How Psychedelics Work

From the premier expert on psychedelic research, a groundbreaking exploration of how psychedelics unlock long-held mysteries of the mind, and how these revelations can be used to treat the most crippling of mental illnesses.

We are living through a psychedelic renaissance, a moment when scientists are rediscovering the transformative power of these divisive drugs. From depression and anxiety to chronic pain and eating disorders, psychedelics are providing relief from suffering in cases where all other treatments have fallen short. But what exactly are these substances doing? What can they teach us about how the brain works and how mental illness takes hold?

How Psychedelics Work weaves together cutting-edge neuroscience, stories from the lab, and accounts from patients to illuminate what these substances do and why they can be so life-changing. Drawing on decades of research, including his own landmark trials, Robin Carhart-Harris explains how psychedelics act on the brain to liberate it from rigid and repetitive patterns of thought and perception.

At the heart of the book is a new model of mental health that reframes illness not simply as a chemical imbalance but as an acquired state of mental rigidity, where habitual behaviors and narratives become stubbornly entrenched. During a trip, Carhart-Harris argues, psychedelics free us up so that we can regain perspective and recover a sense of meaning and purpose.

Beyond their therapeutic potential, psychedelics may hold the answer to some of the most profound and vexing questions we have about consciousness, the self, and subjective experience. By illuminating how the mind constructs our sense of reality, How Psychedelics Work invites readers to consider what it would mean to unlock the hidden mind.