US President Donald Trump delivered a drastic pivot away from 56 years of federal drug policy when he signed an executive order in April to lighten regulations around psychedelic research and fast-track FDA review of new medicines. 

At a signing ceremony held in the Oval Office to mark the historic occasion, Trump was joined by Joe Rogan and a host of his cabinet members. He was in a jocular mood as he gushed about the healing potential of psychedelics, and at one point he even cracked a joke about taking ibogaine. “Can I have some, please?” he said to a roomful of guffaws. “I’ll take whatever it takes! I don’t have time to be depressed.”

Trump may have been joking, but plenty of psychonauts wish he would do just that. During a frightening time in US history, as Trump’s international wars and economic policies wreak havoc worldwide while his white-nationalist politics rise to mainstream influence on American soil, psychedelic advocates have been wondering whether psychedelics could help turn things around. 

In comments sections, science labs, and other places where trippers dwell, many have suggested that reform could start with a heroic dose for the president himself. “He could sure use some,” one commenter quipped in a YouTube clip of the April ceremony. “Fuck imagine that,” said another redditor. “Has an ego death on shrooms and becomes a complete saint.” A podcaster once even proposed a similar idea to Trump himself: Two months before the 2024 presidential election, Lex Fridman told Trump that “we would probably have a better world if everybody in Congress took some mushrooms.” (Trump sidestepped the idea and focused his reply on legalizing cannabis.) 

The logic seems to make sense on paper: If entheogens are able to make people less depressed, inspire spiritual epiphanies, and encourage closer relationships with nature, then certainly they could make authoritarian leaders, well, less authoritarian. Right? 

This idea has been a subject of heated debate for years, even decades, though rigorous study of it is more recent. The latest research makes clear that psychedelics don’t have the capacity to turn an iron-fisted strongman into a patchouli-scented peacenik who frequents monthly drum circles. At least not overnight. A wide and complex range of factors play into a person’s trip, and anyone looking to change themselves for the better has to be willing to put in the work to do so — not only during the trip, but before and afterwards as well. 

“Everyone likes to joke, ‘Let’s give Trump some ayahuasca.’ We hear that a lot in this space. But it’s more complicated than that,” Manesh Girn, a neuroscientist who has studied how psychedelics impact brain patterns, tells DoubleBlind. “If somebody with authoritarian beliefs goes into an experience with zero intention to try to have more unity with all beings or try to change their political beliefs — if that’s not something they want — it’s unlikely that it’s going to magically make them see through their own beliefs. It’s possible, but it’s not a given.” 

Still, what would happen if Trump took psychedelics? DoubleBlind dove deep into the scientific literature and spoke to experts in neuroscience, psychiatry, and cult coercion to get some answers. 

There have long been differing hypotheses on the potential for psychedelics to impact the human mind, but even early research into their effects have suggested that these compounds don’t work by externally imposing new frameworks or ideas — such as a new political viewpoint or a less authoritarian attitude. Rather, experts have argued that psychedelics serve instead to amplify what’s already going on inside a person’s head. 

The best-known pioneer of this idea is Dr. Stanislav Grof, a veteran psychiatrist known for his advancements in the fields of psychedelic therapy and breathwork. Grof began conducting research on LSD in the 1960s at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was born, and decades of close study have led to him categorizing psychedelics as “non-specific amplifiers” of the human psyche. In his landmark 1980 book, LSD Psychotherapy, as well as in more recent writings, he compares psychedelic compounds to a microscope, explaining that their effects provide “authentic expressions” of an individual’s unconscious mental landscape. “A person who has taken LSD does not have an ‘LSD experience,’ but takes a journey into deep recesses of his or her own psyche,” Grof explains in a 1994 edition of the book.  

That said, in order to predict what kind of effect psychedelics could have on a person, it’s important to understand how psychedelics literally affect the brain on a neuroscientific level. By all accounts, the medical community is still trying to figure this out. But a recent study has made significant headway in mapping out what happens inside the brain during a trip. 

