The Impact of Psilocybin Dosing on Lasting Personality Impressions: A Journey with The Psychedelic Evangelist

I have been diving down the academic psilocybin hole for years now; first when I was an undergraduate and even greater when I was in graduate school in the mid 2000s. There were a few authors and researchers that I immediately started consuming everything they wrote, one of them is Roland Griffiths beginning with the time that he spent at high level academic institutions in the 1960s and how we was able to steer research back into academic practical arena. This time in psychedelic research was as interesting as it was polarizing, sprinkle in a bit of misunderstanding and it was a perfect combination for the substances to become criminalized in the following years. On one side there was the Hippy movement practicing free love and peace for all using psychedelics as a propellent into these states of mind. On the other side were the academics that were researching it and what types of positivity they could bring to our society; going to cultures around the world to conduct ethnographic research on their history and use of the substances. Griffiths was one of the major researchers who spearheaded this shift of research and subsequent positive use; many people ended up dubbing him the "Psychedelic Evangelist" who in turn spurred Biotech investing and decriminalization with psilocybin in the past decade in many areas across the United States (NY Times Article).

One of Griffiths main focuses is that ingesting psilocybin has the ability to create mystical experiences within humans that in turn create increases in overall long-term emotional well-being and understanding within ALL OF US. Diving deeper, these create Quantum Change refer to "sudden, distinctive, benevolent, and often profoundly meaningful experiences that affect a broad range of personal emotions, cognitions and behaviors" (Griffiths, p. 49). Different from the step by step process that so many of us experience with behavioral change, these occur quickly through the mechanism of psilocybin; the experience in turn produces enduring changes within an individuals personality.

I've written before about the effects of psilocybin on a particular mental health condition or state of mind, with this one Griffiths explores the effects on people who did not report such things. Researchers basically found that with the six month followup to the study that participants "showed robust interactive positive effects of psilocybin dose and added support for spiritual practices on a wide range of longitudinal measures at six months including interpersonal closeness, gratitude, life meaning/purpose, forgiveness, death transcendence, daily spiritual experiences, religious faith/coping" (Griffiths, p. 67).

So, what does this tell us and further reinforce? For one psilocybin is just not for improving a given mental condition (anxiety, depression, addiction, etc.); rather it reinforces the idea and notion that it is good for all of us, this is something ancient inside all of us that awakens with an overwhelming sense of positivity in our lives. Maybe not EVERYBODY, but you get the point; who doesn't want increases in the aforementioned domains of life? There has been so much false and negativity published about it that the everyday consumer of research has no idea how to take it, what it does (by and large people are terrible consumers of research to begin with), or how to get more information on basic aspects. They want the commercial trip, to see butterflies and dragons in a field of poppies; or the actual economic system behind that is subsequently created. However this narrative is shifting quickly not only in the eyes of laymen, but also in the eyes of academia.

I've taken "hero doses" and I've also done rounds of micro-dosing, however at the same time I knew what strains to take and what dosage to take meticulously researching what my treatment plan was through established resources The public is starting to do the same building off of the academic base that's been established with a variety of books and materials that are now available, including this study. The fact of the matter is that you have the power to make things better for yourself and furthermore must decide that's what you want; a psychedelic journey is not what the media and popular culture have made it to be, if you're looking to hallucinate and that's it you'll get it one way or another but that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is different, you will step into the void and swim, you'll see and experience aspects of yourself that are old and needing review and also what is possible. This is a movement towards you getting in touch with yourself and your environment all the while eeding to modulate what culture is telling you what is right and wrong doubled with telling you what is right for you.

Make the choice to see through the screen of what they tell you; do better for yourself and everything else will follow.

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/health/psychedelics-roland-griffiths-johns-hopkins.html

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881117731279