A Psychedelics Boom Is Minting Environmentalists
Proponents of a new wave of interest in hallucinogens say the right trip at the right time can change how people think about the natural world.
It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate setting for Amanda Joy Ravenhill’s first psychedelic experience than Burning Man, the Nevada desert festival that is to fans of hallucinogens what a bouncy castle is to rambunctious toddlers. In September 2009, while lying in an art installation resembling an osprey nest, Ravenhill queried the universe as the mushrooms kicked in: “What should I do next?”
The answer pulsed through her. It was as if the psilocybin (mushrooms’ active trippy ingredient) told her “to get my hands dirty,” she says. “It came through with such potency, and I got obsessed with soil’s role in stabilizing our climate.”