Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 7:00p.m. uk time on Radio Soapbox: http://radiosoapbox.com
Tonight Shelley will be going solo ... Brave move !!
Lets talk about mental health and depression ...is there a magic cure ?
Join in the chat on rumble under "Shelley Tasker" or call in for a chat on Skype https://join.skype.com/invite/ijuD4Nebs9jD
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Shelley Tasker Show on radiosoapbox.com. Today is Wednesday, 14th August 2024. It's just me today, going solo, and I want to share some personal experiences and insights on mental health, particularly depression, which I've battled for nearly 30 years. I discuss my journey with antidepressants, attempts to wean off them, and the challenges of dealing with depression, including the recent low period I've experienced.
I've also been exploring alternative healing methods, such as sound baths and meditation, and the impact of diet on mental health. Recently, I've delved into the world of mushrooms, including their potential benefits for mental health and motivation. I share my experiences with sound healing baths and my interest in microdosing mushrooms to help with depression.
Additionally, I touch on the challenges at my job as an activities coordinator in a nursing home, dealing with the loss of favourite clients, and the potential closure of the home. This has added to my recent struggles with depression.
Despite the tough times, I've found a new sense of motivation and excitement in exploring natural remedies and the potential of microdosing. I discuss the research and benefits of mushrooms, including a fascinating documentary on Netflix called 'Fantastic Fungi' and various studies on the effects of psilocybin.
[00:01:00]
Unknown:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Shelley Tasker Show here coming live from radio soapbox.com. It's good to have your company, and today's date is Wednesday, 14th August 2024. Happy hump day, everybody. Well, there is no guest today. I am brave in it, and I'm going solo. I've had a weird few weeks, to be honest with you, and, well, I'm gonna tell you a bit about what's been going on. I've got a few topics to talk about, but for the last week well, not week. The last few weeks, I've actually been suffering a little bit with mental health, and it's a topic that I think needs to be addressed. People need to relate to it and know that others aren't alone.
I've suffered with depression on and off probably for nearly 30 years, been on antidepressants for, yeah, nearly 30 years, and it's a long old time. I've tried weaning myself off a couple of years ago. I cut back one tablet a week for a month, then 2 tablets. I did it really slowly, and I managed nearly a year. But by the end of that year, I was cracking up to the point I was crying continuously, but I wanted to stay off these tablets. In hindsight, I should have been taking something out to help with the whole process, but I didn't. I gave myself time. I said, if I'm still like this in 2 weeks, then do you know what? I gotta go back on them. There's no point in feeling miserable like that, and there's nothing to be ashamed of that. You literally can't cope because of your nervous mental system.
And there's just so much we don't know about depression. I know so many people that suffer from it, and it's always the bright bubbly ones. People always say, I never think that of you. And it's a good it's a good mask. People mask it very well because quite often it's people that are very outgoing and usually out there. You know? So I've had a few weeks of feeling quite low, actually, and it's been a good 18 months or so since I've had an episode, and it's been for for 18 months free for me. That's quite a long time. Even taking the medication, I still get low, and I believe we all get low.
But the difference with depression is you just can't pick yourself up. And over the last few weeks, perhaps even months, I've suffered no motivation. Wanting to do things It's frustrated me beyond belief because I think there's so many books I want to read. I want to listen to this. I want to watch that, learn that, but I can't be bothered. And everything is so goddamn boring. Maybe you can relate to this. Anyway, I've been waiting for something. I don't know what, and it's all kind of built up the last few weeks. I've been to a few sound baths. For those of you that don't know what sound bath is, you basically go, you meditate for an hour and a half, and this lady or a man plays, tuning forks, gongs, all which give off like energies, different frequencies to set healing about.
So I've been to a few of those, and the last one I went to was last week. And I'm not really into astrology like that, but it was something to do with the lion's gate last week on 8th. And it was a pretty intense meditation that you had to go in with the intent of what you wanted to change. It was all about manifesting things and bringing abundance in. And I did this meditation, and I didn't really feel any different. I felt happy, felt content. But I've been pushing things like, well, manifesting a healthy diet. Lots of you that know me, you know, I like to drink my wine in the evenings, and I think this has stopped me losing the weight I wanted to lose for about 3 years cos I just love that wine, and I don't just drink a glass.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not an alcoholic, but I look forward to that wine at 8 o'clock every night. 8 o'clock is 9 o'clock night, sometimes 7:30. But like I say, I wanted to lose weight. I joined a gym. I've been about 4 times. The couple of times I did go and meet my daughter there, like, stupid o'clock in the morning. You did feel amazing after, but I didn't want to be setting my alarm when we all I need my sleep badly and trying to juggle life balance and fit the gym in. It's just not for me. And like a neighbor said to me, actually, if you can't motivate yourself with a buddy, then it's not for you. So what a waste of money that I know now. You know? And I bought a kettlebell that still sat in the porch since the day I bought it. But I've been longing for this motivation and for this drive, and I do feel like I'm somewhat on the way. I've been trying to eat healthier. And for those of you that have been listening to the women's hour show and stuff, you see that I've been looking into raw milk, fermented foods, and lately mushrooms.
Mushrooms are just popping out everywhere. And the reason I had to start with this is the depression because the depression has been there for quite a few weeks, as I said, and up to up until even at the weekend, I think Saturday afternoon, I'd nothing to do. So it's like, I'm gonna go to bed for the afternoon because I like being by myself. I like being in my bed. I like not talking to anybody, and I'm not sleeping, but nobody can bother me. Just it's my space, my time, and I like this. And then Sunday came, motivated myself, managed to get through the day, went to work on Monday.
And there's been a bit of bad news where I'm working. It looks like it could be a rumour, but it's doubtful that we could all be out of work soon. And, again, this made my stomach sick because, I've never been in contracted employment before. I've always worked for myself or an agency work. And then you become reliant on your holiday pay, your sick pay, your annual leave pay. And the last few weeks, to be honest, my job's been quite hard. I'm an activities coordinator in a nursing home. And a few weeks ago, one of my favourite clients moved to another home, and another one of my favorite clients suddenly passed away. And this was like these are the main two people that I would go in and they you know, I know my job's working with the elderly and people with dementia and stuff like that, but it's nice to go in and have normal conversation. And I could go in and have a conversation with these guys, and then I'd tutor often. You know, I go and read to people. I do activities. I try to do bingo Friday afternoons now. I take in my PA, and I sing to them.
But these two people have gone, and with news that there's potential closure, we're not taking on any more residents. Our residents, unfortunately, when you're with people all day that can't communicate back with you, I found it quite draining because I was very fulfilled in my job, very fulfilled. And now it's like you go in and you speak to somebody with dementia for half an hour and you're trying to, you know, you're not having a conversation. I'm trying to get them to paint. I'm throwing a ball and like that, but my brain has been, like, calling out for more. In the last week since we found this out, I've felt even sicker to my stomach.
Then on Monday, I think that's when it hit me on Monday, I just had that pick in my stomach. And for those of you that know what depression is like, it's it's like somebody's died because there's no reason for it. I don't go without anything. I've got everything I need, but there's just this horrible feeling in your stomach, the pit of your stomach, that nothing is enjoyable. And I always know when this is happening, but but I didn't know. Like I said, I went to bed Saturday afternoon. It's crept up so slowly this time and because it's been a good 18 months or so since I've had an episode, I've not really seen the telltale signs.
So we will get to where this is going in a minute. Don't worry. I'm not gonna get you, like, feeling like you wanna slit your throats by the end of the show. There is a there is a positive twist to all of this because it's kind of started me on a little journey. So So the little journey being that I've been going to the sound healing baths, and we had to ask for you know, we had to manifest what we really wanted in our lives. And like I said, I want motivation. There's so many things. I've got guitar here knocking around piano. I can play a bit of both, and I want to do more. But I just look at them and think I can't afford. I don't want to do anything. Nothing is interesting.
So I lie down on the couch Monday evening for a couple of hours. Then I went up to bed and just couldn't speak, just feeling physically sick. And usually when that happens, I think the end is coming. The tide is turning. It's just ride that wave because you've just got to go through it. And at some point, it does usually clear. Well, yesterday morning, I woke up and I just felt an essence of clearing. But there's a reason behind this, I believe, as well. So I've been looking into, like I say, depression for years, all the different treatments you can try and stuff like that. So I've been looking into diet mainly because my son has got a very unhealthy diet and trying to get goodness into him. We've gone to the raw milk because everything we eat, I believe leads to all of these things like dementia and stuff like that. So there is a funny old journey because we go into the raw milk with the pasteurization.
And if you leave the milk, it turns into yogurt, and then it'll eventually turn to, like, fungi and stuff like that. And I've been looking into fermented foods. I mean, I haven't got my son on that yet, but then I've suddenly come across this mushroom path about a month ago. So I've been looking heavily into mushrooms, watching loads, reading loads. And a month ago, I came across a Netflix documentary. It's not actually on Netflix anymore. It went about a week ago. I had to watch it over 4 nights because it was there there was just so much information, and I wanted to take it in. And I really do need to watch it again. Anyway, I'm skipping ahead now because, point being, I'm doing this show tonight as well. I've been urged kicked on because when I was at work on Monday and everybody's feeling a bit down, you know, it says a lot when you've got both your supervisors in the office scrolling indeed for jobs, everyone's morale is pretty low.
And I said to one of the nurses, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do now. And she said, well, what would you like to do, Shelley? I said, you know, I'd like to do radio. And she said, well, do it. And I said, well, where am I gonna do radio? And it was obvious, isn't it? I've I've been doing this show for nearly 4 years. And she was saying about a local radio station, and they might be looking for people to host and stuff like that. And that's all very well, but, I mean, perhaps it could be a bonus. You know, if there's another pandemic, I could be that person, like, slit slipping in the odd bit of news that we're not allowed to say. But, you know, my cup of tea is doing things my way. I don't want somebody telling me what I can say, what I can't say.
