Scientists Study Mystical Effects of Mushrooms
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=health&id=4356299
"The controversial study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, looked at whether a pill containing psilocybin, derived from the psilocybe mushroom, would induce mystical experiences among 36 healthy adult study participants. All had religious backgrounds, and all were also given the active drug ingredient in the attention-deficit disorder drug, Ritalin, at a separate time as a comparison.
The results were clear: Sixty percent of the psilocybin group elicited behaviors consistent with a "full mystical experience" as measured by psychological scales. Two months later, about 79 percent of the group reported "moderately to greatly increased" well-being or life satisfaction."
The biggest criticism surrounding this study is the suggestion that, because the participants were all religious prior to taking the drug, they might've undergone a mystical experience largely through the power of suggestion and expectation. That argument is valid when it comes to psychological experiments dealing with everyday mental activities, but what they're talking about here -- a profoundly altered perception -- seems beyond sheer willpower and psychic trickery.
Many of us have brief, spontaneous encounters with the mystical state of consciousness wherein our habitual way of seeing things is suddenly invaded by a presence of the unknown, of "the absurd" or of "God" depending on one's outlook and predisposition, but the only thing that is really dependent on the will is a person's reaction to or interpretation of it, after the fact. Camus described the feeling as "the Absurd," whereas natives in South America said it was like "looking into the eyes of the Veiled Lady." Whatever you want to call "it" is common to every culture that respects alternative visions of reality, but in America we lack the language to even discuss its existence, let alone its possible significance. That very problem must have been the origin of all sacred art and every religion in human history. So what now? The images and symbols of our dominant religion, Christianity, are believed by nearly all followers today to be literal and historical, thus they are no longer symbols. They are facts to be verified in the afterlife, the realizations of which are to be put on hold here on earth through "faith."
Meanwhile, marketers and advertisers are gaining a better understanding of the people's mythic imagination than the priests whom they go to for spiritual guidance. Turn on your television and you'll find that much of the imagery we're bombarded with is blatantly psychedelic, hallucinatory, and dream-like. I don't think that's an accident. Nor is it a coincidence that politicians and corporations often inject religious themes and concepts into their messages. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they have tapped into a power that is deeply familiar to us, and which is greater than our capacity for rational thought. And that manipulation of the religious impulse is so prevalent in our society that it is as if there's a deliberate conspiracy aimed at hijacking and harnessing its inherent power while erasing its true, spiritual essence. I don't believe that literally, of course, but I do think some form of that idea could contribute to a rebellion against pop culture and a resurgence in authentic spirituality. Such a revolt is inevitable, but the obstacles are firmly in place. Everywhere we go in the modern city there is something to command our attention, to remind us of the human world with all of its endless distractions and excesses. We exist within these artificial environments and they threaten to cut us off entirely from nature, the very source of religious worship, but there always remains the potential for new revelations and for the rediscovery of ancient truths. There's a theory today of something called the "dialogic imagination" which says that any idea, once it enters a people's consciousness, is always capable of being reinvented by later generations. This could explain why so many common motifs of mythology kept popping up in different cultures throughout history, adapting in such a way that spoke to that particular group living at that specific time. I may say that Christianity is irrelevant to you and I, for instance, but the archetypal figure of Jesus -- of one who dies and is reborn anew -- is found all over the place in contemporary life and art, from Neo to Lester Burnham, and the immense popularity of those stories are indications that we are aware on some level of the illusory nature of the purely material world, and that we still possess a longing for someone or something to guide us toward transcendence. And, anyway, 'shrooms could possibly be a catalyst for a more unifying way of organizing ourselves around shared spiritual ideals that are not currently available to us.
"The controversial study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, looked at whether a pill containing psilocybin, derived from the psilocybe mushroom, would induce mystical experiences among 36 healthy adult study participants. All had religious backgrounds, and all were also given the active drug ingredient in the attention-deficit disorder drug, Ritalin, at a separate time as a comparison.
The results were clear: Sixty percent of the psilocybin group elicited behaviors consistent with a "full mystical experience" as measured by psychological scales. Two months later, about 79 percent of the group reported "moderately to greatly increased" well-being or life satisfaction."
The biggest criticism surrounding this study is the suggestion that, because the participants were all religious prior to taking the drug, they might've undergone a mystical experience largely through the power of suggestion and expectation. That argument is valid when it comes to psychological experiments dealing with everyday mental activities, but what they're talking about here -- a profoundly altered perception -- seems beyond sheer willpower and psychic trickery.
Many of us have brief, spontaneous encounters with the mystical state of consciousness wherein our habitual way of seeing things is suddenly invaded by a presence of the unknown, of "the absurd" or of "God" depending on one's outlook and predisposition, but the only thing that is really dependent on the will is a person's reaction to or interpretation of it, after the fact. Camus described the feeling as "the Absurd," whereas natives in South America said it was like "looking into the eyes of the Veiled Lady." Whatever you want to call "it" is common to every culture that respects alternative visions of reality, but in America we lack the language to even discuss its existence, let alone its possible significance. That very problem must have been the origin of all sacred art and every religion in human history. So what now? The images and symbols of our dominant religion, Christianity, are believed by nearly all followers today to be literal and historical, thus they are no longer symbols. They are facts to be verified in the afterlife, the realizations of which are to be put on hold here on earth through "faith."
Meanwhile, marketers and advertisers are gaining a better understanding of the people's mythic imagination than the priests whom they go to for spiritual guidance. Turn on your television and you'll find that much of the imagery we're bombarded with is blatantly psychedelic, hallucinatory, and dream-like. I don't think that's an accident. Nor is it a coincidence that politicians and corporations often inject religious themes and concepts into their messages. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they have tapped into a power that is deeply familiar to us, and which is greater than our capacity for rational thought. And that manipulation of the religious impulse is so prevalent in our society that it is as if there's a deliberate conspiracy aimed at hijacking and harnessing its inherent power while erasing its true, spiritual essence. I don't believe that literally, of course, but I do think some form of that idea could contribute to a rebellion against pop culture and a resurgence in authentic spirituality. Such a revolt is inevitable, but the obstacles are firmly in place. Everywhere we go in the modern city there is something to command our attention, to remind us of the human world with all of its endless distractions and excesses. We exist within these artificial environments and they threaten to cut us off entirely from nature, the very source of religious worship, but there always remains the potential for new revelations and for the rediscovery of ancient truths. There's a theory today of something called the "dialogic imagination" which says that any idea, once it enters a people's consciousness, is always capable of being reinvented by later generations. This could explain why so many common motifs of mythology kept popping up in different cultures throughout history, adapting in such a way that spoke to that particular group living at that specific time. I may say that Christianity is irrelevant to you and I, for instance, but the archetypal figure of Jesus -- of one who dies and is reborn anew -- is found all over the place in contemporary life and art, from Neo to Lester Burnham, and the immense popularity of those stories are indications that we are aware on some level of the illusory nature of the purely material world, and that we still possess a longing for someone or something to guide us toward transcendence. And, anyway, 'shrooms could possibly be a catalyst for a more unifying way of organizing ourselves around shared spiritual ideals that are not currently available to us.
posted by Joe at
8:17 PM
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