Monthly Archives: October 2019

Youre not being invited to tune in, turn on and drop out, or sit in a white room without curtains but the controlled use of psychedelics a counterpart to the LSD pill drop of the 1960s that sent many people into a kind of end-of-2001-Space Odyssey trip deep into their own mind ( some never recovered or went bats) is showing impressive results at Johns Hopkins University.

Scientist Roland Griffiths and his colleague Matthew Johnson have been giving what they call heroic doses of psilocybin, like the old magic mushrooms from Hippie times, to more than 350 volunteers over the last two decades, CBS News reported in a feature by Anderson Cooper.

The early results are encouraging, as are the experiences of the studies volunteers who go on a six-hour, sometimes terrifying, but often life-changing psychedelic journey deep into their own minds, the report said.

Among the volunteers was Jon Kostakopoulos, who said he wanted to end his daily binge drinking of beer and cocktails, usually vodka sodas, tequila sodas, scotch and sodas, as many as 20 a day he said was wearing him down and out, killing him slowly.

During one psilocybin session, he was flooded with powerful feelings and images from his past.Stuff would come up that Ihavent thought of since they happened, he told Cooper, who asked if old memories he couldnt remember returned again.

I felt, you know, a lot of shame and embarrassment throughout one of the sessions about my drinking and how bad I felt for my parents to put up with all this, said Kostakopoulos, who took the psilocybin in 2016 and stopped drinking on the spot.

Do you ever have a day where you wake up and youre like, man, I wish I could have a vodka right now or beer? asked Cooper.

Never, said KostakopoulosNot at all, which is the craziest thing because that was my favorite thing to do.

As the show noted, using psychedelic drugs in therapy is not new, with hundreds of scientific studies done on a similar compound LSD in the 1950s and 60s, tested on more than 40,000 people, some in controlled therapeutic settings like this one.

But there were also abuses. The U.S. military and CIA experimented with LSD sometimes without patients knowledge, said the report, and LSD took on a bad reputation as dangerous and even deadly in some cases.

When Harvard professor Timothy Leary urged people to turn on, tune in, and drop out during the counterculture movement that brought fear to the establishment, then-President Richard Nixon in 1970 signed the controlled substances act and nearly all scientific research in the United States into the effects of psychedelics on people stopped.

It wasnt until 2000 that Roland Griffiths won FDA approval to study psilocybin. This whole area of research has been in the deep freeze for 25 or 30 years. And so as a scientist, sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle, he said.

After the first results he said, The red light started flashing. This is extraordinarily interesting. Its unprecedented and the capacity of the human organism to change it just was astounding.

But he cautioned what he does is scientific in a very controlled setting and that, we are very aware of the risks, and would not recommend that people simply go out and do this.

Griffiths and Johnson screen out people with psychotic disorders or with close relatives who have had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and volunteers are given weeks of intensive counseling before and after the six-hour psilocybin experience; the psilocybin is given in a carefully controlled setting one to three times. They said there hasnt been one adverse reaction but warn some people will find the experience terrifying and be taken into a hell realm of fear.

Everything is done the same way it was for the LSD experiments scientists conducted in the 1950s and 60s and some of the most dramatic results have been with terminal cancer patients struggling with anxiety and paralyzing depression.

Kerry Pappas, who was diagnosed with Stage III lung cancer in 2013 took the chance on the psilocybin. I start seeing the colors and the geometric designs and its like oh this is so cool, and how lovely and, and then, boom. Visions began, she said. During her psilocybin session, she found herself trapped in a nightmare her mind created. An ancient, prehistoric, barren land. And theres these me with pickaxes, just slamming on the rocks. So she said.

Cooper asked, and this felt absolutely real to you?

Absolutely real. I was being shown the truth of reality. Life is meaningless, we have no purpose. And then I look, and Im still like a witness, a beautiful, shimmering, bright jewel. And then it was sound, and it was booming, booming, booming. Right here right now.

That was being said? asked Cooper.

