Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The God Pill
From The Economist, July 13, 2006

"One June night in Mexico in 1955, Gordon Wasson, a vice-president of J.P. Morgan, became one of the first outsiders to eat what the Aztecs called teonanácatl, the flesh of the gods. Actually, it is the flesh of a fungus, and it soon became known to hippies as the magic mushroom. But, whereas the flower children of the 1960s and their descendants gobbled the hallucinogenic fungi in search of a good time, the Aztecs had a deeper purpose. They used the mushrooms in religious ceremonies for healing, divination and communing with the spirit world.

Now a study led by Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University, and published this week in Psychopharmacology, has shown that psilocybin—the active component in magic mushrooms—does indeed induce mental states akin to the highest religious experiences. Moreover, it has lasting positive effects on those who take it."

Source: The Economist

7 comments:

Bob said...

As you know each scientific study not uncommonly contradicts the previous one.
My strong hunch is that there are no short cuts on the spiritual path. Of course I may be wrong!

Incidentally I remember my friend taking about fifty magic mushrooms all at once! Perhaps the supposed spiritual effects were neutralised by all the alcohol he had in his system! :)

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

I agree, Rob. Your friend must have been in an "interesting" state of non-mind at that point. The only tripping I do these days is in the car, on the plane, or the bike.

Kathleen said...

Someone told me once that there is a whole society that believes that psilocybin mushrooms are entities from another planet... (or was it dimension...) hmmmmm, something like that.. sent here to wake us up!

So many of us have merged with them... who knows... here we are! :)

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Kathleen...never heard that, but who knows. Reminds me of Carlos Castaneda.

Dan said...

This is where a lot of us (apparently) got started on this (apparent) path.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Why Dan you old dope head! LOL. Actually true...or as you say, apparently true.

Anonymous said...

Damn buncha dope heads. make me mad as heck. I pay higher insurance premiums because of those dopers from the 60s. People should get some sense. Why my wife and me can barely make ends meet with our pensions, and shoot we worked hard for near 45 years. Not them dope heads. They live in nice places, sleep in the parks, take welfare, and some is downright dirty. You sound like a smart man. Why give these issues attention?

You know what Bible says: "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." There you go. Now, may the good Lord bless you son. Do you write any Christian poetry? Sure would be nice.

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