đź’§ Americans seek out psychedelic therapy post-election

PLUS, golfers tripping on the fairway.

Author

Mary Carreon // Senior Editor
11 Nov

Happy Monday! Welcome back to The Drop In, DoubleBlind’s trippy newsletter on all things psychedelics. Today we have a lot of juicy stories to share with you so we’re going to jump right in 🥳

Our featured piece today is about how people are dealing with election stress. The political climate has everyone’s nerve endings frayed, and one way people are coping is by going to therapy, particularly psychedelic-assisted sessions. Many psychedelic therapists — both mentioned in our story and not — have told us that they’re busier than ever in the wake of the election. Some have even said that they’re booked out until the end of the year! Can psychedelic therapy help ease the political stress in the US? You’ll have to read to find out!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll also find stories on elite golfers leaning on mushrooms and ayahuasca as performance enhancers, the case for raves as healing ceremonies, and a breakdown of everything you need to know about sassafras.

Stay grounded this week 🫶,

Mary CarreĂłn
Senior Editor

Together With…

4 Tinctures You Need For Your Psychedelic Journey

A psychedelic journey does not necessarily translate to long-term sustainable personal growth. Centering, Grounding, Integrating, and Sustaining the experience are all essential to the process.

Using organic, sustainably sourced botanicals and mushrooms, Allies’ Journey Collection offers 4 precisely formulated tinctures for each phase of a psychedelic experience. 

Whether you're in the depths of a ceremony or seeking post-experience grounding, their formulas, rooted in traditional herbal wisdom, offer you full-spectrum support. 

Election Stress Drives Americans to Psychedelic Therapy for Relief

Psychedelic therapists are noticing a rise in appointments as political stress takes a toll on US citizens in the aftermath of the election.

We’ve all felt it. Political stress — amplified by party-driven ads and relentless rhetoric — is pushing people to seek new ways to cope. According to psychedelic therapists around the US, therapy centers are reporting an uptick in appointments as more Americans look for relief from the anxiety and emotional strain that elections bring. 

Therapists are noticing that the stress of the election isn't just affecting mental health — it’s also straining relationships, as conversations about politics turn into discussions about values, which become intensely personal. With the holidays looming, an added layer of dread is compounding an already chaotic time.

Our Latest

Elite golfers are taking psychedelics to the fairway… and winning. (We imagine it’s because it makes the little hole look 6 miles wide). But is this really new? Or are they just now admitting it because it’s culturally permissible? Read more about the trend of pro-athletes using mushrooms and ayahuasca as performance-enhancing drugs.

In the Indigenous Nahuatl language of Mexico, these psychedelic mushrooms are called “little children”. Despite (likely) being the original species Gordon Wasson ate with María Sabina in 1955, P. aztecorum is largely overlooked by today’s trippy mycologists. Get the full history, use, and cultivation tips in our guide.

& More Must-Reads

  • These mushrooms from Arkansas may be the world’s best strain for microdosing (they even won an award!). But in the quest for ever-higher levels of psilocybin, these little gems have been forgotten. Rediscover what makes Hillbilly Mushrooms so special.

  • As the psychedelic community collectively strives headfirst for psychedelic legalization and government-approved treatments, it’s worth taking a moment to pause and reflect. Would this actually be better? Some underground facilitators don’t think so. Discover the surprising advantages of psychedelic prohibition.

  • All that intention, wellness, and floaty spa music may actually be blocking what you really need. Sometimes casual hedonism doesn't just feel good—it's good for you. Sometimes raves are the healing ceremony. Here’s the case for mindless drug use.

  • 4 Days after taking LSD, a university professor woke up in the middle of the night convinced he was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. The thing is… he’s not the only one. While not exactly common, experiences of believing you are Jesus seem to only happen with LSD. What is going on here? Read more about the Acid Jesus phenomenon.

Join Us

Join us for a free webinar with the godfather of Microdosing, Jim Fadiman.

In the last 5 years, the phenomenon of microdosing has exploded into mainstream awareness. And it’s all thanks to one man: Jim Fadiman. His book The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide was the first-ever discussion of how to use sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics to enhance your life.

But a lot has changed since 2011. Get Jim’s latest thinking on how to use microdosing for health, healing, and enhanced performance. He will be joined by researcher Dr. Conor Murray, Ph.D. founders of the Microdosing Facilitator Training, Danielle Nova and Adam Bramlage, DoubleBlind’s Senior Editor Mary Carreón, and host Monica Cadena.


It starts Sunday, November 17 at 6 PM PST. 

Best of all? It’s FREE for anyone to join.

Register to join the webinar here.

Learn with Us

🌿 There’s a sexy psychoactive hiding in the supplement aisle. Here’s how to use it, smoke it, mix it, and enhance sensual pleasure.

💊 Both derived from the sassafras tree, MDA is known as MDMA’s psychedelic cousin. That one little “meth” group (the second M in MDMA) changes the dosage, duration, and effects. Here’s the full story on “Sass”.

⏳ Ever wonder why acid trips seem to go on F O R E V E R? Us too! Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about what influences the length of an acid trip. Read it here.

🕳️ If you haven’t actually been there, a K-hole can appear to turn someone into a catatonic zombie. But there’s more to it than that—good and bad. Get the full scoop in “WTF is a K-Hole?”.

DoubleBlind Supports

Get Support: Feel like you could use a little extra support these days (and don’t we all?), check out Mushwomb. They offer mushroom journeywork and support for mothers, partners, families and more. It’s run by Mikaela de la Myco, a mother, educator, folk herbalist, organizer, and entheogen facilitator. We think she might be an angel disguised as a human. 

Some of the topics Mushwomb focuses on include psychedelic motherhood relationships, intimacy & pleasure, decolonizing spirituality, earth medicines, womb wisdom, equity and inclusion. 

Mushwomb is also doing citizen science, open-source research on psychedelics and mothers! If you’re a psychedelic mom, fill out this survey here.

At DoubleBlind, we believe in reciprocity—the idea that everything in the world is interconnected and that we have a responsibility to uplift a psychedelic ecosystem that centers equity, inclusivity, and healing for all. Through our work, we hope to help our community participate in this effort with us.

Together With…

Save 50% On International Flights (and maybe win a prize, too)

Adventures into the wilds of the world can be just as transformative as inner ones with psychedelics. So when we found this travel giveaway, we had to share it with you.

The prizes are great and all, but we are absolutely smitten with the free membership. They have ridiculous discounts on international flights. 

 

Watch Now

The most far-out psychedelic researcher of all time?

Probably John Lilly. Pushing the boundaries of psychedelic self-experimentation, he invented sensory deprivation float tanks specifically for taking massive doses of LSD and ketamine. 

And that’s where it starts getting weird. In this video, we dig into Lilly’s bizarre experiments with dolphins, encounters with cosmic bureaucracy, and Sega Genesis. Watch it here

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