Independent UK - Single magic mushroom 'can change personality'

Independent UK - Single magic mushroom 'can change personality'

Pleasantly surprised to see this sort of journalism in the mainstream.

 

Awesome! Pity it's a shit report, too many holes in it. It really should have been more thorough, especially for the Independent.

 

I hope to see in a few decades from now, when all the old baby boomers and drug conservatives have died off, us all giving our children when they come of age a ceremonial magic mushroom dose, as a rite of passage of sorts. To improve their personality and in preparation for adult life.

 

It's a cool idea, but I really don't think that would prepare them much for adult life--if anything, I'd think it would make discovering all the bullshit that adults have to go through be even more depressing and useless.

I find the neuroscience of psychedelics to be fascinating. Anyone ever heard of the "warrior gene?" It's this gene they've discovered that makes people born with it have underdeveloped frontal lobes and a diminished amygdala (i.e they have no empathy, no inhibitions, and no fear). The result is nearly always a sociopath. And if they happen to have traumatic/violent childhoods, they become serial killers.

I wonder what, if any, impact shrooms would have on these people. Of course, you'd have to take the shrooms with the right attitude going in, or you won't get much out of it. But god knows there are a LOT of people that need an empathy boost!