How to Change Your Mind combines psychedelics with therapy – The Brock Press
Alejandro Vasquez Coronado
Photo by David Balev on Unsplash
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice, please speak to a healthcare practitioner before taking anything related to this therapeutic approach.
How to change your mind is a funky, introspective documentary about an overlooked therapeutic mediation that has significant potential but has met many obstacles in the past. The question arises: is psychedelics-assisted therapy making a comeback?
The new Netflix documentary is based on the book of the same name by Michael Pollan, professor of scientific and environmental journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Pollan stars in the documentary, which is split into four episodes: “LSD,” “Psilocybin,” “MDNA,” and “Mescaline,” with each episode focusing on these psychedelics. Pollan attempts each of these, interviews a variety of people on the subject, presents research data from studies that have used them, and describes the history of psychedelics-assisted therapy and where it’s going.
Drugs in general, along with coffee, alcohol and tobacco, have long been a social taboo; The war on drugs spawned a hysterical, racially motivated narrative about its dangers. In his research, Pollan found that psychedelics are non-addictive and non-toxic, and that there is no known lethal dose of LSD. That doesn’t mean there’s no risk. Individuals susceptible to mental illness, such as schizophrenia, are vulnerable to psychotic outbursts.
This is where psychedelic assisted therapy comes in. To reduce these risks, she provides a safe environment where trained therapists guide the patient through an individually curated healing process.
dr Timothy Leary, a psychology professor at Harvard, says he learned more about the mind in a few hours among mushrooms than in his entire career as a psychologist. colleague dr Richard Alpert joins Dr. Leary became involved in psychedelics research and her findings led her to believe that the environment played an important role in psychedelics and that under safe conditions this drug could have major benefits. Unfortunately, they were both soon fired from Harvard for their research.
What may surprise some is that psychedelics are at the root of one of the largest rehabilitation programs today. Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was only able to sober up after being administered a psychedelic. He had a spiritual experience that gave him a new perspective on addiction. While most people associate AA with Christianity, it is actually associated with psychedelics.
The peak years in psychedelic research were between 1950 and 1965. LSD was considered a “miracle drug” that helped cure alcoholism and other ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder. When the war on drugs began, all research ground to a halt and the results were sadly buried.
The 1960s was an enormously political moment in history. From the Vietnam War to the civil rights movement, this was a pivotal moment in history when people asked for freedom and took a stand. This prompted President Nixon to look for a scapegoat for the civil unrest over drugs. The media then began spreading fear of psychedelics and other drugs, all misinformed and very one-sided.
While the war on drugs deserves an article of its own, it’s important to note that this is one of the major events that led to the cessation of psychedelic research. In 1970, the government officially classified LSD as an illegal drug with no medical use and halted all research that was legitimate, safe, and yielding important results.
This wasn’t the first time psychedelics have hit a roadblock, either. If we go back far enough, we learn that when the Spaniards first arrived in America, they found rituals unfamiliar to their Catholic upbringing, including the use of plants. This led to these plants being banned as they made them appear bad and imposed their own beliefs on indigenous peoples.
Since the beginning of this movement, people who wanted to implement psychedelics into society have been divided into two different approaches. The populists who want everyone to have them in order to change the culture and the elites who want only the powerful to have them and believe that the new mindset will spill over into the rest of society. Anyway, both approaches didn’t matter since psychedelics were banned.
It wasn’t until 2000 that research resumed, and while still heavily stigmatized, a culture shift may soon occur. There is actually a psychedelics-assisted therapy clinic in Hamilton and another in Kitchener, Ontario. In his documentary, Pollan hints that there could be dozens of them in the future.
There is currently a movement called Decriminalize Nature that focuses on redefining what a drug means. Their goal is to connect with nature and decriminalize all plants, rather than just focusing on one connection.
In total, How to change your mind, is a very well-researched and well-presented documentary that sparks discussion on a topic that will no doubt make headlines for the foreseeable future. This documentary leaves the message that drugs are what we define them for – they can be used for good or for bad. One wonders what the future holds for psychedelics.