You are alive. Right here right now, because thats all you have. And that is my mantra to this day, she said. The cancer has spread to her brain but she said her crippling anxiety about death is gone.

Yeah, its amazing. I mean, I feel like death doesnt frighten me. Living doesnt frighten me. I dont frighten me. This frightens me. She added, to this day, it evolves in meIts still absolutely alive in me.

When Cooper asked if the drug had made her happier, she said, Yah. And and I dont necessarily use the word happy. Comfortable. Like, comfortable. I mean, Ive suffered from anxiety my whole life. Im comfortable. That, to me, okay. I can die. Im comfortable, she laughed.

She ended: I mean, its huge. Its huge. Shes freed.

Go here to see the original:

Mind Trip: Psychedelics Fighting Depression, Anxiety, Addiction - The National Herald

On his latest album, True Love, Devon Welsh is singular. Thats not to say that the incisive singer-songwriteris alone in the world, but it wouldnt be such a bad thing if he were. I think its been more solo than the first one, Welsh says of this release, his sophomore outing following the dissolution of his electro-pop group Majical Cloudz. Its safe to say that for Welsh, who moved from his native Montreal to rural Wisconsin before making this album (I think a change of scenery can give you a new perspective on who you could be, Welsh tells me) theres something about the broader concept of alone-ness that feels both vital and terrifying.

That comes across on True Love, a record with such a big name Googling What is true love? brings back 3,460,000,000 attempted articulations it could easily become an abstraction. But rather than preaching some grand theory, Welsh stresses the personal, thriving in the ever-changing grey-space of subjectivity. Songs like Grace, a meditative, acoustic track that sees Welsh attempting to distinguish between the real or the easy Grace, seem to prick gently at the impulse to give into outside forces before looking inward. Still, when I ask if his album intentionally grapples with looming structures and archetypes, he says no. When I sit down to write a song, there wont really be an intention, he says. Therell just be the intention to write a song. If anything, its just about concocting something thats easy to understand.

Ironically, its this earnest simplicity that makes Welshs music feel so definitive. The instinct to translate the personal to the public, to find the communal in the close-to-home, is what makes the album so effectiveand affecting. With this in mind, I asked Welsh his point of view on everythingfrom acid to Roswell to the Xeroxed drawing his dad framed when he was fiveall in the style of Glenn OBriens iconic 1977 interview with Andy Warhol. Fittingly, Welshs perspective(s) on how psychedelics shake things up could just as easily serve as his take on the true nature of true love: Its not set in stone, he says, thinking of our relationships to the world and to each other. Its certainly not objective. And then there were 3,460,000,001.

JADIE STILLWELL: What was your first work of art?

DEVON WELSH: Before I answer, Andy Warhol answers these questions with only a few words, and I know that thats his style, but I dont know if theres some sort of faux pas depending on how many words I use.

STILLWELL: Youre free to use as many words as you want. No judgement.

WELSH: Okay. The first thing that came to mind was just a drawing that I had made that my father then made Xerox copies of, and then he framed one of them when I was a kid. It was just, like, a stick figure, but he was very excited about it, and I think that made me feel excited about it, too.

STILLWELL: How old were you when you did that?

WELSH: I would say five.

STILLWELL: What did you do for fun as a teenager?

WELSH: I watched TV. I lived outside of a town, in the country, and so some people that I knew could hang out. But then when I was at home, I couldnt really go anywhere. So I watched a lot of TV, and I read a lot of books, and I spent a lot of time on MSN Messenger. Then I played sports, and then I started playing music. I played Diablo II and made music on the computer with my friend. And I smoked marijuana.

STILLWELL: Thats one of the other questions. Now youve answered it. Did people say you had natural talent?

WELSH: I was voted most dramatically talented at my high school prom.

STILLWELL: Did you do theater?

