But in the case of Brendan, he had recently been exposed as a white supremacist and lost his job when he was enrolled in the study. He was full of regret about getting caught out.

I imagine that this person was already contemplating personal growth, and the drugs just kicked his not-fully-conscious or not-fully=acknowledged feelings into conscious, actionable thought.

The case suggested that MDMA has the potential to “influence a person’s values and priorities,” the authors wrote in a case study about Brendan. They hypothesized that if extremist views are fueled by fear, anger, and cognitive biases, they could potentially be treated with drugs.

It’s interesting to learn, what this paragraph seems to suggest, that for some people holding extremist views is actually the result of mental illness. It is probably hard for people to realize and/or even admit that they are ill until something drastic happens.