Substances

Deep-dives into psilocybin, LSD, DMT, MDMA, and other psychedelic compounds - their chemistry, effects, history, and science.

What Is 5-MeO-DMT? The Toad, Tryptamine, and Ego Dissolution
14 min read

What Is 5-MeO-DMT? The Toad, Tryptamine, and Ego Dissolution

A short-acting tryptamine, pharmacology-distinct from N,N-DMT, with twenty to forty five minute inhaled duration and an effect profile regularly described as total ego dissolution, often non-visual, often without remembered narrative content. 5-MeO-DMT lives at the convergence of synthetic chemistry, Sonoran desert toad conservation, and a ceremony culture that has outrun most of its careful study.

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What Is Ketamine? Therapy, Effects, and Mechanisms
16 min read

What Is Ketamine? Therapy, Effects, and Mechanisms

A dissociative anesthetic since 1970, a club drug in the 1990s, and the first genuinely new antidepressant mechanism the FDA has approved in thirty years. Ketamine occupies a strange and consequential niche in modern medicine.

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What Is Ayahuasca? The Vine, the Ceremony, and the Science
13 min read

What Is Ayahuasca? The Vine, the Ceremony, and the Science

Somewhere in the Amazon basin, people have been drinking a bitter vine brew for at least a thousand years. Today, that same brew is showing up in clinical trials for depression and PTSD. Here is everything the science knows about ayahuasca.

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What Is MDMA? The Science, Therapy, and Future of Ecstasy
12 min read

What Is MDMA? The Science, Therapy, and Future of Ecstasy

In 1976, a chemist named Alexander Shulgin synthesized a molecule that had been sitting in a patent filing since 1912 and decided to try it himself. What he experienced over the next several hours would eventually reshape psychiatric medicine.

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What Is LSD? From Bicycle Day to Clinical Trials
15 min read

What Is LSD? From Bicycle Day to Clinical Trials

On April 19, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann climbed onto his bicycle and began the most consequential commute in pharmacological history. This is the full story of LSD, from ergot fungus to CIA mind control to Johns Hopkins.

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What Is DMT? The Spirit Molecule, Explained
12 min read

What Is DMT? The Spirit Molecule, Explained

In 1990, Rick Strassman injected DMT into volunteers under a federal research approval at the University of New Mexico. The subjects reported interdimensional beings, alternate realities, and experiences more vivid than waking life, then ate lunch. The complete story of the spirit molecule.

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What Is Psilocybin? The Complete Guide to Magic Mushrooms
12 min read

What Is Psilocybin? The Complete Guide to Magic Mushrooms

A Wall Street banker, a healer in Oaxaca, and a mushroom growing guide written under fake names. The complete story of psilocybin, history, brain chemistry, effects, and what the science actually says.

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