Tag: magic mushrooms

Psychedelic mushrooms may have played a role in development of human consciousness, study finds

Psychedelic fungi containing psilocybin may have played a role in the development of human consciousness a scientific review has suggested.

The study, published in the journal LILLOA, analysed multiple studies involving psilocybin, psilocin and human consciousness. Taking a multidisciplinary approach spanning studies from the fields of biology, ethnobotany, and neuroscience researchers found that psychedelic mushrooms, specifically the Psilocybe genus of the Hymenogastraceae family, had the “potential to trigger significant neurological and psychological effects” in humans.

The findings support the Stoned Ape Theory, a hypothesis proposed by ethnobotanist Terence McKenna in his 1992 book Food of the Gods. McKenna suggested that psychedelic mushrooms were the major evolutionary catalyst behind the rapid expansion of human consciousness.

“At the cerebral level, psilocybin affects various areas, such as the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the anterior cingulate cortex,” the study authors wrote. “The hypothesis that psilocybin mushrooms may have intervened as a factor in the evolution of human consciousness, either as catalysts for mystical experiences or as drivers of cognitive processes, raises profound reflections on the ancestral interaction between humans and their environment.”

The paper highlights how numerous ancient cultures across the world discovered and studied psilocybin-containing mushrooms, citing a prehistoric cave drawing of a shaman figure clutching mushrooms found in the Tassili caves in the Altas Mountains. This suggests, the authors said, that psychedelic mushrooms have played an important part in the evolutionary process of humans.

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Your brain on shrooms — how psilocybin resets neural networks

Taking psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms, temporarily resets entire networks of neurons in the brain that are responsible for controlling a person’s sense of time and self, finds a study that repeatedly imaged the brains of seven volunteers before, during and after they took a massive dose of the drug.

The findings, published in Nature on 17 July1, could offer insights into why the compound might have a therapeutic effect on some neurological conditions.

Researchers “saw such massive changes induced by psilocybin” that some study participants’ brain-network patterns resembled those of a different person entirely, says Shan Siddiqi, a psychiatric neuroscientist at Harvard School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. “I’ve never seen an effect this strong.”

Most of these changes lasted for a few hours, but one key link between different parts of the brain remained disrupted for weeks.

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Psychedelic Mushrooms May Have Contributed To Early Development Of Human Consciousness, Study Concludes

A new paper exploring the role of psilocybin mushrooms in the evolution of human consciousness says the psychedelic has the “potential to trigger significant neurological and psychological effects” that could have influenced the development of our species over time.

The literature review, which authors said draws on “a multidisciplinary approach spanning biology, ethnobotany and neuroscience,” examined studies involving psilocybin and human consciousness published in multiple journals in different fields. Their 12-page report highlights views that mushrooms played a crucial role in getting humans to where we are today.

“The hypothesis that psilocybin mushrooms may have intervened as a factor in the evolution of human consciousness, either as catalysts of mystical experiences or as drivers of cognitive processes, raises profound reflections on the ancestral interaction between human beings and their environment,” the authors wrote, according to a translation from the original Spanish. “The origin of human consciousness is one of the great questions facing man, and the material collected indicates that psilocybin may have contributed to its early development.”

As humans’ ancestors moved from forested environments into grasslands, they encountered more hoofed animals—and their excrement. In that excrement, they likely found mushrooms, including psilocybin mushrooms, says the study, citing researchers such as Terrence McKenna, who explored the so-called “stoned ape” theory that psychedelics helped spur human development.

Consuming mushrooms may have subsequently influenced pre-human hominids’ brains in all sorts of ways, authors wrote, such as improving hunting and food-gathering as well as increasing sexual stimulation and mating opportunities.

Changes like those, combined with the effects of psilocybin on human consciousness and brain function, could have expanded the human mind, “allowing us to transcend our basic perception and embrace creativity, introspection and abstract thinking” and potentially influencing language development, the study, published last month by the Miguel Lillo Foundation, a research organization in Argentina, says.

