Film Review - Debbie and Doug Drop Acid in the Desert

A new psychedelic short film called Debbie and Doug Drop Acid in the Desert came out last week. It’s an extremely wild ride that tells a fictional tale about a married couple venturing out into the desert and taking LSD in an effort to save their failing relationship. And you can watch it today for free at TripIntoLove.com.

The opening scene features Debbie and Doug just a moment before taking their doses. Right as they are about to pop the colorful blotters of acid into their mouths, the narrative abruptly flashes back in time and the audience gets its first glimpse into some of their underlying relationship issues.

Doug is sitting in the kitchen, working on a graphic design project for a client, when Debbie strolls up to him. She is obviously in the mood and tries to get Doug interested, but he is stressed out and tries to push her away so that he can focus on his work.

After pulling Doug out of his chair, Debbie holds up her phone, where a family planning app reads “You’re Ovulating! Time to fuck!” They are trying to start a family, and it’s time for baby making.

Unfortunately there isn’t much passion in the bedroom, and they realize that they need to seek professional help because their relationship is about to hit rock bottom.

So the couple goes to a new age therapy center where healing herbs are growing in every nook and cranny and employees take “spiritual selfies” with patients. While waiting for their appointment, Debbie and Doug read through a pamphlet that suggests “tripping into a stronger marriage”. After a brief consultation, a quirky alternative therapist named Ariel advises them to take LSD together in order to save their relationship from impending death.

Doug is awfully apprehensive, mentioning a former friend who took acid at a Dave Matthews Band concert one time before becoming some sort of delusional shaman. But the couple is desperate to save their marriage so they reluctantly agree to give the desert acid trip a go.

However, there is a calamitous mix-up at the center and the couple ends up taking “way, way, way too much” acid, which transports them to a trippy world made up of strange and hilarious characters who help them understand the core problems within their relationship.

Some of the wacky characters that Debbie and Doug meet along the way aren’t really people at all. Instead, they are mental constructs like the Universe, Truth, and Fear.

Debbie and Doug are forced to face their own fears, which include no longer being attractive and a nagging sense that one of them is turning into their father. The LSD helps them come clean about some difficult truths that each of them have been keeping from each other.

The narrative culminates in a powerful sequence where Debbie and Doug each encounter their shadow sides in an unexpected way that might just bring you to tears.

The film features an impressive cast, especially for a psychedelic flick. Paul Scheer (of The League) and iconic American television and radio host Larry King are some of the more well-known actors; Debbie and Doug are played by Angela Gulner and Zack Gold. The alternative therapist known as Ariel is played by Maria Bamford and the Universe and Truth are played by Peres Owino and Al Thompson.

Musically speaking, the soundtrack is evocative and helps to keep the film moving. And the filmography and special effects are really well done too. Experienced psychonauts will undoubtedly recognize some of the visual and auditory effects from some of their own previous psychedelic journeys replicated expertly on screen.

Debbie and Doug Drop Acid in the Desert is certainly a unique film. It’s a short ride (only 25 minutes) that goes by pretty quickly but there is so much packed in that it rewards multiple viewings. More information can be found at the film’s website, which features quotes from the Grateful Dead, Hunter S. Thompson, and The Beatles.

If you’re interested in psychedelics and are in the mood for a work of fiction rather than a non-fictional documentary focusing on psychedelic history, culture, or research, then you won’t be disappointed by this film. I’m interested to see more psychedelic films like this one come out in the future, because while it’s always satisfying to watch an educational movie, it’s also good to change things up from time to time too.

Announcing the Launch of the World’s First Psychedelic Video Museum

The world’s first psychedelic video museum was announced at The Daily Psychedelic Video today:

Today, on the day of Albert Hofmann’s first accidental LSD trip (3 days before official bicycle day), we are thrilled and excited to announce the inauguration of the world’s first Psychedelic Video Museum, a direct upshot of ten years of activity on this website, the Daily Psychedelic Video. The spectacular inauguration ritual will take place virtually on Bicycle Day at 3PM Eastern Time/12PM Pacific Time (noon)/8PM Greenwich Time/10PM Jerusalem Time.

After ten years of posting on psychedelic video a day, and with around 4,000 videos curated over the last decade, the DPV is the biggest collection of psychedelic videos on the web, and a global hub for psychedelic video fans.

Now, the time has come to take the mission of psychedelic beauty and joy to the next level. We are proud to give you the world’s first psychedelic video museum, a pioneering online museum resonating the current renaissance in psychedelic culture.

