Oregon Measure 109 — Psilocybin therapy is legal and regulated in Oregon. Learn about licensed facilitators →
The most credible source for psilocybin therapy information. For veterans, clinicians, and anyone who deserves real answers — not noise.
A landmark open-label trial found that two psilocybin sessions, combined with supportive psychotherapy, produced large and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety — with effect sizes substantially larger than antidepressants.
Read the brief →New imaging research reveals how a single psilocybin session disrupts the brain’s most entrenched patterns — and why that disruption may be the key to lasting change.
A precise, plain-language breakdown of the law that made Oregon the first state to create a regulated psilocybin therapy framework.
An evidence review of the largest randomized controlled trial on psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD — findings, limitations, and what it means for veterans today.
Treatment-resistant PTSD affects hundreds of thousands of veterans and first responders. This section compiles the full body of research on psilocybin-assisted therapy — MAPS trial data, the federal research landscape, and how to access legal services in Oregon. Written for the people who need this most, and for the families searching alongside them.
New imaging research reveals how a single psilocybin session disrupts the brain’s most entrenched patterns — and why that disruption may be the key to lasting change.
The brain’s default mode network — a loosely connected constellation of regions active when we’re not focused on any external task — has quietly become one of the most studied targets in psychiatry. It is the network of rumination, of self-referential thought, of the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. And in people with depression, PTSD, and addiction, it is chronically, rigidly overactive. When psilocybin enters the picture, something remarkable happens to this network.
In fMRI studies at Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins, researchers observed that psilocybin dramatically reduces the functional connectivity of the default mode network — not permanently, but for several hours. Regions that normally communicate in tight, well-worn loops go temporarily quiet. Other regions, previously disconnected, begin communicating in novel patterns. The result is a period of radical cognitive flexibility that some researchers describe as a “reset.” [1]
The DMN is not a single structure but a distributed system: the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the angular gyrus, and the hippocampus are its primary nodes. Under normal conditions, these regions deactivate when we engage with the external world and activate when we turn inward — when we daydream, reminisce, or evaluate ourselves socially.
In people with depression or PTSD, the DMN becomes pathologically self-focused. The default mode loops aren’t generating useful reflection — they’re generating rumination. Fixed narratives about the self. Rigid predictions about the world that cannot be updated. [2]
In 2019, neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris and philosopher Karl Friston proposed what has become the dominant theoretical framework for understanding how psychedelics work: the REBUS model, short for Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics. The model proposes that psilocybin temporarily flattens the brain’s predictive hierarchy — reducing the influence of high-level priors (including the self-model encoded in the DMN) and allowing bottom-up sensory signals to carry more weight. New connections become possible. Fixed narratives become revisable. [3]
Psylowise connects you with Oregon-licensed psilocybin service centers and facilitators operating under OHA regulation.
If depression and PTSD are characterized by an inability to update rigid, maladaptive beliefs, then a therapeutic window that temporarily loosens those beliefs — combined with skilled psychotherapeutic support — creates an opportunity for lasting change. The pharmacological effect creates the opening. What happens in that opening determines whether it leads somewhere new.
Studies consistently show that mystical-type experiences during psilocybin sessions are strong predictors of long-term therapeutic outcomes. The quality of psychological support during and after the session is at least as important as the drug itself. Outcomes are substantially better when the integration support is robust.
An independent editorial platform built on one premise: the people who need this information most deserve to receive it from the most credible source possible.
“Write like a brilliant science journalist who also lost a friend to PTSD and wants the world to understand what this medicine actually is.”
Myco Brief covers the science, law, and human experience of psilocybin therapy. We are not a dispensary, a social media account, or an advocacy organization. We are the reference — the source that veterans, clinicians, journalists, and curious people link to when they need something they can trust. Every claim is sourced. Every source is primary. Every correction is published visibly.
We report what the research shows, in what populations, under what conditions. We do not tell readers what psilocybin will do for them. The distinction matters enormously.
Scientific rigour does not require scientific jargon. We translate the literature into plain language that a veteran, a worried family member, or a skeptical physician can use.
We write for the reader who is not yet convinced — as if we are earning their belief through evidence, not assuming it. That reader is often the one who needs this most.
No exceptions. If we cannot source it to a primary document, we do not publish it.
We cite the original study. Links go to PubMed, OHA, ORS — not to summaries of those sources.
Case studies are labeled as individual experience. Aggregate data is labeled as research. We never conflate the two.
We report what clinical studies found. We do not tell readers psilocybin will treat their condition. We are journalists, not clinicians.
Psylowise is referenced as an informational resource — one contextual CTA per article, never in the first third of any piece.
If we get something wrong, we fix it and note the correction at the top of the article with a date.
Anyone writing about research they are affiliated with discloses that affiliation at the top of the piece.
We write as if we are trying to earn the reader’s belief through evidence — one sourced claim at a time.
People living with treatment-resistant PTSD who have tried everything the standard system offers. Their families, who are searching alongside them. VA staff who want to understand what their patients are reading and asking about.
Medical professionals who want fast, accurate summaries of a rapidly moving field. Primary care physicians fielding patient questions. Mental health clinicians integrating psychedelic-informed frameworks into practice.
Curious, skeptical individuals trying to cut through the noise — the hype, the stigma, the marketing — and understand what the science actually shows. They deserve the same quality of information as anyone else.
We welcome researchers, clinicians, and journalists with relevant expertise.
Myco Brief is an educational resource. For licensed psilocybin therapy services in Oregon, we partner with Psylowise — an OHA-licensed service center connecting people with qualified facilitators.
Psylowise connects you with Oregon-licensed psilocybin facilitators operating under OHA regulation. A resource, not a sales pitch.
Myco Brief is an independent educational platform and does not provide medical or legal advice. Psylowise is referenced as an informational resource. Psilocybin services in Oregon operate under OHA licensure pursuant to ORS 475A. Consult a licensed medical professional before making any treatment decisions.