“Considering the importance of psilocybin mushrooms in the interaction with human consciousness, it is crucial to explore both their brain and evolutionary implications,” the authors—Jehoshua Macedo-Bedoya of the University Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, in Lima, Peru, and Fatima Calvo-Bellido of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru—concluded.

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California Lawmakers Kill World’s Most Marginal Psychedelics Reform

The world’s most modest psychedelics reform has failed in the California Legislature once again.

Yesterday, the sponsors of a bill that would have allowed three California counties to run temporary pilot programs through which veterans and first responders could be administered psilocybin (the “magic” chemical in magic mushrooms) under medical supervision pulled their legislation, reports KQED.

The bill’s authors cited a certain “no” vote in a coming Assembly Health Committee hearing as the reason for axing their own legislation.

This is the latest failure of legislation aimed at liberalizing laws surrounding psychedelic use in the Golden State.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation that would have decriminalized the personal possession and use of various plant-based psychedelics, saying he might support narrower legalization of these substances for therapeutic uses.

In May, a broader measure that would have established a statewide system for licensing and regulating psychedelic use, including the use of MDMA, mescaline, and psilocybin, in private therapeutic settings stalled in the state Senate.

The bill that failed this week was narrower still. It would have authorized the public health officers of San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Cruz to license up to five facilities where licensed medical professionals could administer psilocybin and psilocin (both psychoactive substances found in so-called magic mushrooms) to screened military veterans and first responders. The program would sunset after three years.

California’s latest, failed reform efforts were modeled off new programs set up by Oregon and Colorado that likewise legalize psychedelic use in tightly regulated, state-licensed therapy-like settings.

Some local jurisdictions, including several California cities and Washington, D.C., have passed more modest “deprioritization” policies to classify enforcement of certain psychedelic laws as the lowest law enforcement priority.

In D.C., at least, that’s created a thriving gray-black market for psychedelic mushrooms. With the modest assurance that they won’t face legal penalties, many of the city’s pre-existing, semi-legal cannabis businesses have started selling mushrooms as well.

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Arizona’s Democratic Governor Vetoes Bill To Legalize Psilocybin Service Centers

The Democratic governor of Arizona has vetoed a bill to legalize psilocybin service centers where people could receive the psychedelic in a medically supervised setting.

Less than a week after lawmakers gave final approval to the legislation, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) rejected it on Tuesday, arguing that while the psychedelic may hold therapeutic potential, “we do not yet have the evidence needed to support widespread clinical expansion.”

“Arizonans with depression and PTSD deserve access to treatments that may be seen as outside the mainstream, but they should not be the subject of experiments for unproven therapies with a lack of appropriate guardrails,” the governor said in a veto message.

She also said that the bill’s estimated cost is $400,000 per year, which wasn’t accounted for in the budget.

Under the now-vetoed legislation, the Department of Human Services (DHS) would have been authorized to license psilocybin-assisted therapy centers in the state, where trained facilitators could have administered the psychedelic.

The measure would have significantly expanded on Arizona’s existing research-focused psychedelics law that provides $5 million in annual funding to support studies into psilocybin therapy.

Hobbs cited that research funding in her statement, saying the goal is to “ensure that those who seek psilocybin treatment are doing so confidently and safely under proper supervision of qualified professionals with documented and verified research to support the treatment.”

She said that money “will be allowed to continue with this year’s budget,” with a separate funding bill she signed into law on Tuesday protecting those dollars, which are exempt from lapsing appropriations provisions.

The vetoed proposal, meanwhile, would have established an Arizona Psilocybin Advisory Board, comprised of members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders. Representatives of the attorney general’s office and DHS, as well as military veterans, first responders, scientists with experience with psilocybin and physicians would have been among the members.

The board would have been responsible for establishing training criteria for psilocybin service center staff, making recommendations on the implementation of the law, and studying the science and policy developments related to psychedelics.

