New Netflix Documentary Shows How Psychedelics Help Military Veterans Heal Trauma

*“Too many treatments put a Band-Aid fix on it…but psychedelics get into
your unconscious.”*

*By Josh Kasoff, Filter*

Many United States veterans endure unrelieved suffering, long after they
return home, from conditions related to their traumatic experiences. This
manifests in tragic ways.

But the psychedelic renaissance brings new hope to this situation—and of
sparking wider reform, when veteran-focused legislation may help open the
door to broader access. The film *In Waves and War*, released on Netflix on
November 3, will increase public exposure to harrowing issues and potential
solutions.

The documentary, which premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival,
details the journeys to psychedelic treatment of three Navy SEALs: Marcus
Capone, D.J. Shipley and Matty Roberts.

“We’re so proud to have made this film,” Jon Shenk, who directed the film
alongside Bonni Cohen, told the audience at a recent screening, hosted in
Massachusetts by the veteran nonprofit Home Base. “Marcus was a 13-year
Navy SEAL who sustained multiple [traumatic brain injuries] and concussions
and was living with the aftermath of that devastating effect on his mental
and physical health. He tried every pill and conventional therapy. They
discovered this alternative therapy involving psychedelics, and it ended up
really saving him.”

Another recent screening, which I attended, was hosted by the Alexander
Grass Humanities Institute of Johns Hopkins University, at the Hopkins
Bloomberg Institute in Washington, DC. Johns Hopkins, with its Center for
Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, has been among the pioneers in this
space since 2000. Besides post-traumatic stress disorder, the department is
researching psychedelic treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and
smoking cessation, among other needs.

On screen, the three veterans candidly share painful memories of serving in
Iraq and Afghanistan. They endured frequent nightmares after experiencing
events like ambushes, the bullet wound that saw Roberts receive a Purple
Heart, and Operation Red Wings, which in 2005 ended with 19 US troops
killed by Taliban forces.

Many of the scars didn’t heal, and for Capone in particular, his resulting
health problems began to cause issues with his family. None of the
therapies and medications the VA recommended were helping, and his
conditions were only worsening.

“My mental condition has diminished. I’ve tried to hide this for the past
couple years, but it’s become painfully obvious to the people close to me
that I am struggling in many aspects of my life,” Capone wrote in his
letter to request medical retirement from the Navy, part of which he reads
out during* In Waves and War*.

“The audience was deeply moved by the story of Marcus Capone and his fellow
Navy Seals, the efforts of Marcus’s wife Amber, and the ongoing struggles
of our military veterans,” Dr. Virginia Jewiss, the moderator of the DC
panel discussion and a professor at the Humanities Institute, told *Filter *after
the event. “We were all stunned and dismayed to learn of the high suicide
rates among the military.”

Jewiss also praised the film’s “creative use of animation to bring the
viewer into the psychedelic experience.”

Hope for Capone seemed nonexistent, until his wife learned of the
possibilities of psychedelic treatments that were being conducted at
clinics in Mexico. The therapies utilized ibogaine and DMT, two
naturally occurring psychedelics that are prohibited under Schedule I of
the Controlled Substances Act in the US.

Capone was apprehensive, but after persuasion and eventually an ultimatum
from his wife and family, he went to Mexico.

He found the treatment extraordinarily effective. He described gaining new,
positive perspectives, or closure, on past traumas, such as the
drowning death of a close friend and fellow SEAL. He believes this
is unlikely to have happened through any VA-sanctioned therapy.

“All of our friends that are suffering,” he told his wife after his trip,
“we need to introduce this to them to get them better.”

In 2019, Marcus and Amber Capone founded the nonprofit VETS (Veterans
Exploring Treatment Solutions). Both Shipley and Roberts are among over
1,200 people they’ve since funded to receive psychedelic treatments.

“We can’t meet the demand,” Capone told PBS News. “We’re overwhelmed with
applications. I’d say we can accept one out of every 10.”

Advocates have long urged that veterans and other people in need should be
able to receive psychedelic treatment without the cost and difficulty
of having to leave the country.

There are signs they’re getting through. In December 2024, it
was announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs would fund its first
study on psychedelic-assisted therapy since the 1960s, using MDMA for
veterans with PTSD and AUD. Recently expanded VA research is also
investigating MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD, treatment-resistant depression
and anxiety disorders.

During animated sequences in the film, the three SEALs describe their
experiences, with ibogaine and DMT, of overcoming or coming to internal
peace with not only the traumas of war, but also traumatic events from life
long before they enlisted.

“Ibogaine gets to the root cause of what’s affecting your everyday life,”
Capone told PBS News. “Too many treatments put a Band-Aid fix on it…but
psychedelics get into your unconscious.”

“Mexico beat the crap out of me,” Roberts tells his therapist at the end of *In
Waves and War*. “But I could feel a connection to everything.”

*This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine
covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction
lens. Follow Filter on Bluesky, X or Facebook, and sign up for its
newsletter.*

*Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.*

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