Dede Osborn, a business consultant, took a psychedelic drug within the scope of a research project that she conducted at a laboratory of John Hopkins University. The woman said that the drug gave her the feeling of euphoria and joy. She said that she felt like she was flying. The experiment happened in 2002.
 |
|
|
 |
| Magic mushrooms can change your life for good, study says |
|
|
|
|
 BREAKING NEWS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nowadays, at age 66, Dede Osborn says that she still feels more centered in who she is and what she is doing. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected,” she said.
The psychedelic drug was offered to 14 volunteers, who were surveyed 14 months after the experiments. Most of them said that they were still feeling and behaving better than they used to because of the drug. Some of them said that it was the most spiritually significant experiment which they have ever had.
The drug, known as psilocybin, can be found in so-called “magic mushrooms.” The use of the drug is illegal. However, it has been used on religious ceremonies for hundreds of years.
The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit. It's one of the few such studies of a hallucinogen in the past 40 years, since research was largely shut down after widespread recreational abuse of such drugs in the 1960s.
The project made headlines in 2006 when researchers published their report on how the volunteers felt just two months after taking the drug. The new study followed them up a year after that.
Experts emphasize that people should not try psilocybin on their own because it could be harmful. Even in the controlled setting of the laboratory, nearly a third of participants felt significant fear under the effects of the drug. Without proper supervision, someone could be harmed, researchers said.
Osborn, in a telephone interview, recalled a powerful feeling of being out of control during her lab experience. "It was ... like taking off, I'm being lifted up," she said. Then came "brilliant colors and beautiful patterns, just stunningly gorgeous, more intense than normal reality."
And then, the sensation that her heart was tearing open.
"It would come in waves," she recalled. "I found myself doing Lamaze-type breathing as the pain came on."
Yet "it was a joyful, ecstatic thing at the same time, like the joy of being alive," she said. She compared it to birthing pains. "There was this sense of relief and joy and ecstasy when my heart was opened."
Speak your mind on Pravda.ru forum
Iran to Enrich Uranium Despite Global Opposition
Forum
Source: 
