It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh.

In some circles, psychedelics still suffer from bad branding during the 1960s counterculture,

but the latest resurgence of research is reshaping our understanding.

Psychedelics, like LSD and psilocybin, actually show great promise for treating mental illness, addiction, and neurological problems.

Researcher Rick Doblin shares the potential for psychedelic therapy and how it could change all of us in his archive talk from TED 2019.

Preparing for this talk has been scarier for me than preparing for LSD therapy.

Psychedelics are to the study of the mind, what the microscope is to biology, and the telescope

is to astronomy.

Dr. Stanislav Groff spoke those words.

He's one of the leading psychedelic researchers in the world,

and he's also been my mentor.

Today, I'd like to share with you how psychedelics,

when used wisely, have the potential to help heal us, help inspire us, and perhaps even to help save us. In the 1950s and 60s, psychedelic research flourished all over the world and showed great

promise for the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy, neuroscience, and the study of mystical experiences.

But psychedelics leaked out of the research settings and began to be used by the counterculture

and by the anti-Vietnam War movement.

And there was unwise use.

And so there was a backlash.

And in 1970, the U.S. government criminalized all uses of psychedelics,

and they began shutting down all psychedelic research. And this ban spread all over the world and

lasted for decades, and it was tragic, since psychedelics are really just tools, and whether

their outcomes are beneficial or harmful

...