Veterans are increasingly turning to psychedelics for brain injury and other symptoms of depression.

With the Islamic rebellion in Syria, which ousted Assad, Syrian Christians are deeply concerned of their faith,

whether it will be tolerated in the new regime. Over one million children in Nigeria are being used to mine lithium and thus denied education

and health protection.

These are the stories we'll discuss and we will also address some of your questions.

I'm your host, Sean McDowell.

I'm your co-host, Scott Ray.

This is the Think Biblically Weekly Cultural Update brought you by Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.

Scott, I sent you this article from the New York Times, in part because in seven years plus of doing this podcast, we have never talked about psychedelics.

And for quite a few reasons, one reason being the medical

issues will get in today. But another reason is there's a lot of writers talking about how the

loss of meaning in our culture, people are turning to psychedelics for spiritual motivation

as well. Now, this article leans in more specifically on veterans who are

seeking relief from brain injury and other kind of forms of trauma. And it tells a story of

quite a few U.S. Special Operations veterans crossing into Mexico over a period of 48 hours. And their plan is to swallow

a psychedelic extract from the bark of a West African shrub, fall into a void of dark hallucinations,

and then have their consciousness shattered by smoking the poison of a desert

toad. Now, just on its surface, that sounds obviously a little crazy, but let's keep going.

The objective was to find what they had so far been unable to locate anywhere else, relief from post-traumatic stress disorder,

and traumatic brain injury symptoms. Now, one of this Army Green Beret, who wanted to remain

unnamed, says, it sounds a little extreme, but I've tried everything else, and it didn't work.

So one in particular talks about just surviving from explosions and other trauma in war.

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