Psychedelic Timeline

Psychedelics have been a part of human history for thousands of years. Take a trip through major events and touchpoints below.

~5000 BCE

~5000 BCE
Cave rock art depicts Psilocybe mairei, hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Tassili-N-Ajjer region of the Sahara. This is the earliest evidence of the use of Psilocybe mushrooms.
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~2000 BCE

~2000 BCE
Plant residues found in pottery show that the Oxus civilization, located in the upper-Oxus region of Turkmenistan, was among the first civilizations to brew a ritualistic drink called “soma” or “haoma.” Scholars believe the drink may have contained a combination of psychoactive plants.

~1700 BCE

~1700 BCE
In the Mycenaean civilization of the late Bronze Age, initiates into the cults of Demeter and Persephone drank a mysterious drink called kyke?n during the Eleusinian Mysteries initiation rites. The drink may have contained ergot, a fungus that grows on barley and has psychoactive effects similar to LSD.
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1575

1575
Bernardino de Sahagu?n, a Spanish friar and pioneering anthropologist, writes a study of Aztec culture commonly called the Florentine Codex. He describes the indigenous use of teonana?catl (“flesh of the gods”), psychedelic mushrooms in the Psilocybe genus.
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1887

1887
Dr. John Raleigh Briggs, a doctor living in Texas, publishes a paper about the effects of "muscale buttons.” His work informs the research of German pharmacologist Louis Lewin, who later publishes the first methodical analysis of the peyote cactus.
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1938

1938
Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofman. Five years later, Hofman would be the first person to (accidentally) experience the psychoactive effects of LSD.
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1954

1954
English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley publishes The Doors of Perception. The book documents his self-experimentation with mescaline: the active psychedelic agent in peyote and San Pedro cacti.
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1957

1957
Amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson publishes “Seeking the Magic Mushrooms” in Life magazine. This photo essay recounts his experience taking psilocybin mushrooms during a Mazatec ritual in Oaxaca, Mexico, marking one of the first moments that psychedelic experiences are broadly publicized in the United States.
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1960s

1960s
Drs. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass) start the Harvard Psilocybin Project to study the effects of psilocybin. In 1963, Alpert is fired after giving psilocybin to an undergraduate student, Leary is fired, and the project ends. Leary and Alpert become prominent figures in the psychedelic drug and counterculture movement.
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1970

1970
Congress passes the Controlled Substances Act, which classifies LSD and other psychedelics as Schedule I drugs: the most restrictive level. This effectively halts new research, ushering in the “dark ages” for psychedelic medicine.
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1976

1976
Dow Pharmaceuticals chemist Alexander Shulgin discovers MDMA’s effects after testing 120 mg on himself. He publishes his findings in 1978.
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1986

1986
One year after MDMA is made illegal, Rick Doblin establishes the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to psychedelic research for mental health.
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1988

1988
Dr. Evgeny Krupitsky and a team of researchers at the Leningrad Regional Center for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Therapy begin investigating ketamine in the treatment of alcohol and heroin addiction.
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1994

1994
After 20 years of stalled research, Dr. Rick Strassman becomes the first person in the United States to examine the effects of psychedelics in humans with his DMT pilot study.
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2006

2006
Neuroscientist Roland R. Griffiths publishes a landmark study about the psychological effects of psilocybin. This is one of the first double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical studies in decades to examine psychedelics, and it renews interest in further clinical research.
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2011

2011
Dr. Charles S. Grob publishes the first study of psilocybin treatments for patients with advanced-stage cancer. Grob’s pilot study shows improvements in mood and reduced stress and anxiety.
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2019

2019
Psychiatrist Michael C. Mithoefer publishes a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical study that shows MDMA therapy significantly improved symptoms among adults with PTSD. This research leads to the FDA granting Breakthrough Therapy designation for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
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May 2019

May 2019
Denver, CO becomes the first U.S. state to decriminalize psilocybin.

2020

2020
Oregon becomes the first U.S. state to legalize the medical use of psilocybin under the care of a licensed facilitator.
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