On Drugs: Psychedelics, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality

Summary

In the late, post-lockdown days of the pandemic, grappling with personal loss and existential uncertainty, Justin Smith-Ruiu found himself standing in a California cannabis dispensary, pondering a question his tribe of fellow philosophers have often dismissed as too simple: How did I get here? That moment marked a transition for him—it was the start of a journey Smith-Ruiu would take to experience his own mind and the world around him in a new, clarifying way.

On Drugs blends autobiography, intellectual history, and philosophical inquiry to explore the transformative impact of psychedelics on human consciousness and thought. Drawing on his personal experiences as “an articulate guinea pig,” Smith-Ruiu argues that psychedelics upend our assumptions about the nature of reality—and thus force a reckoning with the very foundations of Western philosophy.

Provocative, profound, and deeply personal, On Drugs points toward a radically new way of thinking about the world and our capacity to understand it.

“Like the best psychedelic experiences, On Drugs estranges the familiar, familiarizes the strange, and returns us to reality (whatever that is) with a broadened sense of the possible. Justin Smith-Ruiu is simply one of the most interesting thinkers alive, and he has found an ideal subject for his peculiar brand of brilliance.”—Christopher Beha, author of The Index of Self-Destructive Acts