Drugs and Doctorates

Part One: A Quick House Tour

“I do research on psychedelics and I do them myself” says the then president of the Oxford University Psychedelic Society. “The two go hand in hand with each other”. 

His house, which was shared with a few other members of the society, was adorned with home-made art, mismatched furniture, an array of plants, a stripper’s pole in the living room, and a designated 'chill room'.

Kenneth was completing a PhD in neuroscience at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing in Oxford, having already completed an undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Harvard, where he had previously founded the Harvard Psychedelics Club.

He was also charming and charismatic. Perhaps his allure was best described by a fellow society member who told me that he joined the society because of Kenneth.

As he showed me around a shout came from downstairs: "We're going out for a zoot, do you want some?"

I politely declined.

Part Two: Conversations and Contraband

I was at the society's pre-drinks, or rather pre-drugs, for their end of term psychedelic rave.

Someone giggled as they admired a green dollar bill with Kenneth's face on it. It had 'worth 1000 real dollars or 10g of ket' written on the back.

“What I love about the Oxford University Psychedelic Society is this sense of tension,” Kenneth told me moments after several students had done lines of ketamine off the coffee table that the cup of herbal tea I was given was resting on.

“On the one hand we do have a lot of academic talks with researchers at various UK universities including neuroscientists and philosophers. So, there is a very scholastic component of the society.

“But then there is also all the counterculture and all of the ideals that that stands for. This idea of rebellion in a way, not only against Oxford but also against society as a whole.

“We want to change things. We want to make these drugs that have been so under appreciated for such a long time finally accessible to the people who want them.”

In 2023, members of the society ran a campaign called ‘voices for smarter choices’, and campaigned outside of parliament, receiving the support of Crispin Blunt, who was Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Reform at the time.

Public perception is still very much not in favour of legalising magic mushrooms, with two-thirds of Britons believing the drug should be illegal.

“Let’s do a line of coke,” someone shouted from another room.

Listen to Kenneth describe a 'trip' he had

Part Three: A Walk and Talk

On the walk to the rave, down a sleepy Oxford street, I chatted with another member of the society, who I won’t name.

She had told me over dinner that she planned to found a commune where she would “grow mangoes and have babies”.

She thought that psychedelics had healing properties but should also be taken recreationally.

“Fun is healing,” she said. “I went through a lot of things when I was younger and came out of it with very complex PTSD and psychedelics, not even doing them for healing, not even doing them to try and better myself, doing them running away from a lot of pain, in fact, allowed my brain the space to rewire itself.”

A study in 2023 claimed that psilocybin, the scientific name for the drug commonly known as magic mushrooms, showed promise as a treatment for major depressive disorder. 

In Colorado, one mother founded ‘Moms on Mushrooms’, a group which promotes microdosing magic mushrooms to help to “calm the frayed edges” of stress that many mothers experience.

However, there are dangers. 

The drugs are mind-altering substances, which change your understanding of the world around you. People have been documented in the United States and in the Netherlands have died or been seriously injured after jumping from buildings.

A different member of the society, Bobby, told me: “People can have bad experiences and we need to be cautious.

“I think it’s important to educate people on what they are getting into. I think a lot of people want to try psychedelics because they think ‘ooo, cool! Colours are going to change’.

“That was why I wanted to do psychedelics, and why I did them when I was 16.

“I wasn’t necessarily aware that difficult experiences in my life could come up.”

Part Four: Time to Party

The rave was jam-packed.

As I was leaving the toilets, one young man asked me to just stand still for a second so that I would block the view of anyone opening the door to the men's.

Without waiting for a response he took a small bag of one substance or another from his pocket, dipped in a key, and snorted a quick bump. 

I had agreed to talk to DJ Traxsky, the kimono-wearing headline DJ of the rave.

“I was a little chilly one time before a set and my girlfriend had this to hand,” he told me. “It’s pretty comfortable.”

He believed in the healing power of psychedelics but thought that their use in a party culture could be quite harmful.

“I’ve used psychedelics in a therapeutic context with someone who was a trip-sitter, a sober person who made sure I was as safe as possible.

“I was going through a difficult time and I think it allowed me to see new perspectives and to heal a lot quicker than other things.”

I spent much of my evening chatting with a few people in the smoking area, including a woman who told me that she saw witches when she was on psychedelic drugs and a man who talked to me about the deep connection he perceived between psychedelics and mathematics.

The rave itself was good fun and its clientele were extremely welcoming. I even received a long hug from one member of the society as I climbed onto the stage to look out at the bouncing sea of ravers that filled the dancefloor.

Many of these students were the common double life that students are famous for up and down the country: days spent in labs and lecture theatres and nights spent in bars and clubs.

But some of them had a common thread running between these two parts of their lives - exploring psychedelic drugs.

"It is a fantastic, fantastic community," Kenneth told me. "I don't think there will ever be anything like it in my life again."