1 day agoCan Psychedelic Trips Inspire Better Career Choices and Attitudes Towards Work?An underexplored effect of psychedelics is how their use can affect both the career choices someone makes and the attitudes they have towards work in general. The LSD guru Timothy Leary famously told a countercultural audience — 30,000 hippies who gathered at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 1967…Psychedelics8 min readPsychedelics8 min read
Nov 27Experiencing the Sublime Through TravelThe sublime is a concept in aesthetics that stands for the quality of greatness that leads to experiencing positive and negative emotions (e.g. fear and wonder) at the same time. This paradoxical emotion is often experienced in natural surroundings, during confrontations with natural phenomena that overwhelm oneself due to their…Travel8 min readTravel8 min read
Nov 20What Makes a Movie ‘So Bad It’s Good’?In my review of philosopher Matthew Strohl’s book Why It’s OK to Love Bad Movies for Senses of Cinema, I outlined some of the features of ‘so bad they’re good’ movies, and what distinguishes them from movies that are just bad. However, I think a point that wasn’t stressed enough…Movies6 min readMovies6 min read
Nov 13Some Reflections on the Backlash Against Psychedelic HypeThe hype surrounding psychedelics can be characterised as an overly positive picture of the benefits of psychedelics and an overlooking, or at least underrepresentation, of the harms and risks of these compounds. The growing psychedelic industry can be seen as following the trend of the Gartner hype cycle, a graph…Psychedelics8 min readPsychedelics8 min read
Nov 6When Solo Travel Loses Its MagicOver the years, travelling solo has gradually lost its ‘spark’. In my 20s, backpacking, staying in hostels, and meeting new people all the time felt exciting. This was a novel experience, after all, and in many ways, it sated my curiosity like nothing else. …Travel4 min readTravel4 min read
Oct 30Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990): A Meditation on Making Peace With DeathJacob’s Ladder (1990) — directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Bruce Joel Rubin — is, in my opinion, one of the greatest psychological horror films ever made. It is a multilayered film that draws on many spiritual and religious influences and themes. Rubin, the screenwriter, is also a meditation…Film8 min readFilm8 min read
Oct 23Tripping Imperfectly: The Most Common Regrets of PsychonautsIn a 2021 paper published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, researchers describe how psychedelic users turn their challenging trips into valuable experiences through the particular narratives users construct around their bad trips. One crucial finding was that many users identified a lack of competence as the cause of…Psychedelics10 min readPsychedelics10 min read
Oct 16Psychedelic Use Sometimes Leads People to NihilismIt’s often assumed, because of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs, that tripping can help people shed nihilistic and depressive worldviews. In fact, this does happen for many, with feelings of existential joy and a yes-saying to the world suffusing the psychedelic state — and these feelings of optimism and…Psychedelics11 min readPsychedelics11 min read
Oct 925I-NBOMe: A Dangerous Psychedelic Commonly Sold as LSDIn the world of unregulated drugs, there is nothing to stop dealers from adulterating the drugs they sell or misselling them (giving you one thing, promising it’s something else). Most dishearteningly, the black market has encouraged dealers to adulterate drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fraudulent prescription medications (opioids, sedatives…Drugs7 min readDrugs7 min read
Sep 18Ketamine and Nitrous Oxide: A Synergistic But Potentially Harmful CombinationAmong psychonauts, drug combinations are sought out, experimented with, and appreciated due to their potential to modulate or intensify psychedelic states, and perhaps introduce novel states of mind not yet experienced. But with these potential rewards — new mental realms explored — can come greater risks. Unexpected effects and intensity…Drugs14 min readDrugs14 min read
