In new research that will almost certainly create controversy, scientists working with the hallucinogen psilocybin — the active ingredient found in “magic mushrooms” — have found that a single dose of the drug prompted an enduring but positive personality change in almost 60 percent of patients.

Specifically, tests involving a small group of patients in a strictly controlled and monitored clinical setting revealed that, more often than not, one round of psilocybin exposure successfully boosted an individual’s sense of “openness.” What’s more, the apparent shift in what is deemed to be a key aspect of personality did not dissipate after exposure, lasting at least a year and sometimes longer.

Also watched this – a DVD I got for supporting the Kickstarter project. Really thought-provoking and good, though the dialog didn’t sync entirely right. Though this made it extra psychedelic, as it made it seem like the interviewees’ minds were separate from their body.

A prevailing prejudice of modern society, a hangover from the darkest days of the War on Drugs, is that the “hallucinations” induced by psychedelics cannot possibly be “real” or significant experiences in any sense but are mere artifacts of disturbed brain function. However, one of the important lessons I’ve learnt from the research underlying Entangled is that nothing in science allows us to reduce “hallucinations” to the altered electro-chemistry of the brain that accompanies them — any more than sightings of distant stars can be reduced to the workings of the telescope used to bring them into focus.

To explain this analogy a little further, it should be obvious that when we focus a telescope physical changes take place in the relationship between the lenses inside its barrel. We would however, be wrong to state that those changes are the star that eventually comes into view. Quite the contrary — the star is a real object and the physical changes inside the barrel of the telescope simply allow us to see it.

I like the Terence McKenna quote referenced in this interview with Adam Gorightly on Hidden Experience – that if someone sees something on LSD, this shouldn’t be written off as the derangements of someone under the influence, and immediately write it off, we should be asking more and more questions to understand exactly what they saw.

Unfortunately, BoingBoing seems like a repository of conservative thought.  It’s great that they give a platform to Hancock or Jacques Vallee – and for that reason it should be someplace I’d want to hang out – but the comments are so reflexively negative that it just becomes frustrating. A blog is made by its commenters, not necessarily its posts. I’m all for dissenting opinion, but then there are these comments:

These people start out with a perfectly rational discussion on the subject of optics, and then they start going into crazy stuff about “microscopes” and “tiny invisible creatures living in a drop of water”. It’s so disappointing when people start out seeming rational and then devolve into what amounts to another form of “woo”.

For one thing, anyone who uses the word “woo” should be embarrassed.  But the idea that we understand anything about the psychedelic experience is about as logical as claiming you know what’s on the other side of the universe.  We don’t know anything. And this kind of blanket dismissal is as dispiriting as anything coming out of the Tea Party.  The same sort of response happens whenever UFOs are mentioned on a site like io9 – some interest, but more reflexive denial that it’s even worth considering.  That’s the uphill battle about all this: even the weirdos refuse to be weird.

Led to this: Orange Sunshine: The Story of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love:

Not sure why Nick Sand doesn’t make it into the trailer. Apparently, the book counterpart to the movie is inaccurate. Nick Sand says,

“The book by schou is largely innacurate. Michael, Tim, and others have been trying to correct the many mistakes. I have not read any of this book so I can’t really say anything based on my efforts or lack of efforts as the case may be.”

Amazing letters of Nick Sand from prison here.

As Dr. Strassman’s story unfolds, a variety of experts weigh-in on the intriguing questions raised by the research and the resulting theories, including the synthesis of DMT in our brain’s pineal gland, its link to near-death & alien-abduction experiences, similarities to the “many-worlds” interpretation of quantum theory and the uncanny likeness to ancient religious texts describing prophets with DMT-like experiences. The experts offer a comprehensive collection of information, opinions, and speculation to contextualize the nature of the DMT experience, and its role in human culture and the life force of our planet.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule, 2012: Time for Change, and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward make the freak movie trifecta I’m looking forward to.

I’m sold, so I bought his book: