Roland Griffiths: The Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Research Project

Horizons 2016
Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics is an annual forum that examines the role of psychedelics in science, healing, culture and spirituality. Learn more at horizonsnyc.org.
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
“The Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Research Project: Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical-Type Experiences: Implications for Spirituality, Altruism, and Therapeutics”
This presentation will provide a summary of psilocybin research conducted at Johns Hopkins over the past 15 years. Studies conducted at Johns Hopkins have investigated the effects of psilocybin administered to carefully screened and psychologically prepared volunteers who were supported during and after psilocybin sessions.
Under such conditions, psilocybin occasioned profound personally and spiritually meaningful mystical-type experiences in the majority of healthy participants. Analysis suggests that mystical-type experiences mediate sustained positive changes in attitudes, mood, and behavior.
Other studies are exploring the effects of psilocybin in novice and long-term meditators and religious professionals. Therapeutic studies will be described which are investigating psilocybin-facilitated treatment of anxiety and depression in cancer patients and psilocybin-facilitated cigarette smoking cessation using a cognitive-behavioral treatment approach.
The results of an internet survey affirmed concerns that psilocybin ingestion in uncontrolled circumstances potentially may lead to acute psychological distress, risky behavior, or enduring psychological symptoms. Importantly, the incidence of risky behavior or enduring psychological distress is extremely low when psilocybin is given in laboratory studies to screened, prepared, and supported participants.
The finding that psilocybin can occasion, in most people studied, mystical-type experiences similar to those that occur naturally, suggests that such experiences are biologically normal, and that such experiences are now amenable to prospective scientific study.
Further research with psilocybin can be expected to provide unique insights into the biology and psychology of mystical experience, and may hold promise as a paradigm-shifting treatment approach.
Biography: Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
His principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories has been on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs. His research has been largely supported by grants from the National Institute on Health and he is author of over 360 journal articles and book chapters.
He has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, and to numerous pharmaceutical companies in the development of new psychotropic drugs. He is also currently a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence for the World Health Organization.
He has conducted extensive research with sedative-hypnotics, caffeine, and novel mood-altering drugs. In 1999 he initiated a research program at Johns Hopkins investigating the effects of the classic hallucinogen psilocybin that includes studies of psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experiences in healthy volunteers, psilocybin-facilitated treatment of psychological distress in cancer patients, psilocybin-facilitated treatment of cigarette smoking cessation, psilocybin effects in beginning and long-term meditators, and psilocybin effects in religious leaders.
The Hopkins laboratory has also conducted a recent series of internet survey studies characterizing the effects hallucinogen-occasioned mystical experiences, challenging experiences, and effects on substance abuse.
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