Explore the World of Plant Medicine and Psychedelics. A Weekly Digest of Exclusive Stories, Insights, and Research.
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Guide ⚡
Today’s newsletter takes about 5 minutes to read—so if you’ve only got 60 seconds, here’s what you need to know:
Psychedelic history is stranger than most people realize. Long before today’s clinical trials, wellness retreats, and decriminalization efforts, psychedelics were already influencing science, therapy, religion, celebrity culture, and even government intelligence programs.
The government has always been curious about psychedelics and their influence on the mind. From MK-ULTRA and Operation Midnight Climax to Cary Grant’s LSD therapy sessions, the Good Friday Experiment, and the rise of “magic mushrooms,” the early psychedelic era was filled with both groundbreaking ideas and deeply questionable ethics.
As psychedelics move back into the mainstream, understanding the past can help us build a more responsible future. These stories matter because they remind us that psychedelic medicine has always existed at the intersection of healing, power, culture, policy, and belief.
🎙️ This week on the pod: We sit down with former NHL player Daniel Carcillo to explore trauma, mental health, post-concussion syndrome, and how psychedelics may help people rewrite old narratives, leave victimhood behind, and reconnect with a deeper sense of personal power.
🗺 At Webdelics, we’re here to make the complex world of psychedelics easier to understand while also acknowledging the weird, controversial, and complicated history that brought us here.
Because the future of psychedelics will not be shaped by science alone…
The future of plant medicine will also be influenced by its history, ethics, culture, integration, and our willingness to learn from what came before us.
🧠 The Webdelics Team
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🎙️ How Psychedelics Can Recreate Your Reality — w/Daniel Carcillo
🎧 In this episode, we sit down with former NHL player Daniel Carcillo to explore trauma, mental health, post-concussion syndrome, and the powerful process of leaving victimhood behind.
♥ Through his personal story of childhood abuse, professional sports, and focus on working through deep healing, Daniel shares how psychedelics (specifically psilocybin mushrooms) played a role in helping him reshape his perspective and reclaim his life...
⚡️ This episode was a raw and inspiring conversation focused on healing, self-empowerment, and how psychedelics carry the potential to help people break free from old narratives while remembering that true transformation also requires balance, self-care, and integration…
📜 The “Must Read” For The Week
CIA-Sponsored Brothels, Mushrooms at Harvard & British Soldiers Tripping on LSD - The 10 Most Unbelievable Truths from Modern Psychedelic History
By Steve Elfrink, OmTerra Therapist & Webdelics Subject Matter Expert
Long before psychedelics were part of wellness retreats and decriminalization campaigns, they were reshaping science, therapy, and national security policy.
Yes, national security policy…
The early era of psychedelic research, spanning the 1950s–1960s, was a strange and brilliant time of high hopes, radical experiments, and some very questionable ethics.
You won’t believe how weird (and wonderful) the origin story of psychedelics really is…
But here it goes:
✍ 1. The Word “Psychedelic” Was Invented in a Poem
When psychiatrist Humphry Osmond introduced writer Aldous Huxley to mescaline in the 1950s, it sparked both a book (The Doors of Perception) and a debate over the best way to describe these new compounds.
Huxley jokingly proposed the term phanerothyme. Osmond replied with the now-famous rhyme:
“To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.”
And just like that, a movement got its name.
🕵️ 2. The CIA Secretly Dosed Americans with LSD
In the 1950s, the CIA launched Project MK-ULTRA, secretly drugging unsuspecting citizens to test LSD’s potential for mind control.
And as wild as this may sound, at one point, a scientist was dosed and later fell (or was pushed?) from a hotel window…
Meanwhile, in Operation Midnight Climax, agents set up brothels to secretly watch tripped-out clients through one-way mirrors.
It sounds like sci-fi, but as you can see, there’s no denying it’s real…
🍄 3. Life Magazine Coined “Magic Mushroom”
In 1957, Life published “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” where banker-turned-ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson described his mushroom ceremony with Mazatec healer María Sabina.
