This anthropological study will investigate the subjective experience of psilocybin sessions in the clinical trial taking place at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, “Feasibility Phase 2 Study of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Opioid-Refractory Pain in Patients with Advanced Cancer.” Engaging with questions regarding how individuals make sense of and derive meaning from the experience, as well as the experiential relationship between body and mind, this study is at intersection of biomedical research and humanistic inquiry.

Coordinators: Yvan Beaussant (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Sara Fragione, Isabel Kristan, and Kabir Nigam

Learn more at: https://psychedelics.dana-farber.org/

The event will include three presentations, followed by a panel discussion in which the presenters ask one another questions. This will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. The panel will address the following questions from three distinct disciplinary vantage points: how can the psychedelic state inform understandings of messianic impulses and revolutionary political thought, and vice versa? Additionally, what are the possibilities, limits, and challenges of using psychedelics to foster sociopolitical change and/or reconciliation? By staging a dialogue on these questions between a cultural historian, a social psychologist, and a human ecologist, we aim to model and to stimulate rigorous examination of what “psychedelic consciousness” means, and the relationship between such consciousness and political imagination.

Coordinator: Nicholas Bloom (History & Literature)

In partnership with the Mass General Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics’ Schultes Legacy Project, we propose to host a digital art exhibition that showcases the interdisciplinary study of psychoactive plants and explores educational opportunities connecting art and science across spatial scales, time, and cultures. Entitled “Microcosms: A Homage to the Sacred Plants of the Americas,” this exhibit will feature the collaborative work of Jill Pflugheber and Steven F. White, who have used laser-scanning confocal microscopy to vividly reveal the intricate 3D cellular architecture and provide a commentary on the sacred and medicinal plants used by Indigenous Peoples of America, thereby catalyzing discussion regarding the continued importance of preserving traditional knowledge and biodiversity.

Coordinator: Stephen Haggarty (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School)

https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/treatments-and-services/center-for-the-neuroscience-of-psychedelics; https://www.microcosmssacredplants.org

The aim of this research is to better understand the role that humanistic studies of non-ordinary states of consciousness have played in the historical emergence of the field generally known as consciousness studies. It is part of a larger book project that will be the first history of modern consciousness research. This project seeks to recover the relevant, entangled histories, understand their complex relationship to the better-known neuroscience work on consciousness, and begin to make sense of the ongoing legacies of these fragmented and even polarizing alternative understandings of consciousness research for the cultural work of our own moment.

Researcher: Anne Harrington (History of Science)

In this interdisciplinary project we explore psychedelic humanities and especially how values influence perceptions of psychedelics. We discuss psychedelic hype, decolonial ethics, critical psychedelic imaginaries, psychiatric discourse, and the epistemic biases in research methodologies and regulatory frameworks. We hold a two-day hybrid conference in November 2024, on how the humanities and social sciences can enrich medical psychedelic studies and vice-versa, featuring expert presentations and discussion about new pathways for bridging existing divides. To complement intellectual discourses and experientially engaging with care through embodied practice, we also organize and facilitate a Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork (DTB) workshop for researchers and practitioners at Harvard and beyond.

Coordinators: Franklin King, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School), Christine Hauskeller, PhD (University of Exeter), Eduardo Schenberg, PhD (Instituto Phaneros), and Claudia Gertraud Schwarz, PhD

Social Media (Twitter/X): @kingfrankliniv, @psychedelicSTS, and @ee_schenberg

In this project, voice interviews with people over 65 who use psychedelics will be recorded. Prof. Lingford expects to explore how these drugs can affect our attitude to aging and death, but I will be open to unexpected subjects that may surface. Having collated the interviews, and made a rough edit of the voices, she will make an animated film that at times illustrates the dialogue but also takes on a life of its own. The visuals will aim to bring us nearer to a communication of the psychedelic experience itself but also to the altered states of mind that persist in the longer term. The project’s main aim is to look at this social phenomenon, and also to help people decide whether this is an experience that might be productive for them.

Coordinator: Ruth Lingford (Art, Film, and Visual Studies)

Can the unconscious mind heal mental and physical pain? This meditative documentary travels into the minds of five people seeking altered states of consciousness to treat medical conditions and mental illnesses that confound modern medicine.

