Percentage of Heavy Drinking Days Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy vs Placebo in the Treatment of Adult Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder A Randomized Clinical Trial

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Paul Stamets film “Fantastic Fungi” is worth a viewing if you haven’t yet seen it. Includes a nice section on the healing power of psilocybin. I saw it when it premiered in a theater here in Olympia, WA a few years ago and since Stamets lives nearby, he was there to do a Q & A session afterwards. He told a very interesting tale about his first psilocybin trip. As a young man someone gave him a bunch of psilocybin mushrooms so he decided to try them and ate a pretty large dose and then went walkng in the woods. As the shrooms started coming on he had a strong impulse to climb a tree so he clambered up a tall evergreen tree and was swaying back in forth in the breeze at the top of this tree. Then a thunderstorm came rolling in and there he was at the top of a tree with lightning flashing all around him and tripping his brains out - both terrified and ecstatic. At this point he felt he was too altered to safely climb down the tree, so he just rode out the thunderstorm all night, came down from the shrooms and came down from the tree. Then he observed something very interesting. He had had a very bad stutter since childhood and his stutter was completely gone! He believes that the mushrooms cured his stuttering! And I have since met one other person who told me that mushrooms cured their stuttering and he was not familiar with Stamets’ story. Someone should do a research study on psilocybin and stuttering! He then attended the Evergreen State College here in Olympia in the 70’s where he and fellow undergraduate students were the first to identify a number of new psilocybin species.

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@fenwizard

great article, I dont think it is conclusive of the narrative that is currently floating around, but it does ‘hint’ there ‘may’ be nueroplastic growth taking place in humans (at least in the short term), if it is happeneing in mice:

"There are hints that the use of psychedelics can produce neural adaptations, although the extent and timescale of the impact in a mammalian brain are unknown. In this study, we used chronic two-photon microscopy to image longitudinally the apical dendritic spines of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the mouse medial frontal cortex. We found that a single dose of psilocybin led to ∼10% increases in spine size and density, driven by an elevated spine formation rate. The structural remodeling occurred quickly within 24 h and was persistent 1 month later. Psilocybin also ameliorated stress-related behavioral deficit and elevated excitatory neurotransmission. "

This is a really important line:
“There are hints that the use of psychedelics can produce neural adaptations, although the extent and timescale of the impact in a mammalian brain are unknown.”

Because the impact is ‘unknown’, I am still highly skeptical of the narrative floating around. But the results of this study were very interesting. I would love to read more studies, and see if they came up with similar conclusions.

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I have heart good things about Lions Mane, but have not done much research on those narratives either. Dont know anything about Niacin.

Cool synchronicity, last week while walking in the woods I spoke with a lady who knew a lot about identifying mushrooms. Lions mane was what she reccommended when I asked her which one had the best medicinal benefits.

I am going to try to find some raw, untampered with Lions Mane on Amazon, dont like the suppliment format.

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I provided a link above that shows there are reported deaths.

So read that, and then you will have ‘heard’ of people dying.

Agreed. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :innocent: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :upside_down_face:

Have not used the combo with higher doses of psilocybin, that is why I asked, only with small dosages.

Have you done the combo on 5 grams or more of psilocybin? My fear is it might amplify the negative effects of the trip. Hoping this fear is groundless. Is the combo your prefered method for dosages of 5grams or more?

That is my fear is it infensifying the negative effects. But I think it would be perfect for helping combat the jitters, nausea, anxiety, and overall unease.

This definitely is a side effect of it, or at least many strains of it. However I think if you are mideful of this, alongmwithnthenother side effects, they are much less impactful. Call it the price of Admission.

As dicussed above, if you increase the bodys temperature enough, you start melting brain matter. Thats the dark side of this medicine. I think one reason it was placed in the hands of Shamans in the past, was becuase ignorant people did in fact hurt themselves seriously, (become brain dead), or they died.

@fenwizard I think your or my experience with this medicine is atypical of how most people will encounter it. I think we approached it very skeptically and very cautiously. For me it was the negative narratives associated with it that made me be so cautious and so safe.

The narratives in the Zeitgeist now are much more positvely prejudiced towards psilocybine. And that means the average joe is going to be much more likely to experiment recreationally, without the guidance of a medical proffessional, or a Shaman. And that is the perfect set up for disaterous consequences (death, brain death, heart attack, etc).

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I’m still skeptical of the idea that it raises body temperature so much that it could cause brain damage. MDMA raises body temp much more than psilocybin and studies show no brain damage with MDMA at normal dosages (MAPS did a whole lot of safety studies with MDMA in preparation for FDA approval). With the psilocybin + cannabis combo, try it with lower doses first and gradually work up to higher doses. But yes, I’ve done the psilcybin 5 gr dosage + cannabis to good effect. Good to familiarize yourself with the combo at lower doses first. By the way, Terence McKenna, who famously advocated for the 5 gram psilocybin trip was also a “wake and bake” stoner. He was constantly high on weed. So I’m sure that when he did his 5 grams of shrooms that he also had some weed on board. And I’m not advocating his constant use of weed, by the way.

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Also the Johns Hopkins psilocybin studies used very high doses and they had no concern about brain damage.

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And yes, I’m also concerned about the widespread abuse of psilocybin as a recreational drug without the guidance of a shaman or therapist. But the real danger there is not brain damage or overdose, but people freaking out or doing stupid and dangerous things.

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Im not. And I would reather people be as safe as possible then have them find out the hard way.

Its not the controlled lab studies (where extra precautions are taken) that worry me. ‘Safe spaces’ dont compare to the real world with ignorant kids and adults abusing it for the first time out in the feild.

Everything you listed is a danger people need to be aware of. The latter may hurt or kill more people, but the formers are real risks as well.

