The Resumption: Picking Up Where 1968 Left Off

“Stevens documented the interruption. He could not have anticipated its end. The end is happening now.”

Storming Heaven ends in despair. The clinical program that Hoffer, Osmond, Grof, and Pahnke had built was ended by a scheduling decision that had nothing to do with the evidence.

Stevens published in 1987. He did not know the interruption would end.

The ending is happening now. Phase 3 trials of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression have reported results, and a drug company has said it plans to file for FDA approval (Source not found; under review). Johns Hopkins, NYU, Imperial College, and dozens of other institutions are running clinical trials. Australia approved psilocybin for clinical use in 2023. Oregon has a licensed psilocybin services program.

The specific clinical program Stevens mourned, Hoffer and Osmond's alcoholism protocol, has been reproduced with psilocybin. A 2022 NYU trial found that psilocybin-assisted therapy produced significantly better outcomes than placebo for alcohol use disorder.

Stevens wrote a history of an interruption. It has since become a history of an interruption that ended. That is, ultimately, a better story than the one he wrote.

Sources

• Stevens, Storming Heaven (1987)
• Industry Phase 3 psilocybin trials (2025-2026)