there is growing evidence that psychedelics, by sparking periods of disruptive thinking, create an opportunity to “reconsolidate” memories. In practice, he said, that means gaining the ability to reassemble a set of facts in a way that fundamentally shifts how you understand them and how they make you feel. Obsessive, recurring thoughts—which depressed and traumatized people often struggle with—can suddenly become elements of a clearer narrative, which loosens their grip. “Reconsolidation is like changing the way the memory was initially encoded,”
