The people who choose to consume psychedelic substances and the reasons they do so are as varied as the effects they produce, which are unique for every individual and rarely the same twice. The people who take psychedelics fit all demographics of age, gender, race,...
And if so, does it matter? In a new book, philosopher Chris Letheby confronts the nature and implications of the mystical experiences people often have while taking psychedelics. There’s an “elephant in the room” of psychedelic science, according to an opinion...
We Don’t Know, But It’s Already Been Patented. In 2001, alternative medicine proponent and doctor Andrew Weil told a CBS journalist that taking LSD cured his lifelong cat allergy. “I was in a wonderful outdoor setting,” Weil said. “I felt terrific and, in the midst of...
A recent mushrooms-and-MDMA trip wasn’t elucidating in the way I’d hoped it might be. I chose to record myself doing psychedelics with a guide, hoping that when I listened back, I’d hear myself having major breakthroughs. What this actually sounded like, when I...
My earliest exposure to psychedelics came from growing up near the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, well past the glory days of the Summer of Love. The Haight Street of my youth was a tourist destination for hippiesque consumerism, not a countercultural hub, though I...
HE WASN’T the first person to say it, and he probably won’t be the last, but Tom Insel’s accusation carried extra weight thanks to his job title: director of the US National Institute of Mental Health. Towards the end of his 13-year tenure, Insel began publicly...
