The end-of-life patients finding solace in magic mushrooms: ‘What life after life could be like’

[Hume]

He now believes psychedelics might work uniquely on people facing death. At end-of-life, psychedelics don’t help by altering self-representation, but by shifting fundamental beliefs, in some cases imbuing people with spiritual beliefs. Philosophers call this “metaphysical belief change”, and it can encompass ideas about the afterlife, spirits, consciousness or the nature of the universe.

This tracks with reports from clinical trials. In a qualitative study based on interviews with NYU study participants, half of the participants said they went to a realm that existed at the time of or after death. “It does help you accept death because you don’t feel alone. You don’t feel like you’re going to, I don’t know, go off into nothingness,” one person said.

The end-of-life patients finding solace in magic mushrooms: ‘What life after life could be like’

Some with terminal cancer have said psilocybin helped them confront death. But how that happens is still unclear

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kafka]

Well, this is a meaty topic. Shrooms are one of the best pieces of evidence in my estimation AGAINST the existence of a soul or a self separable from the physical brain.

Shrooms function on the serotonergic system and the fact that some people go on a "trip" and come back with radically different, long-lasting beliefs with the simple addition of a chemical or two indicates to me how much our "beliefs" are a function of our brain chemistry.

When you go on a trip the things you experience are not real. My wife did not suddenly "cease to exist" even though I was pretty sure she was no longer real, I was, indeed, NOT stuck in Room 101 telling myself stories with nothing outside, no reality. But it sure did FEEL like it.

Granted these were not long-lasting effects but the panic attacks (something I'd NEVER experienced before) that followed in the next couple of weeks sure did show that I had given the old Sertonergic system a good whack with the chemicals. It actually took months before I felt normal again.

On the other hand, I can also see how someone facing the end of life might gain some value from them. Not in a 'real' sense (ie no real value is added other than a possible pleasant experience or maybe even a "mind-altering" event which is more like watching a movie than manifesting something real)

I think there's a lot of potential psychological value in psychedelics, if the early research is to be believed. And now that more states are opening these up for research better data may soon be available. There's obviously something interesting going on. How does it effect changes in depression, OCD, PTSD, etc? Certainly not through revealing some "deeper trooooooth" that you didn't already have access to, but rather to affect the serotonin systems which may play a role in these things.