maandag 18 augustus 2014

Magic Mushrooms and Psychological Health

‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term
In their study, the Hopkins scientists were able to reliably induce transcendental experiences in volunteers, which offered long-lasting psychological growth and helped people find peace in their lives — without the negative effects.
As described by early advocates of the use of psychedelics — from ancient shamans to Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead — the psilocybin experience typically involves a sense of oneness with the universe and with others, a feeling of transcending time, space and other limitations, coupled with a sense of holiness and sacredness.
To zero in on the “sweet spot” of dosing, Griffiths started half the volunteers on a low dose and gradually increased their doses over time (with placebo sessions randomly interspersed); the other half started on a high dose and worked their way down. Those who started on a low dose found that their experiences tended to get better as the dose increased, probably because they learned what to expect and how to handle it. But people who started with high doses were more likely to experience anxiety and fear (though these feeling didn’t last long and sometimes resolved into euphoria or a sense of transcendence). “If we back the dose down a little, we have just as much of the same positive effects. The properties of the mystical experience remain the same, but there’s a fivefold drop in anxiety and fearfulness,” Griffiths says.
Some past experiments with psychedelics in the ’60s used initial high doses of the drugs — the “blast people away with a high dose” model, says Griffiths — to try to treat addiction. “Some of the early work in addictions was done with the idea of, ‘O.K., let’s model the ‘bottoming-out’ crisis and make use of the dark side of [psychedelic] compounds. That didn’t work,” Griffiths says.

zondag 17 augustus 2014

Teaching is not a business

An opinion piece in the NY Times by David L. Kirp (Teaching is not a business) list successful school improvement projects - where the accent is on building human ties with the pupils.

maandag 4 augustus 2014

The kids who beat autism

The NY Times has an article The kids who beat autism about how some kids "outgrow" autism.

How extreme isolation warps the mind

The BBC has review (How extreme isolation warps the mind) of the book The Power of Others by Michael Bond (Oneworld Publications). It discusses how disorienting isolation can be. But it also mentions the big difference between people. Some become crazy from a week of isolation in prison. Others choose isolation in solo sailing, mountaineering or meditation and seem to thrive on it.