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Psychedelic mushrooms put your brain in a “waking dream,” study finds
washingtonpost.com ^ | July 3 | Rachel Feltman

Posted on 07/04/2014 11:03:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin

Psychedelic mushrooms can do more than make you see the world in kaleidoscope. Research suggests they may have permanent, positive effects on the human brain.

In fact, a mind-altering compound found in some 200 species of mushroom is already being explored as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety. People who consume these mushrooms, after “trips” that can be a bit scary and unpleasant, report feeling more optimistic, less self-centered, and even happier for months after the fact.

But why do these trips change the way people see the world? According to a study published today in Human Brain Mapping, the mushroom compounds could be unlocking brain states usually only experienced when we dream, changes in activity that could help unlock permanent shifts in perspective.

...

After injections, the 15 participants were found to have increased brain function in areas associated with emotion and memory. The effect was strikingly similar to a brain in dream sleep, according to Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, a post-doctoral researcher in neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and co-author of the study.

...

Conversely, the subjects of the study had decreased activity in other parts of the brain—areas associated with high level cognition. “These are the most recent parts of our brain, in an evolutionary sense,” Carhart-Harris said. “And we see them getting quieter and less organized.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: 68revolution; antiestablishment; changeofperspective; culturewar; psychoactive; psychosis; sedition; smashthestate; wod
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Our firm sense of self—the habits and experiences that we find integral to our personality—is quieted by these trips. Carhart-Harris believes that the drugs may unlock emotion while “basically killing the ego,”

Sounds like a negative effect to me.

1 posted on 07/04/2014 11:03:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

What could possibly go wrong?


2 posted on 07/04/2014 11:06:16 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (The GOP-e scum enlisted Democrats to steal the Republican primary. The GOP-e can go to Hell.)
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To: BenLurkin

Interesting. I like the potential for fighting depression. Might be an improvement on the current batch of psychotropic drugs.


3 posted on 07/04/2014 11:07:32 AM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: BenLurkin

When I say the Lord’s prayer, I always say “Deliver me from Ego”....


4 posted on 07/04/2014 11:08:59 AM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: BenLurkin

“put your brain in a “waking dream,” study finds”

I think we used to call that hallucinating.
Nothing new here.


5 posted on 07/04/2014 11:09:22 AM PDT by mark3681
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To: BenLurkin

There are many types of varying potency - the mushrooms people call liberty caps grow wild around here and are easy to identify. Drive by a dairy farm field in the fall and there might be someone out there on the hunt.


6 posted on 07/04/2014 11:09:52 AM PDT by dainbramaged (Stand your ground.)
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To: Nachum

I have a friend who still imbibes ‘sillypsybin’. Happiest person I have ever known.


7 posted on 07/04/2014 11:11:16 AM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: BenLurkin

Gee, just imagine. A whole population, just like that looney-toon Toronto mayor.


8 posted on 07/04/2014 11:12:29 AM PDT by greene66
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To: waterhill
I have a friend who still imbibes ‘sillypsybin’. Happiest person I have ever known.

I can tell you this, that would be a vast improvement over Ritalin and other drugs that permanently change blood chemistry and have lead us to some of the worst mass murders in modern history.

9 posted on 07/04/2014 11:12:49 AM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: BenLurkin

A friend was telling me just yesterday about some guy who fixes his crippling ongoing migraines by taking this. It supposedly keeps them away for months when nothing else worked.


10 posted on 07/04/2014 11:18:52 AM PDT by Mount Athos (A Giant luxury mega-mansion for Gore, a Government Green EcoShack made of poo for you)
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To: BenLurkin

Won’t happen. Big pharma will slap it down as they always do.


11 posted on 07/04/2014 11:20:55 AM PDT by BBell (The Blue Dog is Stupid)
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To: Mount Athos

Wonderful that your freind has found the correct mushroom to use for that. What often happens with novice users of mushrooms is they choose poorly. I read of a case last year where this karate teacher ate ‘the wrong mushrooms’ and ended up trapped in a dream state, then ripping his friends heart out of the body. He is about 30 years old now, most likely to be locked up for life.


12 posted on 07/04/2014 11:43:02 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: Nachum

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.


13 posted on 07/04/2014 11:44:10 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Obama - The Scandal a Week President.)
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To: lee martell

I still find it hard to believe people are stupid enough to do that stuff.... then again look who people elect


14 posted on 07/04/2014 11:44:49 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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I believe it. I did my first hallucinogen when I was 15 years old. Before that I was a pretty good math student. After that, I became an exceptional math student, and 30 years later still use high level math every day in my job. I don’t believe it created something that wasn’t there, but unlocked some things that allowed me to visualize things in a different way.


15 posted on 07/04/2014 11:55:51 AM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%i)
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To: BipolarBob

Just Dropped In - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhOKhJaM1QE


16 posted on 07/04/2014 12:10:09 PM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: BenLurkin

If one decides to pick wild shrooms, keep some milk-thistle extract on hand, it will save your liver and kidneys


17 posted on 07/04/2014 12:23:13 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: BenLurkin

“Research suggests they may have permanent, positive effects on the human brain.”

The left has been pushing this line of thought since the early sixties, I’d not late 50’s.

Tim Leary began on this bus.

Leary was even writing how LSD or psilocybin could be used for homosexual reparative therapy. He argued that under the right circumstances, a homosexual under the influence of such a drug could essentially be reprogrammed to respond to women.

Over the decades they’ve tried to promote the related class of methoxylated amphetamines, such as ecstasy, for the same ostensibly therapeutic purposes.

None the less, this study sounds fascinating and makes sense given serotonin’s role in sleep.


18 posted on 07/04/2014 12:28:36 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Mount Athos

“A friend was telling me just yesterday about some guy who fixes his crippling ongoing migraines by taking this. It supposedly keeps them away for months when nothing else worked.”

I believe this fully. Serotonergic agents can treat migraine.

Other serotonergics without the psychological effect have been developed and approved.

It might be better to try one of those.


19 posted on 07/04/2014 12:32:38 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: BenLurkin

I wonder what hallucinogens Barry the Light Worker used, and how often?


20 posted on 07/04/2014 12:33:12 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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