Psilocybe Medicine - Dr. Karl Buchanan

This is a thread from the other site that Dr. Buchanan has asked me to transcribe to 'topia, since he is lacking time doing more important things (like the work he does as Senior Health Officer) I, Potatocore, didn't write ANY of these posts, I simply have copied & pasted. I have included the original posters usernames in the titles above each post. This is the link to the original thread but you may as well read it here since this is the better site :P

Feel free to post your own experiences, questions, doubts... whatever. Throughout the entirety of this thread are great bits of information including methodology, dosing, LEGIT research, and familiar members of the OMC's thoughts. Great stuff!! Not for the faint-hearted, could take a while to read through... not gonna lie.

-Potatocore

From "TEO: The International Journal of Psychoactive Mushrooms" / May 2003

Tassili Doctor:
The practice Of Psilocybe Medicine
By Dr. Karl D. Buchanan

While a wealth of information exists regarding modern research into the psychiatric use of the psilocybe fungi, there is relatively little of scholarly merit on their place in physical medicine. The universally accepted academic "guru" of modern psilocybes, Gordon Wasson, believed from subjective experience that psilocybes were actually deleterious to the health though he consumed them on some 24 reported occasions. What Gordon Wasson probably did not know, though his daughter Marsha, a trained nurse might, is that the symptoms he experienced which led him to believe this were the same symptoms anyone might experience in any situation where they were enduring what is medically termed as a "healing crisis". What Wasson perceived as "damage" was actually the effect of the massive purging of toxins shed into the blood and elimination systems. The body, unable to eliminate the toxins as fast as it has shed them feels discomfort, fatigue and headache. This is not disease but the symptom of healing, and is curable by adequate fluid and electrolyte intake. I suggest that subconsciously or spiritually Wasson may have suspected this, as I find it difficult to imagine such a man defying both his own instincts and intellect. The Shaman might say "His body knew it." I think it is worthy though sad to note that Gordon Wasson passed away of natural causes which as yet cannot be attached in any way to his use of psilocybes during his lifetime. We may have few documented accounts, but the ones we have are clear, and so far no evidence of harmful effects is showing. It has been shown that psilocin/psilocybin mildly irritate the gastrointestinal tract, and for that reason they are not typically used to treat GI diseases. Further research should be done in this area, though the potential negative effects while not lethal or difficult to relieve are certainly unappealing to the volunteer. Psilocybes are also unresearched and potentially deleterious in the treatment of brain tumors, brain injuries or other organicity and specifically should not be used in such cases until adequate studies of effects, risks and merit can be shown.

The most obvious place for psilocybes is in the frontline treatment of infections generally. Patients treated with P. cubensis equadorians exhibited the additional healing of any infected scratches/cuts i.e. redness before treatment entirely gone within 12 hours.
Patient with early signs of strep throat (lesions forming and discolored) treated with 1.5 grams of P.c.E. was
Page 48 #04 TEO May 2003 Copyrighted Material

afebrile (without fever), comfortable, and lesions as well as other symptoms gone within 16 hours. A patient given 5 gms for dental abcess, though prostrated for several hours again was afebrile and pain free, the lime-sized abcess resolving completely within 48 hours. In most cases 4-5 grams or more are given, however it has been shown that even amounts as small as 1.5 gms have been in those cases adequate. There has been no case where significant healing was not shown. Dosage requirements again are a matter for further confirmation, owing to the fact that in cases like bronchial infection or potentially septic abcess, the healer is compelled to take a better-safe-than-sorry position, hence not enough research exists yet to establish more than a patient-based educated guess with regard to prescribed dosages for specific conditions. Unlike the shittake, which has immunomodulating properties and is most commonly consumed weekly as cooked fruitbodies for therapeutic support, psilocybes are best suited for one-dose high expectation treatment – something that is also curiously enough translated in their general nature, i.e. instructions included. Patients unprepared for the potential effects of psilocybes should only be given doses of 1.5 gms and under. If it is determined that a higher dose is needed the patient must be adequately prepared for the potentially unsettling side effects. There has been reported the daily use of a single low dose of .5 gm for therapeutic support in chronic reynauds syndrome, and more conclusive information in that area may be shortly forthcoming.

Prostration during treatment with psilocybes is common, and seems to be related to the degree of severity of the infection more than the amount of the dose given. There are optimal preconditions to treatment such as fasting and hydration, however ideals are difficult to approach when immediate cases present. Under clinical conditions parenteral fluids are acceptable, especially in cases where the patient is already suffering some degree of dehydration. No other foods or medicines should be given during the first 4 hours of treatment, though this is excepted where uncomfortable nausea may be relieved by a small snack or other GI upset may be relieved with various natural or pharmaceutical medicines such as calcium carbonate or paregoric. Especially all alcohol, stimulants, tryptamines, harmalines etc. should be avoided in combination use for immunomodulation.

We extend ourselves consciously into a visible message left for us 5,500 years ago on a wall, but have we received all that our magnificent ancestor was bequeathing? The reappearance of Tassili man and his mushrooms in our culture today should be a sign for the faithful that when the human need is great the great return. The worldwide occurrence of psilocybes implies in the clearest writing that this medicine may be had forever by all who seek it. Is the current resurgence in interest one of solely religious concern? Or is the good and humble, practical mushroom also nearer us now to help us all face the things in our biological environment which must shortly, surely come?

