A different kinda trip 🍄
Welcome to the modern psychedelic renaissance
Normally on Private Parts Unknown, we invite you into our lives as we explore love and sexuality around the world, but for our latest series, we take you on a completely different kind of trip!
Mind Trip was inspired by our own personal experiences with psychedelics, as well as the evolving worldview and research surrounding this class of hallucinogenic drugs, which in a number of contexts is considered medicine.
Much like the wave of marijuana legalization and decriminalization that has swept the country in recent years, a growing number of cities and states are considering similar resolutions involving psychedelics (more on that below). And notably, some corporations are getting in on the action with their eyes on patents and future profits.
We just released our fourth Mind Trip episode, but to get the full experience, we highly suggest you listen to the episodes in order, starting with:
For the first episode in our series, we shared some of our previous experiences and touchstones with psychedelics, including psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) and acid, and explained what inspired the series. Then, Courtney interviewed Psychedelic Water founder Keith Stein and director of marketing Ben Rogul about their products, brand origin, and strategy. You’ll have to listen to the whole episode to hear Ben’s incredible story about how psychedelics “saved him” after a concussion, but here’s a lil taste.
“It helped me expand my thought process. You know, sometimes I find that in life you get sort of stuck into a path and stick to a box, and it helps… break that mold.”
And then:
For the second episode, we discussed the cultural origin of ayahuasca and how the psychoactive brew is made. Then, Courtney interviewed a friend about his first experience participating in an ayahuasca ceremony, the importance of having an intention going into it, and what it’s been like integrating what he’s learned in the months after.
Followed by:
For the third episode, Sofiya interviewed Courtney about her first ayahuasca experience (two ceremonies over the course of a weekend), her intentions, post-ceremony integration, and so much more! This convo got pretty vulnerable… you don’t want to miss it!
And finally, today’s episode:
For the fourth episode, Courtney interviewed Jesse Jarnow, author of Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, about the gravitational pull of different underground subcultures and countercultures to seek out psychedelics, how these disparate groups connect and overlap through their curiosity, the impact of the internet, and the recent trend of institutionalizing and corporatizing the psychedelic experience, for better or worse.
After early psychiatric experimentation in the 1950s and 60s, followed by decades of prohibition—sparked in part by the backlash against the hippy counterculture—psychedelics are experiencing a renaissance. A new wave of research has returned to hallucinogenic drugs as potential candidates to treat psychiatric conditions. And now, the legalization movement that helped bring cannabis to the mainstream is helping decriminalize, legalize and even corporatize psychedelics.
Last fall, the U.S. government funded its first therapeutic psilocybin research in 50 years, and recent Australian clinical trials are also exploring the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics.
Supporters of this medical research movement have also helped decriminalize psychedelics:
In 2019, Denver became the first U.S. city to decriminalize psilocybin possession.
California cities Oakland and Santa Cruz followed suit shortly after, in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
2020 and 2021 saw decriminalization in Washington D.C. and three Massachusetts cities (Somerville, Cambridge, and Northampton).
In October of last year, Seattle became the largest U.S. city to decriminalize psychedelics.
Now, the state of Colorado has unveiled a second psychedelic ballot proposal wherein adults would be permitted to possess, cultivate, and gift the natural psychedelics, but selling the drugs would still be illegal.
We can’t wait to see what’s next! 🤞
So you might be wondering, what sent us down this psychedelic rabbit hole?
Well, in August, we went to the desert for a Private Parts Unknown brainstorming powwow AND to try Psychedelic Water as Courtney was writing about the experience for InsideHook! Using kava as its main ingredient, Psychedelic Water is entirely legal, as it’s considered psychoactive but not hallucinogenic, so we tried the new beverage with a healthy dose of hope and skepticism and… well, we were pleasantly surprised.
➡️ READ THE FULL INSIDE HOOK ARTICLE HERE ⬅️
We look forward to exploring more perspectives on psychedelics as the Mind Trip series continues. Please reply to this newsletter if you have a story or insight that you would like to share. ✨
xo Cokes & Sof