All language subtitles for Psychedelica.Series.1.05of14.Psilocybin.The.Magic.of.Mushrooms.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

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>> The story of psilocybin,
or commonly known as magic

mushrooms, is a long
and controversial one.

Because of Hollywood, Disney
films, and word of mouth,

psychedelic mushrooms have been
given a serious reputation.

Are they drugs?

Are they medicine?

Are they safe?

Are they keys to heaven or hell?

Let's put the rumors
aside and investigate

what we know to date.

It has been suggested that
because psilocybin mushrooms

most commonly grew in
droppings of cattle

and these animals have
been revered and followed

by many humans and religions
for thousands of years,

it is unlikely that our
ancestors disregarded

these mushrooms and
ignored experiencing

their mind-bending effects.

What exactly is the mysterious
world of the magic mushroom

experience?

What is the latest scientific
research showing us?

What are the most cutting edge
and cultural uses of them?

And what might they
be trying to teach us?

These strange beings
have been speculated

to predate the human race.

They may be able to
survive intergalactic space

travel and even volatile
entry into Earth's atmosphere,

floating from unknown distances
to our planet, our species,

and into our minds.

Mushroom species outnumber
plant species 10 to 1,

and their mycelia
spreads far and wide

under the Earth to connect with,
communicate to, and integrate

a fractal web across
many life forms.

Terence McKenna wrote
from the perspective

of the mushroom in the book
"Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom

Growers Guide," "I am
old, older than thought

in your species, which
is itself 50 times older

than your history.

Though I have been on Earth
for ages, I am from the stars.

My home is no one planet.

From many worlds scattered
through the shining

disk of the galaxy
have conditions

which allow my spores an
opportunity for life."

His brother, ethnobotanist
Dennis McKenna,

traces this mysterious
spore's historical use.

>> The mushrooms
were used in Mexico,

the psilocybin mushrooms
by the Aztecs, the Mayans,

and probably the Mazatecs,
and even older cultures.

So that's the
epicenter of the use

of these Psilocybe cubensis,
which grows on cow dung

and is a globally
distributed mushroom.

They'll show up pretty much
in any pasture in the tropics

where you have cattle.

So they had to be around
for millions of years,

you know, or many hundreds
of thousands of years,

probably in proximity
to human civilizations

or nomadic tribes,
if they had cattle.

But then we also
know there's evidence

they were used in Europe and
probably in South America,

maybe in Africa, maybe in Asia.

So how long have they been used?

There's no way to know.

But I would like to think they'd
been used a very long time.

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>> Because most of the classical
psychedelics require human

intervention, psilocybin
mushrooms were probably

the first psychedelic
to be discovered,

as they grew anywhere in the
tropics or subtropical climates

and would appear sprouting from
the droppings of large animals

like cows.

They could stand as much
as a foot tall with a cap

the size of a dinner plate.

It's likely that the
first wave of experiences

with eating these
mushrooms would

have made the individual think
that they had been poisoned.

But after a while, the
phenomena would likely

have been seen as divine,
otherworldly, and, quite

possibly, an experience
with death and rebirth,

a resurrection of the psyche.

When the Spanish
conquistadors spread

through present-day Mexico
exploring new lands,

they encountered many
indigenous groups

practicing peculiar rituals.

The 16th century Aztec
statue of Xochipilli

was found in Southern
Mexico with engravings

of sacred psychoactive plants
like tobacco, Morning Glory,

along with several
other flowers,

and the Psilocybe
aztecorum mushrooms.

Maya archaeologist
Stephen De Borhegyi

believed that hallucinogenic
mushroom rituals

were central to Maya religions.

The mushroom stones
of the Guatemalan

highlands date to
at least 1,000 BC

and are believed to have
been used to honor and grind

the dried mushrooms before use.

There are some that believe
that these mushrooms,

or the ergot fungus
that grew on barley,

were used in the Eleusinian
Mystery's fabled Kykeon brew.

>> The question is, what were
they offering to these people

that they kept the attention
of the antique world for 2000

years?

It's a long time.

I mean, fads come and go.

But what they were
doing was quite--

not quite clear until Albert
Hoffman discovered LSD.

Steve Gordon Wasson, who brought
the Mexican magic mushrooms

from the Mazatec culture and
Carl Ruck, a Greek scholar.

They spent several years,
very, very meticulous research,

and they came to the conclusion
that the key was a beverage,

sacred beverage, which
was called Kykeon,

K-Y-K-E-O-N that was
administered in a very critical

part of the ceremony.

