October 11, 2015

The UW lab volunteers on psilocybin love the string cheese: "They find it very fun because it’s very stringy."

That's my favorite detail from this long article about the study of "pharmacologically-aided psychotherapy" here at the University of Wisconsin.

The subjects can "put on eye shades and headphones," "wear an anti-anxiety blanket," and listen to music that "ranges from contemplative, chanting and classical to Beatles arrangements with no lyrics." (What's wrong with lyrics? Too influential?)

There's a description of one 62-year-old subject's experience:
“I went down the DNA spiral and encountered my ancestry, my family, then the whole human race,” he said. Later, he saw himself and all humankind standing on a cliff. “We joined hands and jumped off. At that point consciousness ended, reality ended, ego ended,” he said.
Strangely enough, these researchers are not looking for the mystical details:  “We’re mainly interested in their blood and urine... This is a pharmacokinetics study.”

9 comments:

Wince said...

Hell, they should bring in Charles Manson as a consultant.

uffda said...

Have them listen to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's "Fire" and then test their blood and urine. I took that trip circa 1970 - fright noght in psycholand.

uffda said...

Yeah, yeah, NIGHT not noght.

J. Farmer said...

"Once I got stoned and stared into a mirror for two hours until I saw someone who looked Chinese. But I think it was just me squinting."

-Albert Brooks, Defending Your Life (1990)

Mary Beth said...

Lyrics really mess up your urine test results.

john mosby said...

String Cheese Incident - great band!

Heartless Aztec said...

So what they're saying is that shrooms are still fun and in some instances even at 62. Well yeah.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

“We’re mainly interested in their blood and urine.

Story of my life.

Beldar said...

No lyrics -- because it's not safe to blow your mind out in a car because you haven't noticed that the light has changed. (Which you might not, if you were driving while wrapped in an anti-anxiety blanket while wearing shades and headphones.)