I love the way news stories on hallucinogenic drug research always have this sort of willful ignorance to them. Headline: Magic Mushrooms: Study Says They Help Some See Their Spiritual Side. Whenever I see a headline along these lines I can’t help but blurt out, like a annoyed pre-teen, “Duh!” Also, newsflash: water is wet!
Quote: “The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit.” This was a funded study remember. It was Science! Meanwhile the “study” that’s been ongoing for centuries, involving literally millions upon millions of subjects in every age/gender/scocio-economic combination possible, and which, I might add, arrived at this very same conclusion long, long, loonnnng ago, is decidedly not. It’s not of much value in discerning facts or compiling evidence or just generally helping us to better understand the effects of the drug in question evidently, and, as a matter of fact, is dangerous, illegal, and quite possibly evil…
Yeesh.
I know, I know, Science, controlled conditions, reliable data, etc. But let’s be honest here, in essence all this study did was ask 36 people who ate some shrooms, “So, how was yer trip man?” I’ve asked and answered that question myself, making me a self-contained, one man, scientific research study, asking questions, positing explanations, probing mysteries first-hand and coming to my own conclusions! Or as some people call it: being awake.
In closing, Quote: “Experts emphasize that people should not try psilocybin on their own because it could be harmful. Even in the controlled setting of the laboratory, nearly a third of participants felt significant fear under the effects of the drug. Without proper supervision, someone could be harmed, researchers said.”
1) I would have to take issue with the term “experts” here as true experts
tend
to take another stance altogether.
2) Since when are spirituality and fear mutually exclusive? As though you either “see God” or you are terrified.
3) Are we such colossal pussies that the risk of fear and harm outweighs the value of a transcendent, “magical,” quite probably outlook-altering experience? We poor silly simple-minded monkeys need all the help we can get in my estimation. Open sez me.
less
