Why Psychedelics Make Us Weird

Welcome to the Psychedelic Blog. I write about the Impact of Psychedelics on Grieving, Relationships, Culture & Death.

This Week: Why Psychedelics Make Us Weird (And Why That’s the Point).

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“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts

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I. Enlightenment is Overrated

Most people think Psychedelics make you enlightened. Truth is, they make you weird.

Weirder taste in friends. Eccentric conversations. Strange new hobbies. Tearing up a bit during a sunset (only a little, one time), a moment of profound gratitude that you get to have a human experience & questioning whether your ambitions were just a way to deflect from facing hard truths.

To the outside world, it looks like you’ve lost it. But you know the truth: you’ve stopped pretending.

Psychedelics aren’t just about healing trauma or having mystical experiences. They make us weird. Not weird as in “crazy,” but weird as in stepping outside the script. Quitting the job everyone else wanted. Falling in love with the wrong person on paper. Moving to Mexico in your early forties, smoking interdimensional toad venom, jumping out of airplanes...ok, maybe that part’s me.

In a culture obsessed with fitting in, maybe a little weirdness is exactly what we need.

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Photo by Vinicius "amnx" Amano on Unsplash

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II. The Science of Weird, Part I

I’ve written before about how people who measure high in Openness to Experience are most likely to have mystical, expansive Psychedelic journeys:

In a study published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, researchers found that personality traits predicted trip outcomes more than the drug’s specific qualities. People high in openness to new experience were more likely to have mystical, expansive journeys. Those high in neuroticism tended to get caught in difficult, even distressing territory.

According to this study, Psychedelic experiences can actually increase our Openness to New Experiences. This sheds light on something I’ve said for years: those would benefit most from a Psychedelic experience are the least likely to have one.

But it also proves something else: Psychedelics make us more open to things we would have previously dismissed.

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III. The Science of Weird, Part II

A new meta-analysis tackled a question that sounds simple but isn’t: who are you after taking Psychedelics? Not during the trip, not the day after—but in the weeks & months that follow.

Researchers reviewed controlled studies on Psilocybin, LSD & Ayahuasca, looking at three things that make up the core of our identity:

1. Cognition/Creativity

2. Emotional Processing

3. Personality

The findings? Psychedelics don’t give you a “new brain.” No lasting bump in memory, no supercharged creativity, no executive function glow-up. Most measures stayed flat.

But there was one shift that did stand out: emotional processing. People who had taken Psychedelics recognized emotions like sadness & disgust faster than controls. In plain English: Psychedelics might not make you a genius, but they can rewire the way you feel other people.

They may not make you enlightened, but they can make you weirder—in ways science can actually measure.

On personality, the results were mixed. Some studies showed a bump in Openness to Experience—the trait most closely tied to curiosity, novelty-seeking & saying yes to the kinds of “weird” things Psychedelics are famous for inspiring.

So if the big picture is that Psychedelics nudge us toward lasting shifts in how we relate to emotions—then maybe “weird” is exactly the right word.

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IV. Everyday Weird

The thing about Psychedelic weirdness is it sneaks up on you. One day you’re ordering Postmates on the couch, the next you’re bingeing Alan Watts on YouTube. Being in nature takes on new meaning. You occasionally feel the vibration of the universe.

From the outside, it looks absurd. Your old friends roll their eyes when you bring up DMT or “energy fields”. You stop caring about the daily culture war and start caring about how you show up for the people you love. You start doing breathwork & meditation practices. From the baseline perspective, you’ve gone off the rails.

Psychedelics don’t just loosen your mind, they scramble your definition of “normal.”

Weirdness is the aftertaste of honesty.

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V. The Relatable Weirdness

So what does all this mean? Is it good or bad? Depends who you ask. If your thing is Fantasy Football, Golf & Netflix…we’re probably not going to vibe. But if you love talking about consciousness, how death is a transition rather than an end, and how we are the universe waking up to itself…I’m your man.

Of course, there are drawbacks to this post-Psychedelic weirdness. The idea of being at a bar on a Friday night hurts my soul (probably why I’m still single). Small talk feels like sandpaper. And corporate work? Out of the question.

But here’s the reframe: weirdness is really just difference from the baseline culture. Mainstream culture worships alcohol, hustle & consumption. Psychedelics point you toward slowness, truth & awe.

So of course you look “weird.” You’re not playing the same game anymore. It’s like you stepped off the conveyor belt, and everyone still riding it thinks you’re crazy for walking.

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Photo by Dan Parlante on Unsplash

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VI. The Deeper Meaning of Weird

Weird is the point — it’s proof that Psychedelics work. They don’t make you eccentric, they make you more yourself. And since I enjoy external validation as much as anyone, let’s look at some people who were considered weird in their own time:

• Edgar Allan Poe – Dismissed as bizarre for his macabre obsessions.

• Emily Dickinson – Reclusive, barely published, branded odd.

• Nikola Tesla – Brilliant but branded mad for his eccentric habits.

• Galileo Galilei – Heretic for challenging the church’s worldview.

• Charles Darwin – Scandalized society with the theory of evolution.

• Albert Einstein – Seen as lazy & odd, reshaped physics.

• Socrates - Sentenced to death for corrupting the youth.

• David Bowie – Blurred gender & genre before it was acceptable.

Not to mention, J.D. Salinger hiding out in New Hampshire, Hunter S. Thompson blowing up typewriters, Hemingway chasing war & whiskey. All of them labeled strange.

History remembers them for the very qualities their peers called strange. Weirdness isn’t a bug — it’s the feature. The most impactful people were “weird” by definition. If you blend back into the default world seamlessly, maybe the medicine didn’t touch you as deeply as it could have.

Psychedelics don’t make you normal. They make you honest — and honesty often looks weird.

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VII. Stay Strange

The world doesn’t need more normal. It doesn’t need more people obsessed with fitting in, playing it safe & numbing themselves just to make it through the week.

It needs more people willing to be a little strange. To follow awe instead of algorithms. To tell the truth even when it makes everyone else uncomfortable.

So if Psychedelics make you weird? Good. That’s not a side effect. That’s the medicine working. Psychedelics don’t make you normal — they make you honest. And in this culture, honesty looks weird.

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