Though the benefiting patient population for the use of psilocybes in medicine is broad, the primary concern of allergy to mushroom fruit and mycelia is it’s first parameter. Patients tolerant of mycomedicals need only be treated with the strain and dosage/regimen appropriate and there are many basic conditions for which psilocybes are the visibly appropriate choice. Many of these strains produce full fruit within four to six weeks, and flush as well or better than other gourmet species which make psilocybes, at least medically speaking, immensely economical to produce and a true "commercial" mushroom. Though some of the more potent psilocybes like P. azurescens are more difficult to rapidly produce, or possess additional characteristics like higher atropine levels in P. cyanescens, none the less they may find a place of applicability as growing research into this important area of mycomedicine becomes more available and developed. Until then – we only need to remember our benevolent ancestors and their enduring goodness left in beautiful simplicity for us in our times. No translation required.

Dr. Karl Buchanan is a professor of psychology and health sciences. His practice is primarily pro bona, and he has appeared professionally in medical marijuana and religious conscience cases. He currently resides on a mountain in the Ozarks and serves as senior health officer at monastery of the rose chapel.

Sources:
The Holy Bible – King James version
Dr. Richard C. Webb/Rose Chapel College -
Botany and Horticulture
Rabbi Ariel Pedersen –
Mycomedicine / Jewish tradition and history
Page 49 #04 TEO May 2003 Copyrighted Material
Thomas J. Riedlinger - "The Sacred Mushroom Seeker"
Union of Concerned Scientists -Publication "Warning to Humanity"
Centers for Disease Control –
World Health Reports The Farm/Mushroompeople and Frank – Mycoculture/Lentenula edodes
Richard Evans Shultes – "Hallucinogenic Plants"
Paul Stamets/Fungi Perfecti -"Mycomedicals"
Paul Stamets "Psilocybe Mushrooms of the World"
Paul Stamets &J.S. Chilton -"The Mushroom Cultivator", Paul Stamets -"Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms"

Stephen Peele/FMRC on Psilocybe Medicine:

Mushrooms…..A Good Place To Look For New Antiviral &Antibiotics
By Stephen L. Peele, Curator FMRC

For many years, working under a Federal DEA Schedule I Permit, I have studied mushrooms that produce controlled substances. Psilocybin and Psilocin are the two best known said type compounds. My interests were in Immune Enhancement Capabilities of these mushrooms. These compounds include antibiotics, ant tumor agents, antiviral agents, and even anticancer agents. One of the anticancer agents, Lentinan, showed 80% remission factor in Sarcoma and other related cancers, with just a 10 day treatment. If Lentinan was applied before cancer implant, it was 100% effective. Panaeolus subbalteatus, a psilocybin producing mushroom, has shown to be effective against polio virus in mice. Other psilocybin producing g m mushrooms are now believed to have powers of improving hearing, eyesight, circulation, and activating the body’s immune system. There have been stories I have read were certain people who live down in some of the valleys in Mexico, live to be 130 to 140 years old. There is evidence which points to Mexican mushroom cults as the source for these stories.

One investigator set out years ago to find out the truth about the old age/mushroom story. He spent several months talking with members of certain tribes that used "Sacred Mushrooms". The thing he didn’t know was, these people were very private. They did not like outsiders coming in and asking a bunch of questions…..especially ones that pertained to their "magic and well being". So when he asked an older person just how old they were, they would not get a truthful reply. The Indian did not want him to know he was 97, so he said "68". In turn, when you read his notes, you would read things like "I spoke to another one of the Indians today. He was 68, and like the others, looked much older than his age." He came back and stated the whole thing is a lie. There was no evidence that any of these people are living any longer because they eat some type of mushroom. And that’s how the story stayed until another investigator went down.

Dr. Ben Cass and his wife Jan, who was also a doctor, spent some time with these Indians and came up with a different story. They came to visit one week with their son. Dr. Ben stated that he believed these mushrooms somehow improved their immune system, and with even just monthly "eatings", this seem to launch them safely into their mid-eighties.
60-70% of people over 65 who catch the flu, die! If you had a better immune system, or a younger person’s immune system, you would not die as easily from flu, colds, or any of the other ailments which kill older people so many times. It was all this information together that made me want to find out just what might be in these mushrooms.

Another researcher, Dr. Paul Steinberg who was working with St. Johns University, also had the same kind of questions I did about this. He contacted me and said he had heard of my research and wanted to work with me. He started looking into the mycelium of Psilocybe cubensis. His team found that the mycelium was producing new and unknown antiviral and antibiotics, and that psilocybin had antiviral activity itself. They soon made another important discovery. The mycelium produced many of these anti-agents for only
Page 51 #04 TEO May 2003 Copyrighted Material

short periods of time, replacing them with new ones, and ending the old ones. Dr. Paul described this as nature’s own defense. It was as if there was a design here. Bacteria and virus always work very hard in developing immunity to said type agents. But in this case, this did not work. If an immunity to the anti-agents was built, that agent was gone, and a new one took it’s place. This gave answer to how mushroom mycelium could live and grow in a dung heap teaming with millions of bacteria. When the said type mushroom mycelium is grown on sterile grains, different types of bacteria not found in dung are suddenly seen. As the mycelium has no acquired immunity built to fight these types, these contaminants kill choke off the growth of the mycelium. He also stated that these anti-agents were very selective, leaving alone good or beneficial ones! The word on the research must have gotten out, for the team was hounded out of the lab, and huge legal arguments suddenly came into focus.
I then discussed all this with Mr. Gordon Craig at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He became very interested and we started scheduling tests with extracts from controlled mushrooms. All needed and required paper work was filed with the Federal DEA.

The Federal DEA teamed up with Florida HRS and stopped this important research. The Florida HRS placed me under a $5000 a day fine, retroactive 5 years, if I was to release any more of these said extracts. They claimed that they were new Investigational Drugs.
All this meant nothing to me as all testing and research was being done In-Vitro. No human testing was ever done by me or done under my supervision. It was all done in test tubes and culture dishes. I contacted a lawyer about all this, and we began putting a case together. One day, at one of these meetings, he stated that there was nothing we could do. He quoted something about "The King can do no wrong", meaning the Federal and State governments. I never really understood all this. I just figured the government had a talk with him, told him to stop working on the case, and that was the end of that.

