Celebrities share LSD trips in Netflix documentary ‘Have A Good Trip’ – Insider – INSIDER

When rapper A$AP Rocky did acid, a rainbow shot out of his penis. When Sting did, the grass started talking to him. And for Rosie Perez, her psychedelic trip made it feel like her body became one with her mattress.

Their stories are all part of Netflix's upcoming documentary, "Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics."

In the documentary, which premieres May 11, celebrities recount what it was like to take mind-altering drugs like LSD and "magic" mushrooms and actors reenact the wild moments. Viewers can expect stories from Ben Stiller, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Silverman, and others. Actors will also perform drug trips described by late stars Anthony Bourdain and Carrie Fisher.

The kooky vignettes are given a serious edge by researchers who explain the science of psychedelics and their potential to treat anxiety, depression, and addiction.

Indeed, existing research on LSD and psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in psychedelic mushrooms, suggests that the drugs could open dormant neural pathways in people's brains to help them have spiritual experiences and even find relief from mental health disorders.

Magic mushrooms have been on the psychedelic scene for decades, but they're currently gaining traction in the medical community as a potential treatment for depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

But only a handful of studies on the substance exist because of the its current status as a Schedule I drug (one withno currently accepted medical use, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration).

A small study, published in November 2016 in theJournal of Psychopharmacology, looked at29 cancer patients who reported feeling depressed or anxiousdue to their cancer diagnosis. For seven weeks, each patient went through psychotherapy sessions and received either a single 0.3 mg dose of psilocybin or niacin (vitamin B) afterward. Researchers noticed that the patients who received psilocybin had an immediate reduction in anxiety and depression, which held at the six-and-a-half-month follow-up.

An actor reenacts Carrie Fisher's psychedelic trip in "Have a Good Trip." Netflix

In another small study, published in 2006 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology,researchers gave 36 medically and psychiatrically healthy participants 30 mg of psilocybin, with dose adjustments made depending on patients' weight. The psilocybin was distributed during two or three separate sessions, and at a two-month follow-up, 50% of the participants said their psilocybin experience improved their personal well being or life satisfaction moderately. 29% said it improved their life satisfaction "very much."

One potential reason psilocybin has this effect, as Business Insider previously reported, is its ability tochange the way information moves through the brain.

Author Erin Brodwin compared the brain to a series of highways. Normally, traffic tends to buildup on some highways more than others. But when a person uses psilocybin, the brain reroutes some of the traffic onto the underused highways, freeing up space on the overused ones.

For a person with depression, overused highways can lead to more negative thoughts, self-criticisms, and overwhelming feelings, so psilocybin has the potential to help decrease those effects.

See original here:

Celebrities share LSD trips in Netflix documentary 'Have A Good Trip' - Insider - INSIDER

Related Posts

Comments are closed.