Altered States of Combat: Veteran Trauma and the Quest for Novel Therapeutics in Psychedelic Substances

Abstract

For veterans with moral conflicts brought on by war work, evidence-based approaches designed for posttraumatic stress disorder tend not to attend to resulting spiritual and ethical forms of suffering. These “treatment-resistant” veterans are at high risk for self-harm. While new medical treatments are being developed, it is also clear that veterans themselves are experimenting in collective, ritualistic, and community-based ceremonial uses of psychedelic medicine. This article introduces the concept of altered states of combat (ASCombat) to refer to the specific mind-set soldiers experience in combat. As a preliminary analytical framework, we associate ASCombat to the widely studied altered states of consciousness as a way to advance understanding on the use and effectiveness of psychedelics and collective healing in the veteran population. The notion of ASCombat and typology is grounded in 4 years of veteran-engaged research in community-based healing approaches. The self-report of one case, by the veteran author of this article, provides suggestive materials for analysis, discussion, and future research.