Magic Mushrooms = Good Personality

My good buddy Daniel, on his blog Love, Drugs and the Law picked this article up, and I wanted y’all to see it too. It’s about a study showing that using psilocybin (the chemical inside magic mushrooms) results in improved personality traits over the long-term for the users. From the original story on RawStory:

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that individuals who received the drug once in a clinical setting reported a greater sense of “openness” that often lasted 14 months or longer, according to study published this week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The study defined openness as a personality trait that “encompasses aesthetic appreciation and sensitivity, imagination and fantasy, and broad-minded tolerance of others’ viewpoints and values.” It is one of five main personality traits that are shared among all cultures worldwide.

As someone who has used psilocybin a few times in his life, I can say from experience this is true. The chemical opens your mind, removes your anxiety, and awakens a sense of creativity that too many of us lose as we become adults. As the mushrooms it is found in grow naturally, it is patently absurd to me that it’s even illegal in the first place. If God put it on this planet, we have a right to use it for our benefit. I can even find some scripture that says that. Besides the point though.

I like that the scientific community is really starting to look at this chemical for its therapeutic potential, largely thanks to the work of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). They have worked tirelessly promoting research into psychedelic chemicals for therapeutic uses, including studying MDMA for the treatment of PTSD (currently undergoing FDA trials). Check them out.