
Luminous: A Podcast about Psychedelics from To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Are you ready for the psychedelic revolution? In the next few years, the FDA is likely to approve these mind-bending drugs for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some states have already decriminalized psilocybin, the active ingredient in "magic" mushrooms.
But for all the headlines, many questions are swirling around this psychedelic renaissance. How do we make these drugs effective, safe and accessible to the people who need the most help? And how can they be used ethically, when much of the knowledge about plant medicines comes from Indigenous cultures?
Psychedelics also raise profound questions about the nature of consciousness and mystical experience. People often describe their psychedelic experiences as “more real” than everyday life. Is this just an illusion, or do these experiences tap into some deeper reality?
In “Luminous,” TTBOOK executive producer Steve Paulson explores the philosophical and cultural implications of psychedelics.
"Luminous” is a series from "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" featuring conversations about psychedelics with scientists, healers and religious scholars. You can listen to each episode on the radio or find the series plus bonus extended conversations on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Latest episodes

Mar 1, 2025 • 54min
Chris Timmerman on how DMT can deconstruct the mind
Chris Timmerman is a neuroscientist with a deep interest in phenomenology—what’s actually happening in our minds during psychedelic experiences. He leads the DMT Research Group at Imperial College, where he’s found that a single psychedelic experience can transform a person’s belief system, often turning materialists into panpsychists. In this wide-ranging conversation, Steve talks with Chris about everything from fractals and ayahuasca ceremonies to whether scientists who study psychedelics should talk openly about their own experiences.Original Air Date: March 01, 2025Guests: Chris TimmermanMore from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous

Jan 25, 2025 • 49min
Spring Washam, the Buddhist Shaman
Buddhist meditation and psychedelic journeys have a lot of shared DNA—both take you deep inside your mind and can change your life. But many Buddhists say psychedelics violate the prohibition against intoxicants. Do they? Spring Washam straddles this divide as both a Buddhist teacher and founder of an ayahuasca church. Her own story is fascinating—how she’s merged these two practices.Original Air Date: January 25, 2025Guests: Spring WashamMore from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous

Nov 30, 2024 • 44min
Do psychedelics reveal a deeper dimension of reality?
There’s a huge question swirling around the really big psychedelic experiences. Are these mind-blowing trips just hallucinations – the brain shot full of chemicals, playing tricks on you - or do they crack open some transpersonal dimension of consciousness? Most scholars who study psychedelics won’t go anywhere near this question, and yet it’s central to how you interpret these experiences. If you’re in psychedelic-assisted therapy, you want to know if this glimpse of the divine was real or just some figment of your imagination. Philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes believes we need a metaphysics of psychedelics to explain these powerful experiences.Original Air Date: November 30, 2024Interviews In This Hour:Guests: Peter Sjöstedt-HughesFor more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous

Aug 31, 2024 • 49min
Katherine MacLean on Mushrooms and the Limits of Consensus Reality
Psychedelic people are practicing at the very edge of anyone else’s comfort zone,” says psychologist Katherine MacLean, author of the psychedelic memoir “Midnight Water.” MacLean was a pioneering psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins, who then left her job to pursue her own unconventional psychedelic journey. She talks with Steve Paulson about her work as a psychedelic guide, her personal history with psychoactive substances, and why she reveres the Mexican healer Maria Sabina.Original Air Date: August 30, 2024Guests: Katherine MacLeanFor more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous

Jul 20, 2024 • 45min
Erik Davis on LSD, the psychedelic underground and visionary experience
Join Erik Davis, author of 'Blotter,' as he delves into the psychedelic underground world of LSD on blotter paper. Explore the cosmic realities and visionary experiences induced by psychedelics, and the evolution of LSD distribution through creative methods. Learn about the influence of medium and setting on psychedelic journeys, as well as personal psychedelic experiences in Southern California during the counterculture era.

