Like the vast majority of psychonauts, I didn’t use a chemical reagent to verify I was taking LSD, even though I had been active in harm reduction work for three years prior and was aware of testing kits.

Before I met Adam I didn’t really know anyone with OCD. It was just an abstract concept to me. Like most people, I had the image of the stereotypical germaphobe who obsessively scrubs their hands in a futile attempt at washing the thousands of bacteria away.

Think of a glass of water: under normal circumstances you might think ‘I drink water when I’m thirsty’. But when consuming a psychedelic substance you might think ’water is the essence of life’.

We need new drugs. The opioid epidemic gripping the United States has brought into public awareness a problem that has bedeviled the world of medical science for decades: is it possible to have a truly powerful painkiller that is not addictive?

Why researchers like Alan Kooi Davis — the newest addition to the Johns Hopkins psychedelic research team — decide to devote their careers to studying psychedelics.

I came to a working hypothesis: at the center of the mystical experience is awe, wherein one is in the presence of something so great, so large, that it requires they completely reorder their mental structures - completely change the way they view reality.

As a teenager, I was taking ten milligrams of Ritalin daily. Later, I grew to love the way these pills made it easier for me not to eat.

Renaming adverse effects of psychedelic drugs as “challenging experiences” minimizes, almost trivializes, their negative effects.

I first discovered the potential psychedelics have for treating stuttering during an experience with psilocybin mushrooms.

The Ibogaine Conversation Conclusion | The goal of this conversation was to provide a platform for a diverse range of perspectives on a single topic. Not everyone agrees, and that’s the point.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 10 | Unlike other psychedelic drugs, ibogaine is known to be potentially cardiotoxic. There are a number of fatalities associated with its use, and anyone considering working with it should be aware of the risks.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 9 | Using ibogaine can be fatal if proper safety precautions aren’t taken.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 7 | "Prescription is not about accessibility, by definition it’s about restriction. Unless we start to use psychedelics as a way to tear apart these structures and build new ones in their place, then I think it's all a revolving door."

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 6 | My experience with heroin went from age 14 up to age 30, and taking ibogaine was as close to a miracle as I have ever experienced in my life.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 5 | Thomas Kingsley Brown, PhD, studied the long-term outcomes of people who received ibogaine for the treatment of opioid addiction. We talked about the results.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 4 | The Western world cannot receive the benefits of iboga if they don’t try to understand and assimilate the traditional approach.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 3 | What is the authentic Bwiti tradition? The answer I got was that this idea of authenticity is an odd idea. It’s a very Western idea. Bwiti considers itself as a culture that’s changing.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 2 | Our first stop is in Gabon, Africa, where consumption of the iboga root bark is intimately tied to the ancient spiritual discipline known as Bwiti.

The Ibogaine Conversation Part 1 | This series explores the unique challenges ibogaine presents in how we approach plant medicine, harm reduction, and treatment for addiction, through the lens of ibogaine researchers, providers, patients, and advocates from around the world.