And, anyway, I don't really think much more of it, but nobody's asked me in a long time, what do you want to do? I mean, if I ask you now, what do you want to do in your life? It's quite a thing, really. What makes you happy? And I went to bed that evening, and I started thinking about the radio show because quite often I struggle for guests and stuff like that. I do my shows, but in general, I have guests, which I love. But I realized that actually, do you know what? I've got stuff that I want to talk about. And by just interviewing people and not really participating, I'm not having the chance to talk about the things that I want to want to talk about. Now I'm not saying this is gonna be a regular thing. We'll see how tonight goes.
But I research lots of topics, and I have lots of lots of knowledge. And I thought, do you know what? It's it's time for me to shine. There's always that question. Who are you? Who do you think you are? Well, I'm Shelley Tasker, and if you do wanna listen to me, great. If you don't, scroll on by. I don't care. Turn off your radios. But I'm doing what I do when I suppose you can ask of a host why they do what they do, and it's gotta be for the love of it, sharing information, learning things. And what is the point of learning all of this stuff if you can't share it with anyone? Right. So before we go on to the mushrooms, I'm going to play a song because this is one of my favorite songs, and this song has been around for a very long time. It's the original songs by Simon and Garfunkel, but the new version that I love is by disturbed, and it's the sounds of silence.
And the reason I love the sounds of silence was because when I was pretty low a couple of years ago, I was having a bath and listening to it. And the first couple of lines, hello darkness, my old friend. And for what you know, lots of our songs, you don't really get what they're talking about. And for the first time, I could relate to that in a different way. It's very powerful song. Anyway, so before we move on to the happy topic of mushrooms, have a listen to this song. I'm sure most of you have heard it, but I need to play it because it's one of my favorite songs, and, you know, maybe you can relate to it a little bit too. Enjoy if it's gonna play. It's probably in the cloud.
Bear with me. This is live. We do expect these things to happen.
[00:15:17] Unknown:
Still in vain. Will in the sound
[00:18:40] Unknown:
Wow. What a tune that was disturbed sound of silence. Right. So as long as you're not ready to go and slit your throats, let's get onto the good bit. Because when you're coming out of a depression as well, everything's colorful again. You know, the flowers, they just they shine. You can see the colors. Whereas all I can explain in a state of depression is everything is black and white. You're numb. Anyway right. So a month ago, I found an awesome documentary, on Netflix. I was saying fantastic fun guy. Now I'm going to play you a 2 minute audio clip.
It's the trailer on YouTube, but I do urge you. I don't know where you can watch the film now or buy it, But the film well, I've watched over 4 parts, but it is just
[00:19:27] Unknown:
mind blowing. Anyway, I'm gonna play this short 2 minute clip clip a second. My mission is to discover the language of nature, and I believe nature is intelligent.
[00:19:38] Unknown:
There is a world under the earth full of magic and mystery. It holds the consciousness of nature's connection to all living things.
[00:19:58] Unknown:
You know, these mushrooms, they can heal you, they can feed you, they can kill you. It's not like a vegetable and it's not like a animal, but it's somewhere in between. They support life. They convert life. As you're walking through, it's about 300 miles of fungi. Under every footstep that you take and that's all over the world.
[00:20:17] Unknown:
The bulk of the organism is growing underground, and it's composed of these long threads called a mycelium.
[00:20:25] Unknown:
Almost everyone knows about the computer Internet. The mycelium shares the same network design. It's amazing what we don't know about mushrooms. They really are a frontier of knowledge. You can filter water. You can create medicinal compounds psychedelic members of the Mushroom Kingdom are fascinating. The psychedelic members of the Mushroom Kingdom are fascinating.
[00:20:53] Unknown:
I have been a guide for around 350 psilocybin sessions.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
The most glorious part was that it made me feel more comfortable with living because you're not afraid of dying. We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. What will it take to achieve that?
[00:21:13] Unknown:
We can heal the planet. We can build the future. And our world is fantastic.
[00:21:28] Unknown:
So that's just a brief introduction. I do urge you to watch that. So, anyway, I've been looking into mushrooms, the different types of mushrooms. And then one day last week, lo and behold, there's mushrooms in my garden. I'm really excited because I feel like I've manifested mushrooms. Okay? Because I've wanted to heal, and I've been going through, like I said, all these, like, raw ingredients, unpasteurized foods, fungi, fermented foods, all of that lot, looking into mushrooms, and then mushrooms appear in my garden. So I'm taking photos now, and I'm uploading them to Facebook. Can everybody tell me what this one is?
And we got a new lawn laid a couple of months ago, and, you know, they are amazing. They just pop up overnight. Anyway, I've not had any of the magic mushrooms, but it's still quite exciting. And I do know what magic mushrooms look like because, when I was younger, I did delve into taking mushrooms. I didn't have a very good experience, actually. I think I took them twice. 1 night, and we picked them from a local cricket ground, actually, and we had them in a tea. And I think, actually, I was more paranoid than anything. And I can remember phoning my mum up, asking her to pick me up.
And I said to her, I'm really scared. I've done magic mushrooms. And she actually spent the night in the bed with me because I was so scared. I was so scared of what people used to talk about the grim weeper, you know, the big black figure with a big like, sheer, not sheer. I don't know what you call that things. You know what I mean? Like an ax or something. Anyway, mum left a note for my dad downstairs actually, I'd done them. But prior to that, I've been messing around with the Ouija board of all things and then to do magic mushrooms after. It was just stupid.
Stupid. And when I delved into the Ouija board years ago, we did used to have stuff happen. And, you know, we didn't really know what we were doing. We were teenagers messing around. But after going to bed that night, I can remember staying at my friend's house and all these images I saw of, like, how and things like that. It was horrendous. Anyway, so I think I tried them again a week later, just a few, but I was so paranoid. And, anyway, that's my story of magic mushrooms. I've never looked to take them again because I would just get too paranoid. So anyway, mushrooms are appearing everywhere, and I've decided to look into it due to my depression and stuff like that.
So I start researching and now I'm thinking, right, where can I get some mushrooms to microdose? Okay. Now microdosing is what it is in the title, basically. Because when I've talked to a few people like this, they're like, are you mad? If you take too many, you'll be tripping. And I'm like, no. No. No. I'm not gonna sit here and take loads of mushrooms. I'm gonna take a very, very small dose on alternate days. I'm doing my research and I'm trying to find someone where I can source this from. And that's been quite interesting, actually, because where do you source something that isn't really legal in this country? Dubai is legal in some places.
So, I've done some delving into groups and stuff because lots of people, not just the magic mushrooms, but lots of people take the is it lion's mane, the concentration and stuff like that? You can get lots of mushroom supplies online, but not the psilocybin ones. And it's the psilocybin that makes you hallucinate. But if you microdose, it does other things. Now you would need, in theory, probably about 30 grams to, you know, to have a trippy reaction to it. And like I say, it's nothing. I don't want that. So I decided I'm going to look into microdosing. So on some of these pages, people are referencing mushrooms and things like that. And I literally spent about 2 hours, a few days ago going through posts, clicking on their links, trying to find pages. And every time I found a page that had a shop, obviously, it was just all these other mushroom powders.
And then there was a really discreet note follow such and such. I can't remember his name on Instagram. Well, I don't really use Instagram. So I logged on and I found this person, and I just followed them. And I thought, you know, I'll leave it at that. And 2 minutes later, I had a message. Hiya. Where are you from? How are you? And I messaged back. I'm Shelly. I live in Cornwall, blah blah. I'm thinking, no. Nobody's ever messaged me back so quick, but I understand why now. Anyway, so the next question, which I thought was hilarious, was, do you want to meditate, heal, or trip? And I was like, wow. It's it's getting real now, isn't it? So I said, well, actually, I want to take it for depression.
And he replied, yeah. Yeah. I can sort you out. I can sort you out. And I was asking a couple of other questions, and then I thought, do you know what? He he might be a good guest for a radio show, and he was saying that he was like a micro fanatic, knew all his staff. He's got degrees on it and stuff like this and other really interesting areas. However, his not that spelling's got anything to do with it, but he was, like, missing words out and stuff. And I thought, actually, perhaps not. But I said, could I give you a call for a couple of minutes? And he was like, no. Sorry. I'm not talking, you know, via the telephone. And I'm thinking, well, I'm not just going to order anything willy nilly.
So he said, how much do you want? This is what you need. And I said, oh, I said, well, I don't know. I don't know what dose to take or anything like that. So he said, I've got just what you need. He said it will cost you a £100 for a 30 day supply. And I was like, woah. I said, that's brilliant. I said, I need to research it a bit more. I wasn't looking at spending that much, to be honest with you. I haven't even looked into what it costs. So, I'll get back to you straight away. Message back. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll do it for £50. And I hate it when people do that because it's like they're obviously out to just make as much money as they can, aren't you? And And I just said, leave it with me anyway. So that was my first sort of like, delving into looking into these mushrooms.
So I went back to various, natural pages and things like that. And it was quite interesting looking through threads of people because they're all very discreet. Like I said, the first one, it was like, Oh, just follow this person on Instagram. And yet again, it was another person to follow on Instagram, but they had a website and I went, Oh, I'm thinking. So I went on the website and it was all about natural products that you could buy and you keep scrolling down. And then it just had mushrooms in a packet and it said £35 for a 1 month supply message for more info. So if all cases been more like it.