Hope for the best, but prep for the worst case senarios.

The same thing can be said for alcohol. I dont think overdose or brain damage is very common (even though I do think its possible), but complications from over consumption, like blacking out and choking to death on your puke, or dying from hitting a tree or car while driving are much more common.

I think the narratives are starting to become to soft and too optimistic on Psilocybin, and I fear that will hurt and kill people.

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@fenwizard

Can you describe the visuals and stuff you expereinced on your good trips and bad trips?

Any pics that you can share that are similar to what you saw?

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If you can provide any studies that show that psilocybin is neurotoxic, I would be happy to look at them. Alcohol is way more toxic to the brain and body than psilocybin but it’s been part of our culture for so long so it’s legal and accepted.

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My experiences were less visual than some other folks. I think I wrote earlier how I kept upping the dose to get to the kind of visions that Terence McKenna described in his writing (i.e. journeys to other worlds and realms, meeting different kinds of beings, etc) but my experience was not so much like what Terence described. I think everyone has their own experiences that are unique to them. My experience was not so much about that kind of visionary content of specific realms or beings, etc. Mostly what I saw with eyes closed was colored and constantly changing fractals. With eyes open the world looks very magic and alive and is constantly morphing, and faces are seen in trees, rocks, etc. Music was incredibly beautiful. Sometimes I was processing past memories and traumas from my life. Often I was getting teachings and “downloads” about my life, or assignments of things to work on. Or about larger philosophical things, like the nature of the Universe and experiences of Oneness with All. Sometimes I really struggled and went through ego death experiences. Other times I was in total bliss. “To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.” - Humphrey Osmond

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My only high dose, I would describe the internal experience (closing eyes) as Extremely detailed Rainbow Fractals. Eyes closed the surrounding trees were all made of these intricatly laced rainbow fractals. Vivid and bright, and very beautiful, and moving.

A blue Faced supernatural looking being appeared at one point in a kaladoscope-like constantly changing fractal temple. That was cool.

No hellish images, but the unease and stomach pain were a little scary. If I had not had a strong foundation of meditation, and a high tolerance for risk, I think the images would have spiralled out of control very rapidly into nightmarish things.

My balls were nearly sucked into my body, not painful, but a tell my body was not comfortable, somewhat distressed. Really wish I had smoked a joint, or half.

I drank way too much water, I think to compensate for the stomach discomfort, and had to pee a lot throught the night, whcih interrupted the best visions of the internal trip. (And probably contributed to some of the discomfort)

LOL, great quote. Have you seen the movie Jacobs Ladder?

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Yeah Osmond was the psychiatrist who coined the term “psychedelic” (mind manifesting) back in the 50’s. I haven’t seen Jacob’s Ladder. I just looked at a trailer. Looks scary. I’m not a big fan of scary films. Not sure what the connection is with psychedelics. So he’s not sure if he’s dead or alive? Is that the connection you’re making, because of my trip where I wasn’t sure if I was dead or alive for a period of time?

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This video is pretty close to the kinds of closed eyed fractals that I see on psilocybin or ayahuasca (this is supposed to be DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca, but I find the closed eyed visuals to be pretty similar with these medicines). But for me the most important thing about these trips is not the fractal visuals but the kinds of downloads of information, teaching and healing that I get. Also one of the wierdest open-eyed visual experiences that I had was one day while hiking in he woods on shrooms (not on a real high dose, I usually keep it fairly low out in the woods), I was looking at tree rings on a log and I saw a perfect image of Boddhisatva Tara wearing one of those conical straw Chinese style hats superimposed over the tree rings of the log. I stared at it for quite some time and the image seemed solid and there, not morphing and changing in the usual psychedelic style. I went back later totally sober and looked at that same log and the only thing there in sober waking consensus reality was a black hazy smudge. I couldn’t really see how my brain turned that smudge into Tara! (She’s my favorite Boddhisattva, by the way. I feel very drawn to her).

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Nor am I. @jessicamurby recommended it to me, and I highly highly recommend it. If you are a prime member, you can watch it free through their free app.

I personally would classify it as more a drama, than a horror film, but cant garuntee it wont give you nightmares. I watched it for that reason, hoping it would produce a scary dream I could become lucid in.

Thats becuase you have not watched it :upside_down_face:

Dont want to spoil anything for other members who have not seen it. If youre afraid itll traumatize you or make you wet the bed, PM me, and I will ruin the film for you, but I really think its worth your time.

I just read in one of Andrews books (either PTD or RM), that he recommends this movie, and shows it at some of his retreats, along with other A+ films.

Its well worth your time.

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OK. Andrews recommendation makes me think I should watch it. So many movies, so little time. And don’t get me started on all of these new TV series that go on and on. Some of them may be good, but just don’t have the time.

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I agree.

Also agree on the so many great recomendations of books and films, and so little time. Jacobs Ladder, I think is worth the investment.

Awesome video, really cool synchronicities with the temple, fire, and blue faced god. I forgot to mention there was a fire in the rotating temple I saw, but more motlen, and concentrated, like a magma derivative. Thats also where the blue faced deity or being was.

Really amazing synchronities. I wonder if those are common themes people see, or just a coinicidence? Thank you for sharing that. :star_struck:

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I don’t recall those particular themes from my own journeys but everyone has their own dreaming with different themes, whether with psychedelics or night time dreams.

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I just heard a talk by Mathew Johnson, a psilocybin researcher at Johns Hopkins and in the talk he said “the only known death of someone taking psilocybin was in a heart transplant patient.” He recommended that people with serious heart problems not do psilocybin.

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Glad to see science is finally starting to shatter the narrative that psilocybin doesnt kill.

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