Psilocybin fosters greater connections between different regions of the brain in depressed people, freeing them up from long-held patterns of rumination and excessive self-focus, according to a new study by scientists at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London.

New research warns there is little data on how Psilocybin, the psychedelic substance in "magic" mushrooms, might interact with more traditional psychiatric medications.

Microdosing psychedelics is the practice of eating very low, sub-hallucinogenic dosages of a psychedelic substance, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or magic mushrooms containing psilocybin. According to media accounts, microdosing is becoming more popular, yet there is little research on this practice in the scientific literature.

Modern science is slowly rediscovering how psychedelic substances can treat an array of mental illnesses.

Findings from the journal Scientific Reports suggest that psychedelic drugs can alter a person’s core beliefs about the nature of reality, consciousness, and free will. After taking psychedelics, participants’ views tended to sway from physicalism to supernatural beliefs, and these changes lasted up to six months. The researchers say the findings raise ethical considerations.

Once counterculture staples, LSD and magic mushrooms are starting to trip out another world: psychiatry. A small—but rapidly growing—group of doctors is embracing the drugs as powerful tools against a myriad of mental demons. People suffering from depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have all benefited from psychedelics in small controlled trials. Psychedelics, over 50 years after the Summer of Love, have once again taken flight.

Beer laced with hallucinogenic drugs may have helped the rulers of an ancient, pre-Incan empire in South America maintain power for about 400 years, according to new archaeological research. The Wari Empire, which spanned across the highlands of modern-day Peru between circa 600 AD and 1000 AD, likely prospered thanks to the political allegiances forged while consuming the hallucinogenic beverage, the study in the Antiquity journal indicates.

Lacing the beer served at their feasts with hallucinogens may have helped an ancient Peruvian people known as the Wari forge political alliances and expand their empire, according to a new paper published in the journal Antiquity. Recent excavations at a remote Wari outpost called Quilcapampa unearthed seeds from the vilca tree that can be used to produce a potent hallucinogenic drug. The authors think the Wari held one big final blowout before the site was abandoned.

French photographer Mathias de Lattre's project "Mother's Therapy" examines the relationship between mental illness and psychedelic therapies.

People who use mental health services in Ireland generally have a favorable view of psychedelic research, according to a new study published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science. A little over half of those surveyed said they would be willing to try psilocybin therapy if their doctor recommended it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson joined a comedian and ecologist as co-hosts on science podcast StarTalk Radio last week to discuss the “wonderful world of fungi”—with a selective emphasis on psilocybin mushrooms. The astrophysicist was clearly engaged in learning more, with a small group of co-hosts asking important questions about psilocybin, the Fungi Kingdom and mycology in general.

TheraPsil has sent a 165-page proposal to Health Canada outlining regulations for so-called magic mushrooms based on the same ones the federal government first created 20 years ago for medicinal cannabis.

Philosophy of mind has been crippled, since its very beginnings, by two main prejudices. First, the blind implementation of the traditional Western logical framework, that boils down to Aristotelian logic; second, the perennial neglect of crucially relevant empirical data, in so far as, in most arguments, sense-perception is reduced to sight alone.

It turns out, psychedelic mushroom trips may change your life. A psychedelic drug called psilocybin, which shows up naturally in some mushrooms, has shown signs of increasing durable connections between neurons in mouse brains, according to a new study published in the journal Neuron.

Psychedelic drugs creating hopes for breakthroughs in depression, anxiety, pain and addiction are being tested at UAB. The university is one of a handful in the nation conducting trials with psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Treating mental health conditions with psilocybin is quickly becoming mainstream. But the experience of Albert Yu-Min Lin shows its potential for physical conditions, too.

Researchers in California have developed a technology that can find and test drugs that can have the same antidepressant effects as psychedelics— without the drug actually producing hallucinations. The breakthrough was made in a study on mice, not people.

The active ingredient in magic mushrooms that gives them their psychedelic effect might be as good as, if not better than a leading drug used to treat depression, a new study suggests. Researchers from Imperial College, London compared the therapeutic potential of psilocybin - found in the mushrooms - with a six-week course of the antidepressant escitalopram in 59 people with moderate to severe depression.

Meditation and psychedelics seem to have similar experiential effects. A new paper highlights how they could work in harmony when applied together.

New research suggests that psychedelics may be a viable treatment option for those suffering from race-based trauma. An observational study, published in ...