Despite its popularity, the scientific evidence for microdosing is currently underwhelming, as placebo-controlled trials have struggled to show a significant benefit.

Unlike SSRIs that mollify symptoms by taking the edge off stress, psychedelics work by directly stimulating the serotonin system to promote plasticity, which requires courage to face difficult experiences.

The 'entropic brain principle' suggests a direct mapping between the richness of your conscious experience and the level of entropy, or disorder, in your brain activity.

Successful psychedelic therapy depends not just on 'set' and 'setting,' but also on the 'matrix'—the person's complex psychosocial life circumstances they return to after the trip.

The future of psychiatry may involve a doctor choosing from a 'briefcase' of different psychedelics to tailor treatment to a patient's specific history and symptom profile.

Psychedelics don't just shut off the brain's default mode network (the ego); they scramble its activity, breaking down rigid structures and increasing freedom of thought.

Mental illness is characterized by 'canalization'—an inability to change—and psychedelics promote the opposite, 'plasticity,' which is the fundamental ability to be shaped or molded.

In a computational view, a psychedelic experience can act as a 'system reset' for a brain that has become stuck in unhealthy patterns due to trauma or adversity.

Researchers are using AI to decode the psychedelic experience from brain activity, which could one day allow for personalizing therapy in real-time without disrupting the trip.