A single dose of hallucinogen can create a lasting personality change.
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A Johns Hopkins study on ingredients in "magic mushrooms" found that participants exhibited more "openness."
A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms," was enough to trigger a measurable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60% of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it.
Lasting change was found in the part of the personality known as openness, which includes traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas, and an open mind in general. The changes in these traits, measured using a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, were greater in magnitude than the changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experience, the scientists say. Researchers in the field say that after the age of 30, personality generally doesn't change significantly.
“Typically, openness tends to decrease as people age,” says study leader Roland R. Griffiths, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The research, approved by the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board, was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Study participants completed two to five eight-hour drug sessions, with consecutive sessions separated by at least three weeks. Participants were informed that they would receive a “moderate or high dose” of psilocybin during one of their drug sessions, but neither they nor the session monitors knew when.
During each session, participants were encouraged to lie on a couch, wear an eye mask to block out external visual distractions, use headphones to play music, and focus their attention on their internal experiences.
Personality was assessed at screening, one to two months after each drug session, and approximately 14 months after the last drug session. Griffiths believes that the personality changes found in this study are likely permanent, since they were maintained for more than a year by many.
Almost all participants in the new study considered themselves spiritually active (regularly participating in religious services, prayers, or meditation). More than half had postgraduate degrees. The sessions with the illegal hallucinogen were closely monitored, and the volunteers were considered psychologically healthy.
"We don't know if the findings can be generalized to a larger population," says Griffiths.
As a word of caution, Griffiths also notes that some of the study participants reported strong fear or Anxiety was present during part of their psilocybin sessions during the day, although none reported any persistent adverse effects. He warns, however, that if hallucinogens are used in less well-supervised environments, the potential fear or anxiety responses could lead to harmful behaviors.
Griffiths says that lasting personality change is rarely seen as a function of a single, discrete laboratory experiment. In the study, the change occurred specifically in those volunteers who underwent a "mystical experience," as validated in a questionnaire developed by early hallucinogen researchers and refined by Griffiths for use at Hopkins. He defines "mystical experience" as, among other things, "a feeling of interconnectedness with all people and things accompanied by a sense of sacredness and reverence."
Personality was measured using a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, which covers openness and the other four broad domains that psychologists consider to be the composition of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Only the aperture changed during the course of the study.
Griffiths says he believes psilocybin may have therapeutic uses. He is currently studying whether the hallucinogen has any use in helping cancer patients cope with the disease. depression ...and the anxiety that accompanies the diagnosis, and whether it's possible to help long-term smokers overcome their addiction.
"There may be applications for this that we can't even imagine at the moment," he says. "He certainly deserves to be studied systematically."
Along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this study was funded by the Council on Spiritual Practices, the Heffter Research Institute, and the Betsy Gordon Foundation.
Other Hopkins researchers include Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., and Katherine A. MacLean, Ph.D.
Lasting change was found in the part of the personality known as openness, which includes traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas, and an open mind in general. The changes in these traits, measured using a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, were greater in magnitude than the changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experience, the scientists say. Researchers in the field say that after the age of 30, personality generally doesn't change significantly.
“Typically, openness tends to decrease as people age,” says study leader Roland R. Griffiths, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The research, approved by the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board, was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Study participants completed two to five eight-hour drug sessions, with consecutive sessions separated by at least three weeks. Participants were informed that they would receive a “moderate or high dose” of psilocybin during one of their drug sessions, but neither they nor the session monitors knew when.
During each session, participants were encouraged to lie on a couch, wear an eye mask to block out external visual distractions, use headphones to play music, and focus their attention on their internal experiences.
Personality was assessed at screening, one to two months after each drug session, and approximately 14 months after the last drug session. Griffiths believes that the personality changes found in this study are likely permanent, since they were maintained for more than a year by many.
Almost all participants in the new study considered themselves spiritually active (regularly participating in religious services, prayers, or meditation). More than half had postgraduate degrees. The sessions with the illegal hallucinogen were closely monitored, and the volunteers were considered psychologically healthy.
"We don't know if the findings can be generalized to a larger population," says Griffiths.
As a word of caution, Griffiths also notes that some of the study participants reported strong fear or Anxiety was present during part of their psilocybin sessions during the day, although none reported any persistent adverse effects. He warns, however, that if hallucinogens are used in less well-supervised environments, the potential fear or anxiety responses could lead to harmful behaviors.
Griffiths says that lasting personality change is rarely seen as a function of a single, discrete laboratory experiment. In the study, the change occurred specifically in those volunteers who underwent a "mystical experience," as validated in a questionnaire developed by early hallucinogen researchers and refined by Griffiths for use at Hopkins. He defines "mystical experience" as, among other things, "a feeling of interconnectedness with all people and things accompanied by a sense of sacredness and reverence."
Personality was measured using a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, which covers openness and the other four broad domains that psychologists consider to be the composition of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Only the aperture changed during the course of the study.
Griffiths says he believes psilocybin may have therapeutic uses. He is currently studying whether the hallucinogen has any use in helping cancer patients cope with the disease. depression ...and the anxiety that accompanies the diagnosis, and whether it's possible to help long-term smokers overcome their addiction.
"There may be applications for this that we can't even imagine at the moment," he says. "He certainly deserves to be studied systematically."
Along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this study was funded by the Council on Spiritual Practices, the Heffter Research Institute, and the Betsy Gordon Foundation.
Other Hopkins researchers include Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., and Katherine A. MacLean, Ph.D.