If you find yourself with extra time on your hands then you should check out the psychedelic video museum. It looks like it took a ton of work to put together and there are loads of videos to dive into, so what are you waiting for?

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Film Review - DOSED

DOSED is a new documentary from director Tyler Chandler that follows his friend Adrianne, a suicidal woman who has struggled with depression, anxiety, and opioid addiction for decades, as she goes on a healing journey with magic mushrooms and iboga that is both beautiful and difficult. After spending years unsuccessfully trying to quit using street drugs by following a medication-assisted treatment program involving prescription medications, she at last turns to the psychedelic underground in a last-ditch attempt to heal herself once and for all.

The film opens with a dire update from the World Health Organization:

1.6 billion people suffer from anxiety, depression, and addiction.
Last year the opioid and fentanyl crisis claimed 118,000 lives.
While you watch this film 127 people will commit suicide.

After absorbing that depressing information the viewer is introduced to Adrianne, the film’s protagonist. She appears to be under the influence of opioids and is asked what she thinks the end of the documentary should be. After pondering the question for a long, drawn-out moment, she says she’d like to be sober by the end of the documentary. You’ll have to wait to find out if that actually ends up happening.

The film features an impressive cast of well-known folks in the psychedelic community including Rick Doblin, Paul Stamets, Gabor Maté, Mark Haden, Rosalind Watts, and Trevor Millar. It somehow achieves a rarely seen well-balanced vibe, being both professional and casual at the same time. That’s because it is shot and edited incredibly well but thankfully doesn’t come across as overproduced or mainstream.

One thing’s for sure—DOSED is unapologetically anecdotal in nature, which didn’t please reviewers at Variety and the Los Angeles Times. While they were hoping for a more scientific documentary that would shed light on existing research involving psilocybin mushrooms and iboga, the film is deliberately about one woman’s psychedelic-assisted journey to recovery, not scientific studies. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The reviewers are simply asking it to be something it wasn’t intending to be in the first place.

With all that said, I actually really enjoyed DOSED. At this point I’ve seen plenty of documentaries that do a good job of covering the history, research, and culture of psychedelics. So it is refreshing to watch a new sort of film, one that takes the viewer along for a wild ride to find out if magic mushrooms and iboga are capable of treating drug addiction.

While it doesn’t rely on scientific research to make its point, the film demonstrates that psychedelics may have the potential to interrupt opioid addiction. Peer-reviewed data may be table stakes when attempting to convince a scientific audience that a novel treatment is effective, but personal anecdotes are often exactly what is needed when trying to introduce a new idea to the general public. And DOSED has that in spades. At a time when many Americans are struggling with opioids, this film demonstrates that plant medicines like magic mushrooms and iboga might be able to help bring an end to the overdose crisis.

DOSED was released globally on Vimeo last Friday and the filmmakers have pledged 10% of each purchase of the film to be donated and matched by Facebook (for a total of 20%) towards coronavirus disaster relief.

One more thing—and this might seem random to mention in a film review—if you’re looking for some funky jewelry, DOSED is also selling necklaces that were cast from a real magic mushroom. Every order includes a free digital copy of the film and helps fund its marketing and distribution.

If you want to learn about how psychedelics can help treat drug addiction, DOSED is a great place to start. And if you know someone who might benefit from watching this film, consider buying a copy for them. It might just save their life.

Disclaimer: I received a free screening copy of this film in exchange for an honest review. However, this is not a sponsored post—all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

Corporadelic: A Psymposia Series

A couple weeks ago Psymposia published a powerful, thought-provoking 6-part series titled Corporadelic, written by Russell Hausfeld:

A series on the intersection of psychedelics and capitalism, and the early investors
making it happen.

It took me a while to get around to reading it, but I finally just went ahead and binged the whole thing last night. It’s an impressive analysis about what those of us who are paying attention to the emerging field of psychedelic businesses should actually be paying attention to.

If you’re interested in learning about the shadow side of the psychedelic capitalism, this is a must-read.

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Think Wilder Is Going Back to Its Psychedelic Roots

For the last year or so I’ve been running an experiment on this blog and my YouTube channel by trying my damnedest to cover the hottest news about all psychoactive substances in my weekly link roundups and monthly/yearly news recaps. But that’s about to change.

Think Wilder is going back to its psychedelic roots. Moving forward all of my link roundups and news recaps will focus on plants, fungi, animals, and chemicals that can be reasonably classified as “psychedelic”.

