Peaking: Psychedelics and the Pursuit of Happiness

VJ3.0

As a doc, I wasn’t as fond of this as I’d like. There’s no real give and take, just a POV that psychedelics in therapeutic environments have positive impacts on mental health, addiction & TBIs. I believe this, came in believing it, but it would make a better doc if there was a smidge of a counter argument. I have some other critiques, but I’ll leave that at that — it has some good, if simplified, information. If you are traumatized by footage of war and terrorist attacks, give this a pass. There was also a Q&A with the director and Dan Carcillo, a former pro hockey player and Stanley Cup winner with a significant TBI to show for it. He talked at greater length that psychedelic therapy is not a one and done, and that a client will have greater benefits if working with a conventional talk therapist in addition to the psychedelic therapy. This is exciting stuff. Not a magic bullet but a tool that may help a lot of people.

ani_raven3.0

I appreciate a documentary that demonstrates the incredible therapeutic power of psychedelics. It was very encouraging to see the dramatic difference specific psilocybin and ayahuasca therapies have made in the lives of people suffering severe PTSD and multiple traumatic brain injuries.I am happy to hear that more research is finally being done in this area. We sorely need new and better tools to deal with mental health and brain trauma.And then there was the bit with the Sonoran toad, who excrete a highly psychedelic substance from special glands when squeezed. This is, unfortunately, not great news for the toads. That section felt less therapeutic, and more like some dudes, paying a white-shaman-in-the-desert dude, for a cathartic, psychedelically enhanced, desert experience. Maybe it was just the description of losing your conscious self, to allow your subconscious to come to the front- and then the cut to the dude yelling “fuck” at the top of his lungs. I think the documentary would have been stronger without this. Also included was a segment on a study that has been done on people who attended the Nova Music festival in Israel. Apparently many festival goers were using LSD or MDMA, and were timing their trips to peak at dawn, which was exactly coincident with the Hamas attacks. The research found that people on MDMA at the time they experience severe trauma have faired better at dealing with it than people who were on another drug, or on no drugs. I would have liked that information given without the repeated description of the attacks, or repeated use of the word “terrorist.”Overall, I think this documentary is an important addition to the resurgent movement to use psychedelics as tools in therapy. But like with all psychedelic experiences, your mileage may vary.