Time Magazine has just announced an exciting new study recently released from Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s a link to the full report in the Journal Psychopharmacology.
Michael Horowitz (Tim’s personal archivist) sez:
“The acquisition of the Timothy Leary Archives by the New York Public Library represents a turning point in the academic acceptance of the value of the psychedelic research done by Dr. Leary and his Harvard colleagues in the early 1960s.
The announcement comes within days of the news from Johns Hopkins that, in a 14-month follow-up review of their investigation of the effects of psilocybin taken under optimal conditions of dosage, set and setting, the percentage of subjects describing it as “the best or one of the five best experiences of their lives” climbed from 83% to 94%. This study virtually replicates the design and results of the investigation carried out by Leary and his associates under the auspices of the Harvard Psilocybin Project nearly half a century ago – which nonetheless led to Harvard giving Leary and Alpert their permanent exit papers from Academia.”
Read the article: ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health
Excerpt from article in TIME:
Begin excerpt: “The important point here is that we found the sweet spot where we can optimize the positive persistent effects and avoid some of the fear and anxiety that can occur and can be quite disruptive,” says lead author Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology at Hopkins.
Giffiths’ study involved 18 healthy adults, average age 46, who participated in five eight-hour drug sessions with either psilocybin — at varying doses — or placebo. Nearly all the volunteers were college graduates and 78% participated regularly in religious activities; all were interested in spiritual experience.
Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.
Critically, however, the participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that the psilocybin experience had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.” — end excerpt.
