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drug psilocybin
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In the kingdom of Fungi, is a collection of different organic multicellulary eukaryotic organisms. Fuguses are unique from any other life form. They grow in the wild yet they are not plants. They also breakdown and digest animals and plants alike, but they are not animals. Fungi are made up of chitin, a derivative of glucose that is also found in cephalopods, arthopods and crustaceans alike. Similiar to cellulose which is a what plants' cell walls are comprised of, Chitin is a tough material that gives the Fungi its structure.
All over this planet from the ocean floor to the forests and jungles some form of Fungi can be present. Though they can be found in many different forms such as mold yeast, the most commonly known is the Mushroom. Found in the wild on dead plant and animal matter, the mushroom is nothing more then the fruit of a fungus spore and can be a nutrisous food. There is a specific Genus of these Fungi that have a unique chemical inside of them. Psilocybin or its chemical name Dihydrogen Phospate is a naturally occuring compound with strong Psychoactive properties.
Psilocybin Mushrooms or more commonly referred to as "Shrooms, Magic Mushrooms etc" have been used by many different cultures in varies ways. The early Mesoamericans used them for communion in religious and healing ceremonies. During the era of The Hippie Movement people experimented with Psilocybin for recreation and experience vivid "trips". Some today believe that the mysterious "Manna" that was spoken of in the Old Testament or the "Tree of Knowledge" was infact this particular fungus. Regardless of all this Psilocybin, this natural compound has a interesting effect on the human brain.
Found most commonly in South America but also in places such ...
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... a substance was used for in the past, will be able show what it can be used to cure in the future.
Works Cited
1 https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_history.shtml
2 http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10096/ -Historia general de las cosas de nueva España
3 http://www.huh.harvard.edu/Libraries/Nash/schultes.htm -Richard Evans Schultes life
4 http://www.stainblue.com/ah.html- albert hoffman
5 http://csp.org/practices/entheogens/docs/young-good_friday.html marsh chapel experiment
6 http://www.neurosoup.com/pdf/doblin_goodfriday_followup.pdf- more on the MCE
7 http://buquad.com/2013/02/18/remembering-the-marsh-chapel-experiment/
8 http://web.archive.org/web/20080617104619/http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_9469078
9 http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v11/n9/full/nrn2884.html
10 http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/apr/07/magic-mushrooms-treat-depression
A largely debated topic in today's society is whether or not psychedelic drugs should be legalized for medicinal purposes and if they should, how this legalization would affect the communities in which they’re being prominently medicinally used. Although many scientists have argued that psychedelics pose a mental health risk, closer examination shows that communities would have a significantly lower depression rate if certain psychedelics were legalized. Now to fully understand how psychedelics could be beneficial or the opposite thereof, you’ll need to understand how they work and what they are. What a psychedelic drug is, the immediate effects, both mentally and physically, and how communities might benefit and function with the sudden use of these drugs.
During a visit to Mexico, Gordon Wasson, a mycologist, discovered the use of psilocybin mushroom in spiritual ceremonies by Indian tribes. Upon experiencing the spiritual and hallucinatory effects of the mushroom, Wasson returned to the area accompanied by an experienced mycologist, Roger Heim, who managed to cultivate the mushroom once in France and send samples of it to the scientist who had discovered lysergic acid, Albert Hoffman. From the mushrooms, Hoffman successfully isolated two compounds which he further named psilocybin and psilocin. Analogs of these compounds were further synthesized and were employed mainly for psychotherapeutic uses. Many tests on psilocybin were made at Harvard University in the early 1960’s. However, along with LSD, psilocybin became a scheduled substance in 1970, making it illegal. During this time, psilocybin mushrooms became a part of the psychedelic and hippy movement and were used for recreational and spiritual purposes. Research on psilocybin ended in the late 1980’s because of strict rules imposed by the government but recently scientist have started researching on this chemical once more.