In today’s world of ever increasing diseases, even mentioned in the Bible, we need to have all of the antiviral and antibiotic compounds available to us. AIDS, Eboli, and now SARS, all run rampant and unchecked. I would think it is time for our government to take a different attitude than "Mycophobia". slp/fmrc

(This article appeared in the August '03 issue of "TEO: The International Journal of Psychoactive Mushrooms")


www.ClusterBusters.com: The Hurt Stops Here?


Bob Wold is not your typical ?shroomer?. At 50, he has accomplished a regular adult life like others, the last 22 of those years carrying a burden most others don?t have to contend with: Cluster Headache. Commonly referred to as the ?Suicide Headache? the Cluster phenomenon is a miserable condition for both the patient and the caregiver, always engaging an arduous course of medication experimentation and often, only limited benefits in the best of cases.

The list of drugs and treatments given to cluster headache sufferers reads like a horror script, and includes some of the most potent and debilitating pharmaceuticals currently made, many of which carry numerous undesirable and potentially permanent side effects. While many patients benefit from these drugs many do not, and only partial relief is obtainable in most cases. In fact, we are learning that the inundation of the drugs themselves, while offering only partial relief may actually be prolonging the headache cycle ? a possibility first put forth regarding the drug Verapamil. We already know anger and depression, the symptoms of ?narcotic dysphoria? hang like a cloud over those patients who again, must use high doses of a more dangerous drug continually to achieve only partial relief. There are times for caregivers that going to a patient with narcotics or other pain relieving drugs seems like a blessing in one?s hands ? and times when it makes you sick, just like it?s making them. When narcotics don?t help, but are the only help ? that?s the rough one for both doctor and patient.

What is the end of the line for the Cluster sufferer? If you survive the sixty-two (+?) prescription and well over a dozen other treatment regimens (-if-) you too may qualify, like our friend Bob Wold, to have a one inch hole bored into your skull for vascular microsurgery or be fitted for a radiation brace to have your head bombarded just like a malignant tumor. For your headache. (What?!?) They call it the ?Gamma Knife?. Faced with these options Bob decided to take a chance that certainly didn?t seem any more frightening or potentially dangerous.

What he discovered approximately two and a half years ago is something that scores of cluster sufferers have, and several have described: ?It just washed away?. Yes, that?s right. Psilocybe mushroom tea has emerged as a top home treatment for the cluster headache sufferer. But it?s not as simple as ?tripping?. To begin with cluster sufferers typically use sub-hallucinogenic doses in the form of a liquid extraction in which dried fruit bodies have been briefly steeped in hot water. Add to this that there is a complete and identified regimen of necessary preparation ? A protocol from the patients themselves requiring a five day detoxification from other drugs that causes some sufferers to hesitate more than any other concern. Next, they must treat the attack, and use subsequent doses until the attack cycle is under control. After that, according to sufferers themselves, a prophylactic (preventive or ?maintenance?) dose every six months is advisable to ward off further attacks. Of course if an attack comes before the six months or in-between?..well, there?s some things you just don?t have to tell a pain driven patient.

Now here is a new Kabbalah, a revelation that researchers and doctors aren?t really balking at. There is a foundation dedicated to tryptamine research (www.maps.org) and an existing body of knowledge that makes this area by no means ?new frontier?. It is simply the application of a medicine used for thousands of years by mankind to a condition which he may have forgotten (or never known) that it served.
Over the years of searching for his own answers Bob has not only been through virtually every course of treatment, but he?s talked to most, if not all, of the top voices in both cluster headache and tryptamine medicine to the extent that it is becoming no longer a matter of ?Bob, have you talked to Dr. Q? but a question of ?Dr. Q, have you talked to Bob Wold?? I talked to Bob. I learned a lot.

Not all of the adepti of this inner circle would talk to me about their knowledge, and while they quietly but freely minister to their own I discovered that out of five I contacted, only two had serious points for me to make about this article. Bob?s was ?People will kill themselves because of this and it doesn?t have to happen that way.? The other ClusterBuster, a long time sufferer and activist who has been using the treatment for about five years wrote back to tell me that I needed to let sufferers know where in the world they could legally receive this treatment right now; but his service to the cause is in composing those letters to the people the ClusterBusters want to hear them in medicine and legislature. He told me ?Psilocybes have proven to be my miracle treatment. Although they have not "cured" me at this point I am extremely optimistic that they have won the battle so to speak. Although I had dabbled with this 4 years ago, my last cycle was the first time that I truly followed the recommendations and dosing techniques loosely compiled by the pioneers of this treatment. My cycle appeared to have a longer duration (about 12 weeks) but was more than manageable.? And he said that his next cycle would for him be the true test as he will be taking the low-level maintenance doses every six months which some, myself and Bob Wold included, believe can prevent the cycle from ever starting. What finally caused him to take the chance? ?I drew the line when my neuro wanted to start me on lithium. I would rather be in hell every 18 months than be a zombie all of the time.?

