Can magic mushrooms cure depression?
Over two years we follow the first ever medical trial of psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms) being used to treat a group of volunteers suffering from clinical depression.
This remarkable film follows three volunteers and their families, and the ambitious staff running the trial, who are hoping this controversial treatment will have the power to transform millions of lives.
With deeply moving footage of the ‘trips’ the patients go on, as well as interviews providing scientific and political context, this intimate film is an absorbing portrait of the human cost of depression, and the inspirational people contributing to groundbreaking psychedelic research.
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“Monty Wates’s documentary shows the work of Dr Robin Carhart-Harris at Imperial College London: after years of bureaucratic wrangling, he got permission to conduct research into the possibility that psilosybin – the psychoactive ingredient of magic mushrooms – could be used to treat depression. Is society’s taboo disapproval needlessly holding back our understanding of this issue?
We see three long-time sufferers of depression, sensitively interviewed about their lives… They are given a low, introductory dose of shroom-essence at the first session, and at the second the amount is stepped up. The results are startling”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian