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

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.

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!

With the merger of atai and Beckley to create AtaiBeckely (OMG, so imaginative) and GH Research hot on their heels, it looks like the race to get 5-MeO-DMT to market (or at least to sell some shares while pretending to) is on in earnest.

Arguably the leading candidate in this is AtaiB’s intranasal 5-MeO-DMT benzoate candidate, BPL-003 (patent pending.) The attraction to this compound, from a commercial viewpoint, is clear. While this method of use lasts longer than vaping, it’s still relatively short-acting, with experiences largely over by 90 minutes post-dosing.

This short window of acute effects, combined with glowing anecdata and the beginnings of some very good clinical results, make this compound an attractive candidate for commercialisation. Even better, companies seeking FDA approval can use intranasal esketamine, aka Spravato, as a template to convince regulators that they’re not really trying anything that radical or unprecedented.

But, by all accounts, 5 is an exceptionally powerful substance. Not just in terms of how few milligrams are required to disconnect someone from normal reality, but the nature of the experience. At a sufficient dose, this isn’t some casual trip where the walls breath and normal objects become mysteriously hilarious. It’s disembodied acceleration into glowing oneness with the universe, or ego-death (or both.)

If dose isn’t managed properly, patients won’t even remember what happened. But this won’t stop them from experiencing 'reactivations’, a not-uncommon phenomena where people briefly re-experience aspects of their 5-MeO trip weeks or months later.

And, unlike ketamine, 5-MeO does pose a real serotonin toxicity risk if combined with the wrong medications or substances, though this is less a bit of an issue for the pure molecule vs dried Bufo alvarius secretions. (Note: Never combine 5-MeO-DMT with a MAOI.)

I have to really wonder: Does 5-MeO really fit into the Spravato mould? Should it even try? Florian Brand and Lars Christian Wilde seem to think so, raising the possibility of utilising ‘5,000 existing Spravato REMS-certified clinics’ to deliver BPL-003 to the masses.

The US is currently experiencing its own ketamine therapy dramas as Mindbloom finds itself being sued for the wrongful death of a client. While commercial developers talk a big game, the truth is that there are plenty of reasons to think rolling out 5-MeO-DMT as a therapy will not scale well. If integration support is lacking or providers cut corners with patient screening, it will be dangerous, and people will get hurt.

I wasn’t going to talk about patents this fortnight, even when I saw that Paul Stamets is continuing with claims for his literally puke-inducing psilocybin + hericenone+’adversive’ (e.g. ipecac!) formulations. But then I see this morning that Natural MedTech is still trying to patent a broad range of MAOI-tryptamine combos, including moclobemide and DMT. I just don’t know if I can survive this much ‘novelty’.

Want to help upgrade my budget from ‘Rivet’ to ‘Coopers’? Support me via Buy Me a Coffee, or make an unwise purchase from my Etsy store.

Our psychedelic experiences often involve things that seem out of line with everyday reality. Sometimes, what we experience seems to contradict with what is known by science. This potential conflict goes deeper than disagreeing with scientific knowledge or even the experience/reality distinction. It cuts to the core of the philosophy that underpins the idea of science as a way of learning about the universe.

One such philosophy that plays a huge role in the modern scientific worldview is naturalism: the idea that if something exists, it must be due to natural causes, not supernatural intervention, and must follow laws of nature.

Can our psychedelic experiences be compatible with this idea? As with a lot of philosophical questions, the answer to this one is ‘it depends.’

Read the full article here: Do Psychedelic Experiences Present a Challenge to Naturalism?

You might, like me, find yourself reacting to every new psychedelic journal article, influencer/grifter post or (if you’re a real nerd) patent application.

If this is you, make time to deliberately slow down and disconnect, to give your brain a break. Things feel urgent. And in many ways, they are. But the world will still be here if you step away for a couple of hours or days.

When you are in work mode, set aside time to think & reflect. This might involve journaling or going through a specific exercise related to something like Kolb’s experiential learning. (Or, like me, you just might need some quiet time and a blank page.)

You can still react to things as they happen. You actually can’t totally avoid this. But you can work on giving yourself space for a moment to think, if reacting off-the-cuff doesn’t work for you. ‘Thought leaders’ like Paul Austin call this the ‘sacred pause,’ but it’s really nothing so mystical: just stop, take a breath and spend a second or two being curious about what you’re thinking feeling and what bodily sensations might be happening.

Slowing down, even for just for a breath or two, isn’t always the best choice, though. If you’re in an active emergency situation, you do not need to check in with yourself until the danger has passed!

Sometimes the best course of action is to act with minimal reflection. Sometimes it’s to spend a weekend bushwalking, then take more time on top of that to consider what you’ll do next. The trick (that I have not totally figured out myself) is knowing which approach to go with.

I didn’t want to make too much of a thing about this until I’d gotten some product samples from Printful. But since they came back ok, I can let you all in on it now. I’ve set up an Etsy store that sells t-shirts featuring some of Orinoco Visionwolf’s deplorable product ideas, as well as a range of commentary on the quirks of psychedelic politics and ethically questionable patents.

Profits, should there ever be any, go to supporting my work (i.e. helping me contribute to paying the bills.)

Use the code: TRIP112025 for a 10% discount, but only for the next week.

Entheogenesis Australis is giving away a double pass and glamping package for Garden States Regeneration - details here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/2065384087718953

Inspired by the raging success of Global Psychedelic Week, Father of Dragons and CEO of Jungian Sperm Energy, Orinoco Visionwolf, has gifted us mere mortals with a new event for next year: Galactic Psychedelic Week.

Following a trip to hyperspace, the Thing In The Void Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken connected Lord Visionwolf with the Martian innovator and psychedelic business leader, Ras Thavas. Bonding over a shared love of mind-melting chemicals and societal domination, the pair have hatched a plan for a week-long celebration of science and culture of psychedelics, which are already legal and widely available on the red planet. (This is the real reason Musk wants to go there.)

The Martian domination of the Galactic Psychedelic Society means that even though the conference is technically open to every sentient being in the Milky Way or any adjacent multiverse version of it, most presentations will take place in the Olympus Mons Deja Thoris Commemorative Convention Centre.

Livestreams will be available for beings that lack the karmic superiority to be hatched on the correct planet, but the free brain transplant offer is only open to in-person delegates. (So we expect to see Bryan Johnson there.)

Jungian Sperm Energy: We’ll follow the money anywhere

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

Please consider forwarding this email to someone who you think might appreciate it. CC me in, and if they end up subscribing, I’ll throw in either a merch discount or a shoutout for you/your business (your choice.)

As always, all feedback and suggestions are welcome, and I promise* to not turn your painstakingly crafted patent application into a satirical t-shirt/novelty mug.

*Unless you mention soft furniture or blatantly obvious drug combinations.

PS:

What do the members of Panic! At the Disco take when they want to experience ego death?

5-EmO-DMT

Written on Worimi lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.

Icon by Freepik from Flaticon