The real and underlying subject of this article bears a final consideration of it?s own: For the past few years a grass roots group of patients (excuse me, sufferers...I?m not sure they?re all patients anymore...) has been gathering and compiling information through a series of ?passed along? websites in an effort to help each other and doctors in the battle to manage their so-called ?Beast?. A retired military officer carried the torch for some time through an online support forum but eventually had to let it go, bequeathing the job and the archives to this now more loosely knit and yet highly informed group of contributors with Bob as spokesman, advocate and carrier of the ?dot.com?. I visited the ClusterBusters site and also the Yahoo! Group for what I thought would be a cursory perusal, and I haven?t been able to properly answer or respond to the mail and the energy which is generated when a group of people enter a sanctuary after their own that is more than a mausoleum. Doctors can benefit immensely from this site, but you know, we may not be needed much around there anymore. These people educated themselves. They are learning to care for themselves in a way that any physician would have to admire. One dose every six months? With a course like that, even the in-between crisis doses that may be needed seem negligible.

But the ClusterBusters, regardless of this remarkable phenomenon and 10-Jewel spotlight of hope may remain a small and quiet temple to themselves for an indefinite time to come. Even if their cure passed all muster ? an Everest climb which will cost them $50,000 for just the first step ? they are a thorn in the side of world pharmakaeia. They, and their organic simple cure that only requires the number of doses in a year that most pharmaceutical products require for a single day, are a profitless bane and a direct threat to numerous high selling and high dollar pharmaceutical products. These upstart patients, having the gall to presume themselves sentient and capable of making their own care decisions, have removed themselves from our Emergency Rooms and Med/Surg Floors and gone home to foil lined shoeboxes on water heaters, and immediate answers to their debilitating pain stored reverently in little brown bottles protected from the light against a day no one would think anyone should have to face. They share their stories with others who, exhausted to their own limits also wonder if such a simple thing could finally be the answer to so many desperate prayers. While the pharmaceutical prognosis for ?Psybanol? may not be promising, the hope of continuing remission and relief is and it remains for the rest of the world to catch up. It?s just not reasonable to expect people to endure such a condition due to it?s lack of profitability or mainstream community awareness.
Dr. Karl D. Buchanan


Sources:
Bob Wold
Jeff Centers
www.ClusterBusters.Com
www.MAPS.Org
www.Clusterheadaches.com

Epilogue: Upward and Onward: Time to be Free
It is the personal opinion of this writer after having had contact both directly and discreetly with numerous cluster sufferers that Neurology must now accept it's place as contributory and relinquish the primary care of these patients to rehabilitative psychiatry. Those on the psilocybe treatment exhibited:
- less anxiety
- less pain related confusion/aggression
- were less abusive of others and caregivers
- seemed as changed in their perspective and personality as they were in their pain regardless of the degree which they themselves may have perceived and appreciated this
- seemed to have a visibly increased confidence, clarity and directness in their discussion

And now these people are back, washed up on our beaches grinning like naked little adams and eves - but some of them at least aren't out on that raging sea flailing around anymore. Functionally freed from an enforced and learned psychological set that is every bit as tragic as the "most painful disease known" - they are re-born from the isolation, self recrimination, abandonment, futility, guilt, anger, anxiety, frustration and stigmatization that most of them feel in varying degrees at different times into a world both inner and outer that they have not truly known since the full onset of their symptoms.

Functionally capable of being more now than pain patients, they are patients most in need of continuing support and a larger total care perspective, because not all the pain they have suffered has been physical, treated or from within. They are most in need of the grief counselor, the occupational therapist, recreation therapy, art therapy, peer groups and others skilled in areas of self esteem and adult recovery/rehabilitation issues. Just like any other patient that has dropped their braces or risen from the wheelchair, thereby refocusing our priorities and approaches as total and primary care givers. Here they are coming. We need to welcome them back. -kb

curenado and I are part of a group of individuals collecting and developing MEDICINAL uses for fungi.Any post made by he or I in this forum is specificaly targeted as a medical therapy not a spiritual or psychological journey.We are discussing publicly for any interested parties the therapeutic benefits of all fungi but especially the Psilocybe genus.We will NOT be discussing psychoactivity except as a side effect of primary therapy.
WR

Adjunctive Mycotherapies notata:
I submit as an opinion that infections generally are better treated with a combination of mycomedicals and will use dental abcess as an example. (We have a lot of untreated and long-waiting-line for treatment dental conditions here)
Ganoderma lucidum taken and moderate to large doses for 48 hours prior to psilocybe treatment will enhance the system responce and do a great deal of the work ahead of the main treatment. In this way you are not only strengthening the body's responce but also making the infection much more weak and vulnerable to the much more effective and formiddable psilocybe therapy, thus achieving a more desirable result.
It has been my experience that we do not need to "live on" medicinals of any kind provided that we use adequate doses and complete treatments when we do. The human condition and behavior accepted...
This concept is the same for strep, staph or any kind of infection -
As a side note I would like to try using a fresh psilocybe based topical treatment for staph eruptions and other infected flesh wounds and may begin this approach in the Spring to study it's effectiveness.

thanks curenado!

interesting, but ultimately destined for the annals of history, i would have to say. anecdotes only go so far. this bit caught my eye, though:
........................................................
Those on the psilocybe treatment exhibited:
- less anxiety
- less pain related confusion/aggression
- were less abusive of others and caregivers
- seemed as changed in their perspective and personality as they were in their pain regardless of the degree which they themselves may have perceived and appreciated this
- seemed to have a visibly increased confidence, clarity and directness in their discussion
.............................................
that is true in my experience, of all those i have met who have dared to sample nature's teacher plants.

the antibacterial/antiviral/antitumour stuff is fascinating, and i'd love to hear more details of the test tube & petri experiments. is there no animal model (rodent for example) that you could test it on, legally?

rasta, i would caution you to be very careful in your testing re possible cure for AF, but if you're keen, would suggest some scientific comparative study such as on cardiac ion channels, HERG channels, and isolated purkinje fibres, such as are used in the pharmaceutical development industry to prove that a certain drug is 'safe' to go into early human trials: the tests are very robust and designed to 'prove' that no effect is present. type "QTc prolongation" into a search engine for starters. Atrial fibrillation is different to most of that, but still you will have a lot of published information on antiarrhythmics to read. and have you thought about more obvious stuff, like how much caffeine you drink?

