Historical overview
March 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1093/med/9780192863607.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | LSD Psilocybin |
| Keywords | The renaissance Magic telescope Hallucinogen Indigenous Art history Ethnology Ecology |
| Key points | Argues that psychedelic compounds have a long history of human use, experienced a decline due to prohibition, and have undergone a resurgence in scientific interest since the 1990s. |
Abstract
Abstract Humans have a long and complicated history with psychedelic compounds. Originally discovered as a component of certain plants and fungi, the psychedelics were widely used by ancient and indigenous peoples for millennia. Contemporary Western society had been largely disconnected from psychedelics but was reintroduced when Albert Hofmann first synthesized D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the 1940s, and when American banker Gordon Wasson was introduced to psilocybin by Maria Sabina in the 1950s and spread word of these ‘magic mushrooms’. LSD and psilocybin became objects of scientific and cultural fascination, but their early prominence shifted into abrupt decline in the 1970s because of sweeping international drug laws and regulation. In the 1990s, the psychedelics re-emerged, this time from an era of prohibition. From that point onward, there has been an ongoing renaissance of psychedelic science.