Barry Blechman, 81, an international relations analyst with metastatic bladder cancer, traveled last winter from his home in Washington, D.C., to a clinic in Bend, Ore., where he drank a tea containing psilocybin, the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms. He then stretched out on the floor and closed his eyes.
When he phoned his wife, Kitty, 10 hours later, she was startled by the levity in his voice. “He sounded 20 years younger, like a weight had been lifted off him,” she said.
In the months since, the angst and depression triggered by his cancer diagnosis no longer hound him, Mr. Blechman said, and he has gained profound insights into aspects of his personality he believes negatively affected his relationships.
“Psilocybin therapy has been a life-changing experience,” he said.
Mr. Blechman is among the thousands of Americans with serious medical conditions who have turned to psychedelic medicine to address the anxiety and existential distress that often accompany a potentially terminal diagnosis.
Those who can afford the $2,000 treatments have been flocking to psilocybin clinics in Oregon, the only state besides Colorado where they can legally operate. (Colorado’s psilocybin program begins in 2025.) Many more have been trying ketamine in their therapist’s office or at home.
Although not a classic psychedelic like LSD and psilocybin, ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, is widely considered a psychedelic therapy because of its effects. It can be legally prescribed “off label” for psychiatric conditions, and it is far less expensive than psilocybin therapy.