Hallucinogens Helping Cancer Patients Cope

Fascinating article By the Associated Press writer Malcolm Ritter, about an ongoing study at New York University hospital that uses psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to augment traditional psychotherapy. This is part of a broader trend to use psychedelics (including LSD) to help spurn breakthroughs that often elude traditional psychotherpeutic regimens, even after decades of treatment.

"The big white pill was brought to her in an earthenware chalice. She'd already held hands with her two therapists and expressed her wishes for what it would help her do.

She swallowed it, lay on the couch with her eyes covered, and waited. And then it came.

"The world was made up of jewels and I was in a dome," she recalled. Surrounded by brilliant, kaleidoscopic colors, she saw the dome open up to admit "this most incredible luminescence that made everything even more beautiful."

Read the rest of Ritter's article in the LA Times health section.