>> These mysterious events
spanned from 1,600 BC to 392 AD

until Theodosius I
closed the sanctuaries.

The exact recipe has
never been found,

and the last remaining
hints of the mystery school

was demolished by King
Alaric of the Goths,

who brought a Christian invasion
to destroy the old sites.

This invasion was the
beginning of a long reign

of the new religion
in town, forbidding

the use of plant sacraments.

Now, fast forward to 1955.

R. Gordon Wasson, who is an
amateur mycologist and banker

to JP Morgan, made his
way to Sierra Mazateca

in Southern Mexico to visit a
curandera named Maria Sabina.

In this shamanic
village, Sabina was

known for healing her community
with powerful mushroom rituals.

She agreed to welcome
Wasson into one

of the rituals in good faith
that he could take pictures,

but none were allowed
to be published.

This was to maintain the sacred
space of those being healed

and to protect the village
from outsiders knowing

too much of their rituals.

So Wasson agreed and
proceeded to take

private pictures of Maria
Sabina calling in the mushroom

spirits for healing.

>> She said the spirits in
the mushrooms, the ninos,

little children, were the ones
that she worked with in concert

with the mushroom entities
for healing for her patients.

So, Gordon Wasson went down,
and had a photographer,

and had a team of people,
and published this in 1957,

a hit in "Life Magazine"
in 1957 and then

got into every home
in middle America

and basically initiated
the psychedelic '60s in '57

by telling people that
this mushroom existed

in New Mexico, which altered
consciousness and had

this shamanic lineage.

>> On May 13, 1957,
"Life Magazine"

published Wasson's photographs,
and the story of the mushroom

rituals swept through
the Western world.

Flocks of Americans began
to flood this small town

in search of the most
mind-expanding experience they

could find.

Sabina was reported as saying,
it doesn't work in this way.

The spirits of the
mushrooms helped

to heal humanity from illness
instead of introducing them

to God.

But by this point,
the Western world

was hypnotized by
the claims being

made about these mushrooms,
and shortly thereafter,

the university studies began,
but not without pushback.

>> There is nothing smart.

There's nothing grown up or
sophisticated in taking an LSD

trip at all.

They're just being
complete fools.

>> Don't you feel that it's
wrong to encourage the use

of these illegal drugs
by college students.

This is, in effect,
admitting encouraging

the breaking of the law?

>> Well, I never tell anyone
what to do with their body

because what we're talking
about here is the first and last

frontier of freedom, my body.

>> Timothy Leary was a part of
the original psilocybin studies

at Harvard University.

40 years after these studies
and after the prohibition

of psychedelics
finally loosened,

professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences

at Johns Hopkins University,
Dr. Roland Griffiths,

took up psilocybin
research once more.

>> We began our studies in 2000,
and I initiated my interest

in this because I had taken
a meditation practice up,

and I was interested in shifts
in states of consciousness.

I was actually
skeptical about the idea

that psilocybin
could produce deeply

spiritually-significant,
mystical-type experiences.

But indeed, the data spoke very
clearly to us that it could.

So we did choose psilocybin,
I think thoughtfully.

One is that most people
at the time we initiated

this work couldn't
spell psilocybin,

didn't quite know what
it was, and it certainly

didn't have the cultural
baggage that LSD did.

So LSD and mescaline have
very long duration of action,

more on the order of
12 hours as opposed

to psilocybin, which
is four to six hours.

So that makes it a much
more tractable compound

to work with in a
clinical setting.

DMT, on the other hand, is
very short acting and can also

be given with an MAO inhibitor.

>> An MAO inhibitor makes
DMT last four to six hours.

But the pharmacology is
more complex and difficult

to receive approval
from the FDA.

However, psilocybin
produces similar results

with far less complexity.

>> The psilocybin molecule
and the DMT molecule are very

closely related to one another.

In a sense, psilocybin
can be rightly described

as orally-active DMT because DMT
is not normally orally active.

>> Even though the
molecules are very similar,

the mind-expanding experiences
aren't as similar as it would

seem.

Each psychedelic molecule,
called a tryptamine,

is structured in a
very specific way

to trigger specific
neurotransmitters in the brain,

causing every psychedelic plant
to elicit different effects.

And it all depends upon
the neurotransmitters

that the substances play on.

Serotonin mimicking is the
hallmark of psychedelica.

