{"id":4883,"date":"2011-06-28T23:02:33","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T04:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=4883"},"modified":"2011-06-28T23:02:33","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T04:02:33","slug":"fine-tuning-the-mystical-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/06\/28\/fine-tuning-the-mystical-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine-tuning the mystical experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time<\/em> magazine’s Healthland<\/em> supplement summarizes<\/a> a recent clinical study of 18 healthy, spiritually inclined adults who were administered a certain drug over 5 eight-hour sessions. Among the results:<\/p>\n

Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Critically, however, the participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that [X] had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.<\/p>\n

What’s “[X],” and the medicine it involved? “The psilocybin experience.”<\/p>\n

That means that 7 out of the 18 participants had the<\/em> experience of their lives, and 17 out of 18 had at least a “top five” experience. What I’d like to know is why the last fellow didn’t<\/em>. What others things has he or she done to beat it?<\/p>\n

It’s worth reading the article through to the end, where Jerome Jaffe, America’s first “drug czar,” asks if “properly-informed citizens” should “be allowed to receive psilocybin for its possible spiritual benefits”? Pinch me.<\/p>\n

The original research article can be found in the journal Psychopharmacology<\/a><\/em>. You can listen to an interview with the lead researcher, Johns Hopkins University’s Roland Griffiths, at The Secular Buddhist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The journal Nature<\/em> provides further background on the topic here<\/a>, along with an article<\/a> about a related study.<\/p>\n

H\/t The Neurocritic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time magazine’s Healthland supplement summarizes a recent clinical study of 18 healthy, spiritually inclined adults who were administered a certain drug over 5 eight-hour sessions. Among the results: Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691847],"tags":[25032,25033,16875],"class_list":["post-4883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-spirituality","tag-findings","tag-mysticism","tag-spirituality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-1gL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8115,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/03\/12\/oad-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":0},"title":"OAD update","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"That stands for \"Ontology Across the Disciplines,\" which is the UVM faculty (and grad student) reading group that\u00a0I said I'd keep readers updated on. I've been a bit remiss with that, as we had a meeting 3 weeks ago and will be meeting again at 4 p.m. today. Here\u00a0is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6321,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/11\/09\/thinking-out-loud\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":1},"title":"Thinking out loud…","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I prepare to teach a course in the spring called \"Media Ecologies and Cultural Politics,\" I'm weighing out the benefits and risks of opening the course to an online audience. This would involve sharing the syllabus online (though not the readings themselves, which would have to be purchased or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5789,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/05\/03\/turning-nonhuman\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":2},"title":"Turning nonhuman","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm on my way to Milwaukee for the Nonhuman Turn conference. I will do my best to live-blog from it, though that will depend on the technology the U of Wisconsin Milwaukee offers conference participants. Stay tuned.","rel":"","context":"In \"Nonhuman Turn\"","block_context":{"text":"Nonhuman Turn","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/tag\/nonhuman-turn\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5128,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/08\/01\/environmental-humanities-the-challenge-of-multidisciplinarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":3},"title":"Environmental Humanities & the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"CALL FOR PAPERS: Environmental Humanities and the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity A Workshop at the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, \u201cThe Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling \u2018The Three Narratives\u2019\u2014Art, Science, and Philosophy\u201d University of Cyprus, Nicosia July 2 \u2013 6, 2012 THEME OF\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5725,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/03\/30\/nature-the-popular-imagination-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":4},"title":"Nature & the Popular Imagination (redux)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We're getting some good submissions, but there's room for more. The deadline for proposals has been extended to May 1. I'm sharing the call for papers again here... The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) is pleased to announce its next conference in Malibu, California\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7082,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/12\/01\/thinking-forests-animals\/","url_meta":{"origin":4883,"position":5},"title":"Thinking forests & animals","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's one of the participants at the AAA's ontology panel, McGill anthropologist Eduardo Kohn, applying ontological speculation -- including Peirce and biosemiotics -- to animals and forests: http:\/\/youtu.be\/mSdrdY6vmDo And here's a \"keynote conversation\" among Kohn, Donna Haraway, and Colin Dayan from the same meeting, the UC Berkeley's Funny Kinds of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/mSdrdY6vmDo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4883"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4892,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions\/4892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}