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Psychedelic: Mushroom Drug Produces Mystical Experience

NEW YORK -- People who took an illegal drug made from mushrooms reported profound mystical experiences that led to behavior changes lasting for weeks -- all part of an experiment that recalls the psychedelic '60s.
Many of the 36 volunteers rated their reaction to a single dose of the drug, called psilocybin, as one of the most meaningful or spiritually significant experiences of their lives. Some compared it to the birth of a child or the death of a parent.
Roland Griffiths of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, the study's lead author, said such comments "just seemed unbelievable." He also warned: don't try this at home. Almost a third of the research participants found the experience frightening.
Viewed by some as a landmark, the study is one of the few rigorous looks in the past 40 years at a hallucinogen's effects.
The researchers suggest the drug someday may help drug addicts kick their habit or aid terminally ill patients struggling with anxiety and depression
Funded in part by the federal government, the research was published online on Monday by the journal Psychopharmacology.