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  • Published: 10 September 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529923735
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

Ten Trips

The New Reality of Psychedelics




A neuropsychologist takes ten different drugs in this superbly entertaining yet profound investigation

Psychedelics have made a comeback, but the truth is they remain a mystery.

In this daring, profound and wildly entertaining investigation, clinical neuropsychologist Andy Mitchell tests the claims being made for these substances by taking ten different psychedelics in ten different settings.

Journeying from a neuroimaging lab in London to the Colombian Amazon via Silicon Valley and his friend’s basement kitchen, his encounters with scientists and gangsters, venture capitalists and con men, psychonauts and shamans, and above all with the drugs themselves, take us beyond the hype and reveal the reality of psychedelics – that they are as enchanting but ultimately unfathomable as experience itself.

  • Published: 10 September 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529923735
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Andy Mitchell

Andy Mitchell is a neuropsychologist and therapist. He has specialized in treating patients with rare brain conditions, head injuries and epilepsy, and in the application of mindfulness for neurological patients. As a therapist he has worked with people with a range of mental health disorders. Before entering medicine, his first degree was in English Literature at Oxford University. He is originally from Leeds.

Praise for Ten Trips

An original and thrilling investigation into psychedelics and the claims that currently surround them, achieving profound insights into their essential qualities

Mike Jay, author of Psychonauts

A hair-raising hurtle of a ride into the belly of the psychedelic renaissance, fuelled by spectacular prose

Henry Shukman, author of One Blade of Grass

Mitchell's decapod of delirious drug experiences is an antidote to the hype and a rallying cry to keep psychedelics . . . psychedelic

Josh Hardman, Psychedelic Alpha

Eagle-eyed, poetic and always playful, Ten Trips is chock-full of profane illumination

Tehseen Noorani, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland

A dazzling, timely book, as deep and poignant as it is madcap and hilarious

Professor Mark Lythgoe, Director of the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging, University College London

Utterly compelling. Some books are in a category of their own and this is one them. Reading it is like having an out of body experience

Mark Miodownik, author of Stuff Matters

A gifted writer with a great ear for dialogue. Mitchell is not afraid to put himself in the telling, and it is this that makes Ten Trips true and real

Michael Taussig, author of Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown

The psychedelic world has been waiting for this book: a sceptic's account of the allure of psychedelics

Erika Dyck, Professor in History of Health & Social Justice, University of Saskatchewan

In Ten Trips, Andy Mitchell captures psychedelics' gonzo spirit and speaks to the psychonaut in all of us

Katherine MacLean, author Midnight Water: A Psychedelic Memoir

Beguiling, captivating, mind-expanding. It's impossible to read this book and not be tempted to replicate some of its wild, sanity-stretching forays into the peculiarities of human perception

Stuart Ritchie, author of Science Fictions

An incisive, deeply personal and beautifully written account of the power, the uses and the modern misuses of psychedelics. Highly recommended

Anil Seth, author of Being You

A powerful reminder that psychedelics can’t be made sense of entirely within a framework of chemical interactions in the brain. We need to view them as something potent, to be respected

New Scientist

Philosophical and darkly humorous ... for all the mystical experiences [psychedelics] afford, divesting them of their shadow side does seekers a disservice, Mitchell holds

Spectator

Canny and somewhat sceptical ... rigorous and penetrating ... illuminating ... this is a wonderful book, a journey into the nature and potential of consciousness itself, and of life on this troubled and monopolised planet

Literary Review

A collection of tales from the far frontiers of psychedelic experience . . . superb . . . brilliant

Charles Foster, TLS
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