PSYCHEDELIC GUIDES, EXPLAINED

Five psychedelic guides, explained without shortcuts.

Plain-language guides to psilocybin, LSD, DMT and ayahuasca, MDMA, and ketamine and esketamine: what each compound is, what the research actually shows, the risks — including who should not take them — and where the law stands. Education and harm awareness, never instructions for use.

This project examines psychedelic research; it does not recommend psychedelic use. Outside approved medical care and registered clinical trials, these substances are illegal in most places, uncontrolled in content and dose, and genuinely dangerous for some people. Nothing in these guides is a how-to. If you are struggling, established treatments exist — and the medication and treatment sections of this site cover many of them.

EVIDENCE REVIEW
OCTOBER 18, 2026

Classic psychedelics

GUIDE 01Psilocybin Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound in "magic mushrooms," converted in the body to psilocin. It acts mainly on serotonin 2A receptors, producing several hours of altered perception, emotion, and sense of self. It has been used ceremonially for centuries and studied clinically since the 1950s; modern research restarted in the 2000s.Read the guide GUIDE 02LSD LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a synthetic psychedelic active in microgram doses, acting primarily at serotonin 2A receptors. Synthesized by Albert Hofmann in 1938 and famous from both 1950s psychiatry and 1960s counterculture, it produces a long altered state — typically 8 to 12 hours — of perception, thought, and selfhood.Read the guide GUIDE 03DMT & ayahuasca DMT (dimethyltryptamine) is a short-acting, intensely powerful psychedelic found in many plants and produced in trace amounts in mammals. Taken on its own, its effects last minutes; in ayahuasca — an Amazonian brew combining DMT-containing plants with an MAOI-containing vine — the experience stretches for hours and traditionally unfolds inside a guided ceremony.Read the guide

Empathogens and dissociatives

GUIDE 04MDMA MDMA is a stimulant-entactogen — the compound in "ecstasy" or "molly" — that floods serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, reliably producing euphoria, emotional openness, and reduced fear. Since the 1980s it has been studied, on and off, as a catalyst for psychotherapy rather than as a standalone drug.Read the guide GUIDE 05Ketamine & esketamine Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic in medical use since the 1970s; at lower doses it alters perception and can lift severe depression with unusual speed. Esketamine — one half of the ketamine molecule — is its regulated nasal-spray form: an approved medicine, given only under supervision in certified clinics.Read the guide
Front cover of The Antenna and the Signal: A Psychiatrist's Case for Consciousness Beyond the Brain by Lenoy Galvez, MD

THE BOOK

The Antenna and the Signal

What if the brain doesn't create consciousness — but receives it?

About the book