Jon's Newswriting

Mushrooms - Jonathan Weaver


For centuries indigenous cultures have used the hallucinogenic properties of various plants, to break over to the other side. Psilocybin mushroom in particular were used by the indigenous people of modern day Mexico for spiritual purposes. In 2006, the U.S. government funded a randomized and double-blinded study by Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins studied the spiritual effects of psilocybin mushrooms. The study involved 36 college-educated adults who had never tried psilocybin nor had a history of drug use, and had religious or spiritual interests; the average age of the participants was 46 years. The participants were closely observed for eight-hour intervals in a laboratory while under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms. In the fall of 2008 Hopkins repeated the study. I had the pleasure of sitting down Brian Durel from Baltimore, a participant in the recent study. In the below podcast Mr. Durel talks about the reason he participated in the study and what spiritual awakens he encountered and his overall thoughts on drugs and “having respect for drugs.”