Why take Psychedelics?

Do you need a reason?

The reasons people take psychedelics have changed more than the substances themselves. What began as ritual embedded in cosmology moved through experimental psychiatry and countercultural rebellion, and has arrived at today’s peculiar blend of medicalization, wellness marketing, and personal optimization.

When I was a teenager in the late sixties we didn’t need a reason to swallow a blotter of acid. Hell, forget about intentions, we didn’t even make plans. I once ended up in a restaurant tripping so hard that only the kindness of strangers brought me protection from the ravenous alligators I saw snapping at me from under the table. Psychedelics were often taken on a whim, which I do not recommend. We took acid and went to work. Once I took mescaline and went to church. That didn’t work out too well. I only raise the point that among all the reasons one might take psychedelics, one reason may be ‘no reason at all.’ Looking back, that is a bit hard to justify and the Gods of the Jungle must have been looking over me and my untethered companions.

For millennia, psychedelics were used primarily in ritualized, communal contexts for healing, divination, and initiation. The purpose was to foster and maintain a community’s relationship with spirits, ancestors, and the natural world. Motives varied from treating illness, guiding major life transitions, resolving conflict, and reinforcing social bonds. The concept of “individual therapy” is a modern invention.

In the early–mid 1900s, Western medicine reframed psychedelics as experimental tools for psychiatry, especially LSD and psilocybin. After World War II nations began research in the use of psychedelics for mind control and enhanced interrogation. Enter MKUltra. Control and surveillance joined the realm of acceptable motives alongside therapeutic ones.

By the late 1960s, use spread from clinics to the wider culture, driven by motives of personal liberation and spiritual exploration. Psychedelics became a springboard that energized political resistance to consumerism, war, and conventional norms. This was also a period during when the novel concept of taking psychedelics for just plain fun was introduced. It was all a bridge too far and deemed an unacceptable reason to trip by the general population. The impact of psychedelics was bringing change so quickly, and radically, that a push back was inevitable and thus began The War on Drugs.

After the early 1970s UN Convention and national bans, sanctioned research largely stopped, but use persisted underground in therapy, spiritual communities, and in the rave/festival cultures.

Since the 2000s, motives have re-centered around evidence-based treatment of depression, PTSD, addiction, and end-of-life distress within structured clinical protocols. Researchers and participants now emphasize psychological insight, emotional processing, and durable symptom relief. Mystical-type experiences are valued only if they support these outcomes. At the same time, the broader culture frames psychedelics as tools for “wellness”, creativity, productivity, and personal growth. Microdosing has been introduced as a novel approach to psychedelics. If you believe mass media, it seems every Tech Bro in Silicon Valley and Stay at Home Mom in Montana are microdosing.

Psychedelic use has moved from embedded, relational ritual to individualized medical treatment of diagnosable disorders. Motives have shifted from maintaining communal balance and shared mythic worlds toward personal transformation, self-knowledge, and individual symptom reduction.

We are now witnessing an entirely new reason to take psychedelics, “personal performance enhancement.” There is no greater example of this than what is offered at Eleusis on a private island in the Caribbean. Their website appeals to those who desire to “awaken to your highest potential,” “unlock human possibility,” and “shape the future.” Their promise is to “help high-performing individuals break through mental barriers and achieve peak creativity and productivity.” All this in a bespoke experience “where luxury meets serenity.” That sounds pretty damn good to me but I’m not too sure what Maria Sabin would think about all this. Her motives were to cure the sick, consult the divine, and to cleanse the soul. If you ask me, I think Senorita Maria had it about right.