WELSH: I sort of did. My dad is an actor, and I grew up in a small town. He was on the CBC a lot in Canada, and so he was a well-known face and a well-known actor. A lot of people would say, Oh, youre going to be an actor when you grow up, arent you? That was something I always heard. And I accepted that up until a point, and then after that I was like, Im not going to be an actor. No way. Because thats not me. So then I didnt audition for the high school plays, but I really loved drama. In my classes, I really enjoyed it, and my drama teacher was the director. So he would always create little parts that I could play. It would be a background kind of thing. Like we did West Side Story, and I was one of the members of the Sharks that never actually had a line.

STILLWELL: Who was the first artist to influence you?

WELSH: The first artist that I ever remember enjoying as a child was Mariah Carey. I also remember the first CD that I ever wanted to listen to on my own was Sarah McLachlan. But the first thing that influenced me in terms of actually creating something myself was probably punk music in general. Because I didnt really know a lot about it, but other people that were making music were into different punk and hardcore bands. So then I started playing that music. Probably inspired by like just other local bands like, Oh, theyre playing music. We should play music, too.

STILLWELL: Did you go to the movies a lot?

WELSH: I did go to the movies a lot when I was young. Me and my friend, Nicholas, would go to the movies together all the time.

STILLWELL: Do you ever think about politics?

WELSH: All the time.

STILLWELL: Do you vote?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: What is your favorite of all of your work?

WELSH: Oh, thats such a tough question.

STILLWELL: They get harder.

WELSH: Theres probably an interesting answer to this, but I dont know what it is. If I had to say something, I would probably say the song, This Is Magic, from the first Majical Cloudz album because I remember the moment that I wrote it was kind of like a moment of flipping a lot of self-doubt into self-confidence. I was very insecure and scared and, at some point, I realized that there was really nowhere to go in that direction, and that there was nothing to lose by just deciding to reverse it. And I feel like writing that song, that was sort of a moment where that happened in my life.

STILLWELL: Whats your favorite color?

WELSH: My favorite color is green.

STILLWELL: A specific green or just green?

WELSH: Like a forest-y green. I dont know the names of the different colors, but something thats sort of dark, not very fluorescent.

STILLWELL: Have you ever taken acid?

WELSH: Yes. I think psychedelic drugs have had a positive effect on my identity and my life. When I was in high school, I remember I got into smoking pot, and then I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and things like that. So I found out about psychedelic drugs, and then I was like, Oh, this is interesting. What is this? Then I read the book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, and I decided that I really needed to try psychedelic drugs as a kind of exploration. It was like, Wait, I can eat this thing, and then I perceive everything differently? Thats pretty cool. So I tried it. I feel like so many formative experiences have involved something like that. And I think theyre important because they let you see that the way that you think of yourself, the way that you think of the world, the way that you think of your relationships, you can see it all differently. Its not set in stone. Its certainly not objective.

STILLWELL: Do you make music every day?

WELSH: Not every day.

STILLWELL: Would you like to live in outer space?

WELSH: Absolutely not. I feel like existence would lose all meaning, and I would be afraid to know what direction that would take.

STILLWELL: Do you know how to drive?

WELSH: Yes. Ive driven across Canada with other people twice, and then Ive driven all across the United States many, many times.

STILLWELL: Do you look in the mirror when you get up in the morning?

WELSH: No.

STILLWELL: How much time do you spend on the phone every day?

WELSH: Oh. Either looking at it or talking? I dont know, but probably a lot of time.

STILLWELL: Do you think youre a father figure to anyone?

WELSH: I dont know. I would say, if anything, maybe an older brother figure. I dont think Im at father status yet. I dont think the age discrepancy between my myself and anyone I know is that far away yet.

STILLWELL: Have you ever gone to see a psychiatrist?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: Have you ever hated anybody?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: Have you ever been in love?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: Have you ever tried to grow a mustache?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: How did that go?

WELSH: It went very well. I loved it. Its just that everyone in my life whose romantic affection I was interested in was not interested in me having it.

STILLWELL: So it went well and not well?

WELSH: I really enjoyed it. It was a nice time in my life.

STILLWELL: Do you believe in flying saucers?

WELSH: No.

