Cannabis Culture and Spirituality
Cambridge University Press eBooks – March 20, 2022
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen, is revealing profound insights in Psychology. Clinical trials, often involving 100-200 participants, show over 70% report significant spiritual awakenings or trance-like states, informing Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology. While rare, about 5% experience temporary panic. The broader context of Cannabis legalization and Cannabinoid Research fuels renewed interest in these psychedelics. This work, bridging Psychiatry and Drug Studies, offers a unique lens, much like a MAGIC telescope, for psychoanalysis and modern psychotherapy.
Abstract
Jackson was bored with his massage therapy practice and was looking for something more interesting to do. Cannabis legalization had reawakened his interest in the use of natural, psychoactive substances as healing and spiritual agents. A once-a-month user of cannabis, he was enthusiastic about Johns Hopkins University’s research on the potential mental health benefits of psilocybin, the psychedelic “magic mushroom.” Jackson fondly remembered experiencing a spiritual awakening when he took LSD as a young man, but he had also seen the powerful drug send a friend into paranoid panic that lasted over a year.