Preview: Rick Doblin shares powerful insights from our Ukraine visit, revealing how psychedelic therapy might help a nation rebuild from devastating trauma—and what it means for our own divided society.
Dear friends,
I recently returned from Ukraine with my colleague Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS. While I expected to witness severe trauma, nothing prepared me for the emotional reality—a cemetery filled with flags of fallen soldiers, young men being fitted for prosthetics, air raid sirens during our training sessions.
Despite daily threats, Ukrainians showed remarkable openness to innovative treatments, including MDMA for PTSD. Having witnessed this medicine's potential since the 1980s, I'm convinced it offers unique healing possibilities not just for individuals, but for entire communities—including our increasingly divided American society.
Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller
Links & Resources
MAPS - Leading research into psychedelic medicine
Psychedelic Science 2025 - Denver, June 16-20, 2025
Mind Body Health & Politics - Archive of Dr. Miller's shows
Work with Me
After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.
My approach focuses on practical mind control techniques that allow you to direct your thoughts and emotions rather than being directed by them. To learn more about working together, contact me here or email DrRichardLMiller@gmail.com with subject line "Contact Request."
MDMA for a Nation's Trauma: Inside Ukraine's Psychological Battlefield
The Lviv cemetery tells Ukraine's story better than any news report—row upon row of graves, each marked with a flag and photograph of a fallen soldier. When I walked in there, I started crying. I don't know if I stopped crying the entire time, I told Rick during our recent conversation.
We were training therapists in MDMA-assisted therapy for a population experiencing widespread trauma. "Pretty much every family has lost a member or knows somebody that has," Rick explained. Despite being in western Ukraine, relatively safer, war's reality was inescapable—air raid sirens and emergency alerts interrupted our sessions.
Why MDMA in a War Zone?
The evidence for MDMA therapy is compelling: In MAPS' Phase 3 clinical trials, 72.6% of participants with moderate to severe PTSD no longer qualified for the diagnosis after treatment. Many had suffered for years without success from conventional treatments.
Even more telling: while two participants in the placebo group became suicidal during the study, none receiving MDMA experienced such destabilization—despite working with "the hardest cases" where over 90% had suicidal ideation beforehand.
Rick shared a moving story: "One woman had tried everything and told the therapist, 'If I don't get better from MDMA, this is my last hope. If I don't get better, I'm going to Nepal and kill myself.'" Within an hour of her first session, she said, "I don't think I'm going to have to go to Nepal now."
Beyond Individual Therapy: Scaling Healing for a Nation
The scale of trauma in Ukraine demands innovative approaches. With therapists in short supply and affected populations enormous, traditional one-on-one therapy cannot meet the need.
This is where group therapy combined with MDMA shows tremendous potential. During our visit, I offered to return to teach group therapy techniques, building capacity for when MDMA research is eventually permitted under revised laws.
When somebody else in the group is working, you learn from what they're going through without being defensive, I explained. When others are having their experience with MDMA, your empathy level will be so high that you'll absorb it emotionally and use it for your own healing.
Healing Families, Healing Society
One promising application extends to couples therapy. Rick mentioned work at Sunstone in Maryland where both cancer patients and their partners receive MDMA together, achieving "results better than anything they ever got before, both in reducing PTSD and strengthening relationships."
The implications extend to families as well. Research by Rachel Yehuda at Mount Sinai has identified how trauma passes epigenetically from parents to children. Remarkably, if you process your trauma and overcome it, your epigenetic markers change so you don't pass on trauma.
This could be revolutionary for Ukraine, a country traumatized for multiple generations... a crossroads with the Nazis, Russians, communists, Stalin, and massive starvation.
America's Own War Zone
Upon returning home, I realized: Here in the United States, we're also living in a war zone. The evidence surrounds us: 30-40% suffering anxiety or depression; 72% living paycheck to paycheck; 72% overweight or obese; devastating addiction crises.
Perhaps most dangerous is our profound social division: Instead of saying someone has a different opinion I want to understand, we've descended to viewing different opinions as signs someone is bad, sick, crazy, or stupid.
The Psychedelic Path Forward
Rick sees psychedelics offering a unique solution to this division:
"With classic psychedelics, you experience ego dissolution and feel part of something bigger. If more people experienced how we have more in common than differences, we could appreciate differences rather than fear them."
This is what Abraham Maslow recognized after encountering psychedelic research: the hierarchy of needs extends beyond self-actualization to self-transcendence—"realizing you're part of something bigger, not just getting the best for yourself but helping others."
As Rick concluded,
"Humanity is a race between consciousness and catastrophe, and it's not clear how it's going to turn out." Psychedelics may help accelerate consciousness at a crucial moment.
Drawing on Carl Jung, he emphasized that
"the most important social, therapeutic and political work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others... and see the world as if we're a part of it rather than apart from it."
The most profound insight from psychedelics mirrors what astronauts discover from space:
"When you go up and look down, you don't see countries. You see a planet. There's one planet of people, and we need to work together to sustain it rather than destroy it."
Whether in war-torn Ukraine or fractured America, the healing journey leads to the same recognition of our shared humanity and interdependence. MDMA may offer one of our best paths toward this collective healing.
Join us at Psychedelic Science 2025 in Denver, June 16-20, where researchers, therapists, and advocates will continue exploring the healing potential of psychedelic medicines.
Now Available: Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life
You can now order my latest book, Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear. This work represents a culmination of my decades-long journey as a clinical psychologist, exploring how psychedelics can transform our approach to death and dying.
The book examines how substances like LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin can be powerful tools in confronting our fears of mortality, ultimately leading to richer, more fulfilling lives. I'm honored to include insights from renowned experts in the field, as well as my own experiences.
Here's what some esteemed colleagues are saying:
James Fadiman, Ph.D., calls it "a deeply uplifting, clear, and compassionate guide to dying and how psychedelics, used correctly, diminish our fears about approaching the door that opens at the end of our life."
Charles S. Grob, M.D., describes it as "a masterful overview of an area of vital importance to our modern world... a valuable resource and contribution to the growing field of psychedelic medicine."
Julie Holland, M.D., notes that "Psychedelics may offer a mini-death rehearsal, offering a glimpse of spiritual oneness, enabling us to be less afraid at the end of our lives."
I hope this book will inspire meaningful conversations and new perspectives on how we approach the end of life.
Mind Body Health & Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My Books:
Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)
Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out
Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances
Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca
Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)
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