My Nervous System Is Not Broken. It's Just Running at Full Resolution

What does it actually feel like to live in a neurodivergent nervous system — and what is happening biologically when sensory overwhelm, hypervigilance, and chronic anxiety become the baseline? This post explores the neuroscience behind neurodivergent autonomic dysregulation: why autistic and ADHD nervous systems run with the sympathetic gas pedal higher at rest, why the parasympathetic brake is less able to engage flexibly, and why this produces not just sensory sensitivity but a body that struggles to fully rest. Drawing on clinical research and lived experience, it makes the case for why healing has to happen at the body level — and why breathwork, body-oriented practices, and psychedelics are not wellness trends but tools that act directly on the autonomic nervous system, offering what the research is beginning to call a biological reset.

Microdosing psychedelics is not a supplement. It's a practice.

There is a version of microdosing psychedelics that looks like this: you take a small dose, go about your day, and feel subtly better. Like a vitamin. Like background support. Something that works on you while you're not paying attention. This version is appealing. It's also probably not how it works.

The research — including a study I conducted myself — points toward a different picture. One where the word that keeps appearing, across neuroscience and sociology, is not relief but alignment.

You left the ceremony knowing exactly what needed to change. So why is it so hard?

Most people who go through a psilocybin ceremony come out with real clarity — about what matters, what needs to change, what they've been avoiding. And then life resumes, and the old patterns are waiting. This post looks at why insight alone rarely produces lasting change, and what three converging lines of research suggest about microdosing as a structured integration practice: a 2021 neuroplasticity study showing how psilocybin opens a window of brain malleability, a Copenhagen rat study pointing to how repeated low doses strengthen the circuit between intention and automatic behavior, and the largest human survey on microdosing to date — which found that the mental health benefits of microdosing hold independently of prior ceremony experience. Not a shortcut. A support for the brain's capacity to do the work.

What happens when you give rats a microdose of psilocybin?

The answer helps explain what 4000 microdosing humans have been reporting for years. We look at two studies — the largest survey on microdosing to date, and a rat study that goes looking for the biology behind the reports — and what they together suggest about psilocybin, mental health, and the brain circuit where your intentions fight your habits.

Music is the journey

Why is a psychedelic journey called a journey? Because it is one. A journey through emotions. Through memories. Through the body. And in that journey, music plays a central role.

Why a Truffle Ceremony Can Feel Like Years of Therapy — The Research Behind It

People often say a truffle ceremony felt like years of therapy in one day. New research looks at how psychedelic experiences change dysfunctional attitudes — those rigid inner beliefs that quietly shape our wellbeing. Here is what they found.

Does consuming ayahuasca result in short- and long-term personality changes?

Short answer again — yes. A week after the ceremony, participants reported significantly lower scores in Neuroticism, and significantly higher scores in Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. How about after three months? Scores on Neuroticism remained lower than before the ceremony, while Openness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness stayed significantly higher.