Ernesto Londoño’s Trippy is a book that takes you on an unpredictable journey through the mind – perhaps a bit like a psychedelic experience. The story follows a man whose life is a chaotic mess of bad choices and existential angst, against a backdrop of psychedelic experiences. He grapples with the idea of reality, consciousness and what it means to be truly ‘awake’. In this context, psychedelics are a tool for exploring the vast, often surreal territory of the human mind. The book seems to suggest that maybe the only way to get a grasp on life is to step outside the conventional boundaries of the everyday and let yourself experience the world through a completely different lens.

Londoño does not shy away from the surreal and bizarre side of psychedelic experiences. At various points, he is plunged into strange, dreamlike states where the lines between reality and hallucination blur. These moments feel like snapshots of what it might be like to exist in a kaleidoscopic world, where meaning seems to shift with every passing thought, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. The book does not glorify or demonise the use of these substances; rather, it explores the complexity of how they might affect the mind. The ‘trippy’ adventures are not necessarily ‘enlightening’ in the traditional sense, but they certainly may shake people out of their usual thought patterns. While trips are often chaotic and disorienting, they may provide glimpses into one’s inner turmoil, forcing one to confront one’s own desires, fears and beliefs. We might not always find the answers we are looking for, but sometimes the journey itself is worth the mess it creates. Londoño’s writing, with its winding sentences and surreal imagery, mirrors the feeling of being on a trip – a little all over the place, but engaging in its own way.

Trippy is more about the psychedelic experience than it is about the human condition. The book does not, and of course cannot, provide easy answers, but it invites readers to embrace the chaos, confusion and at times absurdity of trying to make sense of a world that is far more complicated than we often care to admit. Blending humour, philosophy and the occasional mind-bending experience, Trippy is a wild, thought-provoking read.

To whom would I (an academic psychiatrist who dabbles in psychedelic research) recommend this book? It certainly gives a flavour of the ‘psychedelic world’ and particularly the promise of psychedelics. However, the discussion of the perils was, I thought, unsatisfactory. The scientists and medics interviewed, as reported, seemed somewhat naive and not particularly focused on examining possible harmful consequences of psychedelics, which are certainly not trivial and should be scrutinised as they must be for any other treatment. Caveat emptor. In the end, to paraphrase Miss Jean Brodie, for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like.