N,N-dimethyltryptamine(DMT) is a psychoactive chemical in the tryptamine family, which causes intense visuals and strong psychedelic mental affects when smoked, injected, snorted, or when swallowed orally (with an MAOI such as haramaline). DMT was first synthesized in 1931, and demonstrated to be hallucinogenic in 1956. It has been shown to be present in many plant genera (Acacia, Anadenanthera, Mimosa, Piptadenia, Virola) and is a major component of several hallucinogenic snuffs (cohoba, parica, yopo). It is also present in the intoxicating beverage ayahuasca made from banisteriopsis caapi. This drink inspired much rock art and paintings drawn on the walls of native shelters in tribal Africa- what would be called 'psychedelic' art today (Bindal, 1983). The mechanism of action of DMT and related compounds is still a scientific mystery, however DMT has been identified as an endogenous psychadelic- it is a neurotransmitter found naturally in the human body and takes part in normal brain metabolism. Twenty-five years ago, Japanese scientists discovered that the brain actively transports DMT across the blood-brain barrier into its tissues. "I know of no other psychedelic drug that the brain treats with such eagerness," said one of the scientists. What intrigued me were the questions, how and why does DMT alter our percep...
Native Americans are probably the people most known for their use of psychedelic drugs. Being a very religious people, their entire society revolved around the spirit world, and some believed that access to this world was possible by eating certain plants that were abundant in their surroundings. In what are now Mexico and the Southwestern United States, tribes familiarized themselves with mescaline, the active ingredient in the peyote cactus. Another drug that was used by tribes in these and many other areas was psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic ingredient of the mushroom Psilocybe mexicana and other psilocybe and conocybe species that grow on the pacific coast of North, South, and Central America. Ritual use of psilocybin and mesca...
Pappas, S. (n.d.). Magic Mushrooms May Have Long-Lasting Positive Effects On Personality -. Higher Perspective. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://higherperspective.com/2014/04/magic-mushrooms-may-long-lasting-positive-effects-personality.html?utm_source=HP
While hallucinogenic drugs have been used for centuries, it was not until the discovery by Western society of their mind-altering properties (Hofmann 1959; Stoll 1947; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A) that these compounds began to be more widely used for treatment of mental disorders (see Abraham, Aldridge & Gogia 1996; Strassman 1995; Neill 1987; McGlothlin & Arnold 1971; Freedman 1968; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A). Hallucinates are derived from plants or the fungus that grows on plants, the first recorded hallucination was a tossup between mental issues that were then used for a political push or the ergotamine during the Salem witch trails in 1962, far after that Albert Hofmann became the creator of LSD from ergotamine a chemical from the fungus ergot, in Switzerland 1938. From that time LSD has played a part in history, studies have shown that much has changed in the half-century since LSD was first used by psychiatrists and then found widespread recreational use in the 1960's and 70's. Modern psychiatry has embraced drugs that affect the same brain molecules that are tweaked by hallucinogens (Blakeslee,
The user still experiences a high much like a recreational user but more so in connection with divinity. As mentioned previously, the subjective experience of a user is dependent on their mentality immediately before taking the drug. With spiritual aim in mind, the drug’s effects can be wholly interpreted as non secular. The mushroom can generate psychological states of consciousness, which to those religiously inclined, contain a spiritual significance and/or personal meaning. The state is called a mystical experience. Historically there is evidence of the mushrooms being used for religious ceremonies dating back to 9000 to 7000 BCE where murals were discovered in the Sahara desert showing psychedelic mushroom along with abstract pictures most likely produced from the hallucinations after taking the drug. More recent reports of the drugs spiritual connection are found in a famous U.S study where thirty six college educated people were given psilocybin in a laboratory setting. None of the participants involved had any experience with the drug, hallucinogenic experience, nor religious interest. After being monitored for forty eight hours, one-third of the people reported the experience being the number one most spiritually significant moment of their lives, and over two-thirds of people included it in their top five most spiritually significant moments. Though not
The hypothesis was supported, as mushrooms that typically experience higher sun exposure in their environments have an increase in enzymatic activity as temperature was increased. While the enzyme cellobiase that catalyzes the breakdown of cellulose in mushrooms couldn’t be measured, one of its products, p nitrophenol, could be. Portabella mushrooms had an increase in p nitrophenol output as temperature was increased, and they typically live in open fields that have more sunlight. They are likely to encounter higher temperatures due to direct sunlight, which made them a strong candidate to test for the experiment. However, an unexpected result was that the Shiitake mushrooms decreased in p nitrophenol output as temperature increased. The enzyme
The term “magic mushroom”, coined in the middle of the 20th century, branches over the whole genus of Psilocybe plants. These plants are known to host a potent hallucinogen, by the name of psilocybin. It is believed that these “magic mushrooms” have been around longer than modern humans and have been used by many ancient civilizations. Statues depicting religious use of Psilocybe plants have been found as far back as 1,000 B.C. (Tomov 917).