?????????????????????
i don't mean to be a downer. i too have seen the lines of the world, and have great faith in the healerplants and ancient shamanic ways to show new treatments for old and new ailments. i just am too skeptical to believe this will ever be an accepted mainstream thing. i'm probably missing the point - i do that a lot!

I don't think they will become mainstream either, and even if they did I'm not sure the "cure" would arrive in time.
We still send them thinking that there are some out there who may survive, and that they may be useful to traditional medicine practitioners, and also because we cannot resist the fascination and wonder of those things made with us that seem to be better than things we've made.
I live on top of a mountain in the Ozarks and can't buy "mainstream medicine" and have been living this way for some years now though I do get to "town" here and there.
Scientifically speaking though - I am afraid that the "Main Stream" is rapidly becoming the "Love Canal" (A river here that caught fire because it was so polluted).
I guess we will see over the next decade what the disease impact is going to do in reality, because so far all we can really do is theorize....

rasta, i would caution you to be very careful in your testing re possible cure for AF, but if you're keen, would suggest some scientific comparative study such as on cardiac ion channels, HERG channels, and isolated purkinje fibres, such as are used in the pharmaceutical development industry to prove that a certain drug is 'safe' to go into early human trials: the tests are very robust and designed to 'prove' that no effect is present. type "QTc prolongation" into a search engine for starters. Atrial fibrillation is different to most of that, but still you will have a lot of published information on antiarrhythmics to read. and have you thought about more obvious stuff, like how much caffeine you drink?

1-2 cups in the am then Postum or chamomile the rest of the day.
As for "safe" I trust in what has my Dr. amazed, Illness,ecesssive exertion,and alcohol(I no longer drink) all will trigger A/F.My Dr.(who is also my friend and neighbor has watched me "still" the fibrillation using meditation and Psilocybe when he was ready to have me cardioverted.Using a non-toxic fungal medicinal and a Chinese Qi flow meditation, I have "self-cardioverted" back to a normal rhthymn.My largest threats are viral infections which seem to be my worst source of A/F attacks any more.
As for further proof....I live,with <48% of a functional heart I live,I have not needed to see a cardiologist since I walked away from my triple bypass.I tossed a large handfull of prescriptions and drasticly changed my lifestyle and have Excellent"numbers" I can honestly say that I am alive and well today due to oral cannabis products and the responsible use of Psilocybin,and though he may hem and haw my Dr. would have to agree,you see he warned my wife I prolly only had a couple of yrs after they fucked up my heart(poked it while doing an angiogram and seized it.)and needed to do an emergency surgery.At my 6 week stress test I hit 108% capacity with less than half my ticker running but went into A/F I stayed in A/F for about a week when one nite while particularly depressed about it I decided to eat some shrooms and pray for an answer. Well that answer came in the form of a steady healthy rhythymn the next morning.And continues to work whenever my heart rate becomes erratic,5-7 g after the kids go to bed and I wake up great

I concur with Whiterasta and I believe if you could observe the clinical effects first hand you would be as amazed as some of us become. "Tryptamine" medicine as it has come to be called (or "neurotropic medicine"...) has enough questions and hopefully answers that any one of us could spend the bulk of our energies in R&D for years.
Camp Greenleaf has put forth some great medicine and approached the subjects WR talks about in a clinically and naturally harmonious manner in as much as I have been following them.

Through personal experience, i have found that by consuming Ps. species regularly i can't catch the flu. I don't care for the wild ass trips anymore, so i handle a fresh crop letting them bruise. I then dry them under a 100 watt bulb for several days. By then a great percentage of the actives are gone. I take 5 grams twice a week. Havn't had a flu shot or the flu in fives years. My lifetime bouts with ulcers are over, My arthritis doesn't flare up as bad. It may not be only the Ps. since i also take reishi tea, maitake and shitake. But hey, the 5 gram weak dose still gives a mental boost that keeps me coming back for more.

"So we can Breathe!"
Psilocybe Mushrooms and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Dr. Karl Buchanan

Miss Julie is slowly dying. Her lungs are shrinking (shriveling) and drying out, and nobody can honestly tell her why or how to stop it. What she has been told is that she has "COPD", which is often enough abused as simply a catch phrase, a "boilerplate" diagnosis for slovenly interns meant to be more dismissive or rather relegatory than curative (or so it seems to pernicious me). The thing is gentle reader, Miss Julie is too young to have COPD. That is an affliction of the very aged, and those suffering other severe conditions. But disturbingly enough, she is not alone. A significant number of younger people in our area are being told that they have "COPD" which according to the books when I was a boy is a classification under which only four basic conditions fall. So I guess in North Arkansas COPD is really doctor talk for "I don't know, and I'm looking no further. You are a terminal geriatric patient at 27. Now give us your insurance card and pass along please."
I first met the spirited Miss Julie on a beautiful southern night in the lovely little town of Eureka Springs, where beautiful young girls sometimes stand in the middle of the street, raise thier hands to the starry sky and exclaim "So we can breathe!" when they overhear the magic words "Magic Mushrooms".
If you have ever visited or lived in Eureka Springs you know it's OK to believe in magic, miracles and that the oddest and most wonderful things in the universe often co-exist in the same place. It's OK to believe you can raise your beautiful hands to the sky, declare the truth and be kindly acknowledged by whatever stars oversee the Southern night. That night her declaration served as an invocation of sorts in that magical place, turning my head automatically on my shoulders and moving my legs automatically in her direction. I said "Then you know they are healing?" and she said "Yes! So we can breathe!" as she dramatically sucked in the night breeze like an ambrosia, smiling as she hugged her arms across her chest. I introduced myself and we talked briefly; she asked if I could send her some spore samples in the mail.....
--------------------------------<wbr>---------------------------------<wbr>---------------
Current definition: A generalized increased resistance to airflow during expiration that includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, chronic asthma, and bronchiolitis. Patients rarely have pure emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Most patients will have both processes present. COPD occurs in 10% to 15% of cigarette smokers.
(Kevin C. Doerschug, MD, Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine)
--------------------------------<wbr>---------------------------------<wbr>---------------

