Commentary on: Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance by Griffiths et al.

The article by Griffiths et al. in this issue of Psychophar-macology should make all scientists interested in humanpsychopharmacology sit up and take notice. It is the firstwell-designed, placebo-controlled, clinical study in morethan four decades to examine the psychological conse-quences of the effects of the hallucinogenic (psychedelic)agent known as psilocybin. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a single study of psychedelics from anyearlier era that was as well-done or as meaningful. Perhapsmore importantly, despite the notion by many people thatpsychedelics are nothing more than troublesome drugs ofabuse, the present study convincingly demonstrates that,when used appropriately, these compounds can produceremarkable, possibly beneficial, effects that certainlydeserve further study.Although many people seem to believe that “psyche-delics” simply appeared during the turbulent 1960s, in factthe use of these materials spans back through manymillennia of human history. Ancient substances with namessuch as Soma (India), Kykeon (Greece), and Teonanacatl(South America) served for thousands of years as psycho-pharmacological catalysts in a variety of sacred religiousand magical rituals (Nichols 2004; Schultes and Hofmann1979). Peyote, the ceremonial use of which is now thoughtby anthropologists to date back at least 5,000 years, isrevered as a sacrament by the Native American Church.Ayahuasca, a decoction made from plants that grow in theAmazon basin, is a sacrament used by a syncretic church inBrazil. This church has a small following in the US that hasjust received a favorable decision by the US Supreme Courtallowing them continued use of this material.The parallel between mystical states and the effects ofpsychedelic drugs is well-known among those familiar withthe literature. Aldous Huxley, in his classic but controver-sial 1954 book, The Doors of Perception, (Huxley 1970)noted the similarity of his own mescaline-induced state toexperiences described by mystics and visionaries from avariety of cultures. Perhaps it is not surprising then that thename “entheogen,” with the connotation that these materi-als reveal god within, is becoming increasingly popularamong those who continue to use these substances forpurposes that are neither medical nor “recreational.”We must, therefore, take note of what has come to beknown as the “Good Friday Experiment,” carried out byWalter Pahnke for his Ph.D. studies at a small privatechapel in Boston. His 1963 Ph.D. dissertation was titledDrugs and Mysticism. An analysis of the relationshipbetween psychedelic drugs and the mystical consciousness.He described in an experiment with 20 student volunteersfrom a local Christian theological seminary. Subjects weregiven either 30 mg of psilocybin or 200 mg of nicotinicacid as a “placebo.” The experiment was carried out in areligious setting during a Good Friday service. Pahnkeconcluded, “Under the conditions of this experiment, thosesubjects who received psilocybin experienced phenomenawhich were indistinguishable from, if not identical with,certain categories defined by our typology of mysticism.”Clearly, these substances have profound effects onhuman consciousness, and in the 1950s and 1960s, thedrug known as LSD was hailed as a revolutionary newtechnology for psychiatry. LSD was intensively investigat-ed for its medical potential and for possible use as anadjunct to psychotherapy until clinical research was