OTC Christ

Could God exist in pill form? Seems our government is curious about just that and funded a study conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers looking at the effects of psychedelic mushrooms on average people. Volunteers were administered a dose of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. You’ll never guess what the researchers discovered. Read on.

1). What percent of the volunteers reported that the effects of their psilocybin session met the criteria for a ‘full mystical experience’ as measured by well-established psychological scales?

A. 60%
B. 25%
C. Less than 3%


2). Most of the 36 adult participants — none of whom had taken psilocybin before — counted their experience while under the influence of the drug as:

A. Terrifying, causing volunteers to suffer flashbacks for up to a year
B. Unsettling and confusing, requiring up to three months of follow-up therapy
C. Among the most meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives
D. Meaningless and a waste of time


ANSWERS
1). A: “More than 60 percent of the volunteers reported effects of their psilocybin session that met the criteria for a ‘full mystical experience’ as measured by well-established psychological scales,” said lead researcher Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of neuroscience, psychiatry and behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

2). C: What's more, most of the 36 adult participants — none of whom had taken psilocybin before — counted their experience while under the influence of the drug as “among the most meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives,” Griffiths said. Most said they became better, kinder, happier people in the weeks after the psilocybin session — a fact corroborated by family and friends.

One-third rated the psilocybin experience as “the single most spiritually significant experience of his or her life,” and another 38 percent placed the experience among their “top five” most spiritually significant moments. The researchers also noted no permanent brain damage or negative long-term effects stemming from use of psilocybin.

So, is this “God in a pill”? Griffiths said answering questions of religion or spirituality far exceeded the scope of studies like these. He likened scientific attempts to seek God in the human brain to experiments where scientists watch the neurological activity of people eating ice cream.

“You could define exactly what brain areas lit up and how they interplay, but that shouldn't be used as an argument that chocolate ice cream does or doesn't exist,” Griffiths said.