How Magic Mushrooms Really 'Expand the Mind'

[Skywizard]

Some parts of the brain become more synchronized when a person is taking magic mushrooms, possibly explaining why
people feel psychedelic drugs expand their mind.


Your brain on psychedelic drugs looks similar to your brain when you're dreaming, suggests a new study that may also explain why people on psychedelics feel they are expanding their mind.

In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 15 people before and after they received an injection of psilocybin, the hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms.

Under psilocybin, the activity of primitive brain areas thought to be involved in emotion and memory — including the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex — become more synchronized, suggesting these areas were working together, the researchers said.

This pattern of brain activity is similar to that seen in people who are dreaming, the researchers said.

"I was fascinated to see similarities between the pattern of brain activity in a psychedelic state and the pattern of brain activity during dream sleep," study researcher Robin Carhart-Harris, of Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "People often describe taking psilocybin as producing a dreamlike state and our findings have, for the first time, provided a physical representation for the experience in the brain."

In contrast, the activity in brain areas involved in "high-level" thinking (such as self-consciousness) were less coordinated under psilocybin, the study found.

Finally, using a new technique to analyze the brain data, the researchers found that there were more possible patterns of brain activity when participants were under the influence of psilocybin, compared with when they were not taking the drug. This may be one reason why people who use psychedelic drugs feel that their mind has expanded — their brain has more possible states of activity to explore, the researchers said.

The researchers caution that, because some techniques used in the study are new, more research is needed to confirm the findings. The study is published today (July 3) in the journal Human Brain Mapping.



Source: http://www.livescience.com/46642-mag...-dreaming.html



peace...

[DeDukshyn]

Interesting, so they literally "expand the mind" - by allowing a greater number of possible activity patterns in the brain. Or, since I consider the brain works a little like a filter, being incredibly selective as to what patterns are allowed to be recognized and or utilized, it opens up your awareness to things that have been previously outside your awareness.

That pretty much jives with the experience people have with them.

[LivioRazlo]

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
That pretty much jives with the experience people have with them.

That's the type of experience I've always had with them and am trying to get back to.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

I usually feel like I am sharing my consciousness/awareness/senses with the shroom of choice, I give it legs, eyes and ears to wander around and explore the world, quite interesting, to me its always literally a shared experience, I always play nice with the shrooms before taking them, I feel it helps to establish a good relationship and provides a more enjoyable ride for both, I literally introduce myself to them, tell them what I am up to and if they are up for it too, never had a bad trip on them, invite them in like you would do with any other welcome guest, it works.

[jake gittes]

"The researchers caution that, because some techniques used in the study are new, more research is needed to confirm the findings."

Woo hoo! More shroomies!

[Shezbeth]

Posted by 778 neighbour of some guy (here)
I usually feel like I am sharing my consciousness/awareness/senses with the shroom of choice, I give it legs, eyes and ears to wander around and explore the world, quite interesting, to me its always literally a shared experience, I always play nice with the shrooms before taking them, I feel it helps to establish a good relationship and provides a more enjoyable ride for both, I literally introduce myself to them, tell them what I am up to and if they are up for it too, never had a bad trip on them, invite them in like you would do with any other welcome guest, it works.

This is significantly and profoundly consistent with my experience. It was prescribed to me once (and I have consistently validated the prescription) that one should recognize and appreciate that the mushroom(s) (recognize there are usually multiple mushrooms, even if of the same species) have a spirit, and that one should welcome and play 'host' to the spirit while it is in the body, in a 'my house is your house' (mi casa es su casa) sense.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by jake gittes (here)
"The researchers caution that, because some techniques used in the study are new, more research is needed to confirm the findings."

Woo hoo! More shroomies!

I just spit my beer on my monitor, lmfao ... thanks! I had a very interesting (and life changing) trip once -- most would call it "bad"; I considered it enlightening, if I ever partake again (which I may), I shall l try the guy's Neighbours' method.

[Omni]

Great thread. When I tried mushrooms in my teens all it did was make me giggle a lot and gave me a body high. But I've observed what the article talks about in others clearly. I hope someday drugs like this are legalized along with a lot of information about them so people can make educated decisions. Marijuana is only really a gateway drug more than alcohol because it's illegal and often dealers have more than one type of drug to sell(well I shouldn't say often, but sometimes). Would also cut in on organized crime as well. But I believe most people know these things on Avalon...

Thx for posting the article! I'll repost it to some other sites

[Sunny-side-up]

My experience with Shrooms has always been good/Great!

Make sure take enough to have them fully activate you! too little can make you giggle and or just feel a bit icky!

I used to make a pot of about 100 (GB Shrooms with the little nipples on them that is!) shrooms, which gave around 4 small cups worth of drink, the liquid is best too leave some shroom fiber content in it!

