Note. Information for this article comes from hopkinsmedicine.org, the official website of John Hopkins Center.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (PCR) in Baltimore, Ohio, is the pioneer in one of the most radical approaches in mental illness therapy, using a hallucinogenic mushroom, whose street name is ‘magic mushroom’.
eastwind journals
February 26, 2025, Archives tr610
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com / www.eastwindjournals.com
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Medical Scientists at John Hopkins have discovered that magic mushroom has an essential ingredient, psilocybin, a psychedelic compound which penetrated the central nervous system, and was discovered to reduce, if not totally eliminate deep depression. They also say that psilocybin has a potential to cure Alzheimer’s, dementia, and advanced alcoholism, although this needs further study.
In an initial ‘double-blind’ study, John Hopkins researchers reported that a majority of people beset by cancer-related anxiety or depression “found considerable relief for up to six months from a single large dose of psilocybin”.
Brain scans after the administration of psilocybin revealed that the claustrum, part of the brain believed to be responsible for “setting attention and switching tasks” is suppressed, which researcher relate to typical effects of generic psychedelic drugs, including “feelings of being connected to everything and reduced senses of self or ego”. This statement of reduced sense of self and connection to everything can be regarded as a form of ‘cosmic consciousness’.
To put it simply in layman terms, based on video interviews of Dr. Roland Griffits and an unnamed patient, psilocybin has the power to alter the thinking or perspective of a person concerning himself and the world around him.
To achieve this, John Hopkins subjects patients to a rigorous orientation in order to 1) fight the very strong existing attitude of despair and hopelessness, and 2) open the mind to a new perspective. In a lengthy interview, a young male patient, about 30 years old, said he was in a protracted depression for 10 to 15 years. His mind set was he did not believe he could get out of his rut, that he was hopeless. John Hopkins medical personnel had to orient and guide him that it was not hopeless. Only then did they administer psilocybin. In the end, there was a radical change in his perspective of himself and the world around him. He said psilocybin saved him. Zero depression.
In a video interview, Dr. Roland Griffiths, describes psilocybin as giving “rapid and enduring anti-anxiety effect”. He was careful to not generalize the effects of psilocybin and limit it for now to depression of cancer-patients, perhaps because the mind complex and different for every person. There are many types of depressions.
Griffiths talked about the supportive attitude of the FDA, which considered the “breakthrough therapy status” of psilocybin. He estimates that FDA approval will happen after 4 to 6 years. It’s not an overnight affair.
He finds it a ‘mystery’ why psilocybin works like magic, so different from other traditional chemical anti-depression drugs. There is a simple answer to that. The molecular structure of organic substances ‘binds’ or conforms with the molecular structure of the human body, its blood, organs and brain. And the molecular structure of chemical or synthetic drugs are ‘at war’ with the molecular structure of the human body.
There are some unanswered questions. Is there a point when a patient is completely healed of depression and does not have to take psilocybin? Or does one have to take it rest of his life. And if so, will he develop tolerance from long term use of psilocybin, meaning will the effect be less through long term use?
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