Psychedelic Art Is Having Its Museum Moment

Good morning and welcome to another edition of The Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about the artists who shaped the visual language of the ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture. We know you’ve seen their work.

Last weekend, we attended a museum-caliber retrospective on counterculture and Grateful Dead art at the Chambers Project gallery in Grass Valley, California. It was a BANGER! There was music, mushrooms, a man dressed as Santa, acid, and a trove of original, iconic works that didn’t just accompany the soundscapes of the ’60s and ’70s, but visually seared them into our collective psyche and cultural memory. We interviewed Brian Chambers, the founder of the art gallery, about the event, being a psychedelic art collector, the advent of psychedelic arts & culture, and tripping on acid during a high school science class…which effectively changed his life. You can find that story below!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find other pieces on DMT vape pens, Bryan Johnson (in case you missed it), an interview with Grammy-nominated producer Jon Hopkins, and so much more.

Fare you well ⚡️💀🌹

Mary Carreón
Editor in Chief

Together with J. Ashley T. Booth, LCSW, MS

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Psychedelic Art Is Coming Out of the Underground Thanks to the Chamber’s Project

A museum-caliber exhibition in Northern California makes the case for psychedelic art as serious cultural history, not countercultural ephemera.

It all started as many lifelong obsessions do: tripping on acid in science class.

Brian Chambers grew up in Tennessee, and one day in high school, his teacher said something to him that changed the trajectory of his life.

“My teacher had an Alex Grey poster on the wall, and that day when I was on acid, she told the entire class that his art was inspired by LSD,” Chambers told DoubleBlind over the phone. “And I was like, ‘Holy shit, okay, I knew it wasn’t just me. Psychedelic art must be a thing.’”

It wasn’t the first time he’d taken acid in that class, but it was the first time the dots connected. “To hear her say that his art is inspired by LSD was definitely like an ‘aha’ moment,” he said. From there, the rabbit hole opened. Chambers started researching the psychedelic art movement, which led him to the San Francisco rock poster scene, and eventually to a lifelong commitment to collecting, preserving, and contextualizing the visual language of the American counterculture.

That commitment came fully into focus on December 5 and 6, when a high-end exhibition in Grass Valley brought together the work of many of the artists responsible for shaping the look and feel of the 1960s and ’70s counterculture. The show featured many figures from the Grateful Dead’s extended creative universe, including legendary poster artists like Stanley Mouse and Rick Griffin.

For Chambers, the show was the culmination of decades of work. “I have been a serious art collector for 30 years,” he said. “As a sophomore in high school, I bought my first $1,000 piece of art—an Albert Hoffman signed poster.” He opened his first gallery in 2009, but it’s been his full-time career for the past 10 years. “This show’s really the culmination of 30 years in the field and all the relationships that I’ve made.”

Chambers said he couldn’t have made the event happen if it weren’t for Reuben Zoltron, who is the head of production on all merchandise and poster artists. The Rick Griffin Estate was also essential in managing all of the Grateful Dead licensing on all of the shirts and Sweet Dyes Sweet Vibes. AJ Masthay crafted the grand opening poster, while the old school legend Dennis Larkins is managing the upcoming release.

The timing for all of this was deliberate. Chambers marked December 4 as the 60-year anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s first performance. “This is what I’ve been laser-like focused on for two solid years,” he said. “30 years of work, but two years of laser focus.”

What made the exhibition exceptional wasn’t just its scale, but its intent. “My intention was to truly celebrate creative expression in a way that we’ve never done before,” Chambers said. “For us, it was a celebration of every trick we’ve learned and people from around the world who we’ve been blessed to meet and just know over our entire lives.”

Every piece in the gallery carried a story, and often a strange one. “There is genuinely a crazy story behind every piece,” he said. One of Rick Griffin's works, for instance, came with a particularly surreal tale. “The fella that I got it from got it directly from Rick Griffin in 1969,” Chambers said. “And he traded him a human skull for it.”

Other works surfaced from unlikely places. “‘Skull Amid Roses’ came from my mentor,” Chambers said of one of his most iconic pieces. “He got it from a very obscure, misplaced German auction that nobody was tracking or paying attention to.” Many of the works had been stored away for decades. “Nobody’s ever seen like 90% of the works in the show,” he said. “They’ve been hidden away in various closets or living rooms or storage units.”

For Leah Chambers, Brian’s wife, the world of psychedelic art collecting wasn’t something she grew up immersed in, but over time, it’s become a devotion. “Now it is my thing,” she said. “There are a lot of people like me who maybe didn’t know some of these names,” she said. “Now, through what we are creating, they have access to being introduced to incredible art.”

This act of cultural translation is core to the Psychedelic Arts and Culture Trust, or PACT, the nonprofit Brian and Leah founded to steward psychedelic arts and culture at an institutional level. “Our goal with this [most recent art] show was to formally announce that this is PACT,” Brian said. “This is the epicenter of psychedelic arts and culture.”

Leah emphasized that the exhibition marked a turning point for the organization. “We really couldn’t have fully executed this exhibition if it weren’t for PACT,” she said. “It was kind of a really cool, monumental moment for us.”

PACT’s mission, as Brian put it, is simple but expansive. “We are here to honor the past, celebrate the present, and help shape the future of psychedelic arts and culture,” he said. More shows are already planned. On January 1, the space will host Glass Is Dead, a group exhibition featuring the world’s top glass blowers.

Ultimately, both Brian and Leah see the work as reframing psychedelic art not as a drug-adjacent curiosity, but as a legitimate cultural movement. “People can be a little nervous around it,” Leah said. “It’s inspired by psychedelics, but you don’t have to be into doing psychedelics to appreciate this art.”

Brian is more blunt about the resistance he’s faced. “I chose to not play by the fine art and traditional art world and kind of carve my own path,” he said. “We’re gonna show this [art] at the absolute highest level.”

What happened in Gra

ss Valley last weekend wasn’t just a local art event; it’s proof that there’s a hunger to see psychedelic art showcased in a way that commands the same respect as traditional and fine art.

“This is a starting line; not the finish,” Brian said. “I promise this ain’t where we end.”

Can DMT (Aliens) Help Us Understand Schizophrenia?

For decades, scientists have puzzled over why the human brain produces DMT at all, and what happens when that system goes awry. Now, a new research collaboration between the nonprofit Noonautics and the University of Florida is revisiting a long-dormant hypothesis: that disruptions in the brain’s endogenous DMT pathways may be linked to schizophrenia, and that understanding this chemistry could open the door to new treatments.

This week’s Friday Feature examines the science behind Endo-DMTx, a project focused less on the spectacle of psychedelic visions and more on the hard neurochemistry beneath them. Along the way, researchers are also grappling with a strange but persistent side effect of DMT research — the recurring reports of “entities” — and what those experiences might reveal about perception, hallucination, and the biological roots of mental illness.

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DoubleBlind Digs

• Indigenous-led Tribes and organizations working on climate solutions—from land stewardship to clean energy—can access a share of a new $1M fund. Learn more here.

• For anyone wondering how to actually live their psychedelic insights—without chasing peak after peak—Integration Alchemy is a new book that offers grounded tools, embodied wisdom, and soulful guidance to turn ceremony into a meaningful, integrated life. Learn more here.

• DoubleBlind just published its first book—and DoubleBlind+ members get a free copy of The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics, a beautifully designed, safety-forward handbook covering substances, dosage, contraindications, and what to expect. Learn more here.

Together with J. Ashley T. Booth, LCSW, MS

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📖Read a FREE PREVIEW at ifsandbeyond.com

🤝Need some guidance? Reach out! I offer psychotherapy and consultation: ashleybooth.net