Welcome to issue #16 of The Ethical Trip! This fortnight:

• Can 5-MeO-DMT be treated the same as Ketamine?

• Are psychedelic experiences compatible with a scientific worldview?

• When and how should you slow down your thinking?

For all this, plus an idiosyncratic roundup of recent research and alleged humour, read on! (There’s also a discount code for my Etsy store somewhere below!)

Huge thanks to everyone supporting this work. Whether it’s feedback, sharing, or contributing a few dollars a month via buy me a coffee cactus, it all makes a big difference to me and I’m deeply grateful.

Table of Contents

1. Industry Insights:

   1. Research Round-up

   2. Can 5-MeO-DMT be treated the same as Ketamine?

   3. Patent Nonsense

2. Philosophical Brief: Psychedelic Experiences and N …

3. Consultancy Corner: The Slow Signal

4. Cursed Attire for Psychedelic Satire

5. Garden States: Regeneration Giveaway!

6. A word from our sponsor:

Industry Insights:

Research Round-up

Some interesting papers hit the web this past fortnight. Here’s some that haven’t entirely hit the headlines thus far:

Murphy et al (2025) conducted a 6 week RCT on microdosed LSD and collected much needed but slightly ambiguous qualitative data. Their discussions of clinical trial relevance and strengths & limitations are excellent, though, and well worth reading.

Ermakova et al (2025) gave us an interesting look at the phenomenology of intranasal 5-MeO-DMT in psychedelic-naïve healthy adults. Doubly interesting, because this trial used AtaiBeckely’s BPL-003 formulation. On the downside, the lack of longer-term follow-up is disappointing.

Navarro (2025) investigated doing acupuncture on people an hour after giving them ketamine in a group setting. Turns out people liked it.

Kochevar (2025) analyses the epistemic phenomenology of psychedelic experiences, and proposes a novel framework for understanding them, based around ‘fascination, revelation, and improvisation.’

Hutchison et al (2025) looks at psilocybin use outside the clinic, and concludes that more effort needs to be put into ‘real-world research on psilocybin use, including public education, potency testing, and age-specific risk assessment.’

Lots more good stuff below, but only for subscribers!