Institute of Noetic Sciences interviews Johns Hopkins psilocybin researcher Roland Griffiths

Roland Griffiths and Cassandra Vieten
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Link to audio: "Psilocybin and quantum change in attitude and behavior"

The overall finding that psilocybin can occasion, in most people studied, mystical-type experiences having sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance, indicates that such experiences and the changes they produce are now amenable to rigorous prospective scientific study.  Several ongoing studies are discussed, including a study of psilocybin on meditation and spiritual practice in healthy volunteers, a study of psilocybin in psychologically distressed cancer patients, and a study of psilocybin-facilitated treatment of drug cigarette smoking cessation. Noetic.org

Video presentation by Robin Carhart-Harris, lead author of fMRI study of effects of psilocybin on bloodflow in brain.

Lead author of 2012 British Journal of Psychiatry study ( Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin.) discusses his work in video first presented at the Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century, a conference that took place in San Jose, California on April 15-18, 2010.

Poster Presentation From the International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health 2012

P02.135. Measuring mindfulness: which aspects of mindfulness change following a brief telehealth intervention for PTSD (PDF)
The goal of this pilot study was to examine changes in self-reported levels of mindfulness in the context of an 8-week mindfulness telehealth intervention for military veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Niles et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012, 12(Suppl 1):P191

DoD using yoga and meditation help them make better decisions on the battlefield and prevent trauma

A State of Military Mind
For the past year, (Douglas C.) Johnson, a psychologist at the Naval Health Research Center’s Warfighter Performance Lab, in San Diego, has gathered blood and saliva samples from marines before and after they went through training, scanned their brains, recorded their heart rate and respiration, and given them cognitive and behavioral tests. Using this data, Johnson and his colleagues can adjust training to make troops more effective and limit the negative impacts of combat. Pacific Standard

PubMed search for articles on yoga/meditation in the military

Mindfulness-based psychological therapy helps reduce anxiety and depression in cancer patients

Mindfulness reduces anxiety and depression in cancer patients

Mindfulness-based psychological therapy is rooted in Buddhist meditation techniques and includes the programmes mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Training and exercises in mindfulness teach the cancer patients to be more conscious of life as it happens instead of worrying about the past and the future. This may be thoughts about their past behaviour having contributed to their disease and fear of what will happen to them in future, including worries about death.

The findings have been published in the most prestigious international journal within clinical psychology research, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

New article from journal Behavior Modification: mindfulness, mantra, and compassion meditation as a treatment for PTSD

The Theoretical and Empirical Basis for Meditation as an Intervention for PTSD.
In spite of the existence of good empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), consumers and providers continue to ask for more options for managing this common and often chronic condition. Meditation-based approaches are being widely implemented, but there is minimal research rigorously assessing their effectiveness. This article reviews meditation as an intervention for PTSD, considering three major types of meditative practices: mindfulness, mantra, and compassion meditation. The mechanisms by which these approaches may effectively reduce PTSD symptoms and improve quality of life are presented. Empirical evidence of the efficacy of meditation for PTSD is very limited but holds some promise. Additional evaluation of meditation-based treatment appears to be warranted. 
Lang AJ, Strauss JL, Bomyea J, Bormann JE, Hickman SD, Good RC, Essex M.
Behav Modif. 2012 Nov;36(6):759-86. doi: 10.1177/0145445512441200. Epub 2012 Jun 5. Review.

PMID: 22669968
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Professor starts class discussing clinical research on psychedelic drugs

Psychedelic studies
Watching his mother struggle with death stirred an interest for (Bruce) Sewick. As a result, he’s studied the clinical use of psychedelic drugs to treat the terminally ill for more than 15 years, and completed his master’s thesis on the topic in 1997.

“It’s all in memory of my mom,” he said.

Now, he’s hoping to pass that knowledge on to others by offering a summer course at College of DuPage called “Psychedelic Mindview” that will explore the role of psychedelic substances throughout history. Mysuburbanlife.com