Others find it in mushrooms of the magical variety -- that is, those used by some Native Americans, hippies, musicians, artists and others for the purpose of altering consciousness.

Scientists report that more than 60 percent of study participants who took magic mushrooms -- that is, mushrooms containing the hallucinogen psilocybin -- described the "trip" the drug induced as a full-fledged mystical experience, as evaluated using standard psychological criteria.

Roland Griffiths, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry and behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, led the study, which appears this week in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Lingering Positive Effects

The mystical mushroom trip ranked as the single most spiritually significant experience of a lifetime for a full third of the study participants; it numbered among the top five most spiritually meaningful experiences for more than two-thirds of the 36 subjects. The group was comprised of healthy, well-educated adult volunteers; most were middle-aged. All reported having active spiritual lives.

Researchers conducted follow-up interviews with the study participants two months after the experiment, and found that 79 percent reported a moderately or greatly increased sense satisfaction with their lives, compared to members of a study control group who received placebos at the same test session.

The mushroom eaters also reported positive changes in their moods and attitudes, which were corroborated by family, friends and co-workers.

Although some participants reported feeling extreme anxiety immediately after taking the drug, investigators who conducted psychological tests reported no lasting negative effects. Nor was there any evicence of addiction or toxicity.

Legal Status Same as Heroin

Psilocybin, which comes from several species of mushrooms native to the Americas, has an effect similar to serotonin, a message-carrying chemical, on brain cells. Serotonin is linked with mood.

Psilocybin might be useful in treating addictions, pain or depression, Griffiths suggested. He made a point of saying that the research is not meant to address the debate over whether God exists."This work can't and won't go there."

Under US law, psilocybin is a Schedule I hallucinogen, a category that also includes heroin. The government has approved its use in medical experiments, however.