Psychonauts - Explorers Of The Inner Cosmos
We are exploring the outer cosmos with ever more capable instruments and astronauts but the misguided war on drugs has enriched narco empires and hindered our ability to legally voyage across our psyche in a controlled and therapeutically guided and supervised manner until recently. The design’s title comes from Mike Jay’s timely book on the history of psychedelic usage (not from the video game or band of the same name!).
Although a few countries have legalized drugs and conducted various trials Australia - where far more people die of smoking and alcohol related causes than drugs - has now looked at psychiatric treatment with psychedelics from a new enlightened perspective from Jun 2023. Qualified medical practitioners in Australia can now legally prescribe MDMA (ecstasy) and psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.
A surge in recent research suggests that psychedelics-assisted therapy holds some promise for helping people with a range of existing-treatment resistant conditions.
The products are now legalised by the Australian federal government as a proven aid in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and other mental health issues, in what could well be the future of therapeutic aids for these types of ailments – and possibly more.
Listen to some interesting podcasts listed below and watch Dr Suzi Gage explain pyschedelics in more detail on Youtube or podcast series and in her book:
Also visit the PsyPan Global website advocating for the growing number of people who have used psychedelic aided therapy – it is NOT a panacea but perhaps another tool in the toolkit of mental health that needs more research.
PODCASTS:
WHAT IS DEPRESSION? BBC Naked Scientists (From c28 min in)
Psychedelic Renaissance? BBC Discovery
Psychedelics In Medicine BBC The Naked Scientists (Fm c30 min in)
What Are Pyschedelics? Dr Suzi Gage
An easy listening but interesting history of the war on drugs can be found in two ABC Late Night Live podcasts here and here.
Books
'Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind'
Mike Jay
Podcast Interviews here:
Travels Through Time: Mike Jay (1885) from June 2023
Late Night Live ‘19th-century drug trips: the doctors who got high for science’ from May 2023
“Say Why to Drugs: Everything You Need to Know About the Drugs We Take and Why We Get High”
Dr Suzi Gage (She also has a youtube video here)
by Michael Pollan, published by Penguin Random House
Listen to a Science Show podcast discussing it here.
The New Reality Of Psychedelics
Andy Mitchell, neuropsychologist and therapist.
Maastricht University in The Netherlands has a psychopharmacology department studying the effects of various substances, ranging from pharmaceutical to recreational drugs.