It embarrasses me to write these words; they sound so thin, so banal. This is a failure of my language, no doubt, but perhaps it is not only that. Psychedelic experiences are notoriously hard to render in words; to try is necessarily to do violence to what has been seen and felt, which is in some fundamental way pre- or post-linguistic or, as born nakedness, unprotected from the harsh light of scrutiny and, especially, the pitiless glare of irony. Platitudes the wouldn’t seem out of place on a Hallmark card glow with the force of revealed truth.

—Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind, Allen Lane, 2018