Coordinator: Julie Mallozzi (Art, Film, and Visual Studies)

Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE) will analyze the complex and evolving relationship between law, psychedelic spiritual practices, and society. The project will develop novel interdisciplinary scholarship and educational programming. 

Coordinators: Mason Marks, Glenn Cohen, and Susannah Baruch (all at Harvard Law School)

This project will center around field research on the contemporary usage of psychedelics in Sufi devotional rituals and practices. More specifically and in the context of my dissertation research, I propose to study how the usage of psychedelics allows practitioners, during meditative retreats, to engage in communication with animal, plant, elemental, and other forms of life.

Coordinator: Peter Dziedzic (Religion)

In the popular imagination, “psychedelia” refers to little more than Day-Glo mandalas and jam-band music—a narrow and cartoonish version of what psychedelic art is and might be. Elastic, a biannual print magazine, will publish a diverse and expansive body of psychedelic art and literature while also paying tribute to an overlooked archive of psychedelic work, much of which was made by radically innovative artists, writers, and thinkers of color.

Coordinators: Amanda Gunn (Harvard—English), Hillary Brenhouse (writer, editor), Darian Longmire (Berkeley—Art Practice), Laura van den Berg (Harvard—English), Elena Conis (Berkeley—Journalism)

Learn more: https://twitter.com/elasticmag

Immersive, Intermedia performance featuring electronic music and video-projected “Virtual Psychedelia” generated from real EEG brainwave data recorded during a psychedelic therapy session. The performance explores the potential of aesthetically mediated neural entrainment as a means of expanding access to the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic therapy.

Coordinators: Micah Huang (Music), Dr. Ying Choon Wu (Computational Neuroscience at UCSD), and Enrique Carillosulub (Computational Neuroscience at UCSD)

Learn more: https://www.micahhuangmusic.com and @hungryghostnote on Instagram and TikTok

One of the defining features of the contemporary “Psychedelic Renaissance” is the institutionalization of psychedelic research within universities. To offer a historical perspective on this process, the project examines the history of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in hopes to shed light on the controversies surrounding its legitimacy, the opposition towards accreditation of CIIS and its programs, and the Institute’s central role in the longue durée of psychedelic research. The project will engage with some of the seminal interests in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS): scientific controversies, the institutionalization of alternative scientific and intellectual movements, jurisdictional struggles over expertise, and cultural perception of science and scientific legitimacy.

Coordinator: Matt Przemyslaw Lukacz (History of Science)

Psychedelic Pathways is a collaborative project initiated by the Harvard Psychedelics Club to bridge the gap between student interest and career opportunities in the psychedelic field. This initiative aims to enhance understanding of the sector, provide practical career guidance, and create a mentorship network by partnering with academics, professionals, and other universities.

Coordinator: Yana Lazarova-Weng (Neuroscience/Psychology & Harvard Psychedelics Club)

Mass Moving is a transdisciplinary collective of creators based in Belgium (1968-1975) concerned with reclaiming society through creative action and social change. Through studying one of their catalyst events, Society in Conflict, I will piece together their work and the relationship between society, creativity, and psychedelics in Belgian avant-garde and global counterculture at-large.

Coordinator: Halianna Leland (Social Studies)

How do cultures expand or reform themselves when learning from the experiences and expertise of separate cultures and traditions? As we skirt the bound of appropriation and influence, what methods and patterns lead to mutual benefit as well as the distinct identity of the emerging practice and how can pioneers of cultural expansion orient themselves in order to honorably and effectively lay a foundation for the future, particularly when submerging themselves in the numinous, spiritual, and mythological landscapes that give our societies meaning.

Coordinator: Sabastian Mandell (Integrative Biology/Psychology)

Learn more: https://substack.com/@emergingpresent?utm_source=profile-page and https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabastianmandellbiopsy/

Thanks to funding from the Mahindra Center, I will be able to spend my summer writing and researching for my Senior thesis, written for my joint concentration in History & Literature and History of Science. I intend to examine the relationship between sacred psychedelic substances and three strands of American culture from the late 1950s through the 1970s: first, and most fundamentally, the CIA and their MK-Ultra program; second, and relatedly, psychiatric and ethnobotanical research undertaken by universities during the period; and third, American counter culturalists, who flocked to Huautla de Jiménez in order to fulfill their personal psychedelic desires.

Coordinator: Samantha Weil (History & Literature)