From indigenous plant medicine traditions to the modern psychedelic renaissance.
Cultures across the Americas, Africa, and Asia have used psychoactive plants and fungi in healing, spiritual, and ceremonial contexts for thousands of years.
Albert Hofmann synthesized LSD-25 at Sandoz Laboratories in 1938 and discovered its psychoactive properties in 1943.
The first wave of scientific studies explored LSD and other psychedelics for psychiatric treatment, yielding over 1,000 published papers.
R. Gordon Wasson's 1957 Life magazine article introduced psilocybin mushrooms to Western audiences, and Hofmann isolated psilocybin the following year.
LSD and other psychedelics became symbols of the 1960s counterculture, prompting a political backlash that led to prohibition.
Government scheduling of psychedelics halted nearly all clinical research and drove use underground for decades.
After prohibition, some therapists continued psychedelic-assisted therapy underground, particularly with MDMA before its scheduling in 1985.
A new wave of rigorous clinical research has revived scientific and public interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Venture capital, patents, and for-profit clinics have entered the psychedelic space, raising questions about access, equity, and ethics.