They are not addictive! What I mean by that is that you will eventually need to take higher and higher amounts of the shrooms to get the results (Greater ratio of shrooms per drink 1)

Make sure you have the right Shrooms and not just any old collection of small fungi.
I used to pick my own and on many occasions help sort out others pickers shrooms, they where just adding anything and every thing to their stash lol 0.o

Love, Peace and Hug them shrooms

[jackovesk]

I'll say...!

How about walking into the >>Inside of a Mirror<< at a party and no-one could find me even though were walking right past me...

Or

Being at a party and going into the bathroom and splashing water that was all different colours all over the walls...

Or

Being at a party and about 10 of us each grabbed their own 'Tree' to sit in where all of us carried on a conversation about "How Cool it was to be sitting in a Tree at a party"...

Or

Cruising around the City in the back of a Ute and then just out of the City going "In reverse on the Wrong side of the road doing around 80km/h" hoping we weren't sprung by the Cops...

PS - Besides the great fun 'above' the 'Mushies' show you what your brain has been missing out on all these years, seeing and experiencing the world in a totally different light...

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Posted by Shezbeth (here)

Posted by 778 neighbour of some guy (here)
I usually feel like I am sharing my consciousness/awareness/senses with the shroom of choice, I give it legs, eyes and ears to wander around and explore the world, quite interesting, to me its always literally a shared experience, I always play nice with the shrooms before taking them, I feel it helps to establish a good relationship and provides a more enjoyable ride for both, I literally introduce myself to them, tell them what I am up to and if they are up for it too, never had a bad trip on them, invite them in like you would do with any other welcome guest, it works.

This is significantly and profoundly consistent with my experience. It was prescribed to me once (and I have consistently validated the prescription) that one should recognize and appreciate that the mushroom(s) (recognize there are usually multiple mushrooms, even if of the same species) have a spirit, and that one should welcome and play 'host' to the spirit while it is in the body, in a 'my house is your house' (mi casa es su casa) sense.

Just imagine how exactly the same thing happens with everything fresh you consume, I wish the consciousness of beets or tangerines was as perceivable as shrooms or even Ibogaine. "Hi Ed whatcha doing, just taking some beets for a stroll cant you tell??"

[Realeyes]

Interesting OP Thank you.

Such mushrooms were classed as sacred among the Druids and only used for spiritual intended vision quests - not for recreactional purposes.

I would just like to point out the photo in the OP is not what these specific mushrooms look like in northern Europe - the nice photo lacks the mushroom's obvious 'nipple' on the top that looks orangey on a dry day and a off white/light grey top skin with the underside should be a darker grey (or brown if the weather is wet). IF the underside is whitish - do not ingest it is most likey poisonous, especially if found in a cow dung.

If one is tempted to find and eat any type of mushroom from Nature I would suggest purchase a very good book full of diagrams on how to identify them first.

Ps. it is ilegal to pick them in the UK - they are deemed an endangered species - but it is okay for farmers to spray them to death.

Posted by Skywizard (here)

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Ps. it is ilegal to pick them in the UK - they are deemed an endangered species - but it is okay for farmers to spray them to death.

What that means is they are not endangered, they just don't want you to expand your frame of reference on the world, it will ruin them.

[Realeyes]

Absolutely!

Here is something funny that could be imagined in a Benny Hill show where around a decade ago I took a Sunday drive down the country windy lanes and spotted police hiding in bushes to catch anyone found 'picking'. The law doesn't need to do this anymore as farmer's chemicals on the fields in the local area killed such wild life.

Posted by 778 neighbour of some guy (here)

Ps. it is ilegal to pick them in the UK - they are deemed an endangered species - but it is okay for farmers to spray them to death.

What that means is they are not endangered, they just don't want you to expand your frame of reference on the world, it will ruin them.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by realeyes (here)
interesting op thank you.

Such mushrooms were classed as sacred among the druids and only used for spiritual intended vision quests - not for recreactional purposes.

I would just like to point out the photo in the op is not what these specific mushrooms look like in northern europe

The picture of the wee mushroom from the OP is a variety that my friend from Nova Scotia (maritime Canada) told me he would go picking. He says they grow all around out there. I have never seen them before. The variety that gave my incredible "Trip" (complete with OBE and 100% amnesia about anything I knew in this realm) was quite large with a bluish tint on the inside. I have also taken a fair amount of acid in my youth on a few occasions -- these shrooms made any previous acid trip I had taken seem like child's play.

After that trip, I realized that these things should not be taken for "fun" but should be respected and learned from as a growing experience. I have never done any since, (that was about 15 years ago) but I have had both DMT and shrooms at the back of my mind again, maybe my brain wants some more "expanding"