Dear Nikola,

I think of you often, and I wish you well.  I was reminded of you by this article: https://neurosciencenews.com/ptsd-psychedelics-21340/ which is not to say that I endorse what you are doing, but I try to understand it, and in my world to understand is to sympathize, and - dare I use the word - to love.

It was not Harvard Medical School, but my father, who taught me the essentials of practicing medicine. His life spanned a period when there were great changes in medical science, on which he commented that he would accept a novel treatment only after it had been in general use for five years.

His conservatism was very congenial to me, and I adopted it; or should I write, I could not escape it, and in the end it may have protected my own practice of medicine from catastrophe, but surely, it also barred it from conventional success.  Had I lived in the Renaissance, I would have been the first to contemplate the possibility of circumnavigating the earth, but the last to set my foot on a boat for the New World. As you know, my view of conventional society, including professional medicine, is critical.  At the same time, I am incapable of becoming a cheer-leader for reform.

Once more, I wish you well. I send you my very best wishes, and I look forward to your being back in Boston.

EJM