This introductory chapter contextualises the recent ‘psychedelic renaissance’—a resurgence of scientific and medical interest in psychedelic drugs—by situating it within the broader landscape of psychedelic history, cultural meaning-making, and shifting social discourses. It critically examines how contemporary medicalised and psychotherapeutic framings of psychedelics have dominated public and academic discourse, resulting in the marginalisation of other contexts of use. The chapter identifies three parallel and under-examined contexts of psychedelic drug use: amongst military veterans (outside of clinical trials), within ayahuasca shamanism in Amazonian Peru, and through commercial retreat companies in the Netherlands. It argues for the importance of expanding critical scholarship beyond clinical frameworks to understand the diverse, unregulated, and culturally embedded practices surrounding psychedelic use. Drawing on criminological and ethnographic approaches, the chapter sets out a research agenda aimed at exploring how users and facilitators construct the meanings of psychedelic experiences in these alternative settings.