This post contains spoiler alerts for Nine Perfect Strangers
Based on Liane Moriarty’s book, Nine Perfect Strangers, the show begins with nine strangers gathering to a small, exclusive retreat somewhere in California called Tranquillum, all with one thing on their minds: change. Although every visitor has had different life experiences, they’re drawn to the retreat because they’ve heard that the director, Masha (played by Nicole Kidman), has found a therapy that can help anyone feel completely transformed by the end of their stay.
Although not revealed to the guests until a few days into the program, Masha and the rest of the Tranquillum staff have been microdosing the guests with psilocybin without their knowledge, and eventually, this leads to full-blown acid trips.
It’s clear that some parts of the show are satirically pointed at the wellness industry, but the basis of psychedelic-assisted therapy as we know is definitely not a fictional idea.
Here are some things that the show got right (and wrong) about psychedelic-assisted therapy:
True: Psilocybin Shows Potential to Treat Mental Illness
In one episode, Masha says, “This protocol cures addiction. It can treat mental illness. It can treat PTSD, schizophrenia, dementia. It can make you eat better, sleep better, fuck better, and it has the capacity to change the world.”
While psychedelic-assisted therapy certainly shows a ton of potential in treating a number of mental ailments, the show’s oversimplification is worrisome to those in the actual trenches of research.
“Shows like this bring the conversation [about psychedelics] to a wider audience, and when it’s done well, it helps to educate the public about what these substances are,” says Alan Davis, Ph.D. “However…when it perpetuates stigma or misinformation, it adds fuel to the flame of those who are skeptics or those who are in leadership roles in the country who might see it and assume that these misconceptions are accurate.”
True: Psychedelic Retreats Can Cost Thousands of Dollars
Yup, its true. Most retreats can cost between $4K-$10K, and mostly take place in areas where psychedelics are legal and decriminalized like Amsterdam, Jamaica, and South America.
True: MDMA is Better for Relationship Counseling Than Psilocybin
In the show, one of the characters requests that she and her husband only be given MDMA since they’re there to repair their relationship. “When you’re on high doses of psilocybin, it’s difficult to communicate with other people and you don’t really want to communicate with people. You’re in your own experience, your own journey. You’re deep into yourself,” explains Paul Austin, founder of Third Wave and co-founder of Synthesis psychedelic retreat.
With MDMA, however, you get that release of feel-good hormones like serotonin and oxytocin, which is more conducive for openness and vulnerability with your partner than psilocybin would be.
Myth: Psilocybin Induces Flashbacks
One of the characters has vivid flashbacks during his trip — we’re talking vividly to the point of hyperventilating and sweating. “So many of our traumatic things we stuff into our subconscious and we forget about it, we repress it,” Austin notes. “What psychedelics do is they open that box back up.” While it’s definitely possible to relive memories, having full-blown flashbacks isn’t a common experience. It’s more likely to feel a welling of old emotions as they rise to the surface, causing some tears or other cathartic reactions.
Myth: Psychedelic-Assisted TherapyDoesn’t Require Consent
Nope — it definitely does. This big reveal that guests have been unknowingly dosed with psychedelics is almost certainly to serve the plot in the show.
Myth: Trips Don’t Always Need a Facilitator
In psychedelic-assisted therapy, patients always have a qualified facilitator with them while they’re tripping. While the show’s characters often have supervision, there are plenty of instances where they’re allowed to wander the expansive grounds of the retreat alone, and that’s something that shouldn’t happen in the real world.
Myth: Shared Psychosis Can Take People to Alternate Realitys
This may seem to be a bit obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. In the show, Masha theorizes that a group’s shared, intense high can connect the group with an alternate reality, or, in the case of the show, with dead loved ones.
In truth, there have been reports of psychedelic telepathy, and although prolonged use of psychedelics could potentially lead to psychosis, they haven’t been tied to the rare case of shared psychosis.
Carol Tamminga, MD of UT Southwestern Medical Dallas claims, “Shared psychosis (previously termed folie à deux) is now considered a subset of delusional disorder. It usually occurs in a person or group of people (usually a family) who are related to a person with a significant delusional disorder or schizophrenia. The prevalence of shared psychosis is not known, but the disorder appears to be rare. The patient with the primary disorder is usually the socially dominant member in the relationship and imposes the delusion on or convinces the patient with the secondary disorder of the unusual beliefs.”
So if you get high enough with the right people, could you open the doors to a new reality of space and time? Most likely not — but then again, the reality is all about perception, isn’t it?
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