Norman Ohler on Nazis, Psychedelics, and Power

🎙️ JLS Podcast

Hosted by William Leonard Pickard

🚀 About Norman Ohler
International bestselling author of Blitzed and Tripped, Norman Ohler is a historian and cultural investigator whose work exposes the hidden role of drugs in shaping 20th-century war, fascism, and modern consciousness. His research has reframed how we understand the Third Reich, LSD’s origins, and the pharmacological forces behind power and control.

🧠 Drugs, War, and the Third Reich
Ohler unpacks his groundbreaking archival discoveries revealing the widespread use of methamphetamine (Pervitin) within the Nazi military—and Adolf Hitler’s personal dependence on opioids and other substances. The conversation explores how stimulants, sedatives, and drug control fueled aggression, obedience, and catastrophic decision-making at the highest levels of the regime.

🧪 LSD, MKUltra, and the Dark Origins of Psychedelic Research
Tracing LSD’s early history, Ohler reveals its links to Nazi experimentation, post-war U.S. intelligence programs, and the pursuit of a so-called “truth drug.” Pickard and Ohler examine the ethical failures of MKUltra and the lasting implications for neuroscience, policy, and psychedelic medicine today.

🌈 Psychedelics, Trauma, and Healing
Moving beyond the shadows of war, the discussion turns toward healing—exploring LSD microdosing, ibogaine, and their potential roles in addressing trauma, addiction, and neurodegenerative disease. Ohler shares the deeply personal story of his mother’s Alzheimer’s and how psychedelics opened moments of clarity, presence, and connection.

🌍 From Nation States to Planetary Consciousness
Ohler reflects on the future of humanity in an age of AI, collapsing hierarchies, and unresolved collective trauma. He argues for the necessity of ritual, community-based psychedelic access, and a cultural shift away from extractive systems toward simplicity, compassion, and planetary responsibility.

📚 Stone Sapiens & the Drug History of Humanity
Looking ahead, Ohler introduces his forthcoming work Stone Sapiens—a sweeping re-examination of human history through the lens of psychoactive substances, from early hominids to modern civilization, revealing drugs as inseparable from culture, religion, power, and control.

🏆 Final Takeaways
A wide-ranging and unflinching conversation on drugs and domination, psychedelics and healing, fascism and freedom—offering rare historical insight into how chemistry has shaped human behavior, and how consciousness may yet shape our future.

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