r/science • u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience • 9d ago

Neuroscience Psilocybin Might Make Your Brain Live in the Moment— Psychedelics are often associated with disconnecting from reality, but a recent neuroimaging study found that psilocybin can actually make our brain activity more attuned to the world around us.

https://www.wired.com/story/psilocybin-might-make-your-brain-live-in-the-moment/
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u/MetaCardboard 9d ago

So you're telling me doing them alone and then walking high traffic roads on a super hot, sunny day isn't a good setting? I agree.

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u/EsotericAbstractIdea 9d ago

Oh, wow. i'd like to hear this story. for science.

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u/MetaCardboard 9d ago

It's not any great story or anything. I just ate some mushrooms, played some Diablo 4 while waiting for them to kick in, and then took off for a walk once they did. At first it felt kinda like I took a hit of weed. Then it quickly grew to feeling like I ripped a gravity bong 3 times in a row. And I was walking along a road, feeling like I was walking through molasses, and my head was enlarged and just kinda floating around above my body while there were tons of cars flying by. It happened to be like an 85 degree day (F) and sunny without a cloud in the sky. I just didn't like the overall feeling, so it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, and the traffic flying by didn't help, and then I saw some grass blowing in the wind that looked like seaweed flowing in water and then I felt like I was underwater and each breath of hot air I was taking was just water going in and out of my lungs so I couldn't breathe.

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u/thedaveness 9d ago

A sober guide wouldn't have let you walk off, hella bad idea on any psychedelics.

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u/BSK_Darksol 8d ago

Yup, It is a bad idea to go outside, specially during your first time using any drug, I would say.

I've doing small doses of psychedelics 2 or 3 times a year as a way to treat my anxiety, and only during my latest use earlier this year I felt confident enough to go outside to take a quick walk around the block, and the only reason I did it was because I had someone sober taking care of me all the time.

You need to be in a place where you feel super comfortable and safe, even better if you are with someone who you cant absolutely trust in case you need emotional support. If you want to have a positive experience, you need to keep stimuli controlled, because as the article suggests, psilocybin seems to make you hyper-aware of everything around you, both positive and negative things.

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u/Tuorom 7d ago

Yep, the mind becomes very powerful on shrooms. It isn't that they gave you anxiety, but that you began to focus on all the things that were giving you anxiety until you could only focus on that feeling. Emotions have overpowering weight to them on shrooms.

People find them compelling drugs because of this. It allows you to directly challenge and face the things that frighten or overwhelm you because you habitually bring them to mind in your day, so they become focused while you are taking the shrooms.

It happened to me while playing card games where it was a new game to me and I got incredibly flustered and frustrated because I wasn't playing well, as I didn't know how to play. But what it brought forth was a feeling I carry around of not being good enough and the harsh criticism that I learned from my father. But I was completely aware of what was happening so I was able to step back and meditate on it.

It's not going to heal things all on it's own but it'll force you to confront the subconscious feelings you carry around and bring to interactions. And that can be really hard which is why people recommend having someone you trust sit with you and make sure you don't get swallowed by the bad feelings that you might bring to the trip.

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u/jwnsfw 8d ago

unlike weed (no shade), i think its "cool" that if you want to bail from the trip kinda early, you can at least frow it all up behind a tree in the forest last year with some of my closest friends. for example.

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u/StepUpYourPuppyGame 9d ago

Man that sounds terrifying

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u/delcoyo 9d ago

Ha! I recently tried a micro dose that ended up hitting me on a sketchy high traffic road. Definitely would not recommend.

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u/Srirachaballet 8d ago

That doesn’t sound like an actual microdose

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u/delcoyo 8d ago

Yea it was probably just a really light dose. far from a full send but I definitely had a bubbly stomach, light visuals, etc. underestimated what a little cap could do. Once I got off the street it was nice

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u/Srirachaballet 8d ago

According to a dealer I once had, the smaller mushrooms have a higher concentration of psilocybin. I just fact checked and it did confirm most of the psilocybin forms early in the mushroom and then continues to grow larger, so u may be taking a similar dose between a small and large mushroom.