So I messaged this person and she was wonderful. And I was totally honest with her because it's like, you almost want to speak to a doctor, don't you? You know, I drink wine every night and I'm on an antidepressant. I don't want anything to mess me up or make me worse. I don't wanna trip anything like that. I want a bit of reassurance, really. And she said, obviously, I'm not a doctor, blah blah blah, but I've been doing this for years. This has helped. And I said it's mainly for depression and motivation because they also believe that if you if you microdose, it will refix the neurons to help motivate you to set new targets and things. And she was just giving me ideas and just saying, you know, perhaps start walking your dog 8 o'clock every night. Just start changing your ways and stuff. And I felt really excited talking to her because she was she was lovely, actually.
So, and she said, you need no point 2 milligrams every other day. And so, anyway, I've gone for it. Okay? So I'm telling you all this because I'm gonna come back in a few weeks and let you know how I'm getting on. So I'm waiting for those to arrive, and I'm quite excited, actually. And today, I've also, ordered lions gate. Nope. Lions main, and that is legal. And that's supposed to help with concentration and stuff like that. But if you stack the supplements, they'll work even stronger in different ways. So I've ordered that and we'll start seeing, you know, what happens. So that's where I am, and I'm looking forward to that.
And then it sent me on a path because the legislation of mushrooms, which I can't find too much about. Now I don't know if you guys have checked out the cancer act 1939. Very interesting because what it basically says is that anybody that does any research or offers anybody medications that can, cure cancer and other ailments, they will be prosecuted because we all know cancer is a massive money making. It's it's massive pharmaceutical stuff. They don't want us having natural things. And in the documentary that I said, the fantastic fungi, the man in it, his mum, had stage 4 breast cancer and started microdosing.
And within 6 months, she was completely healed. So after looking at the Cancer Act 1939, I'm just looking through it now, and it shows you a list of all people that have been prosecuted for it, actually, people that believe that they cure cancer with stuff, and, you know, they've been fined and stuff like that. So I couldn't find one as such to do with the cancer act, any sort of act, but more like a psychedelic act. It was a bit more about you can use mushrooms, but the whole psychedelic part of it, it it just didn't have an act anyway. But it took me on a rabbit hole then. Okay. Because then I got to look in at I do love a rabbit hole. I'm just trying to find my friends here.
Right. The guy that was doing the experiments, he was the one that first started looking into magic mushrooms in the sixties. And you may have heard of it, The Concord Prison Experiment. And this was conducted from 1961 to 1963. And it was designed to evaluate whether the experience is produced by the psych psychoactive drug, psycho I can't even say it now. I've got it written down easy because I just keep messing up that word. Psilocybin. Psilocybin. Sorry. I've lost my, thought now. Combined with psychotherapy could inspire prisoners to leave their antisocial lifestyles behind once they were released.
And how well it worked was to be judged by comparing the rate of subjects who received psychobility. You know the word, with the average rubber concord inmates. So the experiment was conducted between February January, a 2 year period, basically, and it was held for the group of 32 prisoners. So the results basically suggested that 64% of the 32 subjects would return to prison within 6 months of parole. However, after 6 months, only 25% of those on parole had returned. 6 for technical parole violations and 2 for new offenses, but few short term projects with prisoners have been effective to even a minor degree. Now the same guy that did this experiment carried out another experiment, which was called the marsh chapel experiment. Now I think this was amazing.
It was all to do with a good Friday service. So the, prior to the Good Friday service, 20 graduate degree divinity student volunteers from the Boston area were randomly divided into 2 groups. In a double blinded experiment, half of the students received psilocybin while a control group received a large dose of niacin. Niacin produces clear psychological changes and was thus used as an active placebo. And at least some cases, those who received the niacin initially believed that they had received the psychoactive drug. However, the feeling of face turning red feeling hauntingly produced niacin subsided about an hour after receiving the dose, whereas the effects of the sibin intensified over the first few hours.
Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences. Providing support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. One of the participants in the experiment was religious scholar Houston Smith, who would become an author of several textbooks on comparative religion. He later described his experience as the most powerful cosmic homecoming I have ever experienced. Another participant was Paul Lee, who was Paul Tilch's teaching assistant at the divinity school. I'm one of the founding editors of the psychedelic review. Lee was given the niacin at least for 3 sessions. No, at least for these sessions. Amidst other intriguing general observations in the early titled, the mushroom.
He recounted, I had the the feeling finally that Ralph Meza was exceedingly aware of what was going on and didn't know what to do about it except be somewhat embarrassed. Under the influence of the drugs, such interpersonal dynamics are transparently obvious and cannot help but be noticed and acknowledged. I again have the impression of the room being a vast sensorium where all subtleties are vividly and empathetically experienced. One's intuitive powers are increased dramatically, which leads to qualities of understanding and communion and affection. I responded profoundly to this character of experience.
During the last hour, it seemed as we reached a kind of easy plateau where we all sat around and chatted. The group dynamics were beautiful. I thought that we all shared this power and could utilize or give expression to as much as we wanted. It was during this time that Michael tried to take a directing hand in things, and I consented him and let him. It was like an exercise in power gymnastics, and I enjoyed the dynamics of it intensely. Repeating such words as wonderful, beautiful in order to express my enjoyment and appreciation. Ernie kept repeating phrases that we outlawed which was funny.
I again had a tremendous amount of sinus drainage, almost more than the previous time, although there was nothing revelatory about it. So Timothy Leary, who had supervised this experiment, I believe it was him who died of, it might not have been him. Sorry. I should have this. It might have been the Ralph Metzer, died in a scuba diving accident and never came back to this experiment. And other people decided that, you know, this was, god, years ago that they would go back and investigate and speak to these people now to see where they're at in their where they're at in their lives because of their experiences of taking the mushrooms.
So I found I can't play it because it's like an hour and 24 minutes. I believe even the priest had a dose of the psilocybin mushrooms, and his sermon was an hour and 24 minutes long. I listened to some of it last night, and it's amazing. You can imagine somebody on Good Friday giving this speech, but tripping on magic mushrooms, obviously, having the most spiritual experience of their life. And since then as well, it's become a common thing for people because of religious views to take the mushrooms on Good Friday. Anyway, they're just 2 of the things that I've delved into, and I wanna look at more of these experiments as well. But, just for myself, really, I want to want to see where I'm at.
I do wanna say I am live on Rumble. If anybody wanted to join in the chat, leave any comments. Please feel free. There is also a link to join me via Skype if you wanted to call in and have a quick chat. At some point soon, there will be a call in button on the radio show. But if there's anybody out there that would like to phone in, have a quick chat, I'm here. Okay? So I have got another little thing to listen to. This one's a bit longer. It's 12 minutes. Well, where if I listen, it's a TED talk. I do love a little bit of TED talk. I know you're not gonna be able to see the visuals, but just the information should be, quite.
[00:38:51] Unknown:
I'm a researcher, and I work out of a laboratory at the University of British Columbia in Canada. We focus on drugs like cannabis, and some psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. I've been really curious how people use these substances to improve their health. So over the past 3 years, I've teamed up with an international team of scientists to launch the largest study of microdosing. And I'm really pumped to be here to tell you what microdosing is, why people are doing it, and a little bit about if it works. Before I jump into that, I want to acknowledge that my university and home, where most of this research has been conducted, is located on the unceded territory of the Syil Okanagan people.
And if we're talking about using psychedelics as a tool for healing, it's important that we recognize that indigenous people have been the knowledge keepers of these traditions for 1000 of years, and are the true pioneers in the field. So in the timeline of psychedelics, it's only been a pretty small amount of time that Western culture has been around for. But that said, a lot has happened in the past 70 something years. The mind altering effects of psychedelics helped to shape the counterculture movement of the 19 sixties, and now scientists are exploring the use of large doses of psychedelics as a tool for curing some really hard to treat disorders, like post traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety.
If there's one word that characterizes all these different uses of psychedelics, it's big. Big doses are used to create big effects. For a patient going through psychedelic treatment or even your friend on their way to a Grateful Dead concert, doses are usually big enough to create some sort of trip. You know, colors looking richer, a mystical connection with the universe, or maybe a sprinkling of colors behind closed eyelids. But what I'm here to talk to you about today is not big. In fact, for most psychedelic microdosers, the ideal effects wouldn't create any sort of trip. They'd actually be small enough that they could go about their day doing whatever needs to be done.
But even without the trip, psychedelic microdoses appear to be making a real difference in the lives of people taking them. The press is picking up on stories of microdoses who say that the practice has helped them manage mental illness or has saved their marriage. Tech gurus in Silicon Valley testifying to the productivity boost they get from microdosing. And comedians, musicians, and artists use the practice as a part of their creative ritual. True believers are eager to share the wonder of microdosing with the world, But they recognize that the average person wants a scientific stamp of approval before popping LSD on a workday, even if it is a small amount.
That said, the microdosing community has gone above and beyond to bring attention to the topic, including roping researchers like myself into it. We've now published 2 papers that collectively have been downloaded over 600,000 times, and it's all thanks to the microdosing community that called out for research and volunteered their time to push science forward. With all that enthusiasm, it's hard not to get swept up into the excitement of microdosing. But still, I like to wade into these topics with some genuine curiosity, because there's a lot we don't know.
So let's start with what we do know. Our study recruited over 12,000 microdosing participants and thousands more that weren't microdosing so that we could compare the 2 groups to find out who is microdosing, what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it's working out for them. We have microdoses join in from across the world, but the majority came from North America, Europe, and Australia. And in general, they didn't look all that different from the people that weren't microdosing, except for maybe being a little bit older and from urban areas. As for what it is, people in our study were microdosing with a few different things, including what are sometimes lovingly referred to as magic mushrooms, and some other psychedelics, like LSD, MDMA.
As for what it is, people in our study were microdosing with a few different things, including what I sometimes refer to as magic mushrooms, which contain the psychedelic ingredient of psilocybin, and some other psychedelics like LSD, Ketamine, and MDMA. But for the most part, people were using either LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. Microdoses have a few different ways of going about their practice, but most commonly, people are taking these psychedelic substances in small doses. Now, even from what I told you, you could tell that the way people are using these substances is very different from what we normally think of as drug use, and really better fits with how someone might take a vitamin or a supplement.
