#030 Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences
FoundMyFitness
Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2017
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Roland R. Griffiths
Dr. Roland R. Griffiths is a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins and has been researching mood-altering compounds for over 40 years.
As an unusually prolific scientist, having published over 360-times, he's also responsible for having started the psilocybin research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 2 decades ago.
In this podcast, you'll discover:
- 00:00:00 - Introduction
- 00:04:05 - Psilocybin produces meaningful mind-altering effects
- 00:12:52 - Psilocybin can treat depression and anxiety in people with life-threatening cancer 1
- 00:22:53 - Psilocybin rewires the brain, preferentially breaking fear-based circuits
- 00:28:11 - Meditation and psychedelics quiet neural activity of the default mode network
- 00:34:09 - "The hard problem of consciousness" may not be solved by neuroscience
- 00:40:16 - Psilocybin helps people quit smoking (80 percent abstinence at six months post-treatment) 2
- 00:47:08 - The risks of psilocybin include bad trips and psychiatric problems
- 01:02:00 - Meditation delivers similar benefits to psilocybin without the risks
- 01:07:18 - Sauna use improves mood Salvinorin A
- 01:10:23 - Salvinorin A, ayahuasca, and other psychedelics
If you’re interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/roland-griffiths
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello friends, Rhonda here. Today's podcast episode takes a turn into new territory for the podcast. |
| 0:06.0 | That's because today I've invited Dr. Roland Griffiths and especially prolific clinical pharmacologists |
| 0:11.8 | that's written over 360 publications, many of which are on mood altering drugs. |
| 0:17.5 | Maybe you know where I'm going with this because you already know who Dr. Griffiths is. |
| 0:21.1 | Maybe you don't. To bring you up to speed if you don't, Dr. Griffiths is particularly well known |
| 0:25.9 | for his work with the hallucinogenic compound known as psilocybin. His lab has published |
| 0:30.4 | work showing the effects of psilocybin in producing substantial and sustained decreases in depression |
| 0:36.0 | and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer. The effects it has on so-called |
| 0:41.2 | personality domain of openness, its effects in beginning and long-term meditators, |
| 0:46.4 | the effects it has on enhancing smoking cessation, and they've also done brain imaging studies |
| 0:51.5 | and explored its pharmacological and neural mechanisms of action and conducted surveys on the |
| 0:56.5 | so-called bad trips, as well as looked at drug interactions. Basically Dr. Griffiths is an enormous |
| 1:02.6 | expert in this realm having started the research program at Johns Hopkins on this compound almost |
| 1:07.2 | two decades ago, so it should come as no surprise that today we talk a lot about psilocybin. |
| 1:14.0 | If you were ever looking for a sober and engaging scientific discussion of this compound and many |
| 1:19.3 | related compounds, this is it. All of that said, one quick note before we get started. I know |
| 1:25.4 | you're chomping at the bit here, but this interview is also on YouTube. It comes with helpful |
| 1:30.0 | annotations, citations, snapchots of papers being discussed, and you even get to see one of the |
| 1:35.4 | treatment rooms at Johns Hopkins used in the trials since that's where the interview was recorded. |
| 1:40.8 | If you're interested in that, head over to youtube.com forward slash found my fitness. That's youtube.com |
| 1:46.8 | forward slash f-o-u-n-d-m-y-f-i-t-n-e-s-s, or you can also just google search found my fitness youtube. |
| 1:56.0 | That works too. Now on to the podcast. Hello folks. Today's podcast guest is Dr. |
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