Five Must-See Psychedelic Movies and Series

With the holidays having crept up on us for another year, it’s time to think about lazy winter days and indoor activities for when the weather gets rough. For many, movies, binge-watching series, and documentary films top the list of things to do when the temperature drops, and what better topic than psychedelics to add to your video playlist. 

With plant medicine’s broad-reaching impact across medical, cultural, spiritual, and humanitarian realms, there’s plenty of areas to explore. From the psychedelic visuals and trippy direction of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the epic cosmic psychedelically-inspired, remake of Dune, there’s plenty in the fiction and fantasy space to cinematically trip for days, however, we’ve narrowed our view to documentary productions and whittled that down to just five psychedelic movies and series – and it wasn’t easy! 

Trip of Compassion – MDMA Documentary

This documentary chronicles three participants in an Israeli study who suffered from PTSD and were given the investigational treatment MDMA. One participant was a sex abuse survivor, one a kidnap survivor and one a first responder survivor. All three suffered from debilitating PTSD symptoms.

The filmmakers effectively illustrate how patients react to the clinical use of psychedelics and through intense, highly-emotional scenes, the viewer is shown the therapeutic power of MDMA in recorded therapy sessions as each patient works through their trauma.

All three participants experienced profound healing through the study and their successes are an emotional triumph that supports the psychedelic renaissance and the widespread expansion of clinical trials investigating the medical and therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines.

You can watch the film in its entirety here, but you will need a Vimeo account.

From Shock to Awe – Veterans Experience Ayahuasca

From Shock to Awe is a documentary about Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans battling PTSD who turn to Ayahuasca and MDMA for healing. Data shows that Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans take their own lives at a rate of over 22 per day, which equates to more American service-people dying at home than on the battlefield.

The film explores the failures of medicine, pharmacology, therapy, and the whole mental health sector in the United States and our system’s inability to help people who are suffering. By documenting the living burdens of the vets and their need for profound relief the filmmakers set the stage for ayahuasca, where the audience is taken on a journey with the transformative healing process of this powerful plant medicine.

Check it out this psychedelic movie on Rotten Tomatoes here. 

How to Change Your Mind – Michael Pollan’s Netfilx Series

This list wouldn’t be complete without including the Netflix miniseries lead by best-selling author, Michael Pollan. In this four-episode foray into psychedelic journalism, Mr. Pollan takes the viewers through the world of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and mescaline, offering insights and expert opinions from a range of people working with the medicines, while taking the substances himself in order to document and share his own experiences while in these non-ordinary states of consciousness. 

Check it out on Rotten Tomatoes here.

Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia – Psychedelic Science Series

Psychedelic medicines take center stage in this documentary series written, directed, and produced by Hamilton Morris, a journalist and scientific researcher who explores the history, chemistry, and social impact of various psychoactive substances from various cultures and traditions around the world.

Illustrating psychedelic medicine’s ubiquity and safety, the series star, creator, and protagonist ventures to try several of them himself, examining the effects of these extraordinary substances firsthand. In one episode, Hamilton Morris meets with underground chemists that illegally synthesized MDMA, in another he travels to Huautla de Jimenez in Mexico to visit the family of the legendary curandera María Sabina to talk about psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

Other episodes include smoking 5-MeO-DMT in the Sonoran desert under the supervision of a shaman and speaking with Amanda Feilding about how she helped to fund the very first neuroimaging study of LSD. There is lots to unpack from 3 seasons of this series, so get on your best binge-watching onesie and butter up the popcorn!

Check our this psychedelic series on Rotten Tomatoes Here. 

Descending the Mountain – Psychedelics and Meditation Film

With stunning cinematography that captures the divine beauty of nature, a fantastic psychedelic soundtrack, and an overarching neuroscientific theme, Descending the Mountain delivers an extraordinary view into psychedelics and the very nature of Consciousness. 

The documentary film includes renowned psychedelic researcher Dr. Franz Vollenweider and Zen master Vanja Palmers who set out and travel to a monastery on top of Mount Rigi in Switzerland to conduct a novel experiment in which experienced meditators received psilocybin-containing mushrooms in a group setting for the first time in their life.

In this fascinating double-blind experiment, neither the researchers or the participants knew what dose they received. The experiment showed that highly experienced meditators were able to deepen their meditation with psilocybin, even after thousands of hours of meditation practice. 

Check out this psychedelic movie on Rotten Tomatoes Here.

We know we’ve just scratched the surface here and there are many fine psychedelic movies and video productions that deserve mention. What are your favorites and why? Feel free to drop us a line and share your thoughts! Happy viewing!