With moments of confusion, clarity, and hilarity, Psychonautics is an engrossingly honest account of the potential healing powers of Psychedelics and the experiences of a genuine Psychonaut.

Comedian Shane Mauss sets out on a mission to prove psychedelics are not as scary as they seem… by doing all of them.

While describing the indescribable, he explores the beauty and mystique of psychedelics. He also brings in the added perspectives of some of the top scientists, researchers, and experts in this fascinating field of medicine.

Shane goes mushroom picking with Eric Osbourne, a mushroom expert and psilocybin retreat leader, to harvest some of the best mushrooms in the world.

He learns about the vast medical potential of psilocybin from Dr. William Richards, a leading researcher at Johns Hopkins University, who began studying psychedelics in 1963.

Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS (Multidisiplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies), takes us through the history of drug prohibition and explains the DEA\’s scheduling system, which suppresses the efforts of scientists to study the benefits of these substances.

Shane talks to actress Heather Matarazzo about how MDMA assisted therapy was responsible for a life-saving breakthrough with her PTSD. Historian Erika Dyck reveals that research from the 1950s showed the power of LSD to help break alcohol addiction. Shane gets an intense ketamine treatment in a clinical setting, he travels to another dimension with the aid of DMT, and he has a spiritual experience in a clandestine Ayahuasca ceremony.

This film shows the enormous potential that psychedelics have to treat disorders, improve our health, and open us up to amazing experiences. However, they can also lead to a month-long manic state and a trip to the psych ward… if not done responsibly.

This is a journey that takes Shane to the highest euphoria and the lowest depression, it opens him up to enlightenment, and it kicks him in the balls. With moments of both confusion and clarity, this is as an honest account of the experiences of a genuine Psychonaut.

CLASSIFICATION: Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult