David Blackbourn

Psychedelics like psilocybin show promise in treating dementia by promoting neuroplasticity, reducing neuroinflammation, and alleviating psychological distress, though significant clinical and ethical challenges remain.

A roundup of the current global psychedelic medicine landscape, contrasting the US's rapid, politically driven push to fast-track approvals and research funding with Europe's more cautious, evidence-based approach, while covering shared challenges around trial design, access equity, and commercialisation.

The psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s and 70s profoundly shaped the philosophy, design, and democratising ethos of personal computing and the modern internet.

Psychedelics foster epistemic humility by temporarily disrupting the brain's rigid predictive models, offering both individuals and society a path out of entrenched thinking - though only if the experience is carefully integrated rather than replaced with new forms of dogma.

April 2026 marked a watershed moment for psychedelic therapy, with Trump fast-tracking research and patient access, Cambridge launching new trials, and MAPS celebrating 40 years - though concerns remain about equity and commercialisation.

Psychedelic mystical experiences can involve insights and visions with cosmic themes. David Blackbourn explores why these experiences might occur, and what their potential benefits could be.

Herbert Marcuse argued that Western capitalism has conditioned people to desire consumerist "false needs" and proposed a radical "Great Refusal" and shift in consciousness - potentially aided by psychedelics - as a path to genuine liberation.

Recent research and industry developments suggest psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, and ketamine may treat mental health conditions by physically repairing and restructuring brain systems linked to trauma, stress, and depression - while regulatory approvals and new drug designs signal growing medical acceptance and commercialisation of psychedelic therapies.