STILLWELL: No? You dont think there are aliens?

WELSH: I mean, Im sure there are aliens. But do I believe in, like, the Roswell story? I certainly think the probability is very high that theres some kind of other life in the universe. But the Roswell thing probably didnt happen.

STILLWELL: Do you know how to dance?

WELSH: Yes.

STILLWELL: Do you dance well?

WELSH: I think so. Ive been complimented on it before, and I think my best attribute as a dancer is my endurance and commitment.

STILLWELL: Do you believe in the American dream?

WELSH: I think I believe in the American dream in the sense of the Declaration of Independence and the idea of liberty. I believe in that. I believe in the principles that America presents.

STILLWELL: I sense a but coming.

WELSH: But I dont know. Its obviously not real. I mean, its as real as any of our aspirations are, so its always possible, and maybe its a good thing to put on the horizon.

STILLWELL: Do you think the world can be saved?

WELSH: I hope so. I guess the only thing that could save it is itself.

STILLWELL: Do you believe in God?

WELSH: I do in a sense that I trust in my total ignorance of reality, and that makes me sort of believe in God. Or just in my total ignorance as to the nature of reality and of existence. My total ignorance is an experience of God, in a way.

STILLWELL: Do you have any secrets that youll tell after everyone else is dead?

WELSH: I would tell them all, but who would I tell them to?

See original here:

Devon Welsh on Growing a Mustache, Psychedelics, and Other Complicated Things - Interview

Johns Hopkins Medicine/Wikimedia CommonsRoland Griffths/psilocybin mushrooms

Roland Griffiths is a Johns Hopkins University professor, researcher and expert in the field of pharmacology. He is best known for his research into the beneficial effects psilocybin on cancer patients.

He began his research into psilocybin and other psychedelics when he began meditation. He is a proponent of the connection between science, spirituality and mysticism. Griffiths is continuing his psilocybin research and hopes to complete larger scale trials to produce conclusive data. Preliminary data shows promising results.

Griffiths is also the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. He appears on 60 Minutes in an episode that airs on CBS at 7:30 p.m. EST Sunday, October 13, 2019.

Heres what you need to know:

Studies into the effects of psilocybin predated the Controlled Substances Act, which President Richard Nixon signed into law in 1970. Psilocybin was also used as a substance for healing and spiritual connection in ancient times. The Controlled Substances Act labeled psilocybin a Schedule 1 controlled substance, meaning it has high potential for abuse and does not serve a legitimate medical purpose. Griffiths acknowledges there are risks associated with psilocybin, but his preliminary data shows that there are benefits which he believes outweigh the risks when it is used in a controlled environment.

Researchers conducted studies before the Controlled Substances Act, but their studies required further research. The law effectively prevented studies into whether psilocybin did, in fact, have any medical benefits. His research into the effects of psilocybin began in 1999 after he received FDA approval to conduct studies, he said on a TED Talk in 2015.

His profile on the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research says:

In 1999 he initiated a research program investigating the effects of the classic psychedelic psilocybin that includes studies in healthy volunteers, in beginning and long-term meditators, and in religious leaders. Therapeutic studies with psilocybin include treatment of psychological distress in cancer patients, treatment of cigarette smoking cessation, and psilocybin treatment of major depression. Other studies have examined the effects of salvinorin A, dextromethorphan, and ketamine which produce altered states of consciousness having some similarities to psilocybin. Drug interaction studies and brain imaging studies (fMRI and PET) are examining pharmacological and neural mechanisms of action. The Hopkins laboratory has also conducted a series of internet survey studies characterizing various psychedelic experiences including those associated with acute and enduring adverse effects, mystical-type effects, entity and God-encounter experiences, and alleged positive changes in mental health, including decreases in depression and anxiety, decreases in substance abuse, and reductions in death anxiety.

Griffiths founded the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and continues to serve as its director. He is also a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, according to his Johns Hopkins University profile.

Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, the profile says. His principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories has been on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs.

