13 ms·
Happy to share my enthusiasm! I understand the skepticism too, given that we’re into the second wave of psychedelics. All I will say about those is to pay att
by filoeleven 6y ago
Happy to share my enthusiasm! I understand the skepticism too, given that we’re into the second wave of psychedelics. All I will say about those is to pay attention to the research being done at John’s Hopkins. It is a reputable institution, and they’re rigorously looking at effects and potential uses without being, to my knowledge, strong advocates based on personal encounters.
It’s important to know that the psychoactive fungi are a tiny, tiny fraction of fungal life. The role of fungi in the ecosystem has really only started to be deeply studied over the past decade or two. It’s kind of like microbiome research writ large. We don’t know what we don’t know, and what we are learning is wild stuff. Like, forests only exist because mushrooms farm trees (see the Radiolab episode).
And even the more...Experienced...advocates are finding wild stuff in the greater fungal world. Paul Stamets, for example, has gotten contracts with DARPA because he’s finding all kinds of very effective antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial compounds in different species’ mycelia. He may have found a simple cure for colony collapse disorder—the experimental results look good. So don’t ignore their contributions when they get results—just maybe skip their TED talks ;)