The Psychedelic Movement Is Moving Rapidly: DoubleBlind Mag's 8th Issue Urges Us To Slow Down

The psychedelic movement is continuing to expand and grow at rapid speed and, yet, simultaneously the community is seeing an internal call to slow down, to be more intentional.

DoubleBlind Magazine’s eighth issue highlights voices who seek to do that by broadening and complexifying the conversations everyone’s having.  Psychedelics have shown promise for disrupting our current mental health epidemic, but, if that’s the only lens we’re looking at this through, we could be missing something here.

“Each magazine serves as an opportunity for us, at DoubleBlind, to contemplate our own journeys—personally and professionally, within psychedelics —  This issue was no different,” shares DoubleBlind co-founder and CEO Shelby Hartman. “As we report and edit, we also are invited more deeply into our own processes of introspection. What role do we want to play within the burgeoning psychedelic ‘movement?’ I am truly inspired by every story in the magazine, and am honored to feature it in our pages. We hope you feel the same way.”

Issue 8

In this issue, Dr. Andrew Weil encourages us to advocate for and learn about all historically stigmatized plants and fungi, from kava to the coca plant.

Musician East Forest puts forth an optimistic and empowering thesis regarding this apocalyptic moment in history.

Meanwhile, Alnoor Ladha and Rene Suša challenge the idea that “the psychedelic renaissance” is part of a movement toward an enlightened humanity, rather than a new manifestation of the same harmful tactics that have oppressed marginalized peoples for centuries.

In this issue, too, as always, DoubleBlind seeks to address timely trends within the emerging psychedelic industry, from a new wave of at-home ketamine lozenge companies to churches seeking the federal right to use psychedelics for spiritual reasons. These conversations remain ambitious—and often messy, when done with intention. DoubleBlind invites you to have these conversations together. 

Here’s a taste of what this new issue brings. Check out the synopsis on three stories that are featured:

• Photographer Leonardo Carrato captures the remnants of Indigenous reformatories in Brazil—and the communities that still live in and around them. They serve as a potent reminder of the resilience of Indigenous groups in the region, who have preserved their cultural traditions for generations in the face of persecution. 

• Before Mariela De La Paz ever tried a psychedelic, she was painting vivid archetypes present for generations in ceremony. She pioneered an aesthetic, centered around reverence for the divine feminine, which went on to inspire many artists after her. In this issue, we celebrate her life’s work and speak to her about how the concept of the “divine feminine” can exist alongside an understanding of gender as fluid and nonbinary. 

• There are many ways to protest—and to reclaim one’s power. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, contemporary artist Artem Humilevskiy does this through raw self-portraits, celebrating vulnerability and determination.