Short answers, pulled from the story.
The earliest known written account of a psychedelic experience was published by Ramon Pane in 1511. This text described the effects of cohoba, a snuff made from the seeds of the Anadenanthera tree.
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on the 16th of April 1943. He conducted a self-experiment with the substance three days later on the 19th of April 1943.
A psychedelic renaissance began in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Michael Pollan's 2018 book How to Change Your Mind was especially impactful in terms of increasing mainstream awareness and interest in psychedelics.
A June 2024 report by the RAND Corporation indicated that psilocybin mushrooms are currently the most widely used psychedelic drug among U.S. adults. About 12% of adults reported lifetime use of psilocybin in this survey.
The term psychedelic was coined by the psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond in 1956 during written correspondence with author Aldous Huxley. Osmond presented the term to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1957.