In our study, microdoses mostly said they started the practice for health reasons, like to reduce stress or to improve cognition, like the computer programmer that takes a dose at the start of the day to improve their focus. Interestingly, the number one reason our participants said they got into was for mindfulness, which really helps to point to this kind of shared wellness intention across all microdoses. For many, this practice is used as an aid for managing mental health. In fact, one study found that some microdosers reported that it was even more effective than conventional treatments for things like depression and anxiety.
So when we designed our study, it's really important that we build in a focus on mental health. And microdosing is a practice that happens over weeks, not days. So we track things like depression, anxiety, and stress over the span of a month. So how did microdoses' mental health change over the course of our study? To answer this question, we took a look at just the people that were microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms. What we found is that over the span of a month, microdoses were in a better mood, were less depressed, less anxious, and less stressed than the people that weren't engaging in the practice.
Now with so many people microdosing for cognitive enhancement and brain health, we we felt it was important that we took a look at this area as well. So what we did is we included some measures of cognitive ability. One of which is called the finger tap test. And yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. We asked participants to tap their fingers onto their phone. As simple as it is, this test makes a pretty good proxy for brain health and has been used to spot diseases like Parkinson's. We gave this tap test to everyone in our study, but our brains really change as we get older, so we are sure to look at younger and older people separately.
What we found is the same pattern as with mental health. Microdoses' tap scores grew more over the course of the study than people that weren't microdosing. But interestingly, this was especially true for the people that were over the age of 55, which really helps to point to the potential of microdosing to be making its biggest impact as we age. I mentioned earlier that microdoses tend to have a few different ways of going about their practice. Well, one thing that we picked up on in our study is that more than half of our microdosing participants said that they were combining their psychedelic substances with other non psychedelic substances in a process called stacking.
So what were people mixing together? Well, mostly, it was natural products with corresponding health benefits, like cacao, the raw version of chocolate, which is mixed in for mood and mental health, or lion's mane mushrooms that are often put into the mix because they've been suggested to help protect our brains. With all these different combinations appearing, how do we know that what we found is related to the psychedelics and not due to these additional stacked substances? So what we did is we compared our microdosers that were using only psilocybin mushrooms to the ones that stacked with the popular combination consisting of lion's mane mushrooms and niacin.
And although all microdoses, stacked and non, were related to more improvement than doing nothing, the stack combination came out on top for top score improvement over the month of our study. So from what it looks like here, the stack combination may have actually been helping to boost some of these microdosing benefits. So these are just the first things to come out of our study, but many questions remain. At the forefront of these is how expectations might be playing into our findings. Our studies show that microdoses were doing better over time, but is that mostly due to the fact that they thought they were going to get better when they started the study?
We didn't tell anyone in our study to start microdosing or to not, so anyone that did probably started because they thought it was going to work. So how much of this mental health and cognition boost that we found is really related to microdosing? And how much of it is due to a placebo effect where our participants started doing better because they expected to? Future studies are on their way to unpacking these questions, and the ones that are emerging are working closely with the microdosing community to develop new ways to approach the placebo effect in this context. So for me, as a clinical scientist, it's not my job to say whether microdosing is good or bad, but rather to find ways to walk alongside this group as they find their own path to wellness.
Our study asked the question, why are you microdosing? And the resounding response from participants was to be more mindful. And I think the same applies here. Every day, people are becoming increasingly more mindful of their health decisions. Those of you that are empowered to be more thoughtful about your wellness and about your approach to scientific information are bridging the gap that separates science from the public. That will hopefully bring us into a future where researchers and the public can work alongside each other to identify and solve problems.
Thank you.
[00:49:47] Unknown:
There we are. I do like a good TED talk. Anyway, Jo is gonna come on for 5 minutes and tell us her thoughts about microdosing and her perceptions on a world of less than rednecking mushrooms. Good evening, Jo.
[00:50:09] Unknown:
Hello. Can you hear me? I can hear you.
[00:50:13] Unknown:
How are you, my lovely?
[00:50:15] Unknown:
I'm very, very well. A little confused with my new laptop laptop here, so I'm glad it's connected.
[00:50:23] Unknown:
So what are your thoughts, Jo, about all of this microdosing and, you know, people's perception? What if everybody microdosed?
[00:50:36] Unknown:
I mean, is that some sort of trick question? Because I find it really odd that people wouldn't because, you know, I mean, it's such, it's such a conversation that opens many different avenues. You know? But at the bottom of it, we're human beings. We have evolved, and we haven't you know, however we have evolved and whatever point we've come from, we've always well, we've we've always looked after our health via a natural way, and it's only the last 100 years that pharmaceuticals have come into it. So for 1000 of years prior to the last hundred, we have always used natural remedies and microdosed for are microdosed for practically every ailment that there is.
So I find it odd that people would not want to do that. I think it's a good idea.
[00:51:52] Unknown:
So will you be joining me? Are you gonna let me be the guinea pig first?
[00:51:57] Unknown:
I think somebody else had said that to you as well. Oh, no. You go first and we're just there it goes. I mean, you know, I I take lion's mane, and I take a whole load of other stuff.
[00:52:14] Unknown:
But it is true. We are all looking when you look in these, like, health food shops and everything now, I mean, there is something for everything, isn't there? And the amount of supplements that people take, they're all going for the natural stuff. I I I can't believe how, like, places like Holland and Barrett, they used to be small shops, but they're massive now because people wanna go back to natural stuff.
[00:52:38] Unknown:
Yeah. They do, but that's almost double edged sword. You know? You look at Holland and Barra and who owns them, who who sort of bankrolls them for one of the bad words. They're not although they're onto the label of a natural health store, and there are few products in there that that are purely natural, the majority of their produce has a whole load of fillers in.
[00:53:08] Unknown:
You know? So,
[00:53:10] Unknown:
you know, I don't I don't buy anything from there that would involve supplements. You know? I might buy a bag of nuts or something, you know, that they get they they can't. A bag of nuts. Yeah. Yeah. You know, everything else, they've got fillers in because they're mass produced. So, you know, my argument would be, in essence, are you doing more harm than good by using their products? You know, you need to find somebody that just sells the actual product. You don't need fillers in there to the the reason that they do is to bulk it out, and you get very, very little of whatever it is you think that you're buying. You know, to buy natural products, natural supplements, you can buy them with what they call an uptake.
In there just as a flow agent when it's going through the press and it's being manufactured, you put a flow agent in there to help it pass through the machinery better. And, basically, it's anything like, black pepper and and turmeric. You don't need the synthetic flow agents. You don't need those bulky agents in there.
[00:54:35] Unknown:
So, yeah, Holland and Barra is not the place to buy stuff. No. But I'm just surprised how many people now are looking that route. And I suppose if you're online, you know, we can look at different websites and stuff because I know everybody keeps saying this at the moment. You wanna be getting the most purest form of whatever you want, really. I didn't realize that Holland and Barrow were were so dodgy, to be honest with you, but, yeah, it would be interesting to see who they're owned by and stuff like that.
[00:55:00] Unknown:
Yeah. Probably the same I mean, I can't I can't remember off the top of my head right now, but I know it's someone along the lines of you know, people talk about there are handful of companies that own all the products in the world. You know, like Coca Cola, they are several things. And it's one of those handful of companies that owns Holland and Barra.
[00:55:30] Unknown:
That is interesting. Okay. I don't tend to go in them much. I used to go in there to get vitamins and stuff, but I I shall not go in again. Yeah. So when are you doing your microdosing then? Well, when they arrive, I'm so excited. I'm really excited because already I think that placebo effect has been put in place because I've seen so much positive stuff, and I'm like, right. Things are gonna change. This is gonna help me. I might be totally wrong. It might not do anything, but like I say, mushrooms everywhere growing in my garden, all the sort of research y sort of things I've been doing lately, building up to this, and I just feel like I've it's time. It's time.
[00:56:10] Unknown:
Yeah. And and again, it's going back to a natural product. Yeah. You know? And and the keyword here is microdosing. You're not taking it to go sit in the garden and sing, you know, or something can get high as a kite. You know, you're microdosing for a specific ailment that you or anybody else has. And, again, it goes back to what I said moment ago. You know, right up until the point of a 100 years ago, we were using natural remedies for absolutely everything. So, you know, going natural is the way way to be. We are a natural entity. We are part of you know? God, I sound like a hippie. But we are part of the earth. We are part of the environment, and nature provides that medicine for us.
[00:57:07] Unknown:
We are the ground. We go back to the ground and that whole, I can never say the word, mycelium thing that we've been learning about, the the energy from the mushrooms and stuff like that, all connected. So, actually, we are highly connected to mushrooms.
[00:57:23] Unknown:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I look forward with bated breath to see how you get on. I think you you you you've had a good experience sort of with family members using homeopathic remedies anyway, and you you know, you've said that you've seen a change in in behavior. So, again, the proof is in the pudding. You've seen what natural products can do. So
[00:57:50] Unknown:
Yeah. Why does it? I'm all for it. I'm all for it. I know. You might see, you know, in a couple of weeks' time, this woman that's so organized and ideas bouncing out of my head, and I do feel a bit like that now, but, that's the placebo effect, I'm sure. Anyway, we're gonna have to round up. Thank you for your views, and that was most interesting about Holland and Barrow. Never really thought about it like that. You're full of useful information anyway, aren't you? Follow the money. Follow the money. Follow the money. Thank you, Jo, for your call. Well, I got you. You. You. Nice to speak to you. You take care. You. See you. Thanks. Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Oh, bless her.
