By John Horgan — 2014
I drank ayahuasca in 1999, in a ceremony led by two scholars with expertise in ayahuasca. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote about the experience in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.
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CLEAR ALL
In Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital, down the hall from the cancer day unit, there's an unassuming room known simply as "The Retreat". This is where a select few volunteers are offered a unique opportunity: to confront their deepest fears under a heavy dose of a psychedelic.
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Now, as a handful of patients and more recently doctors and therapists have been granted exemptions to use psilocybin, the nation’s federal health agency is considering making changes to existing policies that could open the door to much more than magic mushrooms.
Study participants at some of the country's leading medical research centers are going through intense therapy and six-hour psychedelic journeys deep into their minds to do things like quit smoking and worry less.
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