Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance that has no recognized medical purpose, according to the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. It’s illegal in most places, but some states have effectively decriminalized the drug or, at the very least, have made its use or personal cultivation a low-priority crime.
But now, it’s available to everyone in the country’s first psychedelic therapy center: Mindbloom.
The Mindbloom center, located in New York City, will offer private, upscale sessions that range from $150 to $250 in a spa-like setting where clients will be clinically administered psilocybin. Unless you have a very particular set of hobbies, you’ve probably never heard of psilocybin, the active agent in psychedelic mushrooms, otherwise known as “shrooms.”
Mindbloom’s medical director, Dr. Casey Paleos, is one of the scientists convinced that shrooms do have medicinal value if its trips are properly guided. Indeed, Paleos argued “magic mushrooms” can “help clients achieve optimal wellness and mental health” by reducing anxiety and depression.
Research does substantiate Paleos’s claims — to a certain extent. Scientists at John Hopkins, New York University, and Imperial College in London have found that a guided trip to the land of magic and wonder can relieve “existential distress” and even break addictions. It’s nonaddictive, and as of right now, there’s no known lethal dose.
But psilocybin isn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all solution. Shrooms can seriously impair judgment, create psychological stress, and negatively affect patients with a history of mental health problems, according to Michael Pollan, an author and researcher who has studied psychedelics for years. So, it’s quite possible Mindbloom’s treatments could hurt the patients they’re supposed to help.
According to one internet user who gladly described what it’s like to take a trip to the land of “magical mushrooms,” first, you ingest the substance. Then, “you spend the next 20 minutes trying not to puke.” About 30 minutes later, “you’ll notice the room get brighter.” At this point, the person says, “you’re feeling a nice body high.” Everything becomes “super funny.”
And then things get weird.
“You start noticing anything with a pattern or noticeable texture starts to fold or shift,” the user writes. “Mine are usually geometric in nature. Then comes this (what you think) is clarity of thought. You can figure out life’s biggest problems, you self reflect and really get to know who you are.”
So perhaps psilocybin could also help Mindbloom’s clients figure out life’s biggest problems, self-reflect, and figure out who they really are. Emotionally damaging hallucinations or life-changing epiphanies: There seems to be no in between.
Regardless of its legal status, drug use has serious consequences. The problem with psilocybin is that its particular consequences aren’t well known, in part because there’s been too little research. However, additional studies are hard to come by since psilocybin is technically illegal. Thus, we enter a revolving door that offers few ways of escape. I imagine that’s what a shrooms trip feels like.
— By Kaylee McGhee
