Misc. news stories

In the wake of a growing mental health crisis, the feds get ready for legal psychedelic therapy.

New research suggests that improvements in personal development and self-insight act as a pathway between post-psychedelic integration practices and optimal well-being. The study, which appears in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, provides evidence that this is the case for both clinical and non-clinical populations.

The story of peyote is something like a fairytale, beginning in a time long ago and containing what could be called magic by those who utilize it for healing. However, today’s reality for the Indigenous people who consider it sacred is anything but…

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?

Once the reserve of hippies and those going on “journeys”, magic mushrooms have evolved into another casual party drug alongside booze or MDMA.

As conservative leaders continue to rail against its legalisation, sentiment among the broader Australian population is shifting—markedly. Now, even the most conservative pockets of regional Australia are warming to the idea.

Your subjective experience might not end the moment your heart stops, research on near-death experiences suggests.

As psychedelic therapies for mental health go mainstream, companies are recruiting chemists to create patentable versions of hallucinogens. Critics say it’s all a bad trip.

Come November, Colorado voters will be asked to decide whether to legalize psilocybin and psilocin, psychoactive compounds in magic mushrooms, as well as whether to establish healing centers where the public can access them in a therapeutic context.

New research published in Scientific Reports found that people who microdose psychedelics displayed greater improvements in mental health and mood over the span of 1 month compared to non-microdosers.

Scientists have taken an important first step into studying the effects of the psychedelic drug psilocybin — the active substance in “magic” mushrooms — at a cellular and genetic level. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, indicate that a single dose of psilocybin produces a long-lasting antidepressant-like effect in flies.

Scientists probe the link between serotonin and cannabinoid signaling.

Image from: Apollo (Wiki Commons)

In the quest to discover the most effective psychedelic medicines for treating mental health conditions, some have pointed to DMT as a potential tool for treating depression. Now, a new study published in Nature lends credence to using DMT as a rapid-acting antidepressant.

Psilocybin is associated with general long-lasting positive psychological effects in healthy individuals as well. New research published in Frontiers in Pharmacology indeed found that psilocybin-induced psychedelic experiences are associated with long-lasting positive effects.

Shrooms, Alice, tweezes, mushies, hongos, pizza toppings, magic mushrooms — everyday lingo for psychedelic mushrooms seems to grow with each generation. Yet leading mycologist Paul Stamets believes it’s time for fans of psilocybin mushrooms to leave such childish slang behind.