New Book 'The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics' and Why Veterans Are Behind Trump's Psychedelic Healing Order

Cover of "The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics," a book about psychedelic therapy for veteran mental health and PTSD

"The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics," explores why military service uniquely prepares veterans for psychedelic-assisted healing and addresses moral injury, identity loss, and service-related trauma.

The book reveals how military service can shape the nervous system in ways that align with the transformation psychedelic therapy offers

The federal government is allocating $50 million to expand psychedelic research. That's important. But veterans didn't wait for federal approval. They found what works. This book documents why.”

— Jesse Gould, author, Army Ranger veteran, founder of Heroic Hearts Project

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, April 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- President Donald Trump’s Executive Order to speed up research and regulatory pathways for psychedelic therapies (April 18, 2026) surprised many. But a new book from Heroic Hearts Project offers a real-world look at what psychedelic healing for veterans already looks like.

“The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics: Healing PTSD and Trauma Through Psychedelic and MDMA Therapy,” co-authored by Heroic Hearts Project founder Jesse Gould with Elaine Marshall, explains the veteran experience this Executive Order seeks to address in part. Over 6,000 veterans die by suicide annually — a rate more than twice that of the general population. Yet conventional mental health treatments often fall short of addressing the deeper identity disruption many veterans report.

Military service reshapes identity through ritual, discipline, bonding, and peak experiences. That neurological rewiring doesn't vanish at discharge. Instead, it uniquely positions veterans for the kind of transformation psychedelic-assisted therapy offers. Service-related trauma goes far beyond the PTSD diagnosis. It includes moral injury, the rupture of one's deeply held values. It includes brain injury from blast exposure, the shattering loss of communal bonds forged under extreme conditions, and the profound estrangement many veterans feel returning to a civilian culture that cannot comprehend their experience.

Conventional mental health treatment, whether pharmaceutical or talk-based, operates within a symptom-management framework. It asks: How do we reduce anxiety, manage intrusive thoughts, and stabilize mood? Those are valid questions. But they miss what many veterans need answered: Who am I now? What does honor mean when the structures that defined it have dissolved? How do I find meaning in a world that feels fundamentally foreign?

"More veterans have died by suicide than in combat," says Jesse Gould, founder of Heroic Hearts Project and former Army Ranger. "We have seen astounding rates of healing success with psychedelic therapies because these compounds allow veterans to revisit their experiences without being overwhelmed by them. More importantly, they create conditions for self-compassion that have been out of reach."

That distinction matters. Psychedelic-assisted therapy doesn't work by suppressing symptoms. It works by allowing the nervous system to process what happened — the trauma, the moral weight, the identity collapse — and to integrate that experience into a coherent sense of self. For veterans, whose military training already involved navigating altered states of consciousness, ritual structures, and peak experiences under pressure, this approach aligns with how their nervous systems are wired.

Heroic Hearts Project was featured on 60 Minutes in 2025, documenting the transformations of veterans who had been failed by conventional treatments. Some had survived suicide attempts. Others carried a weight of isolation so profound that they could not imagine recovery. The 60 Minutes piece showed what healing looked like: veterans reconnecting with purpose, with their sense of identity, with meaning.

"The timing of this Executive Order is critical," Gould says. "But the real story isn't policy catching up to veterans. It's veterans leading the way. The federal government is now allocating $50 million in research funding and directing agencies like the FDA and VA to expand research and develop pathways for access. That's important. But veterans didn't wait for federal approval. They found what works. This book documents why.

“The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics” explores the mechanisms of service-related trauma and why psychedelic therapy offers what conventional approaches cannot — not just symptom reduction, but restoration of meaning and identity. It's written for veterans, their families, mental health practitioners, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand what healing requires when trauma touches the core of who someone is.

As federal resources flow and clinical trials expand, how we frame this subject matters. If we position this as "helping broken veterans," we miss what's happening: veterans are showing us what healing looks like when we stop managing distress and start restoring meaning.

“The Veteran's Field Manual for Psychedelics” is available now from major booksellers.

Elaine Marshall
Heroic Hearts Project
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