Psychedelic drugs: A higher purpose?

It’s late at night, deep in a jungle in Peru, and a group of people are getting ready to drink a tea that will bring on powerful hallucinations. Known as ayahuasca, the brew contains the psychedelic active ingredient DMT, or dimethyltryptamine.

But these people aren’t here to get high – for them, that’s just a side effect. They are here because drinking ayahuasca has gained a reputation for being able to ‘cure’ conditions ...