Study finds that mushrooms connect you to groups that can help you with better habits

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have suggested that psychedelic drugs can help people change unwanted behaviours by altering their perceptions of themselves.

The team analysed the post-treatment journals of a group of participants in a 2014 smoking cessation study, and discovered that psychedelics, when used in combination with talk therapy, often helped long-time smokers begin to see themselves as nonsmokers.

This new core identity, according to the researchers, may explain why 80% of the study participants stopped smoking for six months, and another 60% remained smoke-free for five years. Study author and University of Cincinnati postdoctoral researcher Neşe Devenot notes these findings demonstrate the potential psychedelics offer when it comes to reshaping self-perceptions and helping people break free of old habits or addictions.

“If you want to give up meat but you smell a delicious steak, it might be hard to resist,” said Devenot. “But if you identify as a vegetarian and your sense of who you are is someone who does not eat meat, that identity helps encourage a different choice.”