> In the past, I might have said to her, “Dying is natural; it’s part of the human experience,” but without this experience, it would not have landed well. She had to feel this in her whole person, not just as an intellectual or philosophical exercise.

This seems to be a big part of the magic of psychedelics. So many mental issues are cognitive. It’s not always happening at the chemical level. Why would it be in a person who has a healthy brain, but their depression came on with their terminal cancer diagnosis?

The problem is cognition is really hard to change. Especially in adults and especially when things are going badly. The overall effectiveness of talk therapy is not great.

Psychedelics break down our normal barriers so we can truly know the things other people have been telling us and we’ve been telling ourselves. (Or they put us in contact with spirits that gift wisdom. Six of one, half a dozen of another). I talked with someone with OCD who finished a trip thinking “just because my hand touches my phone doesn’t mean it’s dirty”. A simple statement, but he had contact OCD and this had been a huge problem. Something about the message “coming from inside the house” made it work.

One thing I almost never see mentioned in these articles about terminal patients with psychedelics is the concept of the afterlife. Mushrooms are so Earthy, it’s like they tell you that heaven is returning to the soil. Other psychs (DMT, ayahuasca) can give you a picture of where your spirit goes after it splits from your body.

Aside from whether these spiritual beliefs are right they’re certainly less depressing than what the average American is walking around with. There’s “sleep and never wake up”. There’s “heaven, maybe, I think. But lots of people going to hell I guess”, and then, probably the most common case: “who the fuck knows?”. A bit anxiety inducing, really.