research? New study of psilocybin and mystical states

Today marks a significant milestone in psychedelic research -- the publication of a new study on psilocybin (the main active ingredient in magic mushrooms) and mystical experiences. This study is groundbreaking for several reasons, but primarily because it addresses -- with rigorous scientific and ethical protocols -- the mystical experience induced or facilitated by entheogenic substances. Similar research was sidelined by the anti-drug hysteria of the late 1960s and 70s, and has only recently been revived (thanks, in part, to the pioneering efforts of MAPS).

The full paper, from the journal Psychopharmacology, can be found here.

Coming on the heels of recent and ongoing research into the healing potential of substances like MDMA (Ecstasy) for treating severe trauma and psilocybin in end-stage cancer patients and in the treatment of cluster headaches, this is a powerful rebuttal of the lingering "just say no" attitude that lumps entheogens with heroin and cocaine. And it's a momentous step forward in understanding the neurobiology of transcendent states.

Commentary on the study can be found here. Also, see further commentary by Kleber, Nichols, Schuster, and Snyder.

Huston Smith provides a very succinct coda:

"Mystical experience seems to be as old as humankind, forming the core of many if not all of the great religious traditions. Some ancient cultures, such as classical Greece, and some contemporary small-scale cultures, have made use of psychoactive plants and chemicals to occasion such experiences. But this is the first scientific demonstration in 40 years, and the most rigorous ever, that profound mystical states can be produced safely in the laboratory. The potential is great."

Smith also issued a caution and suggested that further research on the topic include social as well as neurological variables: "In the end, it's altered traits, not altered states, that matter. 'By their fruits shall ye know them.' It's good to learn that volunteers having even this limited experience had lasting benefits. But human history suggests that without a social vessel to hold the wine of revelation, it tends to dribble away. In most cases, even the most extraordinary experiences provide lasting benefits to those who undergo them and people around them only if they become the basis of ongoing work. That's the next research question, it seems to me: What conditions of community and practice best help people to hold on to what comes to them in those moments of revelation, converting it into abiding light in their own lives?"

Further coverage:

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