I have historically passed on respiratory cases because I felt they required a deeper specialization and care, and in fact they do, but I've seen over the years that many aren't really getting all that they could. I have always been terrified that I might somehow slight the care of a very fragile class of patient through ignorance, but I have gained a little more confidence these days because the simple of COPD is that no one has very good "luck" with it ever. I have become bolder because no patient ever before reacted or responded to a respiratory mediciation with glee, and, though necessary as they may seem I am personally entirely revolted with the lot. Want to know something?
Inhaled bronchodilators
Beta-adrenergic agonists
Long-acting beta-agonists
Anticholinergic agents (such as ipratropium)
Combined beta-agonist/ anticholinergic inhalers
Inhaled steroids (such as beclomethasone)
Oral steroids (such as prednisone)
Theophylline
Lung reduction surgery
Not a single one of these things has any healing property about them whatsoever. They are in fact destructive to the body and it's tissues, and the majority actually invite more weakness, damage and infection vulnerability in the short and long term. They are "symptomatic" drugs which combat/control only the gross manifest symptoms. There is not one healing or repairative thing about any of them. You just keep sucking them in so you can force your laboring body chemically (mechanically) to breathe while your condition slowly and inexorably continues to deteriorate. While you continue to starve for air.
"Randomized trials of survival are currently underway." - Do you know what this really means in Doctor talk?

The overall cardio-pulmonary responce to psilocybes is - scientifically speaking - better than "D - all the above". Isn't that something? Isn't it wonderful that we have in our hands such powerful and beneficial creatures, even though we are still so early in the "universal cataloguing" of all thier processes? Doesn't it seem like the difference between heaven and hell to "observe" how people live and catalogue that, as opposed to cataloguing how they die under "observation" and gaining practically little of nothing from it?
We do not try to force the lungs to breathe; they do that on thier own. We feed them with (in the simplest terms..) "bitters", "butters", "builders" and "cleaners" - the real thing, made of what they are made of. We know we can provide relief and comfort in a greater degree over the long term; whether a simpler, food based rehabilitative protocol will demonstrate a fuller recovery? Only time will tell, but time usually does. Meantime, keep raising your hands to the starry sky!
The simple-er of COPD is this: The respiratory struggle of COPD is not really a sign of the body's degeneration and impending collapse, it is a sign of tissue starvation and suffocation. Why don't we start to treat it that way for more people?

Psilocybe therapy as an integral and regular part of a comprehensive respiratory care and healing (repairing & re-building) strategy holds, at least for me and people like miss Julie, immense promise. Even at this stage of our understanding it is clear to us that you get a better living form if you have fed and watered rather than poisoned it. (Cheeky I know but - it's really about that simple.) The daily treatment of cordyceps mushroom, mullein, red clover, dandelion, burdock, slippery elm bark, sorrel and rhubarb (others) is exponentially aided by the concomittant use of regular psilocybe therapy because you have a body less burned and more ready to respond - to live. In the same hand, the benefits of the regular use of psilocybes in COPD are increased exponentially by the daily supportive and repairative protocol because you have a body more receptive and able to utilise the benefits that the psilocybes bring. It's a healing circle that isn't viscious.

I was glad to find three things on Spring Street that night in 2002; wonder (again), hutzpah (to say "Oh COPD my eye! Who told you that?!") and somebody compelling enough in thier joy to reach me (in my mind) where dozens of others seemingly hadn't before in thier suffering and sorrow. Somehow right then I heard more than what miss Julie said; I heard for just a moment what her body was saying too. I do not fear the respiratory people now, because I have something more to actually say to them. More to offer than a prolonged (if lifesaving and miserable yeah yeah...) internal mummification of sorts! I ponder more progressive treatment strategies with concomitant phytomedicals that include more foods and are based on organic healing - not merely chemical jerk-responce mechanics (and maintenance care unto death...) It seems to me that more attention should be given to the "food" medicines than the processed chemical ones in arresting and managing the enigma of this, what to call? "Early Onset COPD"? I think it's time to start looking at the current popular approaches as ipso facto "lung abuse" whether we meant it to be or not. One of those "What could we have been thinking?" head slaps.
Personally, I thank God everyday to have such "earthy" things in my hands, and to know that those things will prove - scientifically - to be the only actually healing treatment we have thus far seen.
Yes miss Julie, so we can breathe.
Best Wishes,
Karl Buchanan

Anecdotal scientific observations and
resulting hypotheses on the treatment of Atrial Fibrilation
using natural source tryptamines
found in Genus psilocybe


Patient observations; 1999
Subject presented to emergency ward with abdominal cramps and significant weakness. EKG showed signs of scarring related to an infarction 20+ yrs old and subsequent angiogram was performed.
Subject was awakened by several nursing staff and while still heavily intoxicated and without consulting his spouse signed for and was rushed into surgery for an emergency triple bypass.
Bypass was tolerated well by the subject and a rigorous, rural, lifestyle was soon resumed. Therapy consisted of near daily 3-5 mile walks carrying 20lbs of rifles while tracking Elk in Oregons coast range, a taxing ,steep, overgrown wilderness. This quickly brought the subject back to good condition and subject felt like he was recovering well.