Sen. T. J. Shope (R), the bill’s sponsor, told The Center Square that the veto is a “disappointing result after months of hard work and the overwhelming bipartisan support this received in both houses of the Legislature this year.”

The senator added that if lawmakers were still in session, he’d be pushing for a vote to override the veto, but he’ll have to “settle for trying again next year.”

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New Jersey Panel Approves Amended Psilocybin Bill, Removing Broad Legalization To Focus On Therapeutic Program

A New Jersey Senate panel approved an amended psilocybin bill on Thursday, advancing substitute language that removed earlier provisions that would have broadly legalized possession, use and cultivation by adults in order to instead focus exclusively on therapeutic access to the psychedelic.

The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee voted 6–2 to release the bill, S.2283, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari (D) and others.

Initially, the legislation was introduced this year in identical form to what Scutari proposed last session—a plan that included personal legalization provisions, which the recent amended version takes out. Those components would have made it legal for adults to “possess, store, use, ingest, inhale, process, transport, deliver without consideration, or distribute without consideration, four grams or less of psilocybin.”

The new measure would nevertheless significantly expand on legislation Scutari introduced in late 2020 to reduce penalties for possession of up to one ounce of psilocybin. That reform that was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in 2021.

In its amended version, the bill would charge the Department of Health (DOH) with licensing and regulating the manufacture, testing, transport, delivery, sale and purchase of psilocybin. There would be five license types: manufacturer, service center operator, testing laboratory, facilitator and psilocybin worker.

A Psilocybin Advisory Board would establish qualifying medical conditions for use, propose guidelines for psilocybin services and dosage, craft safety screenings and informed consent practices and oversee facilitator education, training and conduct.

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Do dying people have a ‘right to try’ magic mushrooms? 9th Circuit weighs case

Do dying patients have a “right to try” illegal drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA if they might alleviate end-of-life suffering from anxiety and depression?

That question is now before one of the nation’s highest courts, with a Seattle-based palliative care physician appealing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration decision barring him from prescribing psilocybin to his late-stage cancer patients.

Dr. Sunil Aggarwal says he has a right to prescribe psilocybin—the hallucinogenic compound in “magic mushrooms”—under state and federal “right to try” laws, which give terminal patients access to experimental drug therapies before they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. More than 40 states, including Washington and California, have such laws in place, and Congress passed a federal version in 2018.

“I have patients who want to try psilocybin-assisted therapy for existential distress,” Aggarwal said in an interview with The Times. “And there are lots of studies that support that.”

The DEA has denied Aggarwal’s request, arguing that therapeutic use of psilocybin remains banned—even for terminal patients—under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which lists the drug as a “Schedule I” narcotic with no recognized medical use. The agency said Aggarwal could only work with the drug if he received a license to do so as a researcher, not as a regular part of his palliative care practice.

The case is one of two Aggarwal now has pending before the 9th Circuit, each pitting the DEA’s law enforcement authority against state powers to regulate medicine. In the second case, Aggarwal is asking the DEA to simply reschedule psilocybin, making it available for therapy—not just research.

Physicians and medical experts across the country are closely watching the “right to try” case, and eight states and the District of Columbia have weighed in directly in support of Aggarwal.

In February, the state coalition filed a brief that accused the DEA of reaching far beyond its law enforcement role of preventing the illegal diversion of powerful narcotics. They said the DEA’s assertion that the Controlled Substances Act trumps state right-to-try laws represented a “threat to state sovereignty.”

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Study Finds Natural Psychedelic Mushrooms Produce ‘Enhanced Effects’ Compared To Synthesized Psilocybin, Suggesting Entourage Effect

A new study suggests that the use of full-spectrum psychedelic mushroom extract has a more powerful effect than chemically synthesized psilocybin alone, which could have implications for psychedelic-assisted therapy. The findings imply that the experience of entheogenic mushrooms may involve a so-called “entourage effect” similar to what’s observed with cannabis and its many components.