Before you object, let me first clarify that this doesn’t mean that I won’t ever publish anything about non-psychedelic drugs again. You’ll still see content related to mind-altering substances like cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and nicotine from time to time—in the form of feature pieces or link posts. However, I won’t be focusing on drugs like these in my regular roundups and recaps.

The rest of this blog post explains why I’ve come to this decision, so if you’re interested in the reasons behind the change then you can keep reading. If you’re not, then at least now you know what to expect in the future from Think Wilder.

Rewinding back to the end of 2018, after 3.5 years of covering mostly psychedelic news on a weekly basis, I began to cover all psychoactive drugs. As I explained in that that year's recap:

Earlier this month I polled the Think Wilder audience on Twitter and Facebook about the overall scope of the blog, asking if I should narrow my focus to exclusively write about psychedelics or expand it to cover other psychoactive substances as well. Thank you to those of you who responded. Most people seemed to be interested in psychedelics, but a few reported that they found information about other drugs to also be valuable. After mulling it over for a few weeks, I decided to expand the scope of the blog to focus on all psychoactive substances. First of all, I wanted to avoid practicing drug chauvinism, the belief that some drugs are inherently “better” than others. I also feel like there is significantly more honest reporting about psychedelics than there is about drugs like stimulants and depressants and wanted to help balance things out. But most importantly, I realized that although I’m far more familiar with psychedelics and am by no means an expert on other drugs, I still have a healthy interest in psychoactive substances in general and want to see them fairly covered. I added a “cocaine” section to this year’s post, and you can expect to see news about other psychoactive substances like benzodiazepines and deliriants in the near future.

Many of those things remain the same today. I don’t want to participate in what I termed “drug chauvinism” at the time (although I have since come around to prefer the term “psychedelic exceptionalism”). Instead, I want to promote the ethos of drug positivity throughout my work.

I still think there is more decent reporting about psychedelics than other psychoactive substances, but have learned that I truly feel like I have more to contribute to the psychedelic niche than in the overall drug niche.

And I have maintained a strong interest in all things psychoactive and love learning more about non-psychedelic drugs. However with all of that said, I still have decided to make a change.

There are two main reasons why:

First and foremost, narrowing the scope of my regular news coverage will significantly cut down on the amount of time it takes to create link roundups and news recaps so I can focus on other projects that keep getting put on the backburner.

To give you an idea of how much time I’ve put into covering drugs over the last five years, each weekly link roundup takes anywhere from 10-20 hours to complete, while monthly recap videos take about 10 hours and monthly recap blog posts take about 20 hours. All of that work is done without any outside funding other than my Patreon patrons. (By the way, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those of you who are supporting me there and invite everyone else to become a patron to help keep my work going.)

Since covering non-psychedelic drugs takes up about half of the time it takes to produce my link roundups and news recaps, dropping them from my regular updates should enable me to spend more time covering psychedelic news as thoroughly as possible and free me up to work on other content and projects that I’ve been wanting to create for a long time.

Second, I feel like I’ve drifted away from what I want Think Wilder to be.

When I first started this blog I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with it. But after a couple years I started to realize that I really wanted to focus on psychedelics, spirituality, and technology. Expanding my scope to cover all psychoactive drugs was a departure from my original intention and didn’t really reflect my true passions.

My initial—and most influential—experiences with drugs involved psychedelics, not uppers, downers, or other all-arounders. Although I do have limited experience with some non-psychedelic drugs, I am by no means an expert on them and have come to the realization that it’s better to leave coverage of those substances to people better equipped to discuss them.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, this news doesn’t mean that this marks the last time I’ll ever cover non-psychedelic drugs on Think Wilder. I have some ideas for psychoactive drug content that have been bouncing around in my noggin for the last few years, and hopefully some of them will come to fruition sooner or later. And I still plan to link to big news stories about non-psychedelic drugs, too.

This decision has been difficult for me to make and it feels bittersweet. On one hand, I’m fascinated by psychoactive drugs and love learning about them, but on the other hand I just don’t feel called to continue going down the path I’ve been following any longer.

These changes are effective immediately. This week’s link roundup will return to the original name that the column sported until the end of 2018 (“This Week in Psychedelics”) and the news recaps at the end of the month will be called “This Month in Psychedelics”.

I hope that everyone who was tuning in for psychedelic content is excited about this news and that those of you who come here for news about all psychoactives understand where I’m coming from. Obviously I can’t please everyone and I just have to listen to what I feel is right for me. Thank you for your understanding and feel free to contact me to let you know what you think about this announcement.