Magic mushrooms, LSD, and other psychedelic substances have been vilified for decades…But why are psychedelics stigmatized, more so than alcohol? And why is it important to dismantle this antiquated belief-system?
Psilocybin – also known as “magic mushrooms” – is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance that has been used for thousands of years for spiritual and therapeutic purposes by indigenous cultures. Unfortunately, everything that comes with the word “magic” is immediately frowned upon nowadays, or even demonised. Interesting, since I would argue that all religions are also part of some form of magic, but let’s leave that type of sorcery for another day!
On the 3rd of February 2023, Australia has become the first country to recognise MDMA and magic mushrooms as medicine. Both substances are set to be prescribed in “cases of treatment-resistant mental illnesses”. This is a revolutionary step in dismantling the derogatory reputation that psychoactive substances have been unfairly given throughout the past few decades.
As stated before, psychedelic plants and fungi have been used in indigenous medicinal traditions for thousands of years, but modern psychedelic research began with Albert Hofmann, the first person to ingest LSD. This gave way to a period of scientific and cultural exploration in the 50s and 60s.
One of the most influential figures in the history of psychedelics is Timothy Leary, a psychologist and writer who became famous in the 1960s. After receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from Berkeley University, Leary came to lecture at Harvard in 1959 and advocated for the use of LSD and other psychedelics as tools for self-exploration, spiritual growth, and personal transformation. As with many things that are ahead of time, he faced a lot of criticism and opposition from the government and the medical establishment.
Another prominent figure during the psychedelic movement was Terence McKenna, another Berkeley student who saw the therapeutic potential in psychoactive substances. According to McKenna, mushrooms were at the source of humanity’s first religious ideas (the nerve!), but with “patriarchal monotheism” and politics that focused on “untrammeled rationalism, male dominance, and attention to the visible surface of things”, society became “very, very sick.”
I’m continuously astounded by how scared people can be, the moment something jumps out of the norm of society’s imposed confines, that we so obediently accept and rarely question. What terrified people then, and still does nowadays, is the idea of something being “out of control” or “out of the ordinary”.
And yet alcohol, a recreational drug that is proven to have numerous dangerous effects on the human body (liver damage, addiction..) has been widely accepted and is used by millions of people on an everyday basis. It is a substance that has been normalized and accepted, so walking down the streets at 3am on a Friday night and witnessing the debauchery that humankind is capable of is somehow “normal”.
Now, I’m not saying we should all trip 24/7 and consume mushrooms on an everyday basis (what a peaceful world that would be), but I do challenge people to question why they demonise something, just because they were “taught” that way. I remember when probably a decade ago, I came across the writings of Leary and McKenna, and I was immediately intrigued. I also remember all of my friends being very judgmental of it- the judgement coming from a place of fearing the unknown.
Today, these friends are much more open to the idea of psilocybin as a therapeutic substance, largely because studies have gradually proven the positive effects of it. I understand the need of reassurance that people have when it comes to authorities, but history also has proven countless times that sometimes the restrictions imposed by the same authorities come with a larger political agenda, one that only few brave individuals challenge, as was the case with Leary and McKenna.
It goes without saying that every substance that is abused comes with detrimental consequences, but we can no longer deny the potential benefits of psychedelics as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems. Unlike alcohol, psychedelics have a positive effect on the brain, increasing the levels of neurotransmitters and inducing feelings of happiness and well-being. This is why some researchers believe that psychedelics have the potential to be used as a treatment for depression and other mental health conditions. It is also important to note that psilocybin is not addictive (as opposed to alcohol), whereas many anti-depressants, like Xanax, are!
Already in 2011, a Johns Hopkins study found that psilocybin brought “a measureable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants”. Now before this statement scares you, the changes were related to “imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness”, doesn’t sound too bad now does it?
More recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published the largest study ever conducted on the use of psilocybin in therapy. Their research found that psilocybin allows our brain to be in a “more flexible state” opening up a “therapeutic window of opportunity”, which in turn allows for “more communication between brain regions”. With an estimated 100 million people worldwide suffering from treatment-resistant depression, some experts view psychedelics as an alternative way to help them.
The fact is, that we often find the antidote to our problems in nature and there is still mush-room left for learning, once you let go of archaic doctrines that have been dictated by governments without being questioned enough. And to leave you with one of McKenna’s quotes:
“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”
So maybe the idea of legalizing mushrooms is indeed an idea that’s worth growing?