[Summary & Review] Netflix’s How to Change Your Mind + A Really Good Day on LSD Microdosing

Psychedelics are a topic that has interested me for a long time. Not because I’m a user (I don’t drink, smoke, or even drink coffee), but a friend I deeply respect told me about them. I had a lot of preconceptions, but I took the time to educate myself to understand why he needed them, and what was wrong with him. That led me to watch interviews and read articles by Stanislav Grof, a psychiatrist who conducted studies on the effects of LSD. Then, a few years ago, I took part in a holotropic breathwork session (drug-free), which produces minor effects, but comparable to LSD. I really enjoyed that session and finally understood what my friend was talking about. The method was also developed by Dr. Stanislav Grof.

When I saw the documentary How to Change Your Mind (Netflix link) on Netflix, I was very surprised that Netflix devoted a mini-series to this topic. But after some research, I understood that psychedelics have been making a comeback recently. The war on drugs is being increasingly questioned worldwide, and Silicon Valley is sending its lobbyists to gradually legalize them.

The mini-series is inspired by Michael Pollan’s book “How to Change Your Mind” (I haven’t read his book), who is originally a well-known gardener. The series has 4 episodes. Each episode is devoted to one psychedelic.

1. LSD : arguably the most studied psychedelic in the world, because the lab that discovered it sent it to psychiatrists worldwide for study. Initially, the goal was to make psychiatrists “bipolar” like their patients to better treat them, but the results were completely different: patients were healing thanks to LSD. It takes very little to go on a “trip” (we’re talking 100 micrograms!!) and there is no known lethal dose. Sure, you can have a bad trip, but you won’t die from an overdose. Microdosing LSD-25 was mentioned, and the author of the book “A Really Good Day” about microdosing also appears in the series. We’ll talk about that later. Despite all these positive effects, LSD suffered from a smear campaign by the US government because, distributed massively by Timothy Leary to change global consciousness, LSD was considered by the United States as public enemy number one. It was behind the protests against the Vietnam War, among other things. People were finally opening their eyes, becoming aware, and that threatened the social order. Following this ban, the US put pressure on other countries to ban it too. No labs to produce it, no distribution, no protests. Even among psychiatrists at the time, opinions differed: some wanted to distribute it only to elites so they could expand their consciousness and influence the public, others wanted to make it accessible to everyone, like Leary.
2. Psilocybin : or “magic mushrooms.” Discovered among the Mazatecs in Mexico, these mushrooms have a transformative effect, and apparently need to be taken only once in a lifetime to heal or expand consciousness. Psilocybin is currently being studied to bring comfort to terminally ill cancer patients. And those who have taken it no longer fear death.
3. MDMA : or ecstasy, now used mainly for couples therapy.
4. Mescaline : extracted from peyote or the San Pedro cactus. I’m a bit surprised that ayahuasca wasn’t mentioned in this episode. Probably because of some regrettable deaths during ayahuasca trips in the Amazon. This episode focuses more on Native American traditions and their fight to continue using peyote in their religious ceremonies.

What I liked about this series is that it offers a more medical/psych perspective than a “junkie” one. There are videos from real scientific studies and testimonials from people who participated in these studies. How it changed their lives, how it cured their anxieties, stress, traumas…

I really liked the fMRI results of people in the middle of a trip. These are recent data, which is why I hadn’t seen them in Dr. Grof’s work.

• These psychedelics silence the brain mechanism associated with the ego: the Default Mode Network (DMN), which explains the feeling of being “one” with the universe and experiencing unconditional love for all.
• These psychedelics promote connections between different brain regions, even areas that don’t normally communicate (left: normal connections, right: connections during the “trip”), hence the hallucinations described by those under the influence of psychedelics. And these connections persist (without damaging the brain), resulting in a profound impact on participants.

The series doesn’t aim to encourage psychedelic use, but to highlight their usefulness. It also criticizes the absurd classification of these psychedelics as Schedule I drugs, meaning they’re not even allowed for medical use (while cocaine, which is much more addictive and has known overdose risks, can be prescribed).

Next, I read the book A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman (Amazon link) and I really enjoyed it. The book is autobiographical and tells how an ordinary mom, a writer and former law professor, started microdosing LSD-25 just to have “a really good day.”

This 30-day “research” is inspired by a certain Mr. James Fadiman, who encouraged everyone to send him a little report after 30 days of microdosing: 1 day of microdose (10 micrograms) and 2 days of rest. You need rest time to objectively notice the effect of the microdose.

At first, I expected a boring account of his day-by-day microdosing effects (over 30 days), but no. The content resembles that of the Netflix series about the history of psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, MDMA), with a few personal anecdotes (which have nothing to do with psychedelics) that are extremely moving. There was a passage about a friend of hers, whose family history is linked to the Holocaust. He went to Peru to participate in an ayahuasca session, “saw” his late father again, and was able to ask him life-changing questions. I didn’t think I’d cry that much reading a book about LSD 😀

The author started microdosing because she has suffered from depression for years, and antidepressants don’t work well and have many side effects. You could say she was on the brink of suicide and had nothing left to lose. I didn’t know this, because it doesn’t affect me, but after reading this book and watching another video on the subject, I realized that we still haven’t found a relatively effective treatment for psychological disorders and depression. !!

Since Ayelet Waldman was a professor and worked as a lawyer, she saw many unjust cases. In her opinion, the war on drugs in the United States essentially penalizes people of color. This war has a more political than social purpose. It was never created for the well-being and safety of people, as it has been proven by several studies that not penalizing drug use and having effective education and communication campaigns reduced the number of overdose and violence cases, and people decided on their own to go to rehab.

Anyway, all this helped me better understand these molecules. And better understand not one but two of my friends who use them regularly. They are intelligent, awakened, and I always wondered what could attract them to psychedelics. The series and the book are quite similar. To save time, I recommend watching the mini-series, but the book is also excellent if you have a bit more time.

For those who feel like trying LSD, know that LSD is still illegal, but you can try soft methods without any drugs, like holotropic breathing, which I talked about here. I also had a little chat with a shaman during my trip to the Amazon and he told me there’s no point in going that far to seek ayahuasca; you already have access to a more or less equivalent drug, which he also uses in his ceremonies: tobacco.