A few weeks ago, 12,000 people converged on Denver to talk all things psychedelic. If there was a moment when the current psychedelic revival went mainstream, this was it. Even Aaron Rodgers turned in his football cleats for a day to talk about his “radically life-changing” experience with ayahuasca.
I didn’t go to Denver, but I’ve attended big psychedelic conferences in Berlin and Amsterdam. These gatherings attract all kinds of people: chemists mixing up new compounds; underground guides who’ve become expert mycologists; venture capitalists out to cash in on the next big thing; philosophers explaining the nature of consciousness; shamans expounding on indigenous wisdom; college kids eager for a whiff of this psychedelic moment; and aging hippies wanting another dance around the cosmic maypole.
Things get really interesting at the after-hour cocktail parties where people talk about their own mind-bending journeys - “non-dual” experiences on toad venom, but also “bad trips” even for longtime psychonauts. These are powerful drugs that carry serious risks without careful preparation, and nearly everywhere, they’re still illegal.
Part geeky science, part Wild West, this psychedelic renaissance has the feeling of a cultural watershed. There’s also plenty of hype. In the new episode of Luminous, our series on psychedelics, I talked with some of the leading scientists who study psychedelics, who have their own remarkable stories. And for me, that’s been quite a trip in itself.
—Steve