![]() Leary and colleagues proposed that psilocybin heightens suggestibility, making an individual more receptive to interpersonal interactions and environmental stimuli. Conversely, smaller groups (fewer than six) were seen as more supportive and reported more positive reactions to the drug in those groups. ![]() In general, those in groups of more than eight felt that the groups were less supportive, and their experiences less pleasant. Group size, dosage, preparation, and expectancy were important determinants of the drug response. Individuals who had experience with psilocybin prior to the study reported more pleasant experiences than those for whom the drug was novel. 98 of the subjects were given questionnaires to assess their experiences and the contribution of background and situational factors. They administered the drug to 175 volunteers from various backgrounds in an environment intended to be similar to a comfortable living room. In the early 1960s, Timothy Leary and colleagues at Harvard University investigated the role of set and setting on the effects of psilocybin. ![]() The effects of psilocybin are highly variable and depend on the mindset and environment in which the user has the experience, factors commonly referred to as set and setting. Possession of psilocybin-containing mushrooms has been outlawed in most countries, and psilocybin has been classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances.Īmerican psychologist and counterculture figure Timothy Leary conducted early experiments into the effects of psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin (1989 photo) The mind-altering effects of psilocybin typically last from two to six hours, although to individuals under the influence of psilocybin, the effects may seem to last much longer, since the drug can distort the perception of time. Once ingested, psilocybin is rapidly metabolized to psilocin, which then acts on serotonin receptors in the brain. The intensity and duration of the effects of psilocybin are variable, depending on species or cultivar of mushrooms, dosage, individual physiology, and set and setting, as was shown in experiments led by Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. Although the increasingly restrictive drug laws of the 1960s and the 1970s curbed scientific research into the effects of psilocybin and other hallucinogens, its popularity as an entheogen (spirituality-enhancing agent) grew in the next decade, owing largely to the increased availability of information on how to cultivate psilocybin mushrooms. Hofmann's employer Sandoz marketed and sold pure psilocybin to physicians and clinicians worldwide for use in psychedelic therapy. In 1958, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann isolated psilocybin and psilocin from the mushroom Psilocybe mexicana. In Mesoamerica, the mushrooms had long been consumed in spiritual and divinatory ceremonies before Spanish chroniclers first documented their use in the sixteenth century. Imagery found on cave paintings and rock art of modern-day Spain and Algeria suggests that human usage of psilocybin mushrooms predates recorded history. It can also cause adverse reactions such as nausea and panic attacks. In general, the effects include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, distorted sense of time, and perceived spiritual experiences. Psilocybin is itself biologically inactive but is quickly converted by the body to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar, in some aspects, to those of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). ![]() The most potent are members of genus Psilocybe, such as P. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens, but psilocybin has also been isolated from about a dozen other genera. ![]() Psilocybin ( / ˌ s aɪ l ə ˈ s aɪ b ɪ n/ sy-lə- SY-bin, / ˌ s ɪ l-/) is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi. ![]()
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