The term stuck, and psilocybin hit the Western mainstream, eventually inspiring a Harvard psychologist named Timothy Leary to head south for his first trip…
🍷 4. AA’s Co-Founder Believed LSD Could Treat Alcoholism
Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, tried LSD under supervision in 1956 and found it profoundly healing.
He believed it could trigger spiritual insight for alcoholics…
While AA leadership disagreed, Wilson quietly continued exploring psychedelics as a tool for recovery, many decades before science caught up.
🎬 5. Cary Grant Did 100 LSD Therapy Sessions (and Told Everyone)
Before hippies claimed LSD, Cary Grant was already using it to unpack childhood trauma and anxiety.
Between 1958 and 1961, Cary underwent nearly 100 guided psychedelic sessions and publicly praised the results in major magazines…
His glowing reviews helped normalize psychedelic therapy, long before the public and governmental backlash started…
🎓 6. Harvard Professors Got Fired for Giving Students Mushrooms
In the early ‘60s, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) ran the Harvard Psilocybin Project.
Believe it or not, they actually gave students and faculty psilocybin in supervised sessions, until ethics concerns, media scandals, and unsanctioned dosing led to their dismissal…
It was the first major psychedelic controversy in academia, and as you can assume, it wouldn’t be the last…
✝️ 7. The Good Friday Experiment Mixed Mushrooms with Church Service
In 1962, theology students at Boston University attended a Good Friday sermon, with half of them receiving psilocybin and the other half a placebo.
The result?
The trippers reported mystical unity, divine presence, and life-changing insights…
And the study became legendary for showing psychedelics could induce authentic spiritual experiences, under the right conditions.
📚 8. Aldous Huxley Took LSD on His Deathbed
Author Aldous Huxley, an early psychedelic advocate, requested LSD as he lay dying of cancer in 1963.
His wife administered two injections, and Huxley passed peacefully, in what she described as “the most beautiful death.”
And on that same day in 1963, JFK was assassinated…
History rarely gets more poetic than this.
🇬🇧 9. British Soldiers Tripped in Combat Drills
The UK military tested LSD on Royal Marines during a 1964 field exercise.
And as one can imagine, things got interesting very quickly…
Soldiers quickly collapsed into laughter, many wandered off-mission, and some even climbed trees to feed imaginary birds…
It was all caught on film, and convinced the British Army that LSD was not exactly battlefield material…
…It’s probably safe to say that high doses of LSD won’t be actively used in battle anytime soon.
🚌 10. Ken Kesey Took Government Acid and Started a Counterculture
Believe it or not, novelist Ken Kesey was first introduced to LSD through a CIA-funded experiment.
He later founded the Merry Pranksters, threw wild Acid Test parties, and helped launch the psychedelic ‘60s…
Ironically, a government mind-control test helped spark a generation’s awakening… And it might be coming full circle now.
Pretty wild stuff, right?
It’s evident that the psychedelic space is rife with drama, controversial decisions, and government-funded programs…
So as weird as the history of psychedelics may be, there’s a very good chance there’s far more going on behind the scenes that we probably don’t even know about.
I think at this point, we can confidently say that the next decade of research, political changes, and public action is going to be one for the history books!
💬 Don’t Let The Past Define Your Future
As you can see, history rarely repeats itself, but human nature often does…
With the new EO that was announced last week, there’s a lot of excitement and activity surrounding the psychedelic landscape, and yet, psychedelics have been around for millennia, changing the human psyche.
We want you to know that, as exciting as these times are, we still have A LONG way to go…
At Webdelics, we’re here to make plant-medicine and psychedelic education clear, evidence-based, and actionable, so you can make informed choices and finally have the knowledge to ask the questions to get the answers you’re truly looking for.
📩 If this helped, forward it to someone who feels stuck in their life and is asking for more…
💬 Questions, corrections, or topics to cover next? Hit reply.
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🧠 The Guide - by Webdelics
Disclaimer: Webdelics does not support or promote any illegal activities, including the use of substances that may be mentioned in this newsletter. We encourage all readers to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the laws in their region. Please note that Webdelics does not offer mental health, medical, or clinical services and should not be used as a replacement for professional medical, psychological, or psychiatric care, diagnosis, or treatment.