Patient observations; 2000
Subject and family contract unknown virus (suspect Epstien- Barr) and oldest son(21) is presented to emergency with chest pain and goes into cardiac arrest due to arteritis. Subsequent conversations with his cardioliogist piqued his curiosity on subjects own self guided and completely medicaly unsupervised recovery from heart surgery and despite subjects lack of insurance the Dr was sufficiently curious about his condition to offer a free cardiac stress test.
Ultrasound revealed a heart far more damamged than when admitted originaly with old scarring and 80% collateral regrowth. It revealed a heart with over half the muscle damaged and marginaly functional and an ejection fraction of 35%. The treadmill test, which I performed excellently until the very last, and the contrast die, combined with a diabetic sugar crashto a blood sugar below 45
instigated a severe atrial fibrillation condition( no one told me to withhold my oral hypoglycemic and the test was at 1:00pm) .After administering an IV beta-blocker I left the office quite sick and very unsteady.
This persisted for 90+ days with my overall condition steadily weakening and the AF worsening. My mental state ,while at peace with death, had also become depressive and ready to 'give up".
Subject's spirirtual belief is one in which death is but a transition and that certain plants and fungi help understand and cope with the transitory nature of life. So in that frame of reference subject prepared for, and then partook of a goodly(5+g) dose of Ps. semillanceata. The familiar effects of the psychedelic manifested over several hours. The subject then went to bed for the night.
The next morning a welcome feeling of clarity and refreshment was immediatly noticed. Upon arising subject became aware he was not feeling the racing sensation in his chest or the aprehension which acompanies it. Light excercise failed to produce any further symptoms of AF. Several further treatments using Ps. cyanescens and Ps. cubensis have all but eliminated AF entirely( extreme physical labor can precipitate temporary, mild episodes). And the subject, considering his background, is in excellent health.

Hypotheses regarding natural tryptamine medicines

Many cultures use various natural source tryptamine carriers in ethnomedicinal fashion successfully treating many ailments.

Is there a correlation between the treatment and the result beyond what would be called "faith" healing?

Research has shown the intimate connection between the nervous system and the immune system as well as documenting certain specific neuroreceptors in tissues other than neural tissue.
Atrial Fibrillation is a condition of the atrial nerves in which cyclic "storms" of electrical activity cause the atrium to beat out of sequence and more rapidly than the ventricles.

Could the potent seratogenic effects of the fungal tryptamines be responsible for "resetting" the pace of atrial neurology?

Futher research shows the prescence of 5-Ht2 receptors in the cardiac muscle, the primary receptors affected by most natural source active tryptamines.

Could the effects on these nerves be a benign form of cardio-version by "overriding" the corrupted neural signal and then releasing the system into a healthy neural pace?

These questions formed the hypotheses upon which I am considering the possibility of a "Theory of Tryptamine Medicine and it's adjuncts"
Which briefly states that many states of Dis- Ease are neuro-immune in origin. Natural active tryptamines posess, among other medicinal properties, the capacity to restore homeostasis to the neuro-immune system by overriding corrupted neurological messages and restoring neural signaling to "normal" parameters.


Disclaimer; These observations are by nature partially subjective, although I have striven to corroborate the data presented on my condition with observations of medical professionals. Also my hypotheses are derived independently of any research resources due to the very nature of the treatments illegality and the necessity for keeping a "low profile" in procuring most natural source tryptamine carriers such as Ps. species fungi.
WR

I'd like to see more research done into this. I am wary of a single source telling me this.

You might check Spain, Thailand & Mushroom John et all for other medical paper sources.

Is anyone out there familiar with extremely low dosage experiences with Cubensis? Specifically using it much like dried, powdered Siberian Ginseng to boost immunity, energy levels, and to obtain inspiration during the day?

The Radical Rabbi once told me that she uses .5 gram cap in the AM daily to cope with chronic reynauds phenomena, however I have not been able to ask her more about that or how it's been going. The lowest dose I have seen is 1.5 gm for strep throat as listed above.

Rasta -
No one has stated this as peer reviewed work but as anecdotal observation.

So when did I become chopped liver? I reviewed it, and lovin' every minute of it! So will TEO. I think it's interpretable at any level and is "chewier" than non-medical people might realise at first blush...
Thanks!

ALL -
PLEASE feel free to post your psilocybe medicine experiences, thoughts? and questions - you never know the clue you may contribute might be something enlightening to another.....I know I'm interested.

From personal experience and from experiences recorded from several close associates it seems that moderate doses of psilocybine/psilocine containing mushrooms have some curative powers.

Over the course of the last 3 years whenever i have started to feel the onset of more debilitating illnesses (such as fever, flu, etc) I have taken doses between 2.5-3.5 grams of Ps. cubensis to try and alleviate/eliminate the symptoms. So far it has proven 100% effective at strongly reducing and 90% effective at completely eliminating any symptoms of illness. This is based on only 7 seperate instances, so the data pool is admittedly quite small.

In the cases of flu/flu-like symptoms any fever symptoms that were present at administration of the medicine were entirely gone by hour 4-5 after administration. Coughing, sniveling, and congestion were generally either completely eliminated or reduced to the point where no additional medication of any type was required for normal functioning.

I got the idea from reading some entheogenic books addressing a general curative that was used by the Aztecs that was purported to contain psilocybian mushrooms as one of the main ingredients.

This really does seem like a promising area of research. I would certainly be interested in trying to do more controlled studies to ascertain just how effective this solution could be.

