"Psychedelics and Psychotherapy" by Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou

I have mixed feelings about "Psychedelics and Psychotherapy," leaning towards the negative. Overall, the authors do explain compassion and common sense using psychedelic substances. However, the lack of scientific reasoning is astonishing. There is just a tiny bit of helpful information swamped by an outrageous amount of complete and utter nonsense.

Everything good in this book could have been a short article. However, episodes on the "global psyche," made up religion around psychedelics, Freudian psychologic theories, astrology (for God's sake), and so much more, can not only be confusing — but harmful to both the community and the world. The authors should have written a few internet articles but not a long book riffled with their misconceptions and biased backed by unconfirmable personal anecdotes.

This book is literally what charlatans do — sprinkle enough pseudo-science, and boom! You have a book with an enormous amount of five-star reviews. I hate the fact that so many people are misled by anti-scientific fraud.

Anyone who has ever participated in psychedelic rituals knows how gullible people become during and after the ceremonies. If the "visions" show you that you are the next Jesus, you are inclined to believe it wholeheartedly. But are you the next messiah? If you don't doubt it — you probably aren't. The resulting imaginary bullshit comes out as books, like in this case, if people cannot distinguish deep introspective journeys from simple faulting circuits in the brain on plants and mushrooms.

No, if you had a vision that some higher power tells you that you should ignore the scientific method and follow astrology during the trip — you should not listen. Moreover, you should not write a book about it to confuse more people.