Guest speaker: Roland Griffiths

PROGRAM NOTES:

Today’s podcast features a talk given by Roland Griffiths, who is a professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In addition to describing the current psychedelic studies being undertaken there, he also goes into detail about exactly what characteristics researchers consider when evaluating whether a person has actually had a spiritual experience. Among the research participant’s comments that he read, one of the most common themes was the interconnectedness of all things and beings. Also, he spoke about their research into the character of one’s personality in regards to how a psychedelic experience affected their openness to the experiences of life. Another interesting thing that his research group is investigating is the intersection of psilocybin and meditation, a discussion of which takes up a significant part of this talk.

“Psilocybin is a pharmacological tool that helps people recognize how it feels to embody the present moment. And that’s exactly the same of meditation. It’s about bringing yourself into the present moment.”

-Roland Griffiths

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Johns Hopkins University Psilocybin & Spirituality

Current Psilocybin Research Projects

Q&A with Roland Griffiths