Yeah. She's absolutely right. I'm gonna have to look into this Holland and Barrett thing. Anyway, we are coming to a close. The hour has gone quick. I've enjoyed it. It's nice to share things that I'm interested in, and I hope that you found this interesting as well. I will be up next, for those of you listening on radiosoakbox.com, I will be on the connection with Malefika Scott, my partner in crime, where we will delve into part 3, I think it is, of our, historic world war d day thing that we've been doing thing.
Just call it a thing, our little projects. Anyway, I will be back the same time next week, probably with a guest. This isn't gonna be a regular thing, but, I've enjoyed it. Hope you've enjoyed it too. Have an awesome week, and stay tuned for the Kono connection.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Shelley Tasker Show here coming live from radio soapbox.com. It's good to have your company, and today's date is Wednesday, 14th August 2024. Happy hump day, everybody. Well, there is no guest today. I am brave in it, and I'm going solo. I've had a weird few weeks, to be honest with you, and, well, I'm gonna tell you a bit about what's been going on. I've got a few topics to talk about, but for the last week well, not week. The last few weeks, I've actually been suffering a little bit with mental health, and it's a topic that I think needs to be addressed. People need to relate to it and know that others aren't alone.
I've suffered with depression on and off probably for nearly 30 years, been on antidepressants for, yeah, nearly 30 years, and it's a long old time. I've tried weaning myself off a couple of years ago. I cut back one tablet a week for a month, then 2 tablets. I did it really slowly, and I managed nearly a year. But by the end of that year, I was cracking up to the point I was crying continuously, but I wanted to stay off these tablets. In hindsight, I should have been taking something out to help with the whole process, but I didn't. I gave myself time. I said, if I'm still like this in 2 weeks, then do you know what? I gotta go back on them. There's no point in feeling miserable like that, and there's nothing to be ashamed of that. You literally can't cope because of your nervous mental system.
And there's just so much we don't know about depression. I know so many people that suffer from it, and it's always the bright bubbly ones. People always say, I never think that of you. And it's a good it's a good mask. People mask it very well because quite often it's people that are very outgoing and usually out there. You know? So I've had a few weeks of feeling quite low, actually, and it's been a good 18 months or so since I've had an episode, and it's been for for 18 months free for me. That's quite a long time. Even taking the medication, I still get low, and I believe we all get low.
But the difference with depression is you just can't pick yourself up. And over the last few weeks, perhaps even months, I've suffered no motivation. Wanting to do things It's frustrated me beyond belief because I think there's so many books I want to read. I want to listen to this. I want to watch that, learn that, but I can't be bothered. And everything is so goddamn boring. Maybe you can relate to this. Anyway, I've been waiting for something. I don't know what, and it's all kind of built up the last few weeks. I've been to a few sound baths. For those of you that don't know what sound bath is, you basically go, you meditate for an hour and a half, and this lady or a man plays, tuning forks, gongs, all which give off like energies, different frequencies to set healing about.
So I've been to a few of those, and the last one I went to was last week. And I'm not really into astrology like that, but it was something to do with the lion's gate last week on 8th. And it was a pretty intense meditation that you had to go in with the intent of what you wanted to change. It was all about manifesting things and bringing abundance in. And I did this meditation, and I didn't really feel any different. I felt happy, felt content. But I've been pushing things like, well, manifesting a healthy diet. Lots of you that know me, you know, I like to drink my wine in the evenings, and I think this has stopped me losing the weight I wanted to lose for about 3 years cos I just love that wine, and I don't just drink a glass.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not an alcoholic, but I look forward to that wine at 8 o'clock every night. 8 o'clock is 9 o'clock night, sometimes 7:30. But like I say, I wanted to lose weight. I joined a gym. I've been about 4 times. The couple of times I did go and meet my daughter there, like, stupid o'clock in the morning. You did feel amazing after, but I didn't want to be setting my alarm when we all I need my sleep badly and trying to juggle life balance and fit the gym in. It's just not for me. And like a neighbor said to me, actually, if you can't motivate yourself with a buddy, then it's not for you. So what a waste of money that I know now. You know? And I bought a kettlebell that still sat in the porch since the day I bought it. But I've been longing for this motivation and for this drive, and I do feel like I'm somewhat on the way. I've been trying to eat healthier. And for those of you that have been listening to the women's hour show and stuff, you see that I've been looking into raw milk, fermented foods, and lately mushrooms.
Mushrooms are just popping out everywhere. And the reason I had to start with this is the depression because the depression has been there for quite a few weeks, as I said, and up to up until even at the weekend, I think Saturday afternoon, I'd nothing to do. So it's like, I'm gonna go to bed for the afternoon because I like being by myself. I like being in my bed. I like not talking to anybody, and I'm not sleeping, but nobody can bother me. Just it's my space, my time, and I like this. And then Sunday came, motivated myself, managed to get through the day, went to work on Monday.
And there's been a bit of bad news where I'm working. It looks like it could be a rumour, but it's doubtful that we could all be out of work soon. And, again, this made my stomach sick because, I've never been in contracted employment before. I've always worked for myself or an agency work. And then you become reliant on your holiday pay, your sick pay, your annual leave pay. And the last few weeks, to be honest, my job's been quite hard. I'm an activities coordinator in a nursing home. And a few weeks ago, one of my favourite clients moved to another home, and another one of my favorite clients suddenly passed away. And this was like these are the main two people that I would go in and they you know, I know my job's working with the elderly and people with dementia and stuff like that, but it's nice to go in and have normal conversation. And I could go in and have a conversation with these guys, and then I'd tutor often. You know, I go and read to people. I do activities. I try to do bingo Friday afternoons now. I take in my PA, and I sing to them.
But these two people have gone, and with news that there's potential closure, we're not taking on any more residents. Our residents, unfortunately, when you're with people all day that can't communicate back with you, I found it quite draining because I was very fulfilled in my job, very fulfilled. And now it's like you go in and you speak to somebody with dementia for half an hour and you're trying to, you know, you're not having a conversation. I'm trying to get them to paint. I'm throwing a ball and like that, but my brain has been, like, calling out for more. In the last week since we found this out, I've felt even sicker to my stomach.
Then on Monday, I think that's when it hit me on Monday, I just had that pick in my stomach. And for those of you that know what depression is like, it's it's like somebody's died because there's no reason for it. I don't go without anything. I've got everything I need, but there's just this horrible feeling in your stomach, the pit of your stomach, that nothing is enjoyable. And I always know when this is happening, but but I didn't know. Like I said, I went to bed Saturday afternoon. It's crept up so slowly this time and because it's been a good 18 months or so since I've had an episode, I've not really seen the telltale signs.
So we will get to where this is going in a minute. Don't worry. I'm not gonna get you, like, feeling like you wanna slit your throats by the end of the show. There is a there is a positive twist to all of this because it's kind of started me on a little journey. So So the little journey being that I've been going to the sound healing baths, and we had to ask for you know, we had to manifest what we really wanted in our lives. And like I said, I want motivation. There's so many things. I've got guitar here knocking around piano. I can play a bit of both, and I want to do more. But I just look at them and think I can't afford. I don't want to do anything. Nothing is interesting.
So I lie down on the couch Monday evening for a couple of hours. Then I went up to bed and just couldn't speak, just feeling physically sick. And usually when that happens, I think the end is coming. The tide is turning. It's just ride that wave because you've just got to go through it. And at some point, it does usually clear. Well, yesterday morning, I woke up and I just felt an essence of clearing. But there's a reason behind this, I believe, as well. So I've been looking into, like I say, depression for years, all the different treatments you can try and stuff like that. So I've been looking into diet mainly because my son has got a very unhealthy diet and trying to get goodness into him. We've gone to the raw milk because everything we eat, I believe leads to all of these things like dementia and stuff like that. So there is a funny old journey because we go into the raw milk with the pasteurization.
And if you leave the milk, it turns into yogurt, and then it'll eventually turn to, like, fungi and stuff like that. And I've been looking into fermented foods. I mean, I haven't got my son on that yet, but then I've suddenly come across this mushroom path about a month ago. So I've been looking heavily into mushrooms, watching loads, reading loads. And a month ago, I came across a Netflix documentary. It's not actually on Netflix anymore. It went about a week ago. I had to watch it over 4 nights because it was there there was just so much information, and I wanted to take it in. And I really do need to watch it again. Anyway, I'm skipping ahead now because, point being, I'm doing this show tonight as well. I've been urged kicked on because when I was at work on Monday and everybody's feeling a bit down, you know, it says a lot when you've got both your supervisors in the office scrolling indeed for jobs, everyone's morale is pretty low.
And I said to one of the nurses, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do now. And she said, well, what would you like to do, Shelley? I said, you know, I'd like to do radio. And she said, well, do it. And I said, well, where am I gonna do radio? And it was obvious, isn't it? I've I've been doing this show for nearly 4 years. And she was saying about a local radio station, and they might be looking for people to host and stuff like that. And that's all very well, but, I mean, perhaps it could be a bonus. You know, if there's another pandemic, I could be that person, like, slit slipping in the odd bit of news that we're not allowed to say. But, you know, my cup of tea is doing things my way. I don't want somebody telling me what I can say, what I can't say.
And, anyway, I don't really think much more of it, but nobody's asked me in a long time, what do you want to do? I mean, if I ask you now, what do you want to do in your life? It's quite a thing, really. What makes you happy? And I went to bed that evening, and I started thinking about the radio show because quite often I struggle for guests and stuff like that. I do my shows, but in general, I have guests, which I love. But I realized that actually, do you know what? I've got stuff that I want to talk about. And by just interviewing people and not really participating, I'm not having the chance to talk about the things that I want to want to talk about. Now I'm not saying this is gonna be a regular thing. We'll see how tonight goes.
