From Yahoo News:
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, a chemical found in some psychedelic mushrooms, that's credited with inducing transcendental states. Now, they say, they've zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.Another participant in the study told researchers:
The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin--long viewed skeptically for its association with 1960s countercultural thrill-seekers--for a range of valuable clinical functions, like easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and helping smokers quit. Already, studies in which depressed cancer patients were given the drug have reported positive results.
The Johns Hopkins study--whose results will be published this week in the journal Psychopharmacology--involved giving healthy volunteers varying doses of psilocybin in a controlled and supportive setting, over four separate sessions. Looking back more than a year later, 94 percent of participants rated it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes.
More important, 89 percent reported lasting, positive changes in their behavior--better relationships with others, for instance, or increased care for their own mental and physical well-being. Those assessments were corroborated by family members and others.
"I think my heart is more open to all interactions with other people," one volunteer reported in a questionnaire given to participants 14-months after their session.
"I'm not afraid to die anymore".But, if you want a really important recommendation, check this out:
"I feel that I relate better in my marriage," wrote another. "There is more empathy -- a greater understanding of people, and understanding their difficulties ..."That must be some real good shit.
For your listening pleasure.
2 comments:
AGAINST EUTHANASIA
«a high proportion of deaths classified as euthanasia in Belgium have involved patients who have not requested their lives to be ended by a doctor.»
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003280/Organs-people-killed-euthanasia-harvested-transplant-surgery-Belgium.html
In the Guardian today, they've announced that they're introducing a new Guardian Comment Network which will feature news and contributions with partner organisations from around the world. Shockingly, one of the foreign news partners is Today's Zaman, a Turkish newspaper which is part of the creepy Fethullah Gulen network. For those who don't know, the Fethullah Gulen network is a bit like the Moonies or Scientologists, except that it's Islamic and Turkish nationalist. Gulen is a reclusive billionaire who now lives in the USA. He owns many companies, including schools and media publications.
Admittedly, his network is not linked to violence; rather, it pursues the same jihadist goals by other means, through education and the infiltration of state institutions. Many would argue that the Turkish state has been heavily penetrated by the Gulen network. Indeed, a journalist recently wrote a book ('The Imam's Army') saying the Turkish police had been massively infiltrated by Gulen loyalists. The police mounted raids to try and confiscate all copies of the book before it was published. In the USA, the Gulen network owns many schools.
Today's Zaman consistently supports the ruling AKP in its attempt to transform Turkey, marginalising the military, the traditional guardians of secularism, and strengthening the Islamic element in the country. It also supports the AKP's allies. For example, last year when there were anti-regime protests in Iran, the Turkish government sided with the Iranian government rather than the protesters; so, too, did Today's Zaman. The Guardian covered these protests extensively and sympathetically. It is shocking that it is now allying itself with a newspaper that sided with the Iranian regime against the protesters.
http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com/2011/06/guardian-embraces-gulen-network.html
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