Gerrit Keferstein - On Order and Kaos of Human Potential

Gerrit Keferstein - On Order and Kaos of Human Potential


The transforming magic of psychedelic mushrooms - Gerrit Keferstein - On Order and Kaos of Human Potential

August 26, 2017

 
 
 “We saw unfold in our patients in 6 hours (on magic mushrooms) what we would often only see in 6 years of (traditional) therapy”
 
 
This article will go into depth on :

* How Psilocybin, the principal component of magic mushrooms, significantly improves symptoms of depression, anxiety and addictive behaviour from a single dose.
* The age of prohibition of psychedelics is over. Research is picking up again on psychedelics.
* The architecture of perception and the neurology of belief.
* The neurology of how Psilocybin alters perception and rigid belief patterns, thereby enhancing creativity, memory and abstraction ability.
* Risks of psychedelic substances and how to mitigate them.
* Goal-dependant dosages and drug interactions.
* A philosophical framework to determine whether you should give psychedelics a try

 
If you like to listing to me reading this article to you, you can listen to the podcast here :
 
 
 

“Taking psychedelics was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life. There are things about me that people who have not tried psychedelics – even people who know me well, including my wife – could never understand” Steve Jobs

 
 
LEGAL DISCLAIMER : 
This is not medical advice. I am in no doctor-patient relationship with my readers. I am NOT advocating for or against psychedelic substances. I am strictly against breaking any federal or state laws and I do not suggest any reader should even ponder breaking a law. All direct or indirect considerations on the use of psychedelic substances only apply for readers in countries where the use of such is not prohibited by any laws. 
 
 
I believe Magic Mushrooms, or their principal component Psilocybin, have the potential to greatly improve health and performance in a wide variety of circumstances. It can be a treatment in depression, mood disorders, anxiety, addiction and can improve performance via enhancing awareness, creativity, memory and abstraction ability.
 
 
But let us start from the beginning. Like most people I started out having a big mental drawer labeled “bad drugs”, and that is where I tossed in all substances which were prohibited, either by federal law or by the sporting organization. Drugs are bad for us, they are illegal and nobody should do them. Right? There must be a good reason behind them being prohibited. Right?
 
So there they were for most of my life. Hidden in that dusty and dark mental drawer. I think the first time I heard of magic mushrooms was when I was around 15 years old. A big old Irish friend of mine told this story of him going to Amsterdam taking them and never returning to normal life since.According to him a doctor even diagnosed “holes in his brain” years after he took them. See, thats enough to scare a 15 year old boy away from ever taking that shit.
And I think most people have a friend who has a friend who took mushrooms and never returned from that parallel universe. But are these stories rooted in reality?
 
So magic mushrooms never entered my rational mind again until when I was maybe 29. At that time I was heavily into performance optimisation via legal herbal or synthetic substances. At the same time every now and then somebody told me of their experiences with magic mushrooms. They were telling me how it “changed their perspectives”, how it helped them get rid of depression or addiction, and how it helped them to be more compassionate towards others. 
So I looked into some of the serious medical research on Psilocybin. The research actually confirms these anecdotal results. It dawned on me that the psychedelic components of magic mushrooms might provide a fast track to very similar outcomes “treatment” modalities like cognitive...