DoubleBlind Issue 9

There’s now robust amounts of data showing psychedelics hold promise for mental health and, yet, if we’re seeking to reduce suffering among the most number of people, it’s not quite that simple. In this issue, we feature prescient work being done to create more inclusivity within psychedelics, through organizations such as the Asian Psychedelic Collective, the Arab Psychedelic Society, and Queering Psychedelics, a conference series and book highlighting LGBTQIA+ voices within psychedelics. Journalist Saga Briggs challenges the notion that healing happens in the mind, reporting on research that traces the relationship between the body, brain, and spirituality. Meanwhile, Ethnobotanist Wade Davis takes us back in time to his journey tracing the origins of the Bufo alvarius toad—and into the present where the rising interest in 5-MeO-DMT threatens this species in its natural habitat. We also look at ongoing psychedelic reform efforts (there are now more than a dozen jurisdictions that have decriminalized or legalized psychedelics in some form) and, as Reilly Capps reports, people around the country are already facilitating supported experiences and setting up shop. The care people are offering as the movement grows runs the gamut, from clinical settings to underground ceremonies. There’s also a growing contingent of folks who are identifying as witches, seeking to reclaim and redefine earth-based rituals as tools for both healing and political empowerment. We’re here to hold space for the critical conversations that are unfolding as we navigate through these experiences, individually and collectively.