Despite the fact that psychedelic drugs have been used for millennia as medicine in ritualistic ceremonies, there remain many questions in the scientific community about the relationship between their spiritual qualities and healing potential. Researchers at Johns Hopkins and New York Universities are giving psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to ordained ministers in the hopes that they can help provide some answers.
So far, they have enrolled thirteen religious leaders including an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, a Zen Buddhist roshi, an Episcopalian, a Greek Orthodox priest, and a Reform Christian for their FDA-approved clinical trial. (They’re also seeking Catholic priests, Imams, and Hindu priests to join the study.)
The researchers, who are dividing the psilocybin sessions between their two universities, plan to see if these ministers can use their spiritual practice and the vocabulary of religious study to provide insight into those sacred psychedelic moments that so often seem to transcend words. They’re also hoping to gain insight into the broader benefits of mystical experiences—and it turns out, there may not be much of a difference between ones that are drug-induced and those that arise organically. [...]
In a widely reported trial published in December 2016, the degree to which cancer patients saw a decrease in anxiety, depression, and a fear of death directly correlated with the intensity of their mystical experience on psilocybin. Similarly, in a six-month follow-up with cigarette smokers who underwent psilocybin sessions, the greater their mystical experience, the less they reported cravings to smoke afterward.
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