One Reporter’s Life-Altering Psychedelic Trip

Key Takeaways

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  Dream about Lord Ganesh triggered a global event

  “And this guy had just had a dream that Lord Ganesh, the elephant headed god of wisdom in Hinduism, said, I want milk. He's the god of wisdom. I think you might have been able to say it with a couple more $5 words. It made it a little more like snazzy and he just didn't stare at the man. The whole dream was just this elephant headed god staring at the man going, milk, milk, milk, milk.”

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  Hindu statues worldwide appeared to drink milk offerings

  “It turns out in Hindu temples all over the world, if you bring milk to one of these statues, the milk disappears. This thing spreads worldwide. And at this point, journalists from around the world are covering it as well. They're doing new segments on it. They're sending reporters out to these temples to see if there's any truth to this story.”

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  The phenomenon caused global markets to shut down

  “People are leaving their jobs. The stock market in Mumbai, back then it was called Bombay, but the stock market in Mumbai, shut down. People were leaving the stock market. They're like, oh, we can make profits tomorrow. Let's go find this out. Word began to spread around the globe. Hey, Joe, remember when you left New Delhi? What a rube. The gods here are drinking milk.”

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  Host recounts a horrifying religious-themed nightmare

  “I had a dream and it had nothing. It was just a normal dream. And then something happened and there was a knock at my door and I opened the door and Satan was standing at the door and he had sliced off Jesus's face and was wearing it like a mask. And he did this little toe tap routine. And it wasn't like the devil with like the red horns and the pointy tail.”

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  Skeptics attribute the miracle to simple capillary action

  “What they were doing is they were taking spoonfuls of milk. So the smaller amount of milk, the easier it is to make mistakes. A gallon of milk disappearing is far harder to explain or hand wave than a teaspoon of milk. They would take milk and they would hold it to the mouth of the statue. And they would slightly turn the spoon. And then the milk would disappear.”

Episode Description

The first time Robert Draper heard about the psychedelic drug ibogaine, it was from an unlikely source: the retired U.S. senator Kyrsten Sinema. As a political reporter for The New York Times, Draper often talks to figures like Ms. Sinema. But on this occasion, he said, she wanted to tell him about how she had tried ibogaine, which is illegal in the United States. She’d become such a believer in the drug that she was pushing her home state of Arizona to fund clinical trials for veterans with combat-related trauma. Draper found that Ms. Sinema wasn’t the only politician to take up the cause. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, Republican presidential candidate and Trump energy secretary, has also advocated for research into ibogaine in recent years and taken the drug himself. In 2025, because of Mr. Perry’s efforts, Texas became the first state to dedicate public funds to ibogaine research with veterans. Recent studies of ibogaine at Stanford University and elsewhere suggest that it might prove effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, addiction and a range of other conditions. As Draper reported on ibogaine’s transformative effects on others, he wondered: Could it help him, too? Today, on “The Sunday Daily,” Natalie Kitroeff talks to Robert Draper about what drew him to travel to Mexico to try ibogaine, and how his trip changed his life. On Today’s Episode:  Robert Draper (usually) writes about domestic politics for The New York Times. Background Reading: It’s an Obscure Psychedelic Used to Treat Trauma. Could It Help Me? The Long, Strange Trip of Rick Perry Art Credit: Illustration By Melissa Santamaría Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.