Dubbed an “international mega-analysis,” an April report published in the journal Nature Medicine integrates analysis of more than 500 MRI scans, conducted on 267 participants across five different drugs: psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT, and ayahuasca. The findings, which include colorful images and charts, offer clues into how psychedelics help people let go of old traumas and embrace new ideas.

Girn, co-founder and CEO of the regenerative neurology biotech company Five Discovery and a lead author of the study, says it shows how psychedelics increase communication between brain regions that usually operate more separately. Whether it’s psilocybin or LSD, mescaline, or ayahuasca, a psychedelic compound is able to promote closer integration between higher-level brain networks (for example, areas that focus on abstract thinking, self-reflection, beliefs, and the sense of self) and lower-level sensory regions (which process things like sight, sound, and touch). 

In the process, parts of the brain that mediate our sense of reality — such as our assumptions, beliefs, and ideologies — become less insulated from other brain activity and incoming information. The study’s researchers believe that this in turn helps the brain become more flexible to change. 

“You’re breaking out of these usual frames that we’re viewing the world through, and that allows us to see it in a new way,” Girn explained. “Which might be a source of insight, which then might lead to new beliefs: ‘Oh, maybe this is not the best way that the government should be running,’ or whatever. And that would be a secondary consequence of [the participant] stepping out of their usual beliefs, because these parts of the brain are being disrupted.” 

It’s this potential for flexibility that has made psychedelics effective tools for healing, self-reflection, and spiritual discovery for centuries. Still, researchers are careful to stress that psychedelics don’t automatically work miracles on the psyche, and positive changes aren’t guaranteed. Taylor Lyons, a research associate at Imperial College London, explained to DoubleBlind that while psychedelics can “facilitate” reflection and emotional processing, there is no predetermined “direction and meaning” of any changes a person may experience. 

Under totalitarian states and dictatorships, a single leader or ruling regime holds most, if not all, of the political power. Anyone who deviates from the official program risks being subject to intimidation, violence, and other coercive tools that the regime uses to maintain power. But authoritarianism exists on both the right wing and left wing. The recent rise of a conservative psychedelic movement underscores that psilocybin and LSD aren’t hard-coded to specific politics: In fact, psychedelia’s far-right fringe includes notable cases of conspiracy theorists and white supremacists, such as Andrew Anglin, founder of the leading neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, and Jacob Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman.”

Of course, psychedelic culture has long been associated with liberal and left-wing values in the United States, thanks to the 1960s counterculture revolution that was kicked off by the first wave of psychedelic research. That moment converged with a broader ferment of radical movements, from anti-war organizing to the sexual revolution to the New Left politics of Students for a Democratic Society, although the psychedelic scene and the political left often made uneasy allies. One of the most prominent figures to emerge from this era was Timothy Leary, who since the 1960s promoted humanistic, anti-authority messages of cognitive sovereignty and ego dissolution. 

However, some psychedelic spaces have proven to be deeply contrary to the values of transformation and healing they preach, with spiritual teachings providing cover for sexual abuse and exploitation. Leary himself had a checkered reputation because of the way he violated professional boundaries and fostered a cult of personality around himself. 

“I think he was both a legitimate spiritual prophet and an operator,” said Mike Marinacci, author of Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches, a book published in 2023 that examines the history of underground churches and sects that embraced psychedelics. “I hate to use the ‘S’ word—sociopath—but he definitely had a lot of the classic characteristics of that type. I met him a couple times, and as charming and as funny as he could be when you were talking to him, I always got a kind of coldness about him.” 

Steven Hassan, a mental health professional and renowned expert on the mind control strategies of cult groups, noted that psychedelics can be used to hurt just as they can be used to help. “Reality is complicated, but there is a very high potential for bad actors to manipulate, sexually abuse, even indoctrinate people using substances that create altered states of consciousness,” he said in a phone call. “That I can confirm, for sure. Because when you’re more susceptible, when you’re more vulnerable to suggestion in your environment, and if you’re with a group of other people, the social influence can be amplified dramatically.” 

