You can even take a trip with a placebo

Reading time: 1 minute

People given a placebo instead of psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, still had ‘a trip’. Around 20 of the 33 participants given the placebo said they experienced some psychedelic experience, from seeing paintings on the wall move or reshape themselves.

Researchers from McGill University invited the participants to a ‘psychedelic party’, which included lights and music, and there were 10 white-coated assistants in the room to help anyone had had a bad trip.

As researcher Jay Olson said, context and setting were everything, and it convinced most of the participants that they were taking a magic mushroom and not a sugar pill.

There’s a serious side to the research. With psychedelics being used to treat depression, it’s possible for patients to be given a harmless placebo – which wouldn’t have all the side effects of a psychedelic – and still get similar benefits.

Read all about it – but only in WDDTY

We are one of the only voices out there to give you in-depth, independent and proven information about holistic ways to control your health. Get direct access to all this information every month, via subscription, delivered to your door, anywhere in the world – as thousands of others do.