Updated 2/14/16
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Some fungi teach while others turn ants into zombies
Focus:
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PSU: Zombie ant fungi 'know' brains of their hosts
Live Science: Zombie Fungus Enslaves Only Its Favorite Ant Brains 
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Click for Wiki.
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From A New Understanding: "Death is as much a part of life as birth. We all know we are heading there, yet Western culture does everything possible to ignore it. Although our mortality is inevitable, we still can’t begin to imagine dying or what happens after we die. The truth is we fear death."
Winner of the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award from the Mycological Association of America communicates his vision for mushrooms:
Winner of the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award from the Mycological Association of America communicates his vision for mushrooms:
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"Each year 2.5 million people die in the U.S. Over twenty percent of these deaths are due to cancer. In 2015, over 589,000 Americans will die of cancer and 1,658,370 new cancer cases will be diagnosed. While we can’t change these numbers, we can change the approach to which we come to terms with the inevitable.
Witness the story of three individuals that were part of a larger study exploring this unique palliative care technique. The research documented in this film will transform your take on cancer treatment and deeply empathize with the lasting peace the patients gain. With the convergence of science and spirituality combined with shifting paradigms, psilocybin research is moving forward quickly with the likelihood that within the next five to six years, this could be a palliative care option approved by the FDA and DEA." 
Click for link.
American Psychiatric Association President Paul Summergrad held a special interview with pioneer psilocybin researcher and spiritual leader Ram Dass at the 2015 APA Annual Convention.
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What are fungi? "Death is what fungi are all about. By feasting on the deceased remains of almost all organisms on the planet, converting the organic matter back into soil from which new life will spring, they perform perhaps the most vital function in the global food web. Fungi, which thrive on death, make all life possible."
Shulgin: Why I do what I do
Mental Health Benefits and Effects of Psilocybin on the Brain: Quieting the Cingulate Cortex and More. From the video below: "Is it possible that, because of the war on drugs, we have demonized a treatment for otherwise untreatable diseases?"
"...A way to increase personal well-being, permanently treat depression, break the cycle of addiction, and ease the transition from life into death?
What makes serious research on psilocybin is that it's illegal even harder is that it's just about illegal everywhere just about everywhere, including the mushrooms from which its extracted and even its spores. "
"Of course, keeping mind-altering substances off the street is one thing, but it's another thing to hamper research into what could be a breakthrough for mental health everywhere."
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End-of-Life Care
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High Costs at the End of Life Rarely Equate to Better Death. Cutting healthcare costs for older adults includes improving end-of-life care. Many Americans spend their last days in an intensive care unit, subjected to uncomfortable machines or surgeries to prolong their lives at enormous cost.
It's more than just having a discussion about end-of-life with patients. |
CBS 60 Minutes: The Cost of Dying
From 8 pages to 1 card: Making it easier for patients and families discuss Advance Directives before the end of life Sydney Morning Herald: Dr. Ashleigh Witt's view on why everybody should know the dying wishes of their loved ones Do Not Resuscitate: Dr. Witt's blog on resuscitation and knowing when to stop A Piece from Ashleigh's blog: 
Alan Watts: Our Need for a Sense of Unity
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There are endless costs with end-of-life care that stem from doctors, patients, and family members not being comfortable with death. Psychedelic medicine has the potential to improve how patients and their families psychologically cope with mortality.
Alan Watts: Acceptance of Death
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HuffPost: Baby Boomers' Last Revolution Will Be Changing the Way We Die, Part 1
Jobs & McKenna: Because the Fact of the Matter is... Words of Wisdom About Life and Death Dying Better.An Amazing Moment that is Taking Place in Our Lifetime? Dr. Gabor Maté Leads TJ Dawe on an Ayahuasca Healing Retreat, Plus End-of-Life Thoughts Stroke of Insight (for Smoking Cessation) Amazing Art: Alex Grey (below) |
Could Psilocybin Be Useful in Combating Depression and Anxiety in Homebound Older Adults and Patients with Chronic or Terminal Illness?
American Psychological Association: Could the psychedelic drug psilocybin help ease the existential distress common in people with cancer? DMT (Found in Ayahuasca): Might Be Released into Our Brains When We Die DMT: A Religious Model.Psychedelics Researcher Rick Strassman Gives His First Presentation in 5 Years at CU Boulder |
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Casey A. Paleos is Co-Principal Investigator of the NYU-Bellevue IV Ketamine for Depression Study, a study therapist in the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, and a Clinical Instructor of Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine.
