The journal Psychopharmacology published the results of a study on the effects of the psychedelic drug psilocybin, one of the first such studies in the last 40 years. Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions researchers conducted the study following carefully controlled, scientifically rigorous procedures. Most participants (all but one of whom were college graduates) cited feelings of intense joy, peace and harmony after taking the drug, and in many cases these effects had a long-term effect, as evidenced by subsequent surveys taken months later. Even more notably, a third of the participants said taking the psilocybin was the single most significant experience of their lives. Accompanying editorial and commentary from prominent neuroscientists praised the study and recommended additional research. I certainly won't advocate the use of illegal drugs on this blog, especially drugs whose effects are so strong and so unpredictable. (Almost a third of the participants experienced fear, paranoia and/or other nasty emotions.) But I do support (nearly) any study that helps us unlock the secrets of consciousness and the mind. Whether psychedelics really do "cleanse the doors of perception" as Aldous Huxley claimed, or instead create "false" emotions not worth having, can be determined only through systematic study.