Psychedelics & Healing Initiative

2025 Trends

The psychedelic industry is experiencing a dramatic renaissance, driven by a surge of groundbreaking scientific research, shifting cultural attitudes, and growing political and financial support. Peer-reviewed studies published in top medical journals legitimize psychedelics as promising treatments for mental health conditions such as PTSD, depression, and addiction. High-profile advocates, including researchers, veterans, and investors from Silicon Valley and Wall Street, are accelerating the mainstreaming of these substances, while media coverage—ranging from Oprah to 60 Minutes—keeps public interest high. This momentum has inspired a patchwork of successful state and local decriminalization efforts, although no local reform provides a safe harbor from federal law.

This modern psychedelic revival is rooted in both ancient ritual and recent history, with cultural icons, scientific pioneers, and policy reformers shaping a new era of consciousness exploration. From the countercultural highs of the 1960s to the setbacks of the War on Drugs in the 70s, and now toward a potential pharmaceutical future, psychedelics are re-emerging with a powerful blend of spiritual legacy and medical promise. As public sentiment shifts and investor interest intensifies, the path ahead is complex but hopeful – signaling that psychedelic medicine may soon move from the fringes into the heart of global wellness and mental health care.

Five emerging trends reveal the new geography of psychedelic healing: the landscape for 2025 holds both hills and valleys, with a bright horizon ahead.

TREND 1: Washington, D.C., the new Psychedelic Capital

When did the unofficial psychedelic capital of America shift from its longtime spiritual home in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Some say it may have happened on October 25, when then-candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated (via X) that “the war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics.” Others point to February 13, when Kennedy’s nomination was confirmed by a vote in the U.S. Senate, officially making him the 26th Secretary of Health and Human Services.

As the lead agency overseeing the FDA, Secretary Kennedy’s HHS is now at the forefront of psychedelic policy. The FDA has already approved a record number of six Phase 3 investigational trials evaluating psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, psilocybin and a psilocybin analog for major depressive disorder, a derivative of LSD for generalized anxiety disorder, ketamine for alcohol use disorder, and MDMA for PTSD.

“We can be cautiously optimistic about the future of FDA-regulated psychedelic medicine,” said Melissa Lavasani, CEO and founder of the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, the only Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit advocating for both psychedelic medicine and patient care on Capitol Hill.

TREND 2: Make Ibogaine Great Again

The “Year of Ibogaine” kicked off in January 2025, when former Texas Governor Rick Perry was reportedly spotted in Joe Rogan’s Austin recording studio – minus his signature Stetson, and instead wearing a “Make Ibogaine Great Again” hat.

While ibogaine – a traditional healing remedy derived from the bark of the Tabernanthe iboga root native to West Central Africa – may be making headlines now, it’s been on the radar of Rex Elsass for years. Elsass, founder of the REID Foundation, has long championed emerging treatments for addiction and mental health, along with the policy reforms needed to support them. Ibogaine, he says, is at the center of research efforts because of the staggering human toll of addiction and the lack of viable treatment options, noting that the U.S. spends about $1.5 trillion annually on opioid-related issues.

According to Elsass, recent studies suggest that ibogaine may be capable of resolving addiction with a single dose, delivering long-lasting results. Researchers are also investigating the use of magnesium infusions to reduce the significant cardiac risks associated with the treatment.

The Texas Ibogaine Initiative, a groundbreaking public-private partnership backed by the REID Foundation, aims to fund ibogaine-based therapies for opioid use disorder and co-occurring mental health conditions. The initiative, now before the Texas legislature, has full support from Governor Perry, who publicly endorsed it on Joe Rogan’s podcast in January.

That same month, another high-profile ibogaine supporter was seen in the Capitol Rotunda: Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the world’s ninth-richest person, attended the presidential inauguration alongside a number of tech elites. Brin has made a multi-million-dollar investment in the psychedelic biotech firm Soneira, which is conducting cutting-edge research into the pharmaceutical applications of iboga alkaloids.

Ibogaine biopharma development may be essential for public health, observed Simeon Schnapper, Managing Partner of JLS Fund, who first became aware of ibogaine when he was 17 years old, living in Ghana.

Evidence-based studies indicate that regulated medicinal ibogaine may help address a spectrum of urgent public health challenges, he added. Schnapper noted that ibogaine may make a difference to epidemiological medical outcomes in this nation as Americans “continue to drop dead from fentanyl, suffer from a lack of treatment options for TBI, (traumatic brain injury), and reckon with the ongoing and shameful epidemic of veteran suicides of 20 a day, continues.”

TREND 3: Ethics & Safety

“Safety and ethics are now the number one concern of industry players – and even more so of consumers,” says Jules Evans, a writer and researcher focused on the history of wellness. He runs a nonprofit called the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project. He edits a Substack called Ecstatic Integration, both of which explore the darker side of wellness, particularly to psychedelics.

