CONSCIOUSNESS UNDER PRESSURE

Consciousness is the one thing each of us knows with absolute certainty — and the one thing science has the hardest time explaining. It is also fragile. Certain molecules, taken deliberately or by accident, can rearrange it within minutes; certain illnesses can entrench false beliefs so stubbornly that no argument can dislodge them. This article tells the story of two ways the mind's grip on reality can loosen: hallucinogens, the classic psychedelic compounds now undergoing a remarkable clinical renaissance, and mixed delusions, the clinically common but under discussed condition in which a person harbours two or more delusional themes at once.