You may have heard that psilocybin can alter your mood and overall mental health. But how does this work, exactly?
We did a deep dive into the science of it, and we’d like to tell you a couple of things we know to be true. Our aim is to give you a “Coles Notes” version of a very complex topic.
The first thing you need to understand is something called neuroplasticity. Many years ago, a book by Norman Doidge came out on this topic, and it was a breakthrough in our understanding of how the brain works, and specifically how we get fixated on a single perspective, solution, or thought.
Our lovely plastic brains
The word “plastic” might throw you off a bit. For scientists, what it really means is “changeable,” or pliable…more like elastic. Our brains can change: therefore, they are highly plastic.
Imagine that the pathways in your brain are like paths through the woods. Some paths are just footpaths, and could really use some paving. Footpaths might be positive thoughts such as, “I may not be perfect, but I try my best and I am learning all the time.”
Unfortunately, some pathways are very well paved, and see a lot of traffic. These highways might be thoughts such as, “Everybody here is so much better than I am.” That kind of thought could probably use some traffic-calming measures such as a deep breath, and actively bringing to mind a moment when you were proud of yourself.
This book spawned a very positive change in therapy, particularly in therapy for addictive behaviour, anxiety and depression.
Mushrooms are actually flashlights
Great, so where do mushrooms come in? Well, imagine that your brain really IS like the woods. Have you ever taken magic mushrooms and gone for a walk in the woods? Try it sometime. Most people report seeing all kinds of cool plants, shapes, colours, glowing lights, and yes, perhaps even new pathways to wander down. (Er, make sure you trip safely and send a friend a pin before wandering off paths in the woods.)
Chemically, the same experience occurs inside your brain. Psilocybin shows you new pathways you could be taking in your own thought processes.
Goodbye Default Mode
To get a little more sciency, here’s how it actually works: psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain. Disrupts the pathways. You have something in your brain called the default mode network, which refers to the part of your brain responsible for understanding space, time and your own identity. Literally your default mode. And it can be changed. Normally, your default mode draws from your hippocampus, which is the part of your brain where your memory resides. In very real terms, we typically draw our sense of self from our memories of self, repeating old, familiar behaviours and thoughts. Remember that highway? Yeah, we have thousands of ’em up there.
But imagine what could happen if that connection (called your functional connectivity) was disrupted. Instead of drawing on past behaviour to understand the present, you draw on new sources. You make new connections, new footpaths, in your brain. And imagine that for many people, long after the drug was ingested, these new footpaths remain and get stronger.
We know that many people experience a cognitive shift, but it can be fascinating to know that this shift can be perceived during the trip, and even 6 months later.
Caves were way simpler
The truth is, as a species, the amount of information we take in on a daily basis would be like a year of information when we lived in caves. The number of people we speak to in a week would have been a lifetime of relationships. Our brains are trying to catch up. We get tired. We get lazy. We don’t want to think about things differently. Our brain craves stimulation, sure, but only up to a point. Our old patterns are more comfortable than new thoughts, new points of view…We get a flood of endorphins from having familiar routines, and new experiences can flood our brains with cortisol, the stress hormone.
So it’s not surprising that we need some help getting out of our familiar grooves. If our grooves are not working for us, or they are keeping us back, psilocybin can be and is for many people, just the push we need to change for the better.
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If you want to do a deep dive yourself, the article that inspired this blog post can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07624-5
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If you wanted to start with a wonderful, gentle introduction to changing your brain, try one of our Microdose capsules.
If you think you are ready for a larger dose that can help shake you out of your old habits, try our Golden Teachers.