5 Psychedelic Stories You Should Know This Week

Welcome to The Psychedelic Blog. Bestselling essayist & Psychedelic cultural analyst examining how altered states shape relationships, grief, death & meaning.

This week: 5 Psychedelic stories worth your attention & my take on what everyone else is missing.

Synopsis: 60 Minutes followed 9 U.S. veterans suffering from PTSD to a week-long Psychedelic retreat in a remote village near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (where I happen to live). Organized & funded by the nonprofit Heroic Hearts Project, the retreat included Psilocybin & 5-MeO-DMT experiences for veterans who had struggled with conventional treatments. Nearly a year later, 8 of the 9 veterans told 60 Minutes their symptoms had improved & described the experience as life-changing.

My Take: My phone was blowing up over this one! I’ve joked that 60 Minutes is about 10 years late to everything, so at this rate, in about 5 years they will run a story about married couples taking MDMA together.

Regarding the actual story: the positives are obvious. We send soldiers to war & when they return the menu of options looks something like:

• Alcohol? Absolutely.

• Painkillers? Why not.

• Opioids? Sure.

• SSRIs? You bet.

• Psychedelics? Nope, hippie.

So if this normalizes a far healthier & sustainable healing path for those that served, that is amazing. But I also worry that continuing to frame Psychedelics primarily as tools for healing carries real consequences. That framing is relatively modern, and considerably narrower than what these substances have represented throughout human history.

Synopsis: Definium Therapeutics announced positive Phase 3 results for DT120, its LSD-based treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. In the 214-person trial, a single 100-microgram dose significantly reduced anxiety compared with placebo, with improvements appearing within days & lasting through the 12-week study period. If the results hold up through the regulatory process, LSD could be moving considerably closer to becoming an FDA-approved medicine.

My Take: There is something objectively hilarious about watching LSD slowly make its way from dangerous drug that will make you jump out a window to please consult your physician to see if acid is right for you.

I recently experimented with an LSD microdosing nasal spray & was surprised by how subtle it was. Compared with Psilocybin, there was considerably less introspection. I felt focused, energetic & less trapped in my thoughts. The closest comparison I can make is Adderall without the awful comedown.

Obviously, that’s one person experimenting with a microdose, not evidence that LSD treats anxiety. But it did make me understand why researchers are so interested in the molecule.

What fascinates me is the cultural contradiction. We may eventually live in a world where taking pharmaceutical LSD under medical supervision is considered responsible healthcare, while taking essentially the same molecule at home with your partner is considered reckless drug use.

I’m supportive of the medical path…more options for people struggling with anxiety is a good thing. But LSD doesn’t suddenly become valuable when a pharmaceutical company puts it in a bottle.

Synopsis: A new Stanford-led study found that Special Operations veterans with traumatic brain injuries were still experiencing meaningful improvements 12 months after receiving magnesium-assisted Ibogaine. Researchers reported sustained improvements in disability, PTSD, depression & anxiety. The study was small & uncontrolled, so it cannot establish that ibogaine caused those improvements, but the durability of the results is notable.

My Take: Ibogaine continues to be the Psychedelic I’m most intrigued by from a medical perspective. Not because the initial results are dramatic, we’ve seen plenty of dramatic Psychedelic studies, but because of what it appears uniquely suited to treat: addiction, traumatic brain injury & the psychological consequences of war.

The big question with Psychedelics has never been whether someone can feel radically different a week later. It’s whether they still feel different a year later.

For these veterans, many apparently did.

Synopsis: A new clinical trial found that a single 25 mg dose of Psilocybin sent 40% of patients with treatment-resistant depression into remission 6 weeks later, compared with just 3% receiving placebo. These weren't people experiencing mild depression. Participants had been depressed for an average of roughly 20 years & had already failed at least two conventional treatments.

My Take: 40% is a remarkable number, but the part that jumped out at me was 20 years. Think about what treatment-resistant depression actually means in human terms:

• Years of therapy.

• Different medications.

• Different doses.

• Side effects.

• Hope followed by disappointment.

• Eventually, you probably start assuming this is simply what your life feels like.

Then some of these people take Psilocybin once & 6 weeks later no longer meet the criteria for depression. Obviously, 40% remission also means 60% didn’t achieve remission, and one study isn’t the final word. Psychedelics aren’t magic & they won’t work for everyone.

But we should also recognize how extraordinary the underlying proposition has become: a single Psychedelic experience potentially producing benefits that years of conventional treatment couldn’t.

A decade ago that sounded like an outrageous claim from Psychedelic evangelists. Now it’s showing up in clinical trials.

Synopsis: New research examining brain scans across multiple Psychedelics including Psilocybin, LSD, DMT, Ayahuasca & Mescaline found a remarkably consistent pattern: Psychedelics increase communication between brain networks that normally operate more independently, while weakening some of the boundaries within those networks. In other words, the Psychedelic brain doesn't simply become more chaotic…its usual patterns of communication get reorganized.

My Take: This might be the neuroscience finding that best matches what Psychedelics actually feel like.

Your brain spends decades becoming incredibly efficient at being you. The same thought patterns, assumptions, stories about yourself & ways of interpreting the world get reinforced over & over again.

Then you take a Psychedelic & suddenly parts of the brain that don’t normally communicate as much start talking to one another. That doesn’t mean every insight you have on mushrooms is some profound truth from the universe…sometimes you’re just really high. But it does help explain why Psychedelics can make something you’ve looked at 1,000 times suddenly appear completely different.

Maybe one of their most interesting effects isn’t showing us something new. It’s temporarily making the familiar strange again.

This Week’s Sunday Insider: Global Altered States: Anytown, USA — what Psychedelic culture actually looks like outside the bubbles.

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Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! I’ve been genuinely overwhelmed by the submissions over the past few weeks…it means more than you know.

If you’ve attended a retreat, worked with a facilitator, visited a clinic, or participated in a ceremony, I want to hear from you.

Share your experience anonymously at Psychedelic Watch. Whether it was exceptional, disappointing, or somewhere in between, your report can help others make more informed decisions.