God finally discovered! In a magic mushroom....

[The Atheist]

I don't know whether this one has been discussed before, if so, my apologies, but there is recent research of note, conducted by John Hopkins University (USA).

Since I cannot yet post links, you'll have to type it in yourself - go to the site of independent.co.uk and site search for psilocybin or neurotheology; it will be the first result found.

A precis is that researchers have found that the brain's response to "religious" experiences and psilocybin-induced experiences are identical. Psilocybin is hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms, only recently banned in the UK.

I have long held the opinion that people who go around having mystical experiences with god, or his son, are clinically insane. It now appears that they have just found a cheap high.

Other than christians not generally going around murdering people (unless they have been elected President or Prime Minister), I find it very difficult to separate christians' mystical experiences with those of Samuel Berkowitz (Son of Sam) and other schizophrenic patients who either think they are god, or who are receiving instructions from him.

Maybe they all just need better drugs.

[DreadNiK]

http://leda.lycaeum.org/?ID=10494

[Donks]

Clicky linky. (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1171389.ece)
Johns Hopkins Press Release (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html)
Study (pdf) (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/GriffithsPsilocybin.pdf)

[The Atheist]

Thanks for that - spot on!

[Imaginative]

What I'd like to know is, were there other shared experiences they had in common other than the religious ones reported. Also, of all the kind of experiences that people have with other types of psycho active drugs, why is it that they seem to have a type of religious experience/phenomena associated with them.

[Molinaro]

It's sounds alot like how experiences with E are described.

[andyandy]

great thread!

Maybe magic mushrooms played a part in human evolution.....expanding the minds of foraging chimps..... :D

Picture the scene and boggle at the obvious possibilities: A gaggle of chimps are out for a night on the town; well during the afternoon, obviously, because there are no towns yet and leopards wander around at night. The monkeys come across a pile of **** left by a wildebeest or some prehistoric equivalent. Growing out of the **** heap are mushrooms, pale bluish purple ones stretching up to the sun. Monkeys will eat pretty tmuch anything, so they settle down to nosh and pretty soon the magic starts to happen. Colours, shapes, psychedelic visions based on past experiences and learning patterns. “The whole *********** universe man, it’s all around us!” Shouts one monkey and they all start hugging each other. Eventually the effect wears off. The monkeys, curious things they are, eat more mushrooms, or search for more, and whenever they happen to find more, they partake. Mind altering drugs, as anyone who’s ever taken them knows, especially those who take them often, influence and even actually restructure synaptic pathways. A mind expanded remains expanded, and unless overuse permanently damages the brain, it can develop into a holistic viewpoint, which changes or completely recreates a lifestyle. If monkeys, millions of years ago, took magic mushrooms on a regular basis, their expanded consciousness and experiential intercommunication with fellow users in the tribe could have caused the jumpstart on the evolution of what would finally become the human mind.

http://onlymagazine.ca/article/206/evollucination

[CapelDodger]

great thread!

Maybe magic mushrooms played a part in human evolution.....expanding the minds of foraging chimps..... :D
What expanded our brains, IMO, was the quest for better hooch. From over-ripe fruit to distillation, the true trajectory of human progress.

[slingblade]

When God drops acid, does he see people?

[rachaella]

Fantastic thread! Just one correction, The Son of Sam is David, not Samuel, Berkowitz for any who are interested in his wonderful delusions of the devil commanding hom to kill through a dog.

[izittrue]

When God drops acid, does he see people?
he invents them...

[slingblade]

he invents them...

...and the platypus.....