He is also a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence for the World Health Organization, and he has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health and to pharmaceutical companies regarding the development of new psychotropic drugs. He has also conducted research into sedative-hypnotics, caffeine and other mood-altering drugs.

Griffiths has written more than 380 journal articles and book chapters, his profile says. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which he obtained in 1972, and he has a bachelor of science degree from Occidental College in California, which he earned in 1968, according to a separate Johns Hopkins University profile.

Roland Griffiths said his interest in research into the beneficial properties of psychedelic drugs began when he started a meditation practice, he said in a 2009 interview with Mulidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies journal. He was trained as a psychopharmacologist, with training in both experimental psychology and pharmacology.

He said in the 2009 interview:

About fifteen years ago, I took up a meditation practice that opened up a spiritual window for me, and made me very curious about the nature of mystical experience and spiritual transformation. It also prompted an existential question for me about the meaningfulness of my own research program in drug abuse pharmacology. On reflecting about the history of psychopharmacology and the claims that had been made about the classical hallucinogens occasioning mystical and spiritual experience, I became intrigued about whether I could turn the direction of some of my research program toward addressing those kinds of questions. Through a confluence of interactions and introductions, I first met Robert Jesse of the Council of Spiritual Practices, and he introduced me to Bill Richards, who had a long history of working with these compounds from the 1960s and 70s. We decided that we would undertake a research project characterizing the effects of psilocybin.

His foray into meditation was a life-changing experience for him, which shifted his outlook on life, he said in a 2015 TED Talk.

Roland Griffiths discussed his research into the effects of psilocybin on a TED Talk in 2015, framing the discussion as a connection between science and spirituality or mysticism. You can watch the full TED Talk here.

Its like trying to mix oil and water. Most people assume that science and spirituality dont play well together, but its not true. Einstein said that the most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. He said its the source of all true science, Griffiths said.

Griffiths discussed details about his studies, which showed promising results in studies on healthy participants, cancer patients and smokers. He noted his data is preliminary and the drug must be used in a controlled environment to reduce risks. He wants to conduct large-scale trials to show more conclusive results, but those require a substantial amount of funding. His research, he said, is only the tip of the iceberg.

Further research will surely reveal underlying biological mechanisms of action, will likely result in an array of therapeutic applications, and more importantly, because such experiences are foundationally related to our moral and our ethical understandings, further research may ultimately prove to be crucial to the very survival of our species, he said.

While Roland Griffiths became most well known for his study into the effects of psilocybin on patients with life-threatening cancer and death anxiety, he started his research on healthy patients. You can read the results of his cancer trial here.

The study on cancer patients showed more than 80 percent of participants experienced positive changes in attitudes about life, self, mood, relationships and spirituality, and many of them reported it was one of the most profound experiences of their lives, comparing it to the birth of a child. Studies on healthy participants also showed promising results with participants reporting similar effects. A high number of smokers quit smoking after participating in the study, he said on his TED Talk.

While the Johns Hopkins Medicine study on the effects of psilocybin showed very promising results in treating patients suffering from depression and anxiety related to life-threatening cancer diagnoses, the study only included 51 cancer patients.

Griffiths wants to conduct a much larger study, but that would require between $20 and $40 million. Without government funding, those funds would have to come from private donors or foundations, he told SciPol, a Duke University science and technology publication.

The larger study would be considered Phase 3. Multiple sites across the country would host studies including a much larger participant pool.

Ross, the NYU researcher, and Roland R. Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins medical school who led the study there, each said they would pursue a Phase 3 study enrolling a larger group of patients at multiple sites nationally, the publication said. That effort would take between $20 million and $40 million, and with government funding for a psychedelic research study unlikely, at least in the short term, that money would have to come from foundations and private donors.

The study involving Kerry Pappas and featured on 60 Minutes October 13, 2019 was Phase 2 of the study. It was led by the Heffter Research Institute and the RiverStyx Foundation, which are both non-profit organizations.

READ NEXT: Psilocybin: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

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Roland Griffiths: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know - Heavy.com