Listening to heal: Wilson Gonzaga's voice on entheogens and mental health

"In Brazil, by midnight, about 38 people will commit suicide. This is not an invention, nor a crystal ball. They are official data from the Mortality System of the Ministry of Health", said psychiatrist Wilson Gonzaga, who carries the seriousness of someone who looks at pain without averting his eyes. For him, talking about suicide has ceased to be a taboo, to be silenced by the mainstream media. 

Today and especially in Yellow September, the invitation is clear: listening, hearing, and listening to oneself are acts that save lives. In 2025, the campaign highlights the theme: If you need help, ask for it. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more people die from suicide annually than from HIV, malaria, breast cancer, wars, or homicides. Among young people aged 15 to 29, it is the fourth leading cause of death, behind only road traffic accidents, tuberculosis, and interpersonal violence. In Brazil, data from the Ministry of Health show that, between 2016 and 2021, there was an increase of 49.3% in suicides among adolescents aged 15 to 19 and 45% among young people aged 10 to 14. Rates are higher among men (12.6 per 100,000) than among women (5.4 per 100,000), reflecting a complex, global problem that requires effective national prevention strategies. 

With 43 years of experience in psychiatry, he has over 160,000 followers on Instagram and has become one of the most consistent and clear voices on the role of entheogens in mental health. A graduate of Santa Casa de São Paulo, creator of the Hermes Institute and the first specialization in Therapeutic Entheogeny approved by the Ministry of Education, he integrates science and ancestry, clinic and spirituality, in an effort to build a new way of understanding the human mind.

The first encounter with entheogens

Dr. Gonzaga's journey with psychedelics began early. Early in his career, he came into contact with ayahuasca and, in his words, felt as if he had undergone four years of analysis in just one session. "I saw that there was great potential for mental health, for healing. It was the beginning of a path that I still follow today, especially in the study of psilocybin," he says.

Since then, he has been dedicated to investigating not only the scientific dimension of these substances but also their spiritual essence, the bridge between the human and the divine that indigenous peoples have known for millennia.

Science and spirituality side by side

In the specialization in Therapeutic Entheogeny, Gonzaga sought something beyond psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The differential, according to him, lies in recognizing the word "entheogen," which means "manifestation of the inner divine," as a key to understanding. "These experiences are not hallucinations, but symbolic and spiritual experiences. Entheogens act as bridges between worlds, and this needs to be present in the training process of professionals," he explains. Therefore, the faculty includes scientists, doctors, shamans, ayahuasca leaders, and scholars of ancestral tradition.

This integration also resonates in clinical practice: "The greater the spiritual epiphany of an entheogenic experience, the greater the therapeutic result. Science already proves this," says the psychiatrist, citing studies from the Imperial College London on psilocybin.

Hope in mental health

Based on increasingly solid scientific evidence, Gonzaga sees in entheogens a new possibility for severe and treatment-resistant conditions: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance dependence, alcoholism, and smoking. "We already know that these substances do not have a lethal dose, do not have addictive power. They offer a more effective horizon with fewer side effects than many of the treatments available today," he states.

Still, he acknowledges the challenges: slow regulation, cultural prejudices, and the need for education. "Society still judges because it carries the mark of decades of misguided campaigns that placed psychedelics in the same basket as lethal drugs. It is science that will dispel these myths. With more studies, more publications, and more information, prejudice dissolves," he concludes.

Between listening and self-listening

What Gonzaga advocates is more than the introduction of new therapies: it is the opening to new listening. Whether in academia, in ancestral circles, or in the clinics of the future, true listening, to oneself and to others, is the most powerful bridge that entheogens can teach us to cross.