In recent years there has been a resurgent scientific interest in the psychological effects of psychedelic drugs.
Consider the example ofrecent trialsin which psilocybin was administered to people diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.
Those involved reported significantly positive responses even six months later.
Amidst this psychedelic renaissance, there isone recent studyin particular that has grabbed my attention.
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Connection to nature is something Im interested in and haveresearched with colleagues, especially in relation tomental health.
In general terms, we are ever more alienated from nature.
Perhaps this isnt that surprising.
It is what they argue on the basis of these results that is especially interesting.
This is nothing new.
Could this be true?
On taking psychedelics, one can be momentarily absorbed in a state of oneness or oceanic boundlessness.
Before I was looking at it as a thing, like TV or a painting.
[But] youre part of it, theres no separation or distinction, you are it.
With or without psychedelics, we certainly need to strengthen our connection to nature.
They argue that this cannot but engender an increased sense of environmental responsibility.
There is certainly no magic pill that can mobilise environmental responsibility on a mass scale, psychedelic or otherwise.
Workable solutions to the climate crisisrequire morethan shifts in individual perspective, however radical or profound.
To be clear, I am not advocating an unregulated psychedelic free for all.
The trials mentioned here consist of carefully controlled doses, with participants supported byprofessional therapists.
But there is value in considering how profound experiences, not necessarily unchallenging ones, might have transformative power.
Powerful experiences of nature might be especially significant today too.
We increasingly live in an age ofextinction.
This is true at an individual level but also in familiar social configs ofshared silence and discomfort.