But I research lots of topics, and I have lots of lots of knowledge. And I thought, do you know what? It's it's time for me to shine. There's always that question. Who are you? Who do you think you are? Well, I'm Shelley Tasker, and if you do wanna listen to me, great. If you don't, scroll on by. I don't care. Turn off your radios. But I'm doing what I do when I suppose you can ask of a host why they do what they do, and it's gotta be for the love of it, sharing information, learning things. And what is the point of learning all of this stuff if you can't share it with anyone? Right. So before we go on to the mushrooms, I'm going to play a song because this is one of my favorite songs, and this song has been around for a very long time. It's the original songs by Simon and Garfunkel, but the new version that I love is by disturbed, and it's the sounds of silence.
And the reason I love the sounds of silence was because when I was pretty low a couple of years ago, I was having a bath and listening to it. And the first couple of lines, hello darkness, my old friend. And for what you know, lots of our songs, you don't really get what they're talking about. And for the first time, I could relate to that in a different way. It's very powerful song. Anyway, so before we move on to the happy topic of mushrooms, have a listen to this song. I'm sure most of you have heard it, but I need to play it because it's one of my favorite songs, and, you know, maybe you can relate to it a little bit too. Enjoy if it's gonna play. It's probably in the cloud.
Bear with me. This is live. We do expect these things to happen.
[00:15:17] Unknown:
Still in vain. Will in the sound
[00:18:40] Unknown:
Wow. What a tune that was disturbed sound of silence. Right. So as long as you're not ready to go and slit your throats, let's get onto the good bit. Because when you're coming out of a depression as well, everything's colorful again. You know, the flowers, they just they shine. You can see the colors. Whereas all I can explain in a state of depression is everything is black and white. You're numb. Anyway right. So a month ago, I found an awesome documentary, on Netflix. I was saying fantastic fun guy. Now I'm going to play you a 2 minute audio clip.
It's the trailer on YouTube, but I do urge you. I don't know where you can watch the film now or buy it, But the film well, I've watched over 4 parts, but it is just
[00:19:27] Unknown:
mind blowing. Anyway, I'm gonna play this short 2 minute clip clip a second. My mission is to discover the language of nature, and I believe nature is intelligent.
[00:19:38] Unknown:
There is a world under the earth full of magic and mystery. It holds the consciousness of nature's connection to all living things.
[00:19:58] Unknown:
You know, these mushrooms, they can heal you, they can feed you, they can kill you. It's not like a vegetable and it's not like a animal, but it's somewhere in between. They support life. They convert life. As you're walking through, it's about 300 miles of fungi. Under every footstep that you take and that's all over the world.
[00:20:17] Unknown:
The bulk of the organism is growing underground, and it's composed of these long threads called a mycelium.
[00:20:25] Unknown:
Almost everyone knows about the computer Internet. The mycelium shares the same network design. It's amazing what we don't know about mushrooms. They really are a frontier of knowledge. You can filter water. You can create medicinal compounds psychedelic members of the Mushroom Kingdom are fascinating. The psychedelic members of the Mushroom Kingdom are fascinating.
[00:20:53] Unknown:
I have been a guide for around 350 psilocybin sessions.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
The most glorious part was that it made me feel more comfortable with living because you're not afraid of dying. We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. What will it take to achieve that?
[00:21:13] Unknown:
We can heal the planet. We can build the future. And our world is fantastic.
[00:21:28] Unknown:
So that's just a brief introduction. I do urge you to watch that. So, anyway, I've been looking into mushrooms, the different types of mushrooms. And then one day last week, lo and behold, there's mushrooms in my garden. I'm really excited because I feel like I've manifested mushrooms. Okay? Because I've wanted to heal, and I've been going through, like I said, all these, like, raw ingredients, unpasteurized foods, fungi, fermented foods, all of that lot, looking into mushrooms, and then mushrooms appear in my garden. So I'm taking photos now, and I'm uploading them to Facebook. Can everybody tell me what this one is?
And we got a new lawn laid a couple of months ago, and, you know, they are amazing. They just pop up overnight. Anyway, I've not had any of the magic mushrooms, but it's still quite exciting. And I do know what magic mushrooms look like because, when I was younger, I did delve into taking mushrooms. I didn't have a very good experience, actually. I think I took them twice. 1 night, and we picked them from a local cricket ground, actually, and we had them in a tea. And I think, actually, I was more paranoid than anything. And I can remember phoning my mum up, asking her to pick me up.
And I said to her, I'm really scared. I've done magic mushrooms. And she actually spent the night in the bed with me because I was so scared. I was so scared of what people used to talk about the grim weeper, you know, the big black figure with a big like, sheer, not sheer. I don't know what you call that things. You know what I mean? Like an ax or something. Anyway, mum left a note for my dad downstairs actually, I'd done them. But prior to that, I've been messing around with the Ouija board of all things and then to do magic mushrooms after. It was just stupid.
Stupid. And when I delved into the Ouija board years ago, we did used to have stuff happen. And, you know, we didn't really know what we were doing. We were teenagers messing around. But after going to bed that night, I can remember staying at my friend's house and all these images I saw of, like, how and things like that. It was horrendous. Anyway, so I think I tried them again a week later, just a few, but I was so paranoid. And, anyway, that's my story of magic mushrooms. I've never looked to take them again because I would just get too paranoid. So anyway, mushrooms are appearing everywhere, and I've decided to look into it due to my depression and stuff like that.
So I start researching and now I'm thinking, right, where can I get some mushrooms to microdose? Okay. Now microdosing is what it is in the title, basically. Because when I've talked to a few people like this, they're like, are you mad? If you take too many, you'll be tripping. And I'm like, no. No. No. I'm not gonna sit here and take loads of mushrooms. I'm gonna take a very, very small dose on alternate days. I'm doing my research and I'm trying to find someone where I can source this from. And that's been quite interesting, actually, because where do you source something that isn't really legal in this country? Dubai is legal in some places.
So, I've done some delving into groups and stuff because lots of people, not just the magic mushrooms, but lots of people take the is it lion's mane, the concentration and stuff like that? You can get lots of mushroom supplies online, but not the psilocybin ones. And it's the psilocybin that makes you hallucinate. But if you microdose, it does other things. Now you would need, in theory, probably about 30 grams to, you know, to have a trippy reaction to it. And like I say, it's nothing. I don't want that. So I decided I'm going to look into microdosing. So on some of these pages, people are referencing mushrooms and things like that. And I literally spent about 2 hours, a few days ago going through posts, clicking on their links, trying to find pages. And every time I found a page that had a shop, obviously, it was just all these other mushroom powders.
And then there was a really discreet note follow such and such. I can't remember his name on Instagram. Well, I don't really use Instagram. So I logged on and I found this person, and I just followed them. And I thought, you know, I'll leave it at that. And 2 minutes later, I had a message. Hiya. Where are you from? How are you? And I messaged back. I'm Shelly. I live in Cornwall, blah blah. I'm thinking, no. Nobody's ever messaged me back so quick, but I understand why now. Anyway, so the next question, which I thought was hilarious, was, do you want to meditate, heal, or trip? And I was like, wow. It's it's getting real now, isn't it? So I said, well, actually, I want to take it for depression.
And he replied, yeah. Yeah. I can sort you out. I can sort you out. And I was asking a couple of other questions, and then I thought, do you know what? He he might be a good guest for a radio show, and he was saying that he was like a micro fanatic, knew all his staff. He's got degrees on it and stuff like this and other really interesting areas. However, his not that spelling's got anything to do with it, but he was, like, missing words out and stuff. And I thought, actually, perhaps not. But I said, could I give you a call for a couple of minutes? And he was like, no. Sorry. I'm not talking, you know, via the telephone. And I'm thinking, well, I'm not just going to order anything willy nilly.
So he said, how much do you want? This is what you need. And I said, oh, I said, well, I don't know. I don't know what dose to take or anything like that. So he said, I've got just what you need. He said it will cost you a £100 for a 30 day supply. And I was like, woah. I said, that's brilliant. I said, I need to research it a bit more. I wasn't looking at spending that much, to be honest with you. I haven't even looked into what it costs. So, I'll get back to you straight away. Message back. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll do it for £50. And I hate it when people do that because it's like they're obviously out to just make as much money as they can, aren't you? And And I just said, leave it with me anyway. So that was my first sort of like, delving into looking into these mushrooms.
So I went back to various, natural pages and things like that. And it was quite interesting looking through threads of people because they're all very discreet. Like I said, the first one, it was like, Oh, just follow this person on Instagram. And yet again, it was another person to follow on Instagram, but they had a website and I went, Oh, I'm thinking. So I went on the website and it was all about natural products that you could buy and you keep scrolling down. And then it just had mushrooms in a packet and it said £35 for a 1 month supply message for more info. So if all cases been more like it.
So I messaged this person and she was wonderful. And I was totally honest with her because it's like, you almost want to speak to a doctor, don't you? You know, I drink wine every night and I'm on an antidepressant. I don't want anything to mess me up or make me worse. I don't wanna trip anything like that. I want a bit of reassurance, really. And she said, obviously, I'm not a doctor, blah blah blah, but I've been doing this for years. This has helped. And I said it's mainly for depression and motivation because they also believe that if you if you microdose, it will refix the neurons to help motivate you to set new targets and things. And she was just giving me ideas and just saying, you know, perhaps start walking your dog 8 o'clock every night. Just start changing your ways and stuff. And I felt really excited talking to her because she was she was lovely, actually.
So, and she said, you need no point 2 milligrams every other day. And so, anyway, I've gone for it. Okay? So I'm telling you all this because I'm gonna come back in a few weeks and let you know how I'm getting on. So I'm waiting for those to arrive, and I'm quite excited, actually. And today, I've also, ordered lions gate. Nope. Lions main, and that is legal. And that's supposed to help with concentration and stuff like that. But if you stack the supplements, they'll work even stronger in different ways. So I've ordered that and we'll start seeing, you know, what happens. So that's where I am, and I'm looking forward to that.
