Tripping Out The Highs And Lows Of Psychedelic Therapy

A growing number of women are swapping the therapist’s sofa for hallucinogenic ‘medicine’. But does science back up the benefits? And what’s it really like to get high for therapeutic purposes? Health journalist CHARLOTTE HAIGH MACNEIL experiences the highly controversial world of psychedelic psychiatry first-hand to find out.

- Charlotte Haigh Macneil

I’m sitting in the humid blackness of a wooden hall in the depths of the Peruvian Amazon. The only sound is the clicking of a shaman’s beads as he pours out shot glasses of a murky brown liquid. The substance is ayahuasca, a traditional hallucinogenic ‘medicine’ made of up of two plants: chacruna, which contains a substance called DMT generating visions, and the ayahuasca vine itself, which allows DMT to work in the brain. It’s a Monday night and it suddenly strikes me how far away I am away from my regular Monday evening routine – scanning the latest news on my phone in my flat in the London suburbs after a long day meeting deadlines as a freelance health journalist.

I look around at the 20 other people in the room, mostly European professional men and women in their late twenties to mid-forties. We’re all here on an organised retreat, to participate in four ayahuasca ceremonies in an attempt to sort out deep-rooted emotional or psychological problems, or simply work out our next steps in life. We’re hoping this strange brew, used by Peruvian shamans for centuries, might just give us the answers we’re struggling to find at home. In fact, studies are now suggesting psychedelics may help a range of mental health conditions, which is why I’m here.