Magic mushrooms

Click here for a video of a "One Step Beyond" TV program from 1961 in which the host eats a magic mushroom and then conducts an ESP test.

Comments

Tor said…
Interesting.. Since this was done in 1961, one should think that someone continued this mushroom vs psi research. Or maybe it was abandoned as LSD got banned? Do you know of any Dean?
Dave Smith said…
Very interesting, although the formal test is obviously lacking in the kind of controls applied to ESP tests today.

Have there been any published studies in ESP using hallucinogens?

This reminds me of someone I met in Australia who told me he had an OBE after taking a large dose of LSD. Quite remarkable really. He told of how one minute he seemed to be losing all sense of structured reality and the next minute there he was, outside his body experiencing things as vividly and as coherently as the normal waking state. From that position he observed his two friends carry his body out into the back yard and place him underneath a tree since he appeared unconscious to them at the time. He 'came round' underneath the tree and told them what had happened. No real indication of ESP, but I think its interesting that taking hallucinogens can lead to different but coherent experiences in addition to, well, not so coherent ones...
David Bailey said…
It is incredible that almost all research into hallucinogens (if that is really the right word) is stifled. The very fact that the mind can enter such states, must be telling us something profound.

Dean, perhaps you should try a little ESP research in Amsterdam!
mrlukeduke said…
In the comedy-documentary called "Super High Me" they do an informal test for ESP; stoned and unstoned. Quite interesting although of course not controlled properly in any way! I have talked with Rupert Sheldrake about similar tests. Millions of mushroom/LSD (et al) user report powerful telepathic/ESP like feelings, events or intuitions.

It's like combining the two most taboo topics together into one outrageous bundle of cultural heresy!
Dean Radin said…
Other than a telepathy experiment with psilocybin, conducted in The Netherlands, I'm not aware of any legally sanctioned, controlled psi experiments conducted in recent times. There are certainly lots of stories and persistent lore suggesting that something interesting does happen that enhances psi perception, but combining psi with psychedelics is an explosive combination, and most people (especially scientists) tend to shy away from those kinds of fireworks.

Nevertheless, I think there is much to learn about psi in altered states, so I'm cautiously exploring ways of gaining approval to do psi experiments with psychedelics, legally.
mrlukeduke said…
I'd very much like to see that Dutch experiment if you have a link? Perhaps I'll search your blog for it meanwhile.

Aren't there certain areas in the USA which may have legalized/decriminalized cannabis? Perhaps even just for "medical" reasons etc? Over here in the UK they are doing a lot of research with psychedelics again, especially with ibogaine and psiloybin, for example on terminally ill cancer patients (to alleviate depression/anxiety), or as addiction breakers etc.

Do you know Dr.Rick Strassman (famous for the New Mexico DMT studies)? Perhaps he might be able to help you navigate the tense legal minefield that surrounds these things.
Dean Radin said…
See

http://m0134.fmg.uva.nl/publications/2000/psychotropic_GF.pdf

for an experiment examining the effects of a psychedelic on psi performance under controlled conditions.

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