Prompted by “Why Magic Mushrooms Can Be Good for You”: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/10/26/magic-mushrooms-good/
Given Fox News’ reputation as a ‘red team’ (Republican) supporter, so presses into a political arena steaming hatred against psychedelics due excessively to conflicting political affiliation, this article on the benefits of psilocybin is interestingly sourced. The article also makes valid points worth echoing.
Recent studies, however, show that psilocybin, the hallucinogenic agent in magic mushrooms, can be highly beneficial. The most recent study, reported in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, involved patients with advanced stage cancer. Twelve adult patients were given psilocybin, and then were subsequently monitored for 6 months afterwards for overall mood and anxiety. No adverse effects among the participants were reported. But anxiety was greatly reduced, and patients were less depressed. This study demonstrates that magic mushrooms, or more specifically their active agent psilocybin, can be useful in reducing the anxiety and depression of the terminally ill. Perhaps as time goes on the use of psilocybin among the terminally ill may be deemed a mercy medicine.
Even more remarkable, and certainly with broader applications, is the 2006 Johns Hopkins study, reported in the journal Psychopharmacology. Employing rigorous scientific conditions and measures, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical conducted a study showing that psilocybin can induce mystical/spiritual experiences of great worth and of enduring effect. In their study, 36 healthy, well-educated volunteers — most of them middle-aged and with no family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder were selected. The subjects were given psilocybin in a controlled clinical setting. Among the volunteers, 22 had a “complete” mystical experience. After a two month follow-up, 67 percent of the subjects rated the experience “the single most meaningful experience” of their lives, or among the top five most meaningful “experiences.”
These are staggering results from the ingestion of a small capsule.
Anyone familiar with psychedelics (including the increasingly legal cannabis) understands the powerful results possibly achieved to alter perception in a way greatly shaping the common view.
That power demands respect, which demands responsibility in psychedelic use. That use (as opposed to abuse) demands legality on constitutional grounds (amendment nine) upholding an unalienable right to liberty.
Without that legality, problems due to black market dominance continue harshly ruining too many (especially young) lives. That includes replacing pure LSD (with its undeniably smooth quality) with harsh and dangerous alternatives such as 25I, and an overall questionable quality of such powerful drugs constantly in demand.
One thing is for certain. The psychedelic genie is now officially out of the bottle, and the beneficial effects of magic mushrooms are being discussed in hospitals and clinics, and in regulatory offices. Don’t expect magic mushrooms to show up in your home pharmacy any time soon. But do expect more good news on the psychedelic frontier, as researchers continue to conduct medical studies that pry into how mushrooms and other psychoactive agents from antiquity may play key roles in health and happiness in the modern world.
Meanwhile, expect too many risky psychedelic experiences mainly due to the absence of quality education (like going skydiving with no training) rendered effectively illegal due to crime encouragement. Psychedelic educators must carefully focus upon proper word selection (to avoid potential legal liability, so distracted from focusing solely upon better educational impact) and cannot boldly reach out throughout our global community (going into schools with actual drug education — instead of reckless and cheap scaremongering resonating with nobody new).
Seriously broken law is the problem, but mainly due to a public that refuses to care about an admittedly lame subject that has a seriously powerful impact on us all. That lameness allows all sorts of judicial abuses, because the sufficiently organized masses are (directly and indirectly) the only group capable of uprooting judicial corruption through public force. That lameness (and absence of enough public care) is why strictest application of the unalienable right to liberty is urgently needed (and matches national obligation) to prevent the abuse of law upfront.
No longer can our nation embrace the Great Hypocrisy to oppose that obligation. No longer can weak science (at best) suffice to oppose that critical right allowing responsible flexibility and all of the innovation in the form of creatively solving societal problems — e.g. think flexibility similarly required by athletes for optimal performance and injury risk reduction.
Psychedelics can be abused (just as law has been egregiously abused in the form of Certain Drug Prohibition), and that abuse obviously must be maximally prevented, but their proper use can beautifully revolutionize our species. That includes a major leap in medical understanding and healing, a profound spiritual recognition capable of curing egotism (arguably the most dangerous mental illness that the mainstream public refuses to address) — so reduce the causation of violence and other stressors, and scientific inspiration leading to the understanding that everything truly is energetic (including information and space). That inspiration comes from informational (e.g. “melting” walls) and spatial (e.g. newly revealed sense of oceanic dimensionality) modulation forming the astonishing perception alteration possibilities from psychedelic intake, so reveals how utterly lamely narrow that “normal” and excessively rigid perception (e.g. religiously stuck in ways with no respect to righteousness) really is at terrible risk against at least our species.
Restoring the Commerce Clause instantly ends the war on some drugs by legal necessity, and then you can not only expect any psychedelic to be lawfully and promptly available in its highest quality form at a credible store nearby (that cannot sell actually harmful substances by actual law), but you can also expect an entire psychedelic culture surfacing to ensure proper education coincides in its highest quality form (e.g. preventing misfitting intake and properly navigating a misfitting experience beyond that prevention).
Our Respect Cannabis campaign is all about responsible psychedelic (actually any form of intentional perception alteration) use, which can only start with the responsible use of law — instead of the drug prohibition addiction (law abuse) based solely upon lies and effectively theft to allow sanctioned thugs in the land of the free to get their fix (an inexcusable outcome spanning several decades and counting) due excessively to lameness.
I am an honest freak (or reasonably responsibly balanced "misfit", if you prefer) of an artist working and resting to best carefully contribute towards helping society. Too many people abuse reasoning (e.g. 'partial truth = whole truth' scam), while I exercise reason to explore and express whole truth without any conflict-of-interest -- all within a sometimes offbeat style of psychedelic artistry.
Spirit Wave Journal 
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