Serotonin allows
human consciousness

to assemble the consensus
reality that we typically

inhabit, and it even forges
our sense of self and identity,

and psilocybin mushrooms break
down the rigid perceptions

of normal waking consciousness.

>> Psilocybin appears acutely
to decrease activity within

a certain network of brain
hubs called the default mode

network.

And that network is very active
under conditions of vigilance

and depression, and
it's deactivated

when people are, for instance,
long-term meditators.

And it's thought that
that area is somehow

tied up in with respect to
self-referential processing,

a sense of self.

It turns out that
psilocybin decreases

default mode networking
or functioning much

as the same way that
meditation decreases

activity in that brain center.

And that brain center happens
to be activated in depression.

So that might account for
anti-depressant effects

of psilocybin.

>> The fact that brain imaging
is now showing similar results

between the benefits of
psilocybin and meditation has

not only confirmed what
Tim Leary, Richard Alpert,

and Ralph Metzner were looking
for in the original Harvard

studies, it seems to lend to the
healing properties of ancient

shamanic tribes as well.

For the experiences met
within the psilocybin trip

are seen by spiritual
adepts to be mere glimpses

into the higher domains.

They are not necessary
to get us there.

And if done
irresponsibly, they will

atrophy our inner
faculties that allow

us to achieve these states
without these substances.

So the judicious
use of psychedelics

are seen by many to be merely
the reminder that these states

exist, that inner
healing is possible,

that human consciousness
is not static,

but an ever-evolving phenomena.

Therefore, long-term meditators
and psilocybin volunteers

at Johns Hopkins are tapping
into their own neurology

and disrupting the inner
identity that is unwell.

What does it mean that
de-stabilizing people's sense

of self can be
useful in healing?

Is it because human illness lies
in our beliefs about ourselves

and how we fit into
the world around us?

Why are the same effects
seen in long-term meditators?

>> They are fundamentally
re-organizational experiences

that people describe as having
a sense of interconnectedness

of all people and things,
a sense of sacredness,

a truth value and authenticity
to the experience that they

find uniquely compelling and
authoritative, positive mood,

a sense of love or
open heartedness,

transcendence of time and
space, and then another feature

described is ineffability.

They find it difficult to put
these experiences in words.

>> Whether it's caused by
a psychedelic substance,

the act of meditation,
or caused spontaneously,

recalling mystical-type
experiences in words seems

to pale in comparison to
the underlying meaning.

However, whether the
experience itself

can be spoken about or
not, psilocybin mushrooms

are being found to help with a
number of epidemic-level health

issues in the modern world.

>> The spectrum of therapeutic
effects are great, you know,

anxiety in terminal
patients, anxiety about--

existential anxiety for
people who are dying.

That's one.

PTSD, it's promising for that.

It looks promising
for addictions.

There's been spectacular work
on psilocybin and smoking

cessation, which is
kind of unexpected,

but it's very effective
for smoking cessation.

Depression is another one.

Depression is being identified
as these FDA protocols are

advanced, and
psilocybin can have

a therapeutic effect on it.

>> While so many mental and
physical health issues are

given hope in the face of
new psilocybin research,

the fact that
federally-controlled research

is being overseen by someone who
is open to studying and mapping

even the abstract phenomena
that fill people with purpose

and meaning is hopeful to those
who believe that there is more

than meets the eye behind
these psychedelic journeys that

people are explaining.

>> I think that the most
compelling and remarkable

finding across all of our
populations is that psilocybin,

when administered under these
conditions to people who have

been carefully screened and
prepared and then received

psilocybin in a setting such
as this when they are laying

on a couch, and have eye
shades on, and headphones,

and they're in the presence
of people who have developed

rapport and trust with them,
that the great majority

of these people have these
remarkable experiences that,

in fact, map on to
naturally-occurring,

mystical-type experiences.

>> When the mindset and physical
setting has been carefully

constructed for a
healing experience,

there is an abundance
of accounts of not only

the occurrence of healing, but a
congruent sense of a deep inner

knowing that the healing is
beyond physical mechanisms

alone, that an underlying
universal shift is taking

place, and the whole
being, not just the body,

is receiving healing, that we
are more than what we could

ever conceive of and, in
fact, we are all different

expressions of the
same underlying fabric.

And because these
mushrooms reliably

bring about these
experiences, the neurology

can finally be analyzed
in a scientific setting.

>> We know that people have
such experiences in absence

of psychedelics, but under
these special set and setting

conditions, we can occasion
these experiences at very high

probability.

