Are Magic Mushrooms the New Superfood?

Superfoods are linked to the prevention of serious body ailments, such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Which gets us thinking, what about psychological conditions? Is there any superfood that can heal your mind and tackle the decades-long mental health crisis head on? 

Shrooms: The New Superfood

Let’s take a look back at a groundbreaking report from Johns Hopkins that revealed how psilocybin, the hallucinogen in magic mushrooms and magic truffles, could be the new superfood du jour…

The 2011 study, published in Psychopharmacology, gave varied doses (aka microdoses to macro-doses) of psilocybin to healthy volunteers. It occurred over four sessions in a controlled set and setting. After one year, 94 percent of subjects saw it as among the top five “most spiritually significant experiences” of their lives. Even more impressive? A whopping 89 percent of volunteers said that psilocybin made “lasting, positive changes” in how they related to others (like friends and family) or how they took care of their physical and mental well-being. High or intermediate doses of magic mushrooms were linked to lasting positive changes.

One volunteer, a depressed cancer patient, told The Lookout how psilocybin helped to ease their end-of-life anxiety:

“I’m not afraid to die anymore.”

It wasn’t just self reported either. The positive changes linked to psilocybin were confirmed by the subjects’ friends and family. Studies like this one can help normalise how ordinary folks see psilocybin (and psychedelics in general) beyond its popular depiction as a “forbidden” thrill-seeker’s drug. 

With shrooms and magic truffles, one can do so much more than trip out. You can help treat resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety, and even quit smoking for good.

Long-Term Benefits

Lead scientist Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, said that in order for the mental benefits of psilocybin to last longer, one needs to take the exact right dosage of shrooms. It’s also important for one to enter a mystical state of consciousness. He said:

“…a high or intermediate dose [of psilocybin] can produce, fairly reliably, these mystical experiences, with very low probability of a significant fear reaction.”

The 2011 study found out that the sweet spot was somewhere between the mid-level to high doses of psilocybin — aka the amount of shrooms required to create “transformative experiences”. But for those sessions not to end up as “bad trips” for the participants, the doses had to be given with the proper set and setting. This way, the afterglow of one’s mental state can last longer for weeks, or even months on end!

More Empathy for Others

In a questionnaire given 14 months after their last dose of psilocybin, one participant shared their remarkable progress in social situations:

“I think my heart is more open to interactions with other people.”

Another subject wrote about how psilocybin helped bring about empathy for other people’s struggles:

“I feel that I relate better in my marriage. There is more empathy — a greater understanding of people, and understanding their difficulties, and less judgement.”

Joyous, Happy, Relaxed State

You cannot overstate he beneficial effects of psilocybin on patients with end-of-life anxiety. Take Lauri Reamer, for example: a 47-year-old anaesthesiologist and mother of three daughters. Reamer joined two Johns Hopkins sessions in hopes of healing her trauma from a rare form of leukaemia (and the years of stressful chemotherapy and radiation that followed). After almost dying, she lost her ability to empathise with other people and herself. 

What happened after she took two high doses of psilocybin in Griffiths’ study? And how long did it take for the calming effects to kick in? 

Reamer told The Lookout:

“At the end of the session, I was just in this joyous, happy, relaxed state. The drug was gone — what was left was just this peaceful calm.

“I don’t think it was the drug that did it. It was [psilocybin] that helped me find clarity… My sleeping has gotten better. My relationships have gotten better with people. The fog has lifted.”

Not Afraid to Die Anymore

Reamer’s doctors have told her that due to the severity of her cancer, and the radiation therapy, she only has 10 or 15 more years to live. This used to scare her. But since taking psilocybin, the mother of three has found a new lease on life:

“My fear of death kind of disappeared. I’m not afraid to die anymore.

“The best thing it did for me was heal me psychologically and emotionally, and allow me to be back in my kids’ lives…back to being a mother.”

A Greater Sense of Calm

After the success of the 2011 Johns Hopkins report, Griffiths is leading yet another psilocybin study. This time, homing in on patients who got severely depressed after being diagnosed with cancer. Will it be further proof of how effective magic mushrooms can be in easing the pain of terminal patients? 

Griffiths told The Lookout:

“So far we’ve had — anecdotally only — very positive results.

“People feel uplifted, and very often have a sense that everything is O.K. at one level. That there’s sense to be made out of the chaos. When you see people undergoing that kind of transformation, it’s really quite moving.”

The professor stressed, however, that the positive results came from a controlled and supportive setting. One in which psilocybin was given at just the right amount to bring about a mystical experience — but not enough to trigger a bad trip. The raised spiritual state is crucial for the patient to meet death with a “greater sense of calm”.

No Mean Feat

So, there you have it! 

A peek into the historic 2011 study that catapulted shrooms and magic truffles into superfood territory. To ease the suffering of patients with terminal illness is no mean feat — and as the researchers at Johns Hopkins pointed out, a high enough dose of psilocybin can and will do the trick. Who knew raising your consciousness to a mystical state can work wonders for anxiety? And all that goodness from a humble nugget of psychedelic fungi.