For years, researchers have been examining whether the benefit of hallucinogenic drugs extends beyond tripping out and into the realm of longterm mental health; treating such disorders as addiction, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The movement is not new. As Michael Pollan explains, it’s actually “a renaissance because much of the work represents a revival of research done in the 1950s and 1960s, when psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin were closely studied and regarded by many in the mental health community as breakthroughs in psychopharmacology.” The Sixties changed all that as psychedelics were entirely rebranded. But their potential therapeutic effects didn’t go away. And a new rebranding effort is underway as the drugs are increasingly being used in clinical settings. A new book by Pollan will take psychedelics yet one more step along their long, strange trip into the mainstream. Here’s an excerpt from the NYT Mag: My Adventures With The Trip Doctors. (You better turn on and tune in, or you might be left out…)

+ “Even as psychedelic therapies are being tested by modern science, the very strangeness of these molecules and their actions upon the mind is at the same time testing whether Western medicine can deal with the implicit challenges they pose.” (One key factor will be the embrace of micro-dosing among the Silicon Valley elite, many of whom are pouring millions into health-related technologies.) More from Pollan: How Psilocybin Could Be Used In Mental Health Treatment.