And that opens this up
to the interrogation

by scientific method so
we can now ask questions

about the nature of
these experiences

and the transformative changes
that heretofore couldn't

be asked because we didn't
understand what processes

or what conditions
optimize the probability

of these experiences.

>> Because scientific technology
has advanced considerably since

the 1960 Harvard studies,
psilocybin effects on the brain

are far more understood today.

With the destabilization
of the default mode network

in the brain, causing for
internal neural communication

to change dramatically,
we have a glimpse

at what functions of the
brain hold trauma in the body.

Most physiological illness that
has been conditioned into us

is seen as unhealthy
communication

between brain regions.

When someone has the
opportunity to view

their life, their beliefs, their
world, and the interactions

between them all in a new
and unbiased perspective,

as psychedelics
often do, it seems

that the innate intelligence
of the human being

can identify the
communication error

and bring neurochemical
processes back into balance.

Whereas most pharmaceutical
meds address symptoms only,

and most of the time
merely mask them,

psilocybin is being
seen to address

the source of these
symptoms, causing

a lasting rippling effect
into all areas of life.

>> I think that the most
interesting feature is not that

these drugs produce these
acute salient effects,

but that these effects are
remembered, and there--

and there become attribution
points for which people say,

you know, I remember that
experience every day.

My life has changed
because of it.

My attitudes have
changed because of it.

We really only, at this
point, have the faintest hint

of what kind of network
processes, what kind of brain

processes, are altered.

Exactly which networks are
involved and how they interact

is still largely
a mystery to us.

>> Perhaps science is still
unable to definitively map

the neurological
basis of psilocybin.

But new advancements are
seeing in our understanding

of these mushrooms'
effects on the brain.

Meanwhile, to arrive at the
mind bending and life changing

experiences that
they afford, people

have been left to
secretive methods

to get their hands on them,
keeping this age-old sacrament

and it's shamanic use
alive in the underground.

>> Mushrooms are recolonizing
the world right now one

basement at a time.

A lot of people are
growing this medicine

and are using it
with sacred intention

and not speaking
about it very much.

It's a very personal
experience for them.

And people are cultivating
mushrooms both for large

experiences, being spiritual,
trans-personal experiences,

but people are also primarily
cultivating this medicine

for micro dosing and using low--

incredibly low doses
of psilocybin mushrooms

pretty regularly for the
treatment of depression,

anxiety, or to provide a
little more energy than they

would normally have.

>> Micro-dosing psychedelic
plants has been popularized

mostly by Dr. James Fadiman,
who after 40 years of experience

has called this sub-perceptible
dose a problem-solving amount.

Whereas moderate doses
are effective for therapy,

and high doses for spirituality.

And because of
this, the phenomena

has recently found itself
in unsuspecting places

like the workplace
in Silicon Valley

and other analytical
occupations.

>> A lot of software
engineers, myself included,

tend to be victims of
constrained thinking,

or we think very logically
and analytically like this is

the way.

Like you know, you start seeing
code everywhere in everything

you look at.

But the psychedelics
just take all of that,

and rip it up, and
tear it into pieces,

and you're like, oh,
my god, I don't really

know what I know anymore.

And that can be really difficult
and really, really amazing.

And so like, with engineering,
what it tends to do

is I'll like get stuck
on a problem, you know,

like maybe it's some
engineering solution.

I just can't think of
anything, and I sit with it,

and then I just
like suddenly, like,

I can almost see the
problem I'm working on,

like in three dimensions,
you know what I mean?

Like my eyes closed or
whatever and to just see it

in a new way.

>> Dosage is the most surefire
way to dramatically change

the effects gained from
psychedelic mushrooms.

Terence McKenna is
known for categorizing

what he called the
heroic dose at 5

or sometimes 5 and 1/2 grams.

To most, this would be
considered an amount enough

to elicit a
spiritual experience.

Psychologist and
author Rick Strassmann,

aside from his
famed DMT research,

also administered
psilocybin to volunteers

in a lesser-known study.

>> The kinds of
psilocybin doses,

which are now being called
high, were just, you know,

barely threshold psychedelic
in our volunteers.

And, yeah, our final
large dose of psilocybin,

if we had continued
with the studies,

would have been twice what is
considered a high dose now.

So that's what was
the main finding.

You know, we just
pushed the dose more

than anybody had ever pushed it.

