The Rise of the Psychedelic-Curious From a Global Mental Health Crisis
Part 3
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In the final part of this mini-series I want to ask you to come with me as I try to join some dots. Hopefully you might join them the way I do.
Let’s begin here with this recent interview featuring Dr. James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber, hosted by Roman Libov. The two co-authors published Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance earlier this year.
I’m starting with this interview and bringing you some of my notes from their discussion below, for reasons that will become clear later, I promise. (I hope).
Fadiman and Gruber note that over 40 million Americans have utilized psychedelics, and when measured against the “non-psychedelic” population, their mental health is overall better. Individuals described in their personal stories submitted for this book that, after 30 days, their diet had improved (or they were more drawn to healthier foods); their sleep was improved; they were motivated to restart begin rebegin meditative practices that they had not done for several years; and they were exercising again.
Psilocybin alone has been taken by 8 million Americans in the past year, with 4 million practicing microdosing, they note. The authors argue that microdosing improves the system’s “overall functioning.” Athletes report more stamina and strength; mathematicians and artists alike find sharper focus and creativity. In some cases, microdosing has even eased symptoms of autism, Tourette’s, and chronic pain.
Noted? OK, let’s wander back over here.
In parts one and two, I attempted to describe the trajectory of global regulatory acceptance and policy change towards decriminalisation of psychedelics in tandem with the parallel rise of interest or curiosity in them around the world.
I asked, and continue to ask: why, at this point in time, are these substances gaining regulatory acceptance around the world, and why, at this time in our reality, are humans looking towards them more and more (predominantly for our mental health and wellbeing)?
I asked, are we breaking up with anti-depressants? I mean, we’re not, not exactly. But it does seem clear that we are both seeking to find, explore, and demonstrate that psychedelics are a preferable and more effective alternative.
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Even Big Pharma wants in
Since we last spoke, a phase 2b trial among 198 adults with moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder found that a single dose of MM120 (lysergide D-tartrate, a form of LSD) reduced anxiety in a dose-dependent manner. As New Scientist puts it, “A single dose of LSD seems to reduce anxiety”. Which is nice.
What else has happened since last time? 5-MeO-DMT, a compound that changed the path of this writer, has even arrived in the scientific / clinical realm. So even 5 is now coming to the surface despite its reputation as the most intense psychedelic known to man.
Researchers studied 5-MeO-DMT, the “God molecule,” which unlike other psychedelics, is almost unexplored in terms of its neuroscience in people. Using EEG brain scans from 29 volunteers who inhaled 5-MeO-DMT, the findings suggest that 5meO creates a unique brain state unlike sleep, anesthesia, or other psychedelics. Instead of reducing consciousness, it breaks down the usual structures that organize subjective experience. It deconstructs the usual scaffolding of time, space, and self.
And the big one: as mentioned last time, pharmaceutical giant AbbVie was reported by Bloomberg to be eyeing an acquisition of Gilgamesh Pharma, signalling large-scale interest in psychedelics in Big Pharma and indeed on Wall Street.
Then a few weeks ago, Reuters announced that AbbVie had signed an agreement to acquire Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ lead drug candidate, Bretisilocin, for a reported $1.2 billion. The compound, with the developmental code name GM-2505, is a serotonergic tryptamine currently in clinical trials for moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder.
So, at time of writing – mid September 2025 – we find ourselves at a point in our everyday 3D reality where one would find it difficult to argue against the statement that psychedelics are becoming part of the mainstream, and are deemed more and more acceptable.
And basically, they are.
A large study from the University of Nottingham this June demonstrated growing acceptance of psychedelics in general, with online sentiment more positive for psychedelics than more traditional “illicit” drugs. The study found that drugs like heroin and methamphetamine generally triggered strongly negative feelings, while psychedelics such as psilocybin mostly produced neutral to positive responses, highlighting increasing recognition of their possible therapeutic benefits, with ayahuasca and mescaline standing out as eliciting the most positive emotions among all the compounds examined.
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Where it started… and where it’s going?
Indulge me for a moment.
Last time I mentioned Ishmael the gorilla, and I want to circle back to apes again. Of the stoned (and I don’t mean stoned here, I mean enlightened) variety. Our patron, Terence McKenna, proposed the “Stoned Ape” theory in his 1992 book Food of the Gods.