Jeffrey Guss is a Co-Investigator in the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study as well as the upcoming Alcoholism Psilocybin Study and is an Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. Alexander Belser is a co-founder of the New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study and is currently heading a qualitative study to conduct in-depth interviews with these patients to vividly explore their experiences. He is a Fellow and Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Department of Applied Psychology. |
Toward a New Understanding of Altered States of Consciousness: Egolysis and Egolytic States – NYU Psilocybin Research Team "We introduce a new term, “egolytic” (“a loosening, setting free, releasing, dissolution,” of the ego), as a descriptor of the process that may be evoked by a variety of consciousness-altering phenomena; by correlating the egolytic processes with existing neuroscientific, psychoanalytic, and clinical research on meditation, psychosis, and psychedelic therapy, we hope to offer a new model for the therapeutic effects of psychedelic medicines. Paleos, Guss, and Belser:
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NYU Psilocybin Music Sampler: Helping Patients with Psychological Distress
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America's RxProblem: Lack of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Treatment Options Prevents Recovery, Increases Stigma
HUGE Speaker for TEDMed 2015: Mindfulness, Psilocybin, & Spirituality Psychopharmacologist Roland Griffiths Psychology of Religion Expert Ralph Hood: Good Friday Psilocybin Experiment Shamanic Medicines: Want to Help a Broken and Addicted U.S. Mental Health Care System America:Land of the Free? |
Psilocybin, Not Prozac or Xanax: Shows Promise for Existential and Spiritual Distress
Psychedelics Expert Interviews: America's Mental Health & Addiction Tragedies Johns Hopkins Seminar Series: End-of-Life Pain & Palliative Care as an Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide Because the Fact of the Matter is...Words of Wisdom About Life and Death You Created 'Drug Culture': DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz |
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Tim's Story and fundraiser: "A recent but still unpublished study at Johns Hopkins demonstrated rapid, substantial, and sustained (lasting up to six months) antidepressant and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects of a single dose of psilocybin in psychologically-distressed patients with life-threatening cancer diagnoses.
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Author of The 4 Hour Work Week 
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This is incredibly exciting. What if we could decrease or avoid altogether the known side-effects (and frequency of consumption) of current antidepressant drugs like SSRIs? This study could help establish an alternative.
The work Tim is hoping to fund "will determine the efficacy of psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression, and will also use cutting-edge brain imaging to clarify the mechanism of action of psilocybin's antidepressant effects. In the world of science, it is a rare opportunity to be able to conduct such potentially groundbreaking work for a mere $80,000. It’s almost unheard of. Psilocybin has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of major depression that cannot be properly addressed with current treatments. This also applies to end-of-life care for terminally-ill cancer patients." (Follow Psilocybin and Cancer Research on Facebook).
Why does important mental health research require crowdfunding?
From Michael Pollan's The Trip Treatment in The New Yorker:
Why does important mental health research require crowdfunding?
From Michael Pollan's The Trip Treatment in The New Yorker:
Click for link.
In evidence-based medicine, large randomized controlled trials are required to properly evaluate potential treatments. Unfortunately, Big Pharma is usually the only entity that can afford to fund large clinical trials, leading to evidence being skewed in favor of pharmaceuticals.
According to Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D. recent president of the American Psychiatric Association, "We have had a nearly 50-year hiatus in any serious investigation, except for some heroic investigators at a few universities."
"We Need to Study These Drugs."
"My point is not to say that these drugs should be discounted and relegated to the criticism and dismissal similar to that of treatments for which we have no basis for claims of therapeutic efficacy.
"We Need to Study These Drugs."
"My point is not to say that these drugs should be discounted and relegated to the criticism and dismissal similar to that of treatments for which we have no basis for claims of therapeutic efficacy.
Click for video.
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These psychedelic drugs clearly are pharmacologically active, have profound effects, could be useful for therapeutic purposes, and need to be studied in an intensive and extensive way before an informed determination can be made.
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Life Magazine introduced psilocybin to 1950s Americans in a May 1957 photo essay by banker and amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson titled, Seeking the Magic Mushroom. Read a copy of the article here.
Full video of the Vine. |
Mycological Society of America: Mushroom Expert and Winner of the 2015 Tina and Gordon Wasson Award, Paul Stamets, Describes how Psilocybin Mushrooms Were Introduced to Western Society
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- Meditation and Psychedelics as Mental Health Preventative Medicine: Stunting the Growth of Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, Pain Meds
- Is Consciousness the Only Savior for a Changing America? Meditation Has People Believing
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Overprescribing Appalachians, Anatolians ft. Stephen Loyd, M.D.
- Terence McKenna Blesses America and the ACLU
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