A clear and definitive guide to psychedelics for the current moment-without reverence, fear, or hype.

Psychedelics are often described in extremes: miracle medicines, dangerous drugs, or sources of profound insight. Yet unlike many popular approaches, this book does not promise mystical transformation. Psychedelics is skeptical of miracle cures, wary of moral panics, and attentive to how much their outcomes depend on context. In this Essential Knowledge series volume, Imran Khan offers a grounded, clear-eyed introduction to what psychedelic substances are, what they do, and why they continue to provoke both hope and anxiety-often at the same time.

The book analyzes the development and effects of some major psychedelic compounds-psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine, ayahuasca, and ketamine, among others-situating them within historical and cultural contexts, from Indigenous ceremonial use to the War on Drugs. Written with a wry, humane voice and drawing from pop culture as readily as peer-reviewed research, the book explains key ideas from neuroscience and psychology in accessible terms. It provides readers with a globally relevant foundation for understanding psychedelics as they exist in the real world-neither as miracles nor menaces, but powerful substances whose meaning depends on how we choose to engage with them.