Mattha Busby

can the Trump administration Make Ecstasy Great Again? many longtime advocates are hoping: it can!

The use of psychedelics in medicine is booming. Will it heal trauma, or create even more? Psychedelic medicine is booming. Will it heal trauma, or create even more?

I wrote about how a $20,000 psychedelic medicine training that promised education & healing ended with warring lawsuits, a hospitalized trainee, & multiple allegations of sexual assaults. Unpaywalled link for accessibility in reply www.businessinsider.com/dark-side-sh...

10 Things I Learned Rawdogging a 4-Day Rave Without Booze or Drugs Partying stone-cold sober at Bass Coast festival—because being a hero can teach you a lot.

Maybe sobriety really is the new high. Or perhaps I’ve just become the kind of person who says things like that unironically

www.vice.com/en/article/1...

‘People pay to be told lies’: the rise and fall of the world’s first ayahuasca multinational The long read: Alberto Varela claimed he wanted to use sacred plant medicine to free people’s minds. But as the organisation grew, his followers discovered a darker reality

my latest:

Albert Varela claimed his corporate ayahuasca empire would free people's minds and offer them an escape from a world in crisis.
But as Inner Mastery grew, its followers discovered a darker reality.

for @theguardian.com Long Read

TripAdvisor Promised Paradise. Climate Change Had Other Plans. | Atmos These heat- and drought-stricken tourist destinations are far from the oases you’d see on Instagram.

these visitors had planned to see a pristine natural paradise—only to be met with a climate-stricken wasteland upon arrival

as global temperatures rise, this sort of tourist disappointment is becoming the norm, reports @matthabusby.bsky.social for @atmosmag.bsky.social 🌍🧪

TripAdvisor Promised Paradise. Climate Change Had Other Plans. | Atmos These heat-and-drought-stricken tourist destinations are far from the oases you’d see on Instagram.

The climate crisis is ravaging once-beautiful areas of natural beauty. Once idyllic tourist spots, heat and drought-stricken regions are far from the oases you'd see on Instagram.

@matthabusby.bsky.social explores the impact on the land and the livelihoods of those who call it home.

People Are Using AI Chatbots to Guide Their Psychedelic Trips As psychedelic companies and therapy apps experiment with AI, people are already taking huge doses of drugs and using chatbots to process their trips.

Psychedelic therapy can cost hundreds of dollars a session. Some people are taking massive doses of hallucinogens and using chatbots to guide them instead, despite the risks. From @matthabusby.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/people... s/

People Are Using AI Chatbots to Guide Their Psychedelic Trips As psychedelic companies and therapy apps experiment with AI, people are already taking huge doses of drugs and using chatbots to process their trips.

As psychedelic companies and therapy apps experiment with AI, people are already taking huge doses of drugs and using chatbots to process their trips

‘It's almost like your own self that you’re communicating with’

Latest for @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/people...

In print today

Trying to Win at Doing Nothing, With a Crowd Watching

This makes me want to compete in a space out competition. I think I might be good at it?
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/w...

Waska: the cost of spiritual healing in the Amazon “Ayahuasca”: a mystical shortcut to healing and enlightenment, or commodification of the Amazon?

Powerful and beautiful short movie www.theguardian.com/environment/...

That Time A$AP Rocky Took LSD with a Psychedelic Scientist An LSD trip with a neuroscientist turned Rocky’s London sessions into one of his biggest creative experiments.

Meet the psychedelic scientist @leorroseman.bsky.social who tripped with ASAP Rocky and helped craft a global hit single — with LSD

'I’d come to the studio with gifts. He saw me as a scientist doing an experiment and he liked the idea that he was the experiment.'

doubleblindmag.com/that-time-aa...

Return of the Shaman How visionary healers became a fixture of contemporary American culture and politics

How visionary healers became a fixture of contemporary American culture and politics, writes James Parker for The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

In England, Parents Are Moving Their Children Into a Doomsday Cult—With a Man Calling Himself ‘the New Pope’ According to Islamic legend, a messianic figure known as the Mahdi will appear before Judgement Day to vanquish injustice and tyranny, and usher in an era of peace across the world before the apocalyp...

To join this doomsday cult, you have to believe its leader Abdullah Hashem is the messiah. His claims also include a theory that giant rabbits who wear clothes and speak control a faraway planet

Oh, and 'we are looking for people who are willing to sell their homes'

www.vice.com/en/article/a...

Who the Hell Is ‘Jacky Jhaj’—the Man Charged Over the Disneyland Pedophile Wedding? The casting agent had an unusual task to fulfill: they needed to find 100 children, aged from five to 15 years old, to be extras in a “prestigious” high-end wedding rehearsal. This was a job that requ...

Jhaj now faces the prospect of another stint behind bars after the twisted stunt, which was just the latest in a long list of elaborate ploys designed to meet young women. For Vice

www.vice.com/en/article/j...