>> The doses in Dr. Strassmann's
studies were over 8 grams.

This is almost twice as much as
Terence McKenna's heroic dose.

>> Now, we know that the
probability of having salient

experiences increases
as a function of dose.

But the probability of
having difficult experiences

also increases as
a function of dose.

But I should say
that very often, it's

those deeply uncomfortable
experiences that

provide a window of opportunity
through which, if people can

investigate and go
through, they'll

open into larger experiences.

So, very often experiences
that people will subsequently

describe as having
been difficult

are among the most interesting
and meaningful to them.

>> Trauma is typically deeply
uncomfortable at the moment

of its adoption, as it's an
experience that is too intense

or complex to
process all at once.

So the memory is stored in
the neurology and the tissues

of the body, awaiting a moment
to resurface and continue

being processed so it can
finally be surrendered and let

go of.

Perhaps that is why these
larger doses are useful.

They de-stabilize the
habitual processes

of the brain, which likely
serve as a distraction

and suppressant of trauma and
unwanted aspects of the psyche.

But once this neural
habituation has destabilized,

the natural healing
intelligence of the human being

goes into housecleaning mode,
and old wounds are addressed.

But what happens
beyond these doses?

There are accounts from Kilindi
Iyi, a martial arts instructor

and mycologist, who
regularly takes 30-plus grams

in one setting, six
times the heroic dose.

The experience, as
he publicly noted,

is beyond language,
beyond the five senses,

and deeply embedded in
a world of symbolism

and primal forces
that obliterate

the concepts of space time.

At these astronomical
doses, he mentions

that the set and
setting has less

of an impact on the
journey to come.

Higher doses become less
therapeutic and far more

mystical.

The mystical experience may
be deeply transformative.

However, it can
also be traumatizing

to experience such intensity to
the untrained or uninitiated,

which is counter-intuitive
to the purpose

of the therapeutic doses.

In Maslow's hierarchy of
needs, the feeling of safety

is second only to food, water,
warmth, and rest, and you

can rest assured that
most of those needs

may not be met with higher
doses of psilocybin either.

A child entering
this world instantly

latches on to
predictability and sources

of safety and sustenance
from parents, environment,

and culture.

Anything less causes anxiety,
fear, and eventually trauma.

Psilocybin mushrooms, even in
moderate doses of 3 to 4 grams,

tends to dissolve our
grip on these needs.

5 to 8 grams pushes
this boundary

to the limit of
consensus sanity.

Some believe that
nothing valuable

lies beyond that limit.

Nothing out there can be brought
back here and made sense of.

But as we see with
psychonauts of DMT

or initiates of
the mystery schools

like Eleusis,
pushing the envelope

is the name of the game.

Venturing where no
one has gone before

is born into some
seekers' very nature.

Many believe that psilocybin
affords the initiate

or volunteer an
opportunity to experience

death and return from it.

>> So this work with psilocybin
and these reorganizational

kinds of emergent experiences
that come out of that speaks

very deeply to my own interest
and longing in understanding

the nature of consciousness.

It seems to me that the
fundamental question

that we as humans
are faced with is,

what are we really doing here?

How is it that we've come to
be in this sea of consciousness

and awareness?

You know, what's
really going on here?

What happens when we die?

How did this whole
phenomenon come about?

These are the existential
questions of life,

and personally, I
can't think of anything

more interesting and
intriguing, and I

think that psilocybin and
work with these compounds

provides a unique
doorway into exploration

of these sorts of experiences.

>> As science barrels into the
future with new technologies

to study ancient methodologies
for healing and spiritual

transformation, are we finally
on the verge of understanding

these psychedelic substances and
their unique effects on human

consciousness and
neurochemistry?

If psilocybin is the oldest
classical psychedelic

with widespread
shamanic use, perhaps we

are in the midst of a revival
of the old Eleusinian-style

mysteries, and perhaps
these mysteries are finally

being decoded and widespread,
a large-medicine heavily

suppressed, demonized,
and misunderstood finally

back into the hands of those who
intend to heal the world's ills

and voyage into the unknown.

Another highly-suppressed
and controversial

mind-expanding
plant species that

has been with humanity for ages
is the North American peyote

cactus and its sister
in South America known

as huachuma or San Pedro.

Up next, join us
as we investigate

the history of psychedelic
cacti use among indigenous

across the New World
and how they mirrored

ancient Greek initiations
as well as prophecies

surrounding the unification
of shamanic tribes everywhere.

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