High-throughput sequencing set to enter patient care.

in the Amazonian medicine ayahuasca—can produce similar results. Nor is taking a drug even necessary. Investigators seem to agree that the salutary effects come not from the compounds themselves but from the spiritual epiphany they produce, so nonpharmacologic ways of achieving the same outcome should be just as beneficial. For example, many people use meditation to attain a transcendental state similar to that produced by psilocybin, and evidence indicates that the changes in brain activity evoked by the drug mimic those seen in Buddhist monks while meditating. Ross pointed out that throughout history, people have used prayer, fasting, dancing, and even sex to expand consciousness. “Palliative-care doctors will tell you people can have these shifts toward the end of life that really transform the relationship of the patient to the dying process, so we know that humans are capable of [profound changes],” said Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University, who has studied psilocybin in healthy volunteers and is now recruiting subjects with cancer. Despite these encouraging findings, it will probably be a while before magic mushrooms become part of the standard oncology regimen. Grob warned that the studies to date have all been small, the subjects carefully selected. “Before psilocybin leaves the research setting, probably several hundred subjects will have to be studied,” he said. He speculated that someday, doctors may become certified to use this treatment. Bossis said he hopes this research will draw clinicians’ attention to the spiritual and existential distress that afflicts so many patients with terminal illnesses. After all, he explained, “it is a key part of suffering.”