Nya Palmer’s world turned into a kaleidoscope of color. 

From her seat on the grassy hill of Janss Steps, the rising third-year mathematics of computation student watched the sky shift as birds flew in formation above a vibrantly lit Drake Stadium. Everything appeared filtered through a warm glow, including her nearby friends. Palmer reflected on her anxieties from a place outside herself, undergoing this inexplicable experience while campus life continued around her. 

For Palmer, this first magic mushroom trip provided lasting insight regarding how we inhibit ourselves out of fear of judgment by others. 

“I think it’s changed me forever,” Palmer said. “Obviously, I’m not seeing a kaleidoscope in the sky – but still, I’m viewing the world a lot differently than I did before taking it.” 

But Palmer’s experience is not one easily attained by other UCLA students. Because of magic mushrooms’ illegality, students can face fines and jail time for possession of them. In May, California Senate Bill 1012, which would have legalized possession of the hallucinogen for therapeutic treatment, was dismissed by the state Senate Appropriations Committee. Despite this action, Bruins across campus – from students to researchers at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior – are exploring the substance’s potential benefits. 

“Magic mushrooms” – known more commonly as “shrooms” and scientifically as psilocybin mushrooms – are naturally occurring hallucinogens that impact an individual’s sensory, cognitive and emotional pathways, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. Though they have been federally categorized as a highly regulated Schedule 1 substance since the 1970s, an article published by the Society for the Study of Addiction found that the use of non-LSD hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, among young adults in the United States increased from 3.4% to 6.6% between 2018 and 2021. 

As states such as Oregon and Colorado adopt legislation to decriminalize psilocybin possession, researchers are investigating various ways the fungi can improve human health. At UCLA, members of the Semel Institute are pursuing these efforts as a part of the UCLA Psychedelic Studies Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to study psychedelic substances and how they may be used to develop therapies that mitigate the impact of neurological and psychological illnesses. 

Dr. Charles Grob, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a member of the Semel Institute, has studied the potential medical benefits of psilocybin for over 30 years. Grob has waited more than a year for approval from the Research Advisory Panel of California to begin clinical psilocybin therapy trials. The trials seek to gauge the short- and long-term effects of psilocybin on individuals in palliative care with high levels of demoralization and existential crises. 

“There’s a lot of hope and expectation that psychedelics may be that new and novel treatment that can effectively treat conditions which … normal, standard conventional treatments don’t,” Grob said. 

He hypothesizes that prescribed microdoses of magic mushrooms can improve quality of life and effectively treat psychological disorders. However, Grob said because of the federal illegality of psilocybin, the advisory panel is unsure of if and how it should approve Grob’s trials. In an April emailed statement, Grob said it appears the panel is delaying the outcome out of uncertainty about whether the decision-making process should be conducted privately or with public input. 

While Grob and his team test psilocybin within highly controlled experimental settings, some Bruins are not waiting for clinical results. Students have already trialed shrooms’ mental and emotional effects, to mixed results. 

Rising third-year psychology student Ashley Oh first took shrooms with her boyfriend out of pure curiosity last year. She settled into her bedroom and was soon entranced by the visual hallucinations brought on by the trip. 

“I could see a lot of the patterns on my ceiling starting to shift and move,” Oh said. “There are some galaxy lights that I have in my room – they were starting to shift around as well. … That was really mind-blowing to me.” 

Oh’s casual trip quickly took on deeper dimensions. As the visual effects mellowed, she began to embrace introspection – a common effect that Grob characterizes as a powerfully altered state of consciousness. From her home in Hawaii, she reflected on the importance of the natural world and gained a renewed interest in creative pursuits. 

“Drawing and art, all of that stuff – I really think it started from that trip. My passion again got reignited,” Oh said. “I started realizing that there was a lot of beauty around me already, and I hadn’t appreciated it before. I was like, ‘What was I thinking?’ I felt so stupid for wasting my time not out in beautiful nature.”

Oh has taken shrooms four times since. She said trips are more enjoyable when taken in nature. In her experience, locations such as crowded festivals are ill-suited for psilocybin use because of her increased awareness while under the influence. 

In contrast, Palmer has not taken shrooms since her first experience. 

“We (Palmer and her friends) all have come to the conclusion that it’s maybe a twice-a-year type of thing, or every few months,” Palmer said. “It’s a very valuable experience that you don’t want to overuse.” 

Matthew Heffel, a bioinformatics doctoral candidate studying neurogenomics, explained that psilocybin invokes synaptic mechanisms that can alter one’s perspective as well as increase levels of serotonin. This neurotransmitter is responsible for increasing levels of happiness and emotional empathy. 