“With more tripping will come more psychic terror,” Wired magazine once predicted. And while psychedelics have been used medicinally for millennia, they are not a panacea, according to Evans. He credits the pandemic-era increase in public awareness of mental health with fueling interest in psychedelic therapies, but that exploration also had a downside. “During the pandemic, people were drawn to powerful healing practices like psychedelics, but some people got hurt,” he noted.

His nonprofit works to provide education about “psychedelic harms and how to avoid, reduce, or respond to them through academic research.” His efforts have been featured by NBC, Oprah, The Daily Mail, Vox, and the BBC. The Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project also launched the first online support group for people experiencing post-psychedelic difficulties.

Although Evans may have been among the first to raise public awareness of the existential distress that some psychedelic experiences can provoke, he is no longer the only voice. Among those seemingly inspired by his pioneering work is the newly launched Psychedelic Safety Institute, which describes itself as “a collaborative initiative to improve psychedelic public health and safety.” It joins the nonprofit Fireside Project, which runs a peer-support hotline, as a growing resource in the field.

Even the world’s largest psychedelic science research center, Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research, has shared a Public Service Announcement titled Risks, Side Effects, and Potential Harms. JHMI – Psychedelic Risks, Side Effects, and Potential Harms

The evidence-based message stands in contrast to the 1980s Partnership for a Drug-Free America, ’80s Anti-Drug Commercial – Your Brain On Drugs which states: “this is your brain on drugs.”

TREND 4: Psychedelics for Active Duty Military and Veteran Health

Active-duty members of the military are now eligible to enroll in a first-ever psychedelic study held at Walter Reed Medical Center and a second location in Texas. The study will investigate whether MDMA, informally known as “Ecstasy” or “Molly”, can relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Congress appropriated $9 million in funding for the study to the Department of Defense, with the support of retired Marine Lieutenant General Jack Bergman, a Republican congressman who co-chairs the bipartisan Psychedelic Caucus in Congress alongside Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.).

This bipartisan effort, known as PATH, the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus, is not a decriminalization initiative, nor does it advocate for the legalization of recreational psychedelic use. Instead, the caucus supports federally backed research into therapeutic applications.

What’s next on its agenda? With strong support from the D.C.-based nonprofit, the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, the caucus plans to introduce legislation to fund veteran access to psychedelic-based treatment options.

“This is a watershed moment,” said Melissa Lavasani, Founder and CEO of the Coalition. “The data is clear: these therapies work. Veterans deserve access to safe, evidence-based treatments that address the root causes of their suffering, and this legislation delivers just that.”

The bill calls for the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish five innovative centers focused on treating conditions such as PTSD that have resisted traditional therapies. Psychedelic treatments highlighted in the bill include MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, ketamine, and others, as determined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

“The legislation is a model of bipartisan collaboration and science-driven reform,” said Lavasani, who called it “a blueprint for a new era of mental health care in the United States.”

TREND 5: Big is Back: Big Pharma & Big Vision

Spravato, a form of ketamine approved for the treatment of depression, has been called the first psychedelic to achieve FDA approval. It reached another milestone in 2024 by generating $1 billion in sales for Johnson & Johnson. This blockbuster figure earned recognition in March from The Wall Street Journal, which highlighted the growing opportunity in psychedelic biopharma. “Despite significant patient demand, innovation in mental health drugs has lagged,” the Journal noted, adding, “This isn’t for lack of patient demand. More than one in five Americans lives with a mental illness.”

The Journal further observed: “Yet for those willing to endure the risks, the rewards, both financial and clinical, can be significant.”

“Take the psychedelics industry: there are now dozens of startups conducting clinical trials on substances such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin. Scientists don’t fully understand yet how psychedelics help patients, but it is clear that many report benefits for a variety of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression,” reports the WSJ, which added, “While these therapies haven’t yet widespread backing from Big Pharma, yet gained Big Pharma’s backing, some biotech companies, including Compass Pathways and Cybin, are moving the ball forward.”

AbbVie, the world’s fifth-largest pharmaceutical company, isn’t waiting on the sidelines. It has invested $65 million in Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, which is researching novel neuroplastogens (compounds some describe as next-generation psychedelics without the hallucinogenic effects). According to a report from psychedelic biopharma analyst Josh Hardman, the agreement could be worth nearly $2 billion for Gilgamesh. Hardman, a graduate of the London School of Economics, is the founder of Psychedelic Alpha, widely considered the gold standard for psychedelic industry news and data.

But Big Pharma isn’t the only source of momentum for psychedelic medicine. Some of the larger-than-life entrepreneurs who’ve reshaped how Americans live, work, and explore the world are also getting involved.

Notably, new investors in psychedelic medicine include Antonio Gracias, a private equity investor involved in several Elon Musk ventures, including Tesla, SpaceX, and, most recently, efforts to overhaul the U.S. Social Security system. Gracias is reportedly considering majority ownership of Lykos, a biopharma company developing MDMA-based treatments. Another high-profile investor is Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, who has reportedly invested in Soneira, a biotech firm developing ibogaine therapies for neuropsychiatric conditions.