CSWR, Event Recording To conclude the ‘Psychedelics and Ethics’ series, visiting scholar Christine Hauskeller facilitated a symposium that explored material covered during the psychedelic ethics and decoloniality workshop. This symposium focused on the harm caused by colonizing practices in the psychedelic space, particularly their impact on plants and animals, Indigenous groups, and underground practitioners….
Lisa Bieberman and the Moral Challenge of LSD: Revising Harvard’s History of Psychedelics
Research Reflections // Center for the Study of World Religions CSWR Psychedelics and Spirituality Program Lead Paul Gillis-Smith illuminates the work and life of Lisa Bieberman, a figure from the history of psychedelics at Harvard in the ’60s. Bieberman’s memoir offers an alternate history of psychedelics in Cambridge at the time and a moral challenge…
“Science Standards Fail Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy”
Christine Hauskeller, CSWR, Research Reflection CSWR Visiting Scholar Christine Hauskeller argues that the methodological requirements for large-scale clinical trials attempt to standardize and control every aspect of a new treatment in order to derive generalizable data. More research is needed to calibrate psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies treatments and identify the best treatment for different patients….
Psychedelic Medicine Exceptionalism
I. Glenn Cohen and Mason Marks, The American Journal of Bioethics Research on psychedelic medicines is experiencing a revival. Some clinicians, scientists, and ethicists believe that psychedelics are so different from other treatments that they warrant special consideration in how they are researched, regulated, commercialized, and administered. Others argue that psychedelic medicines show clinical potential,…
Focused Bodywork as Facilitated Communication: Cautionary Perspectives on Touch in Psychedelic Therapy
Neşe Devenot, The American Journal of Bioethics Project on Psychedelic Law and Regulation (POPLAR) affiliated researcher at the Petrie-Flom Center highlights ethical concerns about the practice of “focused bodywork” that was utilized in MDMA-assisted therapy clinical trials….