Sub-Acute Effects of Psilocybin on Empathy, Creative Thinking

The lack of even an attempt at control makes it a very weak paper overall and I wouldn't attribute it to support anything.

Indeed. The setting of the retreat (“After ingestion, participants were instructed to stay on the premises, and were able to do what they wanted, as long as they did not disturb other participants. Facilitators provided music, tools to draw and/or write, and food. In the evening, all participants and facilitators came back together as a group.”) might have had a significant effect on the results. These should be, at least, compared to a similar retreat where no psilocybin is ingested.

Otherwise, the effects could come solely from the environment, e.g., a calm and relaxing retreat far from a busy life.

Two thumbs up, would use again.

Sad that less than half of the study population returned for the 7 day evaluation point.

Is that equivalent to 15 grams of dried mushrooms? If so that is a serious dose (over 1/2 an ounce!), there would be breakthroughs and breakdowns happening left and right given that amount.

Seems unlikely that participants (particularly first timers) would ingest such a large quantity, even when spread out over a number of hours.

Perhaps if one only drank the tea the effects wouldn't be as extreme as both drinking the tea and eating the remnants, but still, I'd have some concerns if the facilitator presented 15 grams to me and said something along the lines of, "now don't worry, just drink the tea and eat the rest, everything's going to be just fine [after you get through the maelstrom phase]" :)

That said I am a proponent of psilocybin research and believe there are some merits to it. I just think this is an odd part of the study.

It did motivate me to workout but mushrooms always make me want to exercise for some reason

The first time I took it, I was outside. The very first thing I notice is just how vivid the green leaves swaying in the wind were. How calm, serene, peaceful. Then I started seeing the walls, "breathe". I've never been able to feel such inner peace before. In this moment, I realized, I have so much potential. We all do, yet it's our own doubts, and the internalized opinion of others or vanity metrics hindered our progress. I've found "spiritualism". I started playing Gran Turismo and realized how effortless I've been able to drive around the Nordschliefe. Normally I'd crash but I was putting no effort yet I was playing at a level that surpassed my normal everyday skill. Then I started joining meetups. Like groups that I never thought I'd join. I was suddenly interested in women's rights, I got interested in Hinduism.

The next day, the inner peace continued to linger. However, after a few months, I was back to my old self.

So this econd time, I upped the dose (bad idea). This time I stayed in my room (another bad idea). Instead of the inner peace, I was in a state of panic. There were some scary visuals like the Eye of Providence, I could feel the presence of some extra-terrestrial intelligence, looking at me, judging me with those unchanging Eye on the US dollar bill.

I headed downstairs and the visuals just got stranger. I close my eyes and see complex geometrics, and reopen them to see math formulas everywhere. I was getting even more panicky and I head to lie down.

Then I experienced what is called "Ego Death". I felt like I was dead. No identity, no awareness. It was awful, I longed for anything, any sort of order and structure I had in my normal reality. I was thinking "yup I fucked up. I poisoned myself. good god."

During the ego death, the only certainty I felt was Math. Math is the language of both this universe and the fabric of our universe. We are made out of math. The gut feelings we get, the emotions, thoughts, they were ultimately mathematical manifestations. This was the intuition I was feeling, a spiritual plane where Everything is Everything while being Nothing. The ubiquity and the ephemeral nature of both our life, and the universe.

There is a positive story out of this. I came out of the ego death, and I was sooooo thankful that there was something in this reality instead of nothing. The trip was not over, and I started seeing this bright pulsating object that looked like a symbol of sorts....kinda like a lightning symbol appear right above between the eye brows of the people I looked at!

I am not a religious person and have not come into contact with any Hinduism materials but when I looked up the Hindu symbol for the Third Eye, I almost fell out of my chair-it was the same. I never even heard or seen the Third eye before, and I was just reading other people's trips and there were people who saw the exact same thing....

After the trip was over, the next morning, I woke feeling light. It felt like I sat in a sauna but instead of sweating out chemical toxins, my spirit felt like it was cleansed. I did make some positive life changes....but ended up right back where I was.

It seems like you need to keep taking psilocybin to see the benefits but after that trip, I'd rather not open that door anymore. It was frightening more than it was awakening but perhaps because the possibility that our material reality that the Western civilization claims is be-all and end-all is not only incorrect but immature-civilizations and cultures that existed longer all have gone through such stages, and eventually gave way to spirituality at some point.