And then it sent me on a path because the legislation of mushrooms, which I can't find too much about. Now I don't know if you guys have checked out the cancer act 1939. Very interesting because what it basically says is that anybody that does any research or offers anybody medications that can, cure cancer and other ailments, they will be prosecuted because we all know cancer is a massive money making. It's it's massive pharmaceutical stuff. They don't want us having natural things. And in the documentary that I said, the fantastic fungi, the man in it, his mum, had stage 4 breast cancer and started microdosing.
And within 6 months, she was completely healed. So after looking at the Cancer Act 1939, I'm just looking through it now, and it shows you a list of all people that have been prosecuted for it, actually, people that believe that they cure cancer with stuff, and, you know, they've been fined and stuff like that. So I couldn't find one as such to do with the cancer act, any sort of act, but more like a psychedelic act. It was a bit more about you can use mushrooms, but the whole psychedelic part of it, it it just didn't have an act anyway. But it took me on a rabbit hole then. Okay. Because then I got to look in at I do love a rabbit hole. I'm just trying to find my friends here.
Right. The guy that was doing the experiments, he was the one that first started looking into magic mushrooms in the sixties. And you may have heard of it, The Concord Prison Experiment. And this was conducted from 1961 to 1963. And it was designed to evaluate whether the experience is produced by the psych psychoactive drug, psycho I can't even say it now. I've got it written down easy because I just keep messing up that word. Psilocybin. Psilocybin. Sorry. I've lost my, thought now. Combined with psychotherapy could inspire prisoners to leave their antisocial lifestyles behind once they were released.
And how well it worked was to be judged by comparing the rate of subjects who received psychobility. You know the word, with the average rubber concord inmates. So the experiment was conducted between February January, a 2 year period, basically, and it was held for the group of 32 prisoners. So the results basically suggested that 64% of the 32 subjects would return to prison within 6 months of parole. However, after 6 months, only 25% of those on parole had returned. 6 for technical parole violations and 2 for new offenses, but few short term projects with prisoners have been effective to even a minor degree. Now the same guy that did this experiment carried out another experiment, which was called the marsh chapel experiment. Now I think this was amazing.
It was all to do with a good Friday service. So the, prior to the Good Friday service, 20 graduate degree divinity student volunteers from the Boston area were randomly divided into 2 groups. In a double blinded experiment, half of the students received psilocybin while a control group received a large dose of niacin. Niacin produces clear psychological changes and was thus used as an active placebo. And at least some cases, those who received the niacin initially believed that they had received the psychoactive drug. However, the feeling of face turning red feeling hauntingly produced niacin subsided about an hour after receiving the dose, whereas the effects of the sibin intensified over the first few hours.
Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences. Providing support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. One of the participants in the experiment was religious scholar Houston Smith, who would become an author of several textbooks on comparative religion. He later described his experience as the most powerful cosmic homecoming I have ever experienced. Another participant was Paul Lee, who was Paul Tilch's teaching assistant at the divinity school. I'm one of the founding editors of the psychedelic review. Lee was given the niacin at least for 3 sessions. No, at least for these sessions. Amidst other intriguing general observations in the early titled, the mushroom.
He recounted, I had the the feeling finally that Ralph Meza was exceedingly aware of what was going on and didn't know what to do about it except be somewhat embarrassed. Under the influence of the drugs, such interpersonal dynamics are transparently obvious and cannot help but be noticed and acknowledged. I again have the impression of the room being a vast sensorium where all subtleties are vividly and empathetically experienced. One's intuitive powers are increased dramatically, which leads to qualities of understanding and communion and affection. I responded profoundly to this character of experience.
During the last hour, it seemed as we reached a kind of easy plateau where we all sat around and chatted. The group dynamics were beautiful. I thought that we all shared this power and could utilize or give expression to as much as we wanted. It was during this time that Michael tried to take a directing hand in things, and I consented him and let him. It was like an exercise in power gymnastics, and I enjoyed the dynamics of it intensely. Repeating such words as wonderful, beautiful in order to express my enjoyment and appreciation. Ernie kept repeating phrases that we outlawed which was funny.
I again had a tremendous amount of sinus drainage, almost more than the previous time, although there was nothing revelatory about it. So Timothy Leary, who had supervised this experiment, I believe it was him who died of, it might not have been him. Sorry. I should have this. It might have been the Ralph Metzer, died in a scuba diving accident and never came back to this experiment. And other people decided that, you know, this was, god, years ago that they would go back and investigate and speak to these people now to see where they're at in their where they're at in their lives because of their experiences of taking the mushrooms.
So I found I can't play it because it's like an hour and 24 minutes. I believe even the priest had a dose of the psilocybin mushrooms, and his sermon was an hour and 24 minutes long. I listened to some of it last night, and it's amazing. You can imagine somebody on Good Friday giving this speech, but tripping on magic mushrooms, obviously, having the most spiritual experience of their life. And since then as well, it's become a common thing for people because of religious views to take the mushrooms on Good Friday. Anyway, they're just 2 of the things that I've delved into, and I wanna look at more of these experiments as well. But, just for myself, really, I want to want to see where I'm at.
I do wanna say I am live on Rumble. If anybody wanted to join in the chat, leave any comments. Please feel free. There is also a link to join me via Skype if you wanted to call in and have a quick chat. At some point soon, there will be a call in button on the radio show. But if there's anybody out there that would like to phone in, have a quick chat, I'm here. Okay? So I have got another little thing to listen to. This one's a bit longer. It's 12 minutes. Well, where if I listen, it's a TED talk. I do love a little bit of TED talk. I know you're not gonna be able to see the visuals, but just the information should be, quite.
[00:38:51] Unknown:
I'm a researcher, and I work out of a laboratory at the University of British Columbia in Canada. We focus on drugs like cannabis, and some psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. I've been really curious how people use these substances to improve their health. So over the past 3 years, I've teamed up with an international team of scientists to launch the largest study of microdosing. And I'm really pumped to be here to tell you what microdosing is, why people are doing it, and a little bit about if it works. Before I jump into that, I want to acknowledge that my university and home, where most of this research has been conducted, is located on the unceded territory of the Syil Okanagan people.
And if we're talking about using psychedelics as a tool for healing, it's important that we recognize that indigenous people have been the knowledge keepers of these traditions for 1000 of years, and are the true pioneers in the field. So in the timeline of psychedelics, it's only been a pretty small amount of time that Western culture has been around for. But that said, a lot has happened in the past 70 something years. The mind altering effects of psychedelics helped to shape the counterculture movement of the 19 sixties, and now scientists are exploring the use of large doses of psychedelics as a tool for curing some really hard to treat disorders, like post traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety.
If there's one word that characterizes all these different uses of psychedelics, it's big. Big doses are used to create big effects. For a patient going through psychedelic treatment or even your friend on their way to a Grateful Dead concert, doses are usually big enough to create some sort of trip. You know, colors looking richer, a mystical connection with the universe, or maybe a sprinkling of colors behind closed eyelids. But what I'm here to talk to you about today is not big. In fact, for most psychedelic microdosers, the ideal effects wouldn't create any sort of trip. They'd actually be small enough that they could go about their day doing whatever needs to be done.
But even without the trip, psychedelic microdoses appear to be making a real difference in the lives of people taking them. The press is picking up on stories of microdoses who say that the practice has helped them manage mental illness or has saved their marriage. Tech gurus in Silicon Valley testifying to the productivity boost they get from microdosing. And comedians, musicians, and artists use the practice as a part of their creative ritual. True believers are eager to share the wonder of microdosing with the world, But they recognize that the average person wants a scientific stamp of approval before popping LSD on a workday, even if it is a small amount.
That said, the microdosing community has gone above and beyond to bring attention to the topic, including roping researchers like myself into it. We've now published 2 papers that collectively have been downloaded over 600,000 times, and it's all thanks to the microdosing community that called out for research and volunteered their time to push science forward. With all that enthusiasm, it's hard not to get swept up into the excitement of microdosing. But still, I like to wade into these topics with some genuine curiosity, because there's a lot we don't know.
So let's start with what we do know. Our study recruited over 12,000 microdosing participants and thousands more that weren't microdosing so that we could compare the 2 groups to find out who is microdosing, what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it's working out for them. We have microdoses join in from across the world, but the majority came from North America, Europe, and Australia. And in general, they didn't look all that different from the people that weren't microdosing, except for maybe being a little bit older and from urban areas. As for what it is, people in our study were microdosing with a few different things, including what are sometimes lovingly referred to as magic mushrooms, and some other psychedelics, like LSD, MDMA.
As for what it is, people in our study were microdosing with a few different things, including what I sometimes refer to as magic mushrooms, which contain the psychedelic ingredient of psilocybin, and some other psychedelics like LSD, Ketamine, and MDMA. But for the most part, people were using either LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. Microdoses have a few different ways of going about their practice, but most commonly, people are taking these psychedelic substances in small doses. Now, even from what I told you, you could tell that the way people are using these substances is very different from what we normally think of as drug use, and really better fits with how someone might take a vitamin or a supplement.
In our study, microdoses mostly said they started the practice for health reasons, like to reduce stress or to improve cognition, like the computer programmer that takes a dose at the start of the day to improve their focus. Interestingly, the number one reason our participants said they got into was for mindfulness, which really helps to point to this kind of shared wellness intention across all microdoses. For many, this practice is used as an aid for managing mental health. In fact, one study found that some microdosers reported that it was even more effective than conventional treatments for things like depression and anxiety.
So when we designed our study, it's really important that we build in a focus on mental health. And microdosing is a practice that happens over weeks, not days. So we track things like depression, anxiety, and stress over the span of a month. So how did microdoses' mental health change over the course of our study? To answer this question, we took a look at just the people that were microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms. What we found is that over the span of a month, microdoses were in a better mood, were less depressed, less anxious, and less stressed than the people that weren't engaging in the practice.
