FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

impact on mental function is largely obscure.
The effects of psychedelics can range from ecstatic to terrifying.
They may facilitate great psychological healing, but they also may
trigger or exacerbate psychological problems. Various sectors of
human society have used them, in their plant or mushroom forms, for
a very long time for their healing potential. This potential is conferred
upon them by the power they have to open the human psyche, with
all the risks that may come from delving deeply into the world of the
mind. In their use by indigenous shamans, be it Mazatec mushroom
ceremonies in Mexico, peyote circles in North America, ayahuasca rit-
uals in the Amazon, or iboga ceremonies in Africa, the experiences are
conducted with the utmost care, support, and ritual structure.
When psychedelic drugs were explored as medical psychother-
apeutic tools by psychiatrists and other therapists in the 1950s
and 1960s, they were found to be of great value. Clinical research
during those years focused on the treatment of alcoholism and on
psychotherapeutic work addressing death in patients having terminal
illnesses. As word of the powerful effects of these drugs reached soci-
ety at large, the interest of many individuals was piqued. By the late
1960s millions of people were experiencing the effects of the drugs
LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline.
When used in less-controlled settings, the effects are more unpre-
dictable and negative reactions are more likely. The powerful effects
of these substances proved too much for society to handle. And it
certainly did not help that psychedelics during the 1960s became
associated with folks, many of college age, advocating for greater
political expression and civil rights, and advocating against escalating
military involvement in Southeast Asia. And there was also the asso-
ciation of psychedelics with that crazy new music by the Beatles, Jimi
Hendrix, and many others. All this served to raise concern and con-