Speaking of Psychedelics: A Conversation with Ayelet Waldman

June 24, 2024, 4:30pm, Hybrid

Wasserstein Hall (Milstein Conference Center) and Zoom

Hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center

In 2017, New York Times best-selling author Ayelet Waldman (HLS ’91) published a groundbreaking memoir: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. This intimate, courageous, and humorous book describes Waldman’s experience consuming very small doses of the psychedelic drug LSD.

Ms. Waldman will engage in a broad discussion on the origins and impact of her memoir, how the psychedelic landscape has changed since its publication, and the future of psychedelics in medicine, law, and society. She will be joined in conversation by Petrie-Flom’s I. Glenn Cohen and Mason Marks