“To date, clinical trials have generally been conducted with chemically synthesized psilocybin,” wrote the 15-person research team, representing institutions such as the Hadassah Medical Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Boston-based Human Metabolome Technologies, Parow Entheobiosciences in Chicago and others, “and little attention has been given to additional, potentially therapeutic, psychoactive or non-psychoactive compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms.”

The findings, they said, indicate full-spectrum psychedelic mushroom extract (PME) “has a more potent and prolonged effect on synaptic plasticity” than chemically synthesized psilocybin (PSIL) on its own.

“These findings open up new possibilities for the therapeutic use of natural psychedelic compounds, providing hope for those who have found little relief in conventional psychiatric treatments,” Hebrew University said in a press release, adding that the study “suggests that psilocybin-containing mushroom extract may offer unique therapeutic effects not achievable with psilocybin alone.”

“This research not only underscores the superiority of extracts with diverse compounds,” the release says, “but also highlights the feasibility of incorporating them into Western medicine.”

To conduct the study, published late last month in the journal Molecular Psychology, researchers injected adult male mice with either synthesized psilocybin or a full-spectrum mushroom extract that contained not only psilocybin but also psilocin, norpsilocin, baeocystin, norbaeocystin and aerugeniscin. They then examined behavior in the mice, such as a head-twitch response (HTR), as well as samples of dissected brain tissue. Effects were measured at three days and 11 days after treatment.

“Our findings show no difference in acute effects on HTR,” authors wrote. “However, we found an effect of PME on synaptic protein levels in 4 brain areas that is significantly more pronounced overall than the effect of PSIL.”

Those synaptic proteins, they said, are seen as possible markers of neuroplasticity, which they describe as “the lifelong capacity of the brain to respond to experiences, learning and the environment and to reorganize structure, function and connections in response to such stimuli.”

That effect is believed to be central to the function of psychedelics in therapy.

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Viking Drug Use: From Riotous Parties to Berserker Fury

The Vikings stand as legendary figures, their exploits on the seas and battlefields shrouded in myth and mystery. Yet beyond their tales of conquest and exploration lies a lesser-known aspect of Viking culture: their relationship with mind-altering substances.

From the halls of Valhalla to the depths of the dark Nordic forests, some believe the Vikings indulged in a variety of intoxicants, from potent mead brewed from honey to hallucinogenic mushrooms harvested from the wild and maybe even cannabis. It’s even said the Viking’s most fearsome warriors, the Berserkers, were fueled by narcotics.

As is so often the case with Viking history, separating fact from fiction isn’t easy when it comes to Norse drug use.

A Match Made In Valhalla?

The Vikings have a pretty wild reputation, and they were indeed no strangers to revelry and celebrations. Feasts, gatherings, and festivals served as integral parts of their social fabric. Much like many social gatherings today, imbibing certain drugs was a central part of how Vikings socialized.

Their primary drug of choice was, unsurprisingly, alcohol. Not just a means of relaxation and merriment after a hard day’s raiding, it was a symbol of social status and hospitality (a key aspect of Viking culture). Mead, often referred to as the “drink of the gods,” held particular reverence among the Norse with reference being made to it throughout various mythological tales, sagas, and rituals.

But it is likely they didn’t stop there. Over the years there has been much speculation over what other drugs the Vikings may have consumed, especially the potential use of hallucinogenic substances among the Norse.

References in sagas and folklore hint at the consumption of psychoactive mushrooms, such as  Amanita muscaria, known for their mind-altering properties. While evidence for widespread use remains elusive, the possibility of occasional experimentation cannot be discounted.

But before we begin speculating as to what the Vikings may have used, let’s focus on what we know they definitely used. In Viking society, alcohol consumption was a deeply ingrained cultural practice that permeated every aspect of life. Think British pub culture, but even more fundamental and much more spiritual.

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