Still, many researchers are careful to avoid overly simplistic narratives or myths. Anthropologists have long observed that in Indigenous communities of the Western Amazon, ayahuasca ceremonies have effects that are much more complex and nuanced than could fit neatly into a Westernized political analysis. Drawing on years of fieldwork at a shamanic center in the Peruvian Amazon, French anthropologist David Dupuis found that its ceremonies helped foster collective belonging and shared cultural values, while also providing for individual agency, creating space for participants’ feelings of ambivalence and doubt. 

It appears that psychedelics have softened the heart of at least one hardened authoritarian. In 2023, the BBC reported on a white nationalist living in the Midwest who sought to overcome his extremist beliefs after taking MDMA as part of a research trial at the University of Chicago. He reportedly told one of the researchers that his trip helped him embrace a transcendent new mindset: “Love is the most important thing… Nothing matters without love.” 

But even his case lacks a tidy redemption arc. Even by his own account, his racist and antisemetic thoughts didn’t just vanish. The story cites that while he didn’t abandon his bigoted ideology, he did learn how to recognize those thoughts when they surfaced. An antifascist activist who was working with him said in the feature that the MDMA experience appeared to be a “touchstone for growth,” but that it was clear the man still had more work to do to truly disengage from his racist and extremist mindset.

Some scientific research suggests big, ideological shifts are rare and unlikely to occur on a large scale. Indeed, that’s the conclusion of another new study, published in May in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. The study drew on three separate data sets to examine whether a person’s use of psychedelics has any bearing on their “authoritarian attitudes.” In the end, the results showed “no significant changes in authoritarian attitudes,” according to the paper. 

Scientists have been looking for several years into the potential of psychedelics to alter peoples’ religious and political beliefs. An earlier pilot study — published in 2018 and authored by the aforementioned Taylor Lyons and esteemed neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris — found intriguing results. But the scale of the study was limited, and this new follow-up study expands on the methodology and data. 

“Specifically, we wanted to see whether the relationship between psychedelic use and authoritarian attitudes would hold up across multiple datasets, different populations, and more rigorous study designs,” Otto Simonsson, assistant professor at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet and a lead author of the study, told DoubleBlind. Lyons and Carhart-Harris also worked on this new study, alongside researchers based in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.

To measure “authoritarian attitudes,” the team had participants rate their agreement with a series of statements about obedience, tradition, and order — from “schools should teach children to obey authority” to “organizing public meetings to protest against the government should not be allowed.”  

Responses were submitted based on a 1-to-5 scale (with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 meaning strongly agree), and the total score was determined by making an average of all the survey items. To diversify the group of participants, the study relied on three unique datasets: The first were results from a “naturalistic” study (a method that documents behavior in everyday settings, rather than a lab environment) in which participants who intended to use psychedelics completed questionnaires at scheduled time points. The second group of data came from a more rigorous controlled study centering around a group of healthy adults who had no prior experience with psychedelics. They were given doses of psilocybin on two separate occasions, but they weren’t told what the exact dosage would be (other than that it would be up to 25 mg) to reduce potential bias and prevent their expectations from affecting the results. 

The third dataset came from a randomized controlled trial, following a rigorous protocol in which patients diagnosed with depression were randomly assigned to two separate groups. Both groups were told that they would receive psilocybin, but the dosages weren’t disclosed. One group received two “subthreshold” doses of just 1 mg (so they wouldn’t trip), while the other group took two 25 mg doses of psilocybin, and both groups received psychological support throughout the study period. 

Although the study’s ho-hum results would undoubtedly disappoint some left-leaning psychonauts, Lyons said the conclusions aren’t definitive. A major question that she and other researchers want to explore further is how participants respond to “contextual factors,” such as the set and setting of a trip. Lyons hypothesizes that psychedelics may be able to shape authoritarian attitudes based on highly context-dependent processes related to the set and setting of a trip. That includes the beliefs and expectations of a participant as they go into the trip, but also external factors that include guidance from facilitators, integration practices, and the social and physical environment in which the trip occurs. 

