Oprah Winfrey has highlighted the “shift in cultural attitudes” towards psychedelics. She is enthusiastic about the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like Psilocybin.
Winfrey, in an episode of The Oprah Podcast released Tuesday, spoke to author Michael Pollan about the current state of science, and the policy surrounding psychedelics. Pollan has helped introduce plant-based medicines into the mainstream.
Winfrey gave Pollan credit for “participating in the shift that I have seen,” including increased media coverage and “personal stories” about people who “have engaged with the experiences of psychedelics.”
The media mogul who peddled a number of controversial myths regarding psychedelics such as that MDMA can cause brain abscesses, said, “I believe something is going on in the culture.”
Pollan noted that “I would never have imagined what’s been happening since 2018 in terms of how many research studies, how many people seek psychedelic treatment and how much money is spent on them.”
Winfrey stated that, while she is intrigued by other people’s experiences with psychedelics she “would not be able to take them” for fear of “losing their mind”.
She did admit that the effect of plants on consciousness may have some validity.
“I’m not conscious enough to know, but I know that there is a oneness—there’s a connection with all of nature. She added that “I just don’t have a clue what it is” and said that the plants in nature aren’t talking to her, but she knows that life is there. “I know there’s something deeper going on than we can see.”
The psychedelic experience was also likened to meditation. She said, “It sounds as if psychedelics are a deeper level of meditation.”
You’re elevating your consciousness and you are opening it to experience yourself and life differently. Winfrey stated, “That’s my opinion.”
Winfrey, however, said that after Pollan had explained to her the complexities involved in standardizing psychedelic assisted therapy on a national level, and the restrictions placed by the federal government to approve drugs for sale, she “didn’t feel we were there yet.”
The woman said: “We haven’t arrived yet. Once people use it, the same thing will happen as with anti-obesity medicines.” Then, people start their own pharmacies to make the anti-obesity medications. They do it as a hobby, it is not regulated, etc. It’s risky for people to do these kinds of experiments without guidance.
Winfrey may not have personally tried psychedelics but she has admitted to smoking marijuana. In 1995, while recording an episode of her famed Oprah Winfrey Show, which was centered around drug rehabilitation, Winfrey talked about crack cocaine she had smoked in her youth.
In the past, she spoke to neuroscientist Roland Griffiths on the benefits of psychoactive substances, including the use of certain entheogenic compounds in treating depression.
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