#83 | MDMA: Revolution In Mental Health w/ Dr. Ben Sessa

Dr. Ben Sessa is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, and is currently leading the first clinical trials for the therapeutic use of MDMA in a psychiatric setting in the United Kingdom. As Ben goes over in this episode, the way the psychedelic compound MDMA works on the brain of an individual very dramatically allows them to process and discuss extremely traumatic experiences and effectively work through them. MDMA, in a therapeutic setting, shows enormous potential, and as Ben stated in his TED talk and elsewhere, MDMA may be as revolutionary to psychiatry as antibiotics were to modern medical practice.

The use of MDMA, as well as other psychedelics, is heavily prohibited under law, both within the United Kingdom and in the United States, and is very difficult and expensive to research for scientific and medical purposes. We discuss how the funding and research by organizations like MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, an organization Ben works with) is currently opening the door for the therapeutic use of psychedelics, as well as potentially loosening the prohibitive laws surrounding the recreational use of the substances. We are currently experiencing a Psychedelic Renaissance, and Dr. Ben Sessa is one of the key figures in it.

Episode Notes:

- Go to Ben's site to find out more about his work: http://www.drsessa.com/

- Learn more about "The Psychedelic Renaissance" by Ben Sessa: https://goo.gl/LyCZCY

- Purchase: https://goo.gl/dRfZss

- Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrSessa

- Support psychedelic research: http://www.maps.org/

- Watch Ben's TEDx talk "Is MDMA psychiatry’s antibiotic?": https://youtu.be/UygZnBTWW0M

- Watch Ben's talk at Psychedelic Science 2017: https://goo.gl/NUVu15

- The songs featured in this episode are "Children of the Atom (Instrumental)" and "Hovercrafts and Cows" by Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus) from the album "Duality."