Enter said:
Is anyone out there familiar with extremely low dosage experiences with Cubensis? Specifically using it much like dried, powdered Siberian Ginseng to boost immunity, energy levels, and to obtain inspiration during the day?

Now, I am not sure what you mean by extremely low doses, but I have been using 0.75-1.0 grams of Ps. Cubensis to treat my headaches for a couple years now. Even at the 3/4 gram dose, I am quite surprised at the "side effects" (I.E. - tripping) that I still get with my tea infusion. At these dosages the treatment is 100% effective, without forcing me to take traditional precautions while tripping. I can still go on with my normal life (although never outside of a safe environment) without resorting to a "full blown" mushroom trip. It works quite well for me, and all previous medications and treatments have been abandoned.

The best thing is that at small doses it is perfectly manageable, while at the same time generally improves my outlook on life (the glow). I am not completely sure if this is due to the increased euphoria, or the relief I feel when I know a bad attack is behind me. I am not one to indulge in Ps. cubensis (or any other active) for purely recreational use. I have taken high doses in the past but the novelty wore off, and I have never approached a "heroic" dose. To me this serves as a medicine, and one that works very well in my case. I can now function in society without the horrible pain, I am generally less irritable as a result, and I have no other toxic medicines to buy. But the best part of it all is that I am medication free (related to this illness) for practically all of my social life. I am not at work under the influence of some synthetic "whoknowswhatthiscrapwilldo HCL". I take my medication when time and place permit and it works for days and weeks after I take my "special" tea...


This is the reason I came here.
To find how to grow a better, non-toxic relief.
And it works, plain and simple.

Actually Psilocybebeingzz, since the publishing of the above cluster article there have appeared two more published "anecdotal" (as WR says) reports affirming your and the other sufferers experiences with psilocybe benefits.
Neurotropic medicine is being explored, but in typical U.S. fashion it is already being greedily "locked" into certain individuals and entities...i.e. the preparation for exclusive pharmacolization and the blood soaked greed of the soul lacking gold and glory seeker.
We never meant that, will not participate in it and our testament and work has been for the common good and the feedom of the blessed given fruit.
Even people with "collars" calling themselves "christian" are secretly working to put their name and rights on that which in it's ipso facto state is free and available to all, God given, amen.
I predict that if neurotropic medicine is not extinguished altogether it will simply be a mechanism (already working) to actually take away the God given rights of everyone to greatly enrich and falsely glorify a few....but they have their reward well due from he who made psilocybes in the first place and never said "now give me a quarter".
I was recently howled down on a "christian" list for speaking against pharmacolization and pointing out the obvious - and only one person - Matt Wyman, the theoarchaeologist from TEO, had the clarity, (balls) God loyalty and suspicion to say "I can see what *arl is talking about."
Be aware, and watch as these ultimately profane and insidiously evil things come to pass before your very eyes because you already had a right to psilocybes - pharmaceutical companies never did. God already made you and has a use for you - I think the U.S. and U.S. medicine has already well and clearly demonstrated the only use it has for any of us, and I do not pray for or serve such things but pray for you and serve those who truly serve others because God has called them, and of them the world is unworthy.
"By their works you will know them" - and their false and bloody, gold filled hands.....
Best wishes ANYWAY and always.
Yours from the begining,
Dr. Karl D. Buchanan
Senior Health Officer
Monastery of the Rose Chapel

Every day for 120 days, just before sleep, I ate one matchstick-sized dried cubensis, amazon strain. I honestly don't know where to begin describing the changes that precipitated. For one, I used to be allergic to chicken before that. But, subjectively, I think different, better.

Yup! Though I myself have yet to try a LD daily regimen what you say has a very strong basis, and that both physiological and psychoneurological. Perhaps next year I'll find time and presence to use a low dose daily as I haven't slowed down in awhile, I could use a vacation and.....I've got to start taking better care of the old temple if I mean to be telling others that they need to.

Bong - what is most intriguing to me in your particular regimen is - do you remember the last time you were ill with any kind of infection? Bet it's been awhile? The chicken allergy has a number of possible psybe-related reasons but I have seen people who were not allergic to the bird as much as all the crap the poor thing was fed. Are you allergic to antibiotics by any chance? Just curious....

Agreed Sheik ~ it is not only about posology (dosing) but individually appropriate "dosing" and I believe your friends undesirable symptoms may have been partly borderline serontonin crisis, though a number of other factors could also have contributed. The sero borderlines I have seen were only those severe enough to be reaching the blackout stage, and that is on down the line....
Equally, we eat a lot of reishi and others and our dose of these is often 2 to 3 times more than we use for the incidental patient who has not had them as a regular part of their diet.
There is a "maintenance" and "therapeutic" level for all mycos....

Hello Dr. Karl and all in the forum,

I am greatly fascinated by the gifts of nature and have read many books about pre-columbian medicine. I would like to ask you, do you believe that active Panaeolus fruit bodies may also be so beneficial?

Thank you for your hard work & dedication to the gifts and us children's wellbeing

Yes of course they are! Panaeolus subbleteatus (did I spell that right?) was found to be effective against polio in mice. I believe that you will find them effective in other forms of single-celled non-human identified pathogen (like streptococcus & influenza) and though we haven't had enough panaeolus to work with here (I've only had pannies twice...) we have had a hypothesis among us (as yet unconfirmed....just the first suspicion) that panaeolus may have an "edge" against some infections and even parasites that like to reside in and cling to the bowel. That's just a suspicion so far and all personal reports and experiences are very welcome here as they add to the general and expanding knowledge and give others clues as to further refining the targeted-species to pathogen profile.
Thank you for bringing pannies up! - they are actually the species that opened the door to the investigation of neurotropic medicine. Way back in the '50's..