"Mycological Environmentalism Under-Reported/Researched"

"On my thread "What's that Coming Over The Hill? I promised an edit on the importance of mycology to the environmental sciences (that thread is now "full" I believe and will no-longer accept further posts). Such has since been posted elsewhere........view thead http://www.countryfile.com/forum/mycological-environmentalism-t532.html


Some may have seen a recent BBC science series called "The Brain a Secret History" on which the presenter Micheal Mosley was given crystal psilocybin-psilocin*, which is currently being tested as an anti-depresent**. Is this otherwise Class A Drug going to be extracted or synthesised and then marketed and prescribed? As with cannabis our society has a schizophrenic attitude towards psychoactive fungi.

* http://itech.dickinson.edu/chemistry/?p=916
**He was then placed in a "C.A.T" scanner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography ), not something I would have done (I have personal experience of the C.A.T-scan procedure -never again!-).

Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xhgkd

Quote: "Researchers Extol The Medical Benefits Of Magic Mushrooms.
Not only that, but the researchers at John Hopkins say they’ve found the perfect dosage. Sadly, this looks to be one of those cases in which society lags behind science. Via Yahoo News:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, a chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms. Now, they say, they’ve zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.

The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin–long viewed skeptically for its association with 1960s countercultural thrill-seekers–for a range of valuable clinical functions, like easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and helping smokers quit.

The Johns Hopkins study involved giving healthy volunteers varying doses of psilocybin in a controlled and supportive setting, over four separate sessions. Looking back more than a year later, 94 percent of participants rated it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes.

More important, 89 percent reported lasting, positive changes in their behavior–better relationships with others, for instance, or increased care for their own mental and physical well-being. Those assessments were corroborated by family members and others." Go to http://www.disinfo.com/2011/06/researchers-extol-the-medical-benefits-of-magic-mushrooms/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+disinfo%2FoMPh+%28Disinformation%29&utm_content=Twitter