Netflix has released the first trailer for a new four-part documentary series How to Change Your Mind which will teach viewers about a not well-known side to some psychedelic drugs.
Academy Award winner Alex Gibney is adapting New York Times best-selling author Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan’s work has been described by The New York Times Book Review as “Gripping and surprising... Makes losing your mind sound like the sanest thing a person could do.” While the book is divided into six chapters and an epilogue, the series will be divided into 4 50-minute episodes. Each of the episodes will focus on a different mind-altering drug: LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and mescaline.
Pollan serves as the viewers’ guide in this journey to the frontiers of the new psychedelic renaissance, not forgetting the barely recognized historical context, to explore the potential of these substances to provide healing benefits and change minds as well as culture. People’s perception of psychedelic drugs has certainly suffered changes with time, but there’s still a lot that the public does not know or has a misinformed opinion when it comes to these substances. Emmy-nominee Alison Ellwood and two-time Academy Award-nominee Lucy Walker are directing the documentary.
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The trailer focuses on laying out the foundations of the series, making it clear that we are going to learn about positive aspects of these four drugs that we likely had no clue about. The documentary interviews both professional scientists as well as people who suffered from mental illnesses like PTSD and had life-altering experiences with these drugs.
Chapter 1 revolves around LSD, from its origins in 1943 to today’s microdosing trend and how it has been used to change lives. Chapter 2 explores Psilocybin, more popularly known as Magic mushrooms; these have long been considered sacred by the Indigenous Mazatec in Mexico and have more recently become the subject of scientific studies that aim at deciphering their potential to help with the symptoms of certain mental illnesses. MDMA is the focus of Chapter 3. The drug has been championed by both therapists as well as ravers, and stands out as the first psychedelic likely to be approved by the FDA as medicine, thanks to those who advocated for its value in the treatment of PTSD. Finally, Chapter 4 teaches viewers about Mescaline, a psychoactive molecule found in San Pedro and peyote cacti. This drug has been used by Native Americans as traditional sacred medicines and in religious ceremonies.
How to Change Your Mind is a Jigsaw Production. The series is executive produced by Gibney, Pollan, Walker, Stacey Offman, and Richard Perello.
The series will be coming to Netflix next month, on July 12. Check out the trailer below: