Professor who revived research into psychedelics has died

Roland Griffiths (public domain photo)

Psychedelics research, including its use in "brain change," was taboo for many years in the U.S.; Robert Anton Wilson used to rail about the situation in his writings.

Roland Griffiths, a Johns Hopkins professor whose courageous work revived research into psychedelics, has died of cancer, the New  York Times reports.

The Times obituary is full of interesting sentences: "In 1994, Dr. Griffiths began meditating regularly, which led to a transformative experience that, he said, “profoundly shifted my worldview and got me very curious about the nature of spiritual experiences.”

"He told Mr. Pollan that the experience was so profound that he nearly quit science to devote himself to a spiritual practice. But, as it happened, others were working to rehabilitate the study of psychedelics. One was Bob Jesse, a former vice president of the software company Oracle, who had established a nonprofit to encourage research on mystical experiences and whose introduction to Dr. Griffiths became the engine for what would soon change the direction of Dr. Griffiths’s research and reinvigorate the field."

Hat tip, Jesse Walker.