In Waves and War review – Navy Seals battle PTSD with psychedelic therapy

<p>Sombre documentary sees US soldiers give brave testimony while undergoing ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment to confront their traumas</p><p>A gaggle of former US Navy Seals open up about their post-traumatic stress in this absorbing if somewhat formulaic documentary by Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen. Ultimately, it is something of an advertisement for a new therapeutic protocol that involves the veterans taking the hallucinogens <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/23/ibogaine-iboga-drug-addiction-psychedelic-gabon">ibogaine</a> (derived from an African shrub) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/10/celebrity-shoe-designer-patrick-cox-on-his-psychedelic-toad-awakening">5-MeO-DMT</a> (derived, like something out of a William S Burroughs novel, from a river toad); a treatment that, to hear the subjects here describe it, can work miracles on the battle-scarred, suicidal minds of its users. Currently, the treatment is only available at a Mexican clinic because the drugs have not been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, but a bunch of boffins connected to <a href="https://bsl.stanford.edu/">Stanford University’s Brain Stimulation Lab</a> are studying its clinical effects and the film works hard to make everything look as legit as possible.</p><p>To be clear, we’re not necessarily questioning the drugs’ efficacy, but this particular film seems barely interested in the cognitive science and lets interviews with scientists with interesting glasses and fancy vocabularies stand in as guarantors that it all actually works. More persuasive is the testimony from the half dozen men we meet, who bravely discuss their pain and distress while the cameras roll.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/28/in-waves-and-war-review-documentary-ptsd-psychedelic-therapy">Continue reading...</a>