Neurons to Nirvana (2013)

Good concept, poorly executed.

best movie i've ever seen.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I write this review from the viewpoint as a qualified social worker who has both academic knowledge but also practical work experience dealing with drug addiction. Besides I also experimented personally with psychoactive substances.The positive part of this documentary is that it shows clear and factual arguments governmental rules on which substances are legal or illegal are NOT based on which substances are more or less harmful to the individual or society. Alcohol and tobacco are without any doubt harmful, yet they are freely available for a simple reason: in the short term they provide high tax revenue for the government (which is offset by the negative cost in the long term: health issues long cancer, liver disease and so on).The negative part of this documentary is that it is clearly biased toward legalizing some or more psycho-active substances, based on the fact that some may actually have positive effects in a therapeutic setting (for instance psilocybine which is found in magical mushrooms shows a short term serotonin boost, which is what most anti-depressants aim for).The problem is however, most people in this documentary are academics, so they've spend a lot of time on research and indeed would probably use these substances in a responsible manner. To expand their consciousness, as a tool for creativity, for therapeutic use.However, most of these academics probably only know the problem with the use of psycho-active substances (mdma, psilocybine, LSD, THC ... ) from a paper point of view, not from having personal experience in dealing with drug addicts like I have.Making some of these substances more available to the general public in a non therapeutic setting, for recreational use without supervision, would lead to another wave of wasted teenagers who think it's okay to use these substances because they are free to buy and use. Yes, they might have benefits, but not if they are used purely to escape reality. The documentary also fails to point out clearly that although some psycho-active substances are not addictive in a way the body the craves for it, but they can be psychologically very addictive. Someone who would for instance trip on magical mushrooms for several days a week will loose touch with reality.Amsterdam and Holland have long been very liberal strongholds for tolerating marijuana, magical mushrooms, head shops and so on... but recently more and more restrictions came into place (not because the pharmaceutical industry wanted to make more profit so they wanted to ban coffee shops) BUT because of the increasing amount of accidents cause by the use of psycho active substances.Finally there is another argument that is nearly not touched in this documentary: most trippers believe because something comes from nature it's less harmful than chemicals. The problem however is, when one eats for instance raw magical mushrooms the dosage of the active substance can vary widely depending on the species, time of harvest, and so on. Even marijuana which is sold in most coffee shops in Holland has NOTHING to do with wild marijuana. Weed sold for profit on the black market is bread to increase THC (otherwise a smoker might find he's not getting 'high' enough).Although this documentary is surely interesting to watch and I do very much appreciate the comments of Gabor, please be aware it is surely NOT unbiased. Although it states it does not want to advocate the use of psycho-active substances in the end this is what it achieves. For a rebellious teenager watching this it might seam as if government is lying and they were right along to smoke another joint.

The documentary highlights some of the most important medical aspects of use of psychedelics. It's extremely important to educate people in this field, for sure. The interviewees are some of the brightest minds in this field of study, it's a pleasure to see them all participating and explaining stuff. Maybe the choice to make the documentary only one hour nine minutes long is the right one, so the writers had to focus on the very key ideas. But unfortunately the visuals are heavily overproduced to the extent of being sometimes totally incoherent, interfering and disconnected from the narrative. I understand that one needs to have some visual effects to make a story more colorful and attractive to public, but there's a measure for it. There was no need to make it so conspiracy-looking and new age-ish at the same time.

This documentary had great insights into the realities of various drugs, and I liked how they made an effort to focus on facts as opposed to fear based opinions on psychedelics. Ironically, I feel like when they mentioned antidepressants the people interviewed gave an emotion based opinion as opposed to sticking to the facts ... because pharmaceutical antidepressants are produced by corporations, and the doctors and pundits in the documentary were more liberal leaning they talked about the antidepressants, 'dampening', and 'hindering' the 'true human' in the brain, whereas non corporate psychedelics or other non monetized drugs, they felt, helped people overcome depression through, 'true insight'. In reality, all plants or chemicals, whether corporate or non corporate are altering brain chemistry, dampening some parts of the brain, while allowing others to flourish. Its true that using antidepressants without talk therapy can lead to relapses in depression, but if one sticks to the facts, it is clear to see that antidepressants can modulate depression allowing one to do talk therapy they never would have had the strength to do if not for the antidepressants. Crippling depressions is just that ... crippling ... and antidepressants can help one come to deep insights, just like other psychedelics can. Overall it is infuriating when strong conservatives are hypocritical and say all illegal drugs have no redeeming qualities or benefits, but also equally hypocritical and infuriating when far leaning liberals spout generalizations that drugs produced by pharmaceutical are just there to make money and enslave the populace by treating symptoms and make the corporations money, and dampen the human spirit through numbing out the populace. Both generalizations are not true, and the path forward to truth would be better served if the doctors and people with knowledge are vigorous in analyzing whether they are speaking with emotion or facts. Overall though, a great documentary and thought provoking.

I was deeply impressed by the breadth and depth of the interviews presented in this documentary and the amazing quality of the graphics, design and editing. Hockenhull has done a masterful job of exploring the critical importance of often "banned"psychedelic substances and the need to re-evaluate our understanding of the constructive role they can play in psychology, therapy, sociology and neuroscience. Based on the evidence provided in Neurons to Nirvana it clear that a we need to end the war on drugs and recognize that this outdated prohibition is effectively blocking curative therapies for addiction, trauma and a host of other human suffering. This is a comprehensive modern documentary about hugely important subject matter that needs to be seen, synthesized and discussed - by both professionals and laymen.