What LSD tells us about human nature | Marc Lewis

Our brains, with their intrinsic tendency to segregate, are designed to veer toward over-control. Psychedelics blow all that apart - and we can learn from them

I was in San Francisco last week, visiting my brother and revisiting the years we spent there as young men. We walked through Golden Gate park, two guys in their sixties, admiring the giant sequoias, exotic gardens, and gold-green pastures cascading westward to the ocean. And we reminisced about our epic acid trip back in 1969, in that very place, when we were primed for adventure and self-discovery.

I wouldn't encourage anyone to soothe existential discomfort with heroin or amphetamine. But psychedelics have a value