Now with so many people microdosing for cognitive enhancement and brain health, we we felt it was important that we took a look at this area as well. So what we did is we included some measures of cognitive ability. One of which is called the finger tap test. And yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. We asked participants to tap their fingers onto their phone. As simple as it is, this test makes a pretty good proxy for brain health and has been used to spot diseases like Parkinson's. We gave this tap test to everyone in our study, but our brains really change as we get older, so we are sure to look at younger and older people separately.
What we found is the same pattern as with mental health. Microdoses' tap scores grew more over the course of the study than people that weren't microdosing. But interestingly, this was especially true for the people that were over the age of 55, which really helps to point to the potential of microdosing to be making its biggest impact as we age. I mentioned earlier that microdoses tend to have a few different ways of going about their practice. Well, one thing that we picked up on in our study is that more than half of our microdosing participants said that they were combining their psychedelic substances with other non psychedelic substances in a process called stacking.
So what were people mixing together? Well, mostly, it was natural products with corresponding health benefits, like cacao, the raw version of chocolate, which is mixed in for mood and mental health, or lion's mane mushrooms that are often put into the mix because they've been suggested to help protect our brains. With all these different combinations appearing, how do we know that what we found is related to the psychedelics and not due to these additional stacked substances? So what we did is we compared our microdosers that were using only psilocybin mushrooms to the ones that stacked with the popular combination consisting of lion's mane mushrooms and niacin.
And although all microdoses, stacked and non, were related to more improvement than doing nothing, the stack combination came out on top for top score improvement over the month of our study. So from what it looks like here, the stack combination may have actually been helping to boost some of these microdosing benefits. So these are just the first things to come out of our study, but many questions remain. At the forefront of these is how expectations might be playing into our findings. Our studies show that microdoses were doing better over time, but is that mostly due to the fact that they thought they were going to get better when they started the study?
We didn't tell anyone in our study to start microdosing or to not, so anyone that did probably started because they thought it was going to work. So how much of this mental health and cognition boost that we found is really related to microdosing? And how much of it is due to a placebo effect where our participants started doing better because they expected to? Future studies are on their way to unpacking these questions, and the ones that are emerging are working closely with the microdosing community to develop new ways to approach the placebo effect in this context. So for me, as a clinical scientist, it's not my job to say whether microdosing is good or bad, but rather to find ways to walk alongside this group as they find their own path to wellness.
Our study asked the question, why are you microdosing? And the resounding response from participants was to be more mindful. And I think the same applies here. Every day, people are becoming increasingly more mindful of their health decisions. Those of you that are empowered to be more thoughtful about your wellness and about your approach to scientific information are bridging the gap that separates science from the public. That will hopefully bring us into a future where researchers and the public can work alongside each other to identify and solve problems.
Thank you.
[00:49:47] Unknown:
There we are. I do like a good TED talk. Anyway, Jo is gonna come on for 5 minutes and tell us her thoughts about microdosing and her perceptions on a world of less than rednecking mushrooms. Good evening, Jo.
[00:50:09] Unknown:
Hello. Can you hear me? I can hear you.
[00:50:13] Unknown:
How are you, my lovely?
[00:50:15] Unknown:
I'm very, very well. A little confused with my new laptop laptop here, so I'm glad it's connected.
[00:50:23] Unknown:
So what are your thoughts, Jo, about all of this microdosing and, you know, people's perception? What if everybody microdosed?
[00:50:36] Unknown:
I mean, is that some sort of trick question? Because I find it really odd that people wouldn't because, you know, I mean, it's such, it's such a conversation that opens many different avenues. You know? But at the bottom of it, we're human beings. We have evolved, and we haven't you know, however we have evolved and whatever point we've come from, we've always well, we've we've always looked after our health via a natural way, and it's only the last 100 years that pharmaceuticals have come into it. So for 1000 of years prior to the last hundred, we have always used natural remedies and microdosed for are microdosed for practically every ailment that there is.
So I find it odd that people would not want to do that. I think it's a good idea.
[00:51:52] Unknown:
So will you be joining me? Are you gonna let me be the guinea pig first?
[00:51:57] Unknown:
I think somebody else had said that to you as well. Oh, no. You go first and we're just there it goes. I mean, you know, I I take lion's mane, and I take a whole load of other stuff.
[00:52:14] Unknown:
But it is true. We are all looking when you look in these, like, health food shops and everything now, I mean, there is something for everything, isn't there? And the amount of supplements that people take, they're all going for the natural stuff. I I I can't believe how, like, places like Holland and Barrett, they used to be small shops, but they're massive now because people wanna go back to natural stuff.
[00:52:38] Unknown:
Yeah. They do, but that's almost double edged sword. You know? You look at Holland and Barra and who owns them, who who sort of bankrolls them for one of the bad words. They're not although they're onto the label of a natural health store, and there are few products in there that that are purely natural, the majority of their produce has a whole load of fillers in.
[00:53:08] Unknown:
You know? So,
[00:53:10] Unknown:
you know, I don't I don't buy anything from there that would involve supplements. You know? I might buy a bag of nuts or something, you know, that they get they they can't. A bag of nuts. Yeah. Yeah. You know, everything else, they've got fillers in because they're mass produced. So, you know, my argument would be, in essence, are you doing more harm than good by using their products? You know, you need to find somebody that just sells the actual product. You don't need fillers in there to the the reason that they do is to bulk it out, and you get very, very little of whatever it is you think that you're buying. You know, to buy natural products, natural supplements, you can buy them with what they call an uptake.
In there just as a flow agent when it's going through the press and it's being manufactured, you put a flow agent in there to help it pass through the machinery better. And, basically, it's anything like, black pepper and and turmeric. You don't need the synthetic flow agents. You don't need those bulky agents in there.
[00:54:35] Unknown:
So, yeah, Holland and Barra is not the place to buy stuff. No. But I'm just surprised how many people now are looking that route. And I suppose if you're online, you know, we can look at different websites and stuff because I know everybody keeps saying this at the moment. You wanna be getting the most purest form of whatever you want, really. I didn't realize that Holland and Barrow were were so dodgy, to be honest with you, but, yeah, it would be interesting to see who they're owned by and stuff like that.
[00:55:00] Unknown:
Yeah. Probably the same I mean, I can't I can't remember off the top of my head right now, but I know it's someone along the lines of you know, people talk about there are handful of companies that own all the products in the world. You know, like Coca Cola, they are several things. And it's one of those handful of companies that owns Holland and Barra.
[00:55:30] Unknown:
That is interesting. Okay. I don't tend to go in them much. I used to go in there to get vitamins and stuff, but I I shall not go in again. Yeah. So when are you doing your microdosing then? Well, when they arrive, I'm so excited. I'm really excited because already I think that placebo effect has been put in place because I've seen so much positive stuff, and I'm like, right. Things are gonna change. This is gonna help me. I might be totally wrong. It might not do anything, but like I say, mushrooms everywhere growing in my garden, all the sort of research y sort of things I've been doing lately, building up to this, and I just feel like I've it's time. It's time.
[00:56:10] Unknown:
Yeah. And and again, it's going back to a natural product. Yeah. You know? And and the keyword here is microdosing. You're not taking it to go sit in the garden and sing, you know, or something can get high as a kite. You know, you're microdosing for a specific ailment that you or anybody else has. And, again, it goes back to what I said moment ago. You know, right up until the point of a 100 years ago, we were using natural remedies for absolutely everything. So, you know, going natural is the way way to be. We are a natural entity. We are part of you know? God, I sound like a hippie. But we are part of the earth. We are part of the environment, and nature provides that medicine for us.
[00:57:07] Unknown:
We are the ground. We go back to the ground and that whole, I can never say the word, mycelium thing that we've been learning about, the the energy from the mushrooms and stuff like that, all connected. So, actually, we are highly connected to mushrooms.
[00:57:23] Unknown:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I look forward with bated breath to see how you get on. I think you you you you've had a good experience sort of with family members using homeopathic remedies anyway, and you you know, you've said that you've seen a change in in behavior. So, again, the proof is in the pudding. You've seen what natural products can do. So
[00:57:50] Unknown:
Yeah. Why does it? I'm all for it. I'm all for it. I know. You might see, you know, in a couple of weeks' time, this woman that's so organized and ideas bouncing out of my head, and I do feel a bit like that now, but, that's the placebo effect, I'm sure. Anyway, we're gonna have to round up. Thank you for your views, and that was most interesting about Holland and Barrow. Never really thought about it like that. You're full of useful information anyway, aren't you? Follow the money. Follow the money. Follow the money. Thank you, Jo, for your call. Well, I got you. You. You. Nice to speak to you. You take care. You. See you. Thanks. Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Oh, bless her.
Yeah. She's absolutely right. I'm gonna have to look into this Holland and Barrett thing. Anyway, we are coming to a close. The hour has gone quick. I've enjoyed it. It's nice to share things that I'm interested in, and I hope that you found this interesting as well. I will be up next, for those of you listening on radiosoakbox.com, I will be on the connection with Malefika Scott, my partner in crime, where we will delve into part 3, I think it is, of our, historic world war d day thing that we've been doing thing.
Just call it a thing, our little projects. Anyway, I will be back the same time next week, probably with a guest. This isn't gonna be a regular thing, but, I've enjoyed it. Hope you've enjoyed it too. Have an awesome week, and stay tuned for the Kono connection.
Introduction and Personal Update
Struggles with Mental Health
Coping Mechanisms and Sound Baths
Work Challenges and Depression
Journey Towards Healing
Shelley's Radio Aspirations
The Power of Music
Discovering Mushrooms
Microdosing for Depression
Historical Experiments with Psychedelics
TED Talk on Microdosing
Guest Jo's Perspective on Microdosing
Closing Remarks
