Biography/Memoir

How the American Right learned to love psychedelics

Rick Doblin… now his organization’s corporate spinoff, Lykos Therapeutics, may soon be acquired by Antonio Gracias, a billionaire private equity investor and close friend of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.  The planned acquisition of Lykos is an example of how tightly entwined a once left-wing psychedelic movement has become with the Trump administration and the tech right.…

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Science

Psychedelics boost brain flexibility for weeks, new study shows

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at the University of Michigan have found that a single dose of a psychedelic compound can significantly enhance cognitive flexibility, the brain’s ability to adjust to new information and changing circumstances, for several weeks.  Using an innovative automated sequential learning paradigm, researchers evaluated how well mice could adapt to rule…

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Science

An LSD analogue for treating psychiatric diseases

Certain psychiatric diseases, such as depression and schizophrenia, feature a loss of structures called dendritic spines from neurons. Dendritic spines form the receiving end of synapses, or connections between neurons. … the team tried switching the places of two atoms in LSD. This resulted in a compound that had the same 3D structure as LSD…

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Modern Culture

Gray market psilocybin sales proliferating across Canada

Newly published study findings showed that as of May 2024, 57 psilocybin stores were operating in more than a third (35.7%) of major Canadian urban centers. The majority (96.5%) were located in two provinces: Ontario and BC, whose residents collectively make up 52.5% of the nation’s population. “Our goal was to provide scientific evidence that…

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Biography/Memoir

Can psilocybin save a troubled marriage?

What before seemed like an insurmountable problem, now seems manageable… …are doing better… both less anxious and more present, yes, they had different experiences… but both say it changed their perspective in life in general… I don’t feel like I have to push my conditions on things anymore in the relationship… I had preconceived notions…

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Science

A dose of psilocybin stirred the brain of a barely conscious woman

In this case, a team of neuroscientists and clinicians documented the effects of psilocybin on a 41-year-old woman in a minimally conscious state with language-mediated responses – referred to as MCS+. One year earlier, she had suffered a traumatic brain injury. People in this state show intermittent signs of awareness, such as following commands or…

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Modern Culture

…for…

The mushroom community in Colorado built around this ‘Grow, Gather, Gift’ model has yielded some incredible results and world-class data.  …an example of community self-regulation through the development of testing standards and data sharing… Colorado has been a hotbed of mushroom entrepreneurism over the last two years since Proposition 122 was passed with a 54%…

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Medicine/Healing

…a compelling case for the use of magic mushrooms in pain relief

Indeed, in April [2024], the Yale School of Medicine published the results of the first randomised control study of psilocybin for pain relief. Although it enrolled just 10 CH [Cluster Headache] sufferers, half of those who received psilocybin as opposed to a placebo reported a reduction in attacks. Precisely how psilocybin interrupts the cycle of headaches is an open question. Brain scans suggest…

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Modern Culture

Psychedelics group wants to protect Portland… users of… plant- or mushroom-based psychedelics… from cops

Portland advocates for psychedelic drug use are hoping to put an initiative on the city’s 2026 ballot that would protect people who use what they call non-toxic and non-addictive plant- or mushroom-based psychedelic drugs from arrest. Under the proposed initiative, non-toxic and non-addictive psychedelics would be designated police officers’ “lowest priority for enforcement,” according to the initiative…

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