Zmescience News: [2] Psilocybin, the active substance in magic mushrooms, has been consumed for centuries, although it does not seem to exhibit the same addictive traits as other psychoactive substances.
[3] According to a new study, users seek psilocybin for its ability to produce unique changes in the human conscious experience, giving rise to “meaning, insight, the experience of beauty and mystical-type effects.”In recent years, psilocybin has garnered a lot of attention among researchers for its therapeutic potential. Psilocybin has been found to have a positive, long-lasting effect on the human mind, and at least in some situations, it can be used to deal with PTSD and the processing of negative emotions, as well as addiction and a range of varied mental health
problems.
[4] Psilocybin is far from the miracle cure some make it out to be, but it’s still an interesting substance that warrants research. A new study from the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine provides insight into what makes psilocybin so attractive (and so unique) as a drug.
[5] Historically, psilocybin tends to be more popular than most other hallucinogenic substances.
But it’s an unusual consumption pattern. Studies have shown lifetime psilocybin consumption is relatively modest and quite stable over a period of decades. So psilocybin doesn’t really drive users to excess (as is the case with many psychoactive drugs), and yet it remains attractive to many users even as the novelty factor wears off.

Researchers wanted to see why this happens. So they recruited 20 healthy participants with a history of hallucinogen use for a double-blind study. Over five controlled sessions, participants received doses of psilocybin, dextromethorphan (DXM), and a placebo