White supremacist says taking ecstasy helped change his racist views

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The illegal party drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, may have resulted in a stunning turnaround for a former white supremacist, according to a study.

The man, referred to only by his first name, Brendan, took MDMA in February 2020 as part of a University of Chicago research project to find out if the drug increased the pleasantness of social contact, Rachel Nuwer , author of the new book I Feel Love: MDMA and the quest for connection in a fractured world, written for the BBC. Brendan had been indoctrinated into white supremacy while at the University of Illinois and had become active in extremist circles, even attending the infamous 2017 rally in Charlottesville and taking on leadership roles in the Midwest in within his organization.

After using MDMA and completing the standard questionnaire at the end of the study, led by Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Harriet de Wit, he added in bold: This experience helped me solve a problem debilitating staff. Google my name. I now know what to do, Ms. Nuwer reported.

After Googling his name and realizing his connection to white supremacy, researchers reached out to Brendan to make sure his cryptic message didn’t refer to violence or other disturbing behavior, but he told a research assistant: Love is the most important thing. Nothing matters without love, Ms Nuwer wrote.

Professor de Wit, speaking to the author almost two years later, was still expressing his astonishment at the results.

Isn’t it amazing? she says. That’s what everyone says about that damn drug, that it makes people feel love. To think that a drug could change someone’s beliefs and thoughts without any expectation is mind boggling.

The use of MDMA and psychedelics such as psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, is gaining traction in the medical community, showing promising results for treating conditions such as PTSD and alcoholism.

Brendan later told the author that MDMA helped me see things in a different way than any anti-racism therapy or literature ever would have.

I really think it was a groundbreaking experience, he said, while explaining that many white supremacists had used MDMA before and the drug alone was unlikely to change their minds spontaneously.

Ms Nuwers’ new book explores the uses of MDMA and whether it could also transform people’s beliefs.

MDMA doesn’t seem able to magically rid people of prejudice, bigotry or hatred, she wrote.

But some scholars have begun to wonder whether it might be an effective tool for pushing people who are already somehow primed to reconsider their ideology toward a new way of seeing things. Although MDMA cannot correct the drivers of bias and disconnection on a societal level, on an individual basis it can make a difference. In some cases, the drug can even help people see through the fog of discrimination and fear that divides so many of us.

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