Michael Pollan concludes his bestselling book "How to Change Your Mind" with a striking warning: "The psychedelic experience has the remarkable ability to challenge nearly every fixed idea we hold about our identity."

What follows is a compelling and detailed chronicle of our journey with these transformative molecules—how we uncovered their potential as wonder drugs, demonized them as public enemies, and are now, in the 2020s, reigniting our understanding of their extraordinary capacity for healing and growth.