May 4, 2024 • 50min
Did the ancient Greeks use drugs to find God?
Brian Muraresku makes the controversial argument that the famous Eleusinian Mysteries were fueled by a psychedelic wine. And he speculates that this secret ceremony, with its mind-altering drugs, became the Eucharist — the foundational event of early Christianity.Original Air Date: May 04, 2024Guests: Brian MurareskuMore from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous

Jan 27, 2024 • 48min
A brief history of getting high
It’s remarkable how fast psychedelics have gone mainstream. Just look at how so many major universities are racing to set up their own psychedelic institutes. Psilocybin and MDMA are now considered the most promising treatments for depression and PTSD that we’ve had in decades. But this is not the first time psychoactive drugs were hailed as miracle cures. Heroin and cocaine were also once considered wonder drugs. Today, what’s so striking is how the public conversation about psychedelics ignores this deeper history of intoxicants.British historian Mike Jay wants to challenge this narrative of psychedelic “exceptionalism.” In his book “Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind,” he digs into the 19th century’s rich history of psychoactive experiences — and tells the story of seminal figures like Humphry Davy, Sigmund Freud and William James – and lots of other people I’d never heard of.Jay is also upfront about his own psychedelic experiences. He’s had plenty of them. And he believes the scientists and doctors who study psychedelics should talk more openly about their own mind-altering experiences — which is definitely not the case for most of them.Original Air Date: January 27, 2024Guests:Mike JayFurther Reading:"Psychonauts Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind"—Nautilus: "Why Scientists Need to Get High"Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Dec 16, 2023 • 52min
Is it the drug or is it the trip?
For all the talk about how psychedelics might transform psychiatric care, there's still a fascinating question at the heart of psychedelic science. Is it the mind-blowing experience that fundamentally changes a person’s outlook on life? Or is it the powerful molecules that rewire the brain?
Check out more from the series at ttbook.org/luminous.
Original Air Date: December 16, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
Does psychedelic therapy need the trip? — Will psychedelics replace antidepressants? — Spiritual warriors in the psychedelic underground
Guests:
David Olson, Charles Raison, Rachel Harris
Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.
Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Nov 18, 2023 • 38min
Can you have too much transcendence?
Some people dabble in psychedelics, others are more serious psychonauts. And then there’s Chris Bache. Over the course of 20 years, he had 73 high-dose LSD experiences — doses so high that the human body couldn’t tolerate anything more. For Bache, who was a religion professor, these were journeys into deeper dimensions of reality. These were grueling experiences — at times terrifying and other times ecstatic. He believes he transcended every aspect of personal identity and ultimately encountered the Divine – what he calls “the infinite creative intelligence of the universe.” And he ended up in a really interesting place, wondering if it’s possible to have too much transcendence.
It’s an extraordinary story – one that Bache later wrote about in his book “LSD and the Mind of the Universe." In this conversation, he reflects on the years when he was going on these intense LSD journeys, which he did in secret, on weekends, while carrying on his work as a college professor during the week.
Just to be clear, what Chris Bache did was extremely risky. His story is fascinating, but it’s not something anyone else should do.
Original Air Date: November 18, 2023
For more from the series, visit ttbook.org/luminous

Oct 21, 2023 • 52min
Can psychedelics be decolonized?
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype about how psychedelics might revolutionize the treatment of mental illness. But there are also lots of ethical concerns. And probably none are so troubling as the charges of exploitation and cultural appropriation. The fact is, the knowledge about many psychedelics — like magic mushrooms and ayahuasca — comes from the sacred ceremonies of Indigenous cultures. But over the past century, Western scientists and pharmaceutical companies have been going into these cultures, collecting plants and synthesizing their chemical compounds.Even if science is all about building on the knowledge of earlier discoveries, what is the psychedelic industry's ethical responsibility? Can psychedelics be decolonized?Original Air Date: October 21, 2023Interviews In This Hour:The Tragic Story of Maria Sabina's Sacred Mushrooms — Empowering Indigenous voices in the psychedelic industry — Bioprospecting for psychedelics: How Pharma hunted for Indigenous plant medicines — Spirit Medicine: Yuria Celidwen's vision for an ethical psychedelicsGuests:Michael Pollan, Dennis McKenna, Erika Dyck, Katherine MacLean, Sutton King, Rachel Fernandez, Lucas Richert, Yuria CelidwenFor more from this series, visit ttbook.org/luminous.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.