Who Will Own the ‘God Molecule’? Inside the race to turn 5-MeO-DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelic drugs in the world into a pharmaceutical.

Inside the race to turn 5-MeO-DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelic drugs in the world into a pharmaceutical.

Tripping on Psychedelics for Palestine Rabbis on ayahuasca • MDMA in the West Bank • Then America bombs Iran

Can psychedelics bring peace to the Middle East? At
the Psychedelic Science conference delegates discussed MDMA clinics in the West Bank, rabbis drinking ayahuasca, and whether group tripping might heal national trauma. Plus many other questions...

For Dispatch

dispatch-media.com/tripping-wit...

Scientists Are Sending Cannabis Seeds to Space The versatile cannabis plant could, some scientists think, one day be useful for lunar and Martian colonists. For now, researchers will subject its seeds to radiation in orbit and see what happens.

The versatile cannabis plant could, some scientists think, one day be useful for lunar and Martian colonists. For now, researchers will subject its seeds to radiation in orbit and see what happens. www.wired.com/story/scient...

What is a mushroom really? Two titans of the wellness world duke it out Paul Stamets and Jeff Chilton began as friends, their collaboration leading to the rise of medicinal mushroom supplements. Until they disagreed on one important thing: the definition of mushroom.

Two leaders in the mushroom supplement industry, Paul Stamets and Jeff Chilton, had been friends since the 1970s. Then they got into a feud about a seemingly simple question that is anything but… What constitutes a mushroom?

For @latimes.com

www.latimes.com/lifestyle/st...

A Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia?

I have a new story up in the NYTimes Magazine. Thanks to @mauraf.bsky.social for talking to me so many times for this one, and to everyone else who talked to me on the record, especially students and faculty, despite the risk.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/m...

"Bad trips" can have surprising benefits Psychedelics can cause long-lasting challenging experiences. In certain settings, they can be transformative

New article in 'Salon' by Elizabeth Hlavinka about the bad & the good sides of 'bad trips', interviewing Eirini Argyri & myself about our work on the Challenging #Psychedelic Experiences Project exploring recovery & growth after post-psychedelic extended difficulties

www.salon.com/2025/06/06/b...

How Britain fell into the K-hole Silicon Valley’s favourite drug is also the UK’s.

Some thoughts on ketamine
www.newstatesman.com/politics/hea...

Mayan eco-chic is the new eco-bleak. For the latest issue of Volume, I draw on my three reporting trips to Tulum to demonstrate the unmitigated disaster of ‘eco-tourism’ in the Mexican town, among other things

Top secret drug report supported decriminalisation The Home Office has won a battle to suppress a report from its own expert adviser that recommended decriminalising possession of drugs.A tribunal has concluded

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

UK drug advisers recommended decriminalising possession in 2016, leak reveals Exclusive: Guardian has seen copy of 27-page report that Home Office attempted to keep confidential

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Sadiq Khan is right: Britain must decriminalise cannabis – or remain in the dark ages | Simon Jenkins Criminalising drugs ruins lives and wastes police resources. Many other countries have realised this – so when will UK politicians, asks Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Thanks to Simon Jenkins for citing my Guardian and Times pieces on my years-long and ultimately successful quest to obtain a copy of a suppressed UK government expert report recommending drug decriminalisation

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Days-Long ‘Dark Retreats’ Are the Newest Spiritual Conquest for Tech Elites A crypto founder and celebrities like Aaron Rodgers and Tiffany Haddish have tried the pitch-black retreats, described as “meditation on steroids.” Some see terrifying hallucinations.

A crypto founder and celebrities like Aaron Rodgers and Tiffany Haddish have tried the pitch-black retreats, described as “meditation on steroids.” Some see terrifying hallucinations. www.wired.com/story/days-l...

The Great Alcohol Health Flip-Flop Isn’t That Hard to Understand—if You Know Who Was Behind It More than 30 years ago, the "French paradox" got America bleary-eyed.

the surgeon general is calling for a cancer warning label on alcohol. remember when alcohol was...healthy? read our @slate.bsky.social feature on the flip flop

For the very unlikely return of the Vice magazine, I spoke to an array of inspirational people who well and truly hit Rock Bottom but emerged on the other side to impart their gory wisdom

www.vice.com/en/article/r...

Days-Long ‘Dark Retreats’ Are the Newest Spiritual Conquest for Tech Elites A crypto founder and celebrities like Aaron Rodgers and Tiffany Haddish have tried the pitch-black retreats, described as “meditation on steroids.” Some see terrifying hallucinations.

‘It's meditation on steroids. You can go to incredible depths really quickly. This is where the promise and the peril lies.’

New for @wired.com on darkness retreats

www.wired.com/story/days-l...