Vita ex anima

Finding Life in the Psychedelic Realm

In the late 17th century, Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek conducted a series of experiments that would have a profound impact on the way we view our world. Examining a drop of water through a series of magnifying lenses - a ‘microscope’ - he observed something that had never before been seen by human eyes: a series of fantastical creatures, each shaped stranger than the last, swimming, swarming, and until then completely hidden from view. That there was a secret kingdom of ‘protozoa’ only visible through great magnification was a shock and a revelation - an uncomfortable realisation that new forms of life could be kept from our knowledge with only the right tool bringing them to light.

It took many decades for microbial theory to be accepted by science as a whole. Today we take it for granted: a simple fact of existence. But before van Leeuwenhoek, it was an idea so absurd it was unthinkable.

Today we are living through a similar paradigm shift in understanding. Intrepid explore…