How do psychedelic mushrooms affect your body?

Psilocybin mushrooms contain active ingredients that cause hallucinations, so they are also known as psychedelic mushrooms or magic mushrooms. They grow naturally in countries such as the UK, USA, Mexico and Thailand.

The active ingredient psilocybin in hallucinogenic mushrooms (also known as “magic mushrooms”) is known for its properties of creating a feeling of strength, excitement, and even changing perception, but scientists have not yet explained the cause. Recently, experts at King’s College London (UK) discovered the special mechanism behind the above effects.

Here are some of the ways hallucinogenic mushrooms can affect your body.

1. Hallucinogenic mushrooms make you feel relaxed

According to scientists, psychedelic mushrooms can create a relaxing feeling similar to low doses of marijuana.

A study in the US showed that just a high dose of psilocybin mushrooms was enough to change the personality of nearly 60% of the participants for at least 1 year.

Like other hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD or peyote, psychedelic mushrooms produce stimulation by acting on neurons through serotonin, a neurotransmitter that has many different functions: regulating mood, appetite, sleep, muscle contraction, and some cognitive functions. In addition, psychedelic mushrooms also affect the prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in controlling abstract thinking, thought analysis, mood, and perception.

2. They create illusions

Many people who have used mushrooms describe a strange experience, like “hearing” colors and “seeing” sounds. In 2014, researchers decided to clarify this and concluded that the chemicals in hallucinogenic mushrooms mess with perception by causing neurotransmitters to get mixed up.

Psychedelic mushrooms come with a lot of risks. And doctors have classified them as having "no accepted medical use."

3. Psychedelic mushrooms can cure depression

According to neuroscientist David Nutt of Imperial College London, when using mushrooms, users' brain activity patterns also change. Some brain areas become more active, while others become weaker. The most weakened area is a brain area that plays a role in maintaining the ego.

In people with depression, the neural connections in the ego area are abnormally strong. Under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms, these overloaded connections are calmed and the patient's condition improves.

Like other mushrooms, magic mushrooms reproduce by spores carried by the wind. These mushrooms usually live in sheltered areas of the forest floor where there is very little wind. So, in order to carry the spores elsewhere, the mushrooms create their own wind. They do this by increasing the rate of water evaporation. This water, together with the air, creates evaporation and can carry the spores. In this way, the spores can be lifted up to 10 cm above the mushroom.

A five-year study conducted by scientists from Johns Hopkins University found that the psilocybin found in mushrooms has powerful therapeutic properties for depression and anxiety.

With just a single dose of psychedelic mushrooms, 80% of the patients participating in the treatment had significant reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety, two key markers in assessing the severity of mental illness.

4. However, while taking the medication, occasional feelings of tension may arise.

Many case reports from patients who have used psychedelic mushrooms for depression have reported feelings of anxiety, tension, and discomfort that last from a few minutes to a few hours. This is followed by a feeling of relief. However, this experience varies depending on the user’s condition.

5. Your sense of time may be distorted

Feeling as if time has slowed down is one of the side effects of using hallucinogenic mushrooms, according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Feeling as if time has slowed down is one of the side effects of using hallucinogenic mushrooms.

6. You may have an out-of-body experience

Hallucinogenic mushrooms can cause some pretty strange effects that science has yet to fully explain. After about 20-90 minutes of consuming the mushrooms, the “out of body” experience will begin and last for more than 12 hours. This experience can vary depending on your mood, personality, and even your surroundings.

7. You may feel more open or imaginative

Participants in the experiment, after using psychedelic mushrooms, reported feeling more open, more creative, and having a greater appreciation for the importance of beauty.

Psilocybe cyanofriscosa is one of 200 varieties of “magic mushrooms” that can produce hallucinations in those who eat them.

When researchers followed up with the volunteers a year later, nearly two-thirds said taking mushrooms was one of the most important and life-changing experiences they had ever had. More than half of the volunteers still scored highly on personality tests measuring openness.

According to Discovery