Ten years on from the bestselling success of Buddhism for Mothers, Sarah Napthali is still keen to plumb the depths of the human experience, so the unfolding psychedelic renaissance captures her attention. Intrigued by other people’s reports, of the power of mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, Ayahuasca and others & the immense potential for personal and spiritual growth, Sarah is determined to experience these medicines for herself and to apply any teachings to the challenges facing a newly divorced empty-nester. She announces, to anyone who will listen, a project: a year of psychedelics. Sarah makes her way through eight psychedelic medicines, in high doses, often twice per medicine. From a week-long psychedlic retreats in the Netherlands, Portugal and Costa Rica, to sourcing an underground MDMA guide, an above-ground ‘psychedelic integration therapist’, and enlisting an old friend to be her trip-sitter. My Year of Psychedelics reveals how psychedelics interact with universal themes as Sarah navigates the highs of new romance, quitting her job and the freedom of travel, but also the loss of old friends that can come with divorce, the end of the honeymoon period, and a confrontation with aching loneliness and old wounds. The psychedelic renaissance has provided a wealth of data and empirical evidence about the potential of psychedelics but this is a first-person account, a chance to join someone on their trips, and to see how it impacts their day-to-day life.