In a nutshell, the theory suggests that Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens partly due to the consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms about 100,000 years ago. Apes would cross lands and continents picking up anything edible to sustain themselves, and these mushrooms have always been prolific around the planet.
McKenna argued that these acted as an evolutionary catalyst, enhancing sensory perception, cognition, and language, while fostering imagination, art, religion, science, and other aspects of human culture.
He believed that psilocybin may have altered human behavior and societal structures by suppressing male dominance hierarchies, enhancing communal values, and improving hunting capabilities. They helped us to evolve into who we are now.
Now let’s jump from psilocybin to DMT with that in mind. Dr. Charles Grob at the University of California and his colleagues conducted a study in the early 1990’s exploring the effects of regular ayahuasca use in Brazil. They found that individuals who drank ayahuasca regularly scored higher on neuropsychological tests than controls who did not drink this brew.
So here’s the thought I keep being pulled toward: are we, as a species, becoming more unwell, and are these compounds arriving into cultural acceptance and the mainstream because we need tools to heal and sharpen ourselves? Could psilocybin, NN DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT be coming into clinical availability not only to treat illness but to enhance cognition and resilience for a more chaotic world? To supercharge our brains (as per the ayahuasca study), and alter our perception in preparation, as it begins to seriously hit the fan?
Since we’re talking about troubled times alongside our use of psychedelic compounds within them: a paper titled Naturalistic use of psychedelics is associated with longitudinal improvements in anxiety and depression during global crisis times was published this June and is more than interesting.
It took place in the UK with over 240,000 participants, taking the covid lockdown as the global crisis in point. The longitudinal study found that individuals who used both psychedelics and cannabis (over those that only used cannabis) during the COVID-19 pandemic showed gradual improvements in anxiety and depression, reaching mental health wellness comparable to non–drug users by 2022.
This wasn’t a controlled clinical trial, but the pattern is intriguing: in moments of global crisis, psychedelics may help some people regain balance and resilience.
When it’s time for a thing, that thing shall arrive
It was the late great Robert Anton Wilson, I believe (I cannot find the exact passage for the life of me but I’m sure it was RAW. If it was in fact Philip K Dick, or Alan Moore, forgive me, and do let me know), who posited that, when the time comes for something to exist, it simply comes into being. When we need an invention, it is invented. It just arrives. And often, around the world several people may come up with (receive) the idea for this invention at the exact same time, because the world is ready for it to be.
So, is it now the time in human development for psychedelics to aid said human development? And, hence they are being increasingly accepted by the system? Maybe we’re at that moment: the need is pressing, the ideas diffuse, the institutions begin to open their doors.
As we’ve heard, the usage of psilocybin and DMT (plus others being studied in clinical studies such as ketamine and ibogaine), even in microdoses, causes improved diet; better sleep; improves the overall functioning of the system; aids illnesses from ADHD through to autism to Alzheimer’s; leads to better performance from athletes; enhances creativity; treats chronic pain; boosts neuroplasticity and leads to better performance in neuropsychological tests.
So maybe the real question is: are psychedelics not just returning, but evolving with us, as tools for the next phase of human development?
If psychedelics, whether in therapeutic, microdosed, or ritual contexts, do indeed improve overall functioning of the system and ease symptoms across a range of conditions, what does that mean for our future?
Could therapeutic access shape the health, cognition, and perhaps even the evolutionary trajectory of coming generations? Meaning that that future generations could develop with improved wellness, mental and physical health, through increased use of psychedelics, whose path to legal availability is now being made clear?
I’ll leave you with this quote to chew on, and I’ll be back later, on a slightly different tangent.
“Throughout history we hairless primates have been jumping higher, living longer, and getting smarter every century. From Thai stir-fry to Roman roads, knowledge doubled faster as it drifted West—till now it jumps each year! Space migration? Check. Intelligence increase through yoga, drugs, or machines? You bet. Genetic tinkering? It’s coming. And indefinite lifespans? We’re on the yellow brick road to divinity, to roam the stars forever, to boldly go where no ape has gone before. The future’s so bright I gotta wear shades. Keep hope alive and party on!” – Robert Anton Wilson, Acceleration of Knowledge, February 29, 1986.
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