A less controversial South American drug that brings in tourist from around the world is Ayahuasca. The psychedelic drug has positively been expressed through music like Paul Simons song “Spirit Voices” and famous literature like Terence McKenna’s the True Hallucinations. Ayahuasca is an indigenous brew of several flora that contain N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and Monoamine Oxidase type-A (MAO) two chemicals that cause an intense psychedelic reaction in the human brain (Sklerov). The flora used in a brew can vary between recipes, but Ayahuasca gets its name after the only constant variable in every brew, the Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi vine). Ayahuasca means “vine of the soul” in Quechuan, an indigenous language shared by multiple tribes in the Andes region of South America. It is commonly found in Peru
It is important for us to learn a much as we can about hallucinogenic plants. A great amount of scientific literature has been published about their uses and effects, but the information is locked away in technical journals. No matter whether we believe the use of hallucinogenic plants is right or wrong, they have played an extensive role in human culture and probably will continue to do so.
The appearance of Hydnum repandum is quite unique. The stipe of the fungi can range from two to seven centimeters tall, and one to three centimeters thick (Wood). The surface of the stipe can range from cream to yellow in color, and is dry and smooth. The cap of the mushroom is two to ten centimeters broad, with a smooth, dry surface (Graham 84). The caps color can range from cream to orange. It has a thick flesh that is very brittle, with a mild taste and odor. The hymenophore has teeth that are 0.4 to 0.6 centimeters long. They are cream colored, and also brittle (Wood).
Some hallucinogens occur naturally in trees, vines, seeds, fungi and leaves. Others are made in laboratories by mixing different chemical substances. LSD or acid is one of the most common, well-known hallucinogens. Psilocin or Psilocybin mushrooms, Mescaline or Peyote, MDMA, Bufotenine, Morning Glory seeds, Jimson weed, PCP and DMT are less common psychedelics with effects similar to LSD. PCP and Ketamine are drugs with hallucinogenic properties. Some drugs, such as cannabis, can cause hallucinogen-like effects when used in high doses or in certain ways. Using hallucinogens is often called tripping. In its pure form LSD is a white, odorless powder. This pure form is very strong, so LSD is usually mixed with other things to make the dose large enough to take. LSD comes in the form as liquids, tablets, capsules or squares of gelatin or blotting paper. LSD use can have many effects. These may include sleeplessness, trembling, and raised heart rate, and blood pressure. LSD users may feel several emotions at once (including extreme terror), and their senses may seem to get crossed, giving the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. Even a tiny speck of LSD can trigger these effects. Many LSD users have flashbacks; sudden repetitions of their LSD experiences, days or months after they stop using the drug.
During the first half of the 20th century, two world wars wreaked havoc on the world politically, economically, geographically and socially. As tremendous changes were taking place reshaping the state of the world, at the home front, new discoveries began to restructure the world of medicine. The general public and medical practitioners observed a shift from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. This shift required a reevaluation of what it meant to have a sickness or disease. Promising medical discoveries were proven to be able to prolong life and provide comfort to those living with chronic illnesses and diseases. Although, these remarkable discoveries gave the chronically ill hope for longevity, but the economic downfall of the beginning of the century, left many people unable to have access to the new treatments. ¬¬
Pre-Columbian Mexicans used many substances, from tobacco to mind-expanding (hallucinogenic) plants, in their medicinal collections. The most fascinating of these substances are sacred mushrooms, used in religious ceremonies to induce altered states of mind, not just drunkenness.