“You start forming these new synapses and connections between neurons,” Heffel said. “People will talk about having a different view on the world after the fact or a more positive outlook on life. It’s because their brain has created new connections, which literally allows them to think about the world … in different ways that they had not before.” 

Grob said some prior research suggests an association between a one-time psychedelic treatment and positive long-term mental health outcomes, particularly in cases where subjects had religious or mystical experiences. Grob found support for these theories through his work in the Amazon rainforest studying the ritual use of ayahuasca, a plant hallucinogen similar to psilocybin. 

“Having a powerful psychospiritual experience or even a mystical experience can be therapeutic in and of its own right,” Grob said.

According to an article in the peer-reviewed journal Molecules, evidence of improved mental health from hallucinogen use led to a pharmacological study in the late 1950s by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, ushering in the “second psychedelic renaissance.” This period coincided with the increased recreational use of shrooms in U.S. hippie counterculture, which contributed to the stigmatization of the substance and its ultimate prohibition. Grob said the designation of shrooms as Schedule 1 – the most restrictive federal drug classification – has to do with the general public’s disregard for psilocybin’s historically spiritual and research-oriented uses. He also said that once restrictions on psilocybin research were put into place, young people of his generation began experimenting with the substance in unsafe settings.    

Though psilocybin research has become more accessible, Oh believes the majority of student users still lack the knowledge to use the substance properly. 

“The way that people our age usually take it isn’t super responsible,” Oh said. “People should take it in safer settings. … When they get bad trips, there’s nothing to prepare them for the experience that they might go through.” 

With the dismissal of Senate Bill 1012 earlier this year, the debate over magic mushroom regulation persists among the government, users and growers alike.

Some industry members find advantages to the unregulated market. Golden Door Chocolate is a psilocybin-infused chocolate brand that entered the underground shroom industry in 2020. The company owner – who was granted anonymity due to legal concerns – says the brand celebrates psychedelic culture through producing gourmet edibles with eco-friendly packaging. 

The company sees advantages to an unregulated market.

“I think legalization in a broader sense is a good thing, because it changes the stigma (around psilocybin),” Golden Door’s owner said. “But from a business perspective, regulation really harms people’s ability to actually make sustainable business.” 

The owner said that though Golden Door targets customers interested in the wellness benefits of psilocybin, its primary audience is made up of private recreational users and medicinal psychedelic practitioners. This clientele is, in large part, drawn to the business through its nontraditional marketing practices, which include word-of-mouth recommendations and private social media channels. 

While the owner said the majority of their own psilocybin use has been recreational, they sought the fungi’s medicinal benefits when dealing with the mental effects of narcissistic abuse. 

“I had horrific insomnia for three months,” Golden Door’s owner said. “I didn’t sleep at all. I had crazy anxiety, depression, flashbacks, all that kind of stuff, and I was traveling at the time. … Once I got back, I got clued into psychedelic-assisted therapy.” 

Although the legalization of commercial psilocybin would guarantee that regulated products go out to the general public, the owner said it would further saturate an already competitive underground market. 

The challenges of the unregulated psilocybin market are what pushed one former mushroom grower – who was granted anonymity due to legal concerns – to leave the industry. 

The former grower said the use of synthetic psilocin – a manufactured version of a derivative of the psilocybin molecule – has been of particular concern in the underground shroom market. They claimed that the majority of black market mushroom sellers advertise their products as natural psilocybin while actually using the synthetic alternative. 

“The reason they’re using it is because it’s cheap, and they make more money on their products,” the former grower said. “I would say 90 to 95% of the brands, even the biggest ones out there, are all using synthetic psilocybin in their products and lying on the packaging.” 

The former grower is now shifting their focus to research, investigating the effects of hybrid psilocybin strains as well as optimal conditions for the fungi’s growth. They firmly believe in the importance of educating others on how and when to properly take psilocybin, and they said customers must use magic mushrooms in safe environments with natural products. 

“A lot of people are scared of it (taking psilocybin) because it can be scary-sounding,” the former grower said. “But if it’s done properly, and in the right environment with the right people, … everything’s good.” 

Palmer said she believes open dialogues on psilocybin should be established with young adults to help them make more informed decisions. Oh added that such conversations can destigmatize the substance and provide people with new ways of treating conditions such as anxiety and depression. 

Research may assist in the development of this educational discourse. Grob said he is optimistic about his upcoming trials and believes that the results will help establish safe usage of psilocybin for psychiatric treatment.

“It’s a fascinating area, and also, psychiatry is at a point in its development where … we’re really looking for new and novel treatments,” Grob said. “It’s been a long time since there’s been a breakthrough in psychiatric treatments.”