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Podcast #013 - Mushrooms & Mystical Experience - An interview with Dr. Roland Griffiths
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January 11, 2009 11:14 PM PST
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In May 2006 a Johns Hopkins University study on psilocybin (the active ingredient in Psilocybe varieties of mushrooms) was published stating that the religious experience had been proven through the use of the active ingredient in psilocybe mushrooms. The article by Dr. Roland Griffiths, et al, is titled: ‘Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance’. It found that:

"…when administered to volunteers under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences and which were evaluated by volunteers as having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance."

A follow-up study by Dr. Griffiths, et al, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in July 2008 confirmed the first study’s findings. It found that:

"At the 14-month follow-up, 58% and 67%, respectively, of volunteers rated the psilocybin-occasioned experience as being among the five most personally meaningful and among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives; 64% indicated that the experience increased well-being or life satisfaction; 58% met criteria for having had a ‘complete’ mystical experience. Correlation and regression analyses indicated a central role of the mystical experience assessed on the session day in the high ratings of personal meaning and spiritual significance at follow-up. Of the measures of personality, affect, quality of life and spirituality assessed across the study, only a scale measuring mystical experience showed a difference from screening. When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences that, at 14-month follow-up, were considered by volunteers to be among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives."

I’m happy to present the author of these studies – Professor Roland Griffiths from Johns Hopkins University.