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Psychedelics can heal. Stoners have been saying this for decades and Western medicine is now confirming it through clinical trials, which show benefits for patients with trauma, depression, substance abuse and more.
But what does it actually look like when a person is sky high on psychedelics? A new documentary called Peaking, premiering in Portland Sept. 24 and running through Oct. 1 at Cinema 21, has the footage.
Peaking: Psychedelics and the Pursuit of Happiness shows real-deal trips on a variety of different drugs: LSD, psilocybin, ibogaine, MDMA, ayahuasca and toad (bufo). The filmmakers spoke with participants before, during and after the trip to find out what kind of conditions they were trying to heal, how it goes and whether or not they find lasting relief. Peaking also goes into the history of criminalization and legalization of psychedelics in America.
Director Jordan Kronick, a 10-time Emmy Award winning producer on shows such as Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, takes a journalistic view at the journeys. Seeing the trips up close will have benefits for both the psychedelic-curious and the psychedelic-informed, he says.
“We want people to see it as it happens so they can have an emotional response to it, because these are human stories,” Kronick says. “These are stories about people who are struggling mightily with their mental health and then they try this sort of last-resort experimentation and they go through these dramatic transformations. And for some of them, it sticks.”
The filmmakers traveled to the ground zero, so to speak, for each of the drugs, such as the Amazon rainforest in Peru (ayahuasca), Mexico (ibogaine) and Oregon (psilocybin).
Former NHL player Stephen Johns takes psilocybin in Oregon, the first state in the country to legalize shrooms back in 2020, to address the physical and emotional effects of traumatic brain injuries sustained while playing hockey.
Another former NHL player, two-time Stanley Cup champ Daniel Carcillo, will attend the Cinema 21 premiere on Sept. 24 and 25, sharing his story about healing brain injuries with the help of psilocybin. Director Kronick will also be on hand at those showings.
So which psychedelic produces the craziest trip? Kronick did not hesitate to answer.
“It’s toad,” he says, referring to the toxin 5-MeO-DMT secreted by the glands of certain toads. “They call it the Mount Everest of psychedelics. The way they describe it to us in the film is that your consciousness goes offline and your subconsciousness goes online…. That is definitely the most intense stuff that we filmed.”
WATCH: Peaking: Psychedelics and the Pursuit of Happiness at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., cinema21.com/movie/peaking-psychedelics-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness. Sept. 24–Oct. 1. $11.
