The New Age of Psychedelics
Psychedelics. It is a bit of a buzzword, with most people’s first thoughts trending towards a 1960s flower child or the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus”. While psychedelic drugs had their defining moment in that era, they are finding a new wave of influence in recent years surrounding the possibilities they provide to assist in interventions for treatment-resistant mental health conditions. In some ways, this is not a new revelation in science. It is important to recognize that research in this area of study owes a great deal of success to a long, elaborate history of Indigenous healing practices around the world—many of whom faced prejudice and persecution for these traditions. With new research in the area of psychedelic medicine, as with many new frontiers, pioneers in this intervention may never receive acknowledgement for their contributions—and it is unlikely that many minority groups whose livelihoods and traditions built the foundation for Western research into this subject wil...