by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Aug 27, 2018 | Anxiety
Why psychedelic drugs could transform how we treat depression and mental illness? The first time I tried ayahuasca, a plant concoction containing the natural hallucinogen DMT, I remember thinking: “Just let go. Whatever happens, just let go.” Eventually, I did let go,...
by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Aug 2, 2018 | Anxiety
How do a few pounds of gray goo in our skulls create our conscious experience—the blue of the sky, the tweet of the birds? Few questions are so profound and important—or so hard. We are still very far from an answer. But we are learning more about what scientists call...
by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Jul 20, 2018 | Anxiety
It is exhilarating to witness a resurgence in the study of psychedelics, something President Nixon and his disastrous drug war halted (“The New Science of Psychedelics,” Review, May 5). But of equal, if not more important, value would be a study of those among us who...
by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Jul 20, 2018 | Anxiety, Depression
Ayelet Waldman is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and activist, but to many she is best known as the author of a Times piece, from 2005, in which she stated that she was more in love with her husband than with her four children. (“Her eyes were close set, and she...
by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Jul 20, 2018 | Anxiety
Too many people, the words psychedelic and spiritual are dissonant on first hearing. Yet the use of psychoactive sacraments in shamanic and religious practices is found throughout history. The word entheogen, used to describe certain plants and chemicals when used for...
by EmpathiCSubstanceS | Jul 20, 2018 | Anxiety
Dr. X is a dad. Appropriately – boringly – at 4:37 p.m. on a national holiday, he is lighting a charcoal grill, about to grab a pair of tongs with one hand and a beer with the other. His kids are running around their suburban patio, which could be anywhere; Dr. X,...