To explore how the context of set and setting could affect authoritarian beliefs, a future study could adopt “controlled experimental designs,” Lyons said, “where participants are randomized not just to substance versus placebo but also to different contextual framings — manipulating things like the therapist or the guide style, the actual setting that they’re in.” 

How that would look remains to be seen, since changing the container could raise a number of logistical and ethical roadblocks. For example, researchers could conduct trip sessions in a less comfortable environment, where wall decorations and comfortable couches are stripped away. But that would mean deliberately creating a rougher experience for a patient. “It’s quite a challenge, because you need to put patient care first, obviously.” 

So, back to our original question: What would happen if Donald Trump took a dose of ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, or some other psychedelic? DoubleBlind asked a range of experts in the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and cult practice. 

“My prediction is that he wouldn’t take it, because he doesn’t want to be out of control,” said Dr. Steven Hassan, the cult expert, who runs the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, which provides coaching and consulting to those affected by cults. 

It’s worth noting that Donald Trump is a lifelong teetotaler, whose aversion to alcohol has been well publicized over the years. If Trump did trip, though, Hassan worried that the results would be disastrous. “He suppresses so much of the bad behavior that he’s been doing that it could get manifested even more, in a bad way,” Hassan said. “I would worry that he would press the nuclear button, or [do] something really beyond belief.” 

Marinacci, author of “Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches,” wondered if the influence of tech billionaires like Peter Thiel — who has invested heavily in psychedelic research — means that the world has already seen the results of a Trump-type who has tripped. “He may have done it already and that’s why he is the way he is now,” Marinacci said. 

Like everyone else DoubleBlind talked to, Marinacci pointed out that set and setting are a central factor to shaping the psychedelic experience. Before predicting what comes as a result of a trip, it’s crucial to think first about the context, the container — what you put into your trip and what you hope to get out of it. Because of that, Marinacci doubts that a handful of psychedelics could sway Trump away from authoritarian beliefs.    

“There are a lot of people out there — there are a lot of people I’ve known in my life — who were complete assholes and sociopaths and jerks of all kinds who had gone through little phases of doing psychedelics,” Marinacci said. “Maybe they would have been even worse without it. But it’s not a panacea… You’ve got to have follow-up from that experience. You’ve got to learn how to process it in your life to make yourself a better person. And there has to be this group experience, too. You’ve got to be able to compare notes with other people and form a sacred community.” 

Girn, the neuroscientist from Five Discovery, noted that nobody knows for sure what would happen: “There’s no guarantee an experience would go any particular direction—it’s how we mold it.” However, he added a lengthy trip could pose a cardiovascular risk for Trump, considering his advanced age at 79 years old. “If he goes into an acute fear state, his heart rate might skyrocket, and that could be dangerous for somebody his age,” he said. 

According to Girn, among other possible outcomes, there is the potential that Trump could completely forget everything that happened during his trip. Elected officials, mental health professionals, military figures, diplomats, and conservatives have expressed concerns that Trump’s current mental state appears to be in decline, and for his part, Girn argues that Trump is showing signs of dementia. “People with Alzheimer’s have been found to not be able to remember their experiences. That seems to reduce the long-term effects that psychedelics have,” Girn said. 

Trump has dismissed allegations of being mentally unfit to serve as president, but public health professionals have raised concerns about Trump’s “marked deterioration in cognitive functioning.” The president’s own nephew, Fred C. Trump III, published a book in 2024 that details the Trump family history with dementia and argues that Trump is showing symptoms. If Trump does have dementia, and his memory of a trip gets wiped out, any potential long-term effects of the psychedelics might be nil. And in that case, this hypothetical Oval Office psychedelic session could very well conclude like the final scene of a haunting fairy tale. After a fleeting night of surreal visions, everything goes back to normal — another day in Trump’s America. 

“He might straight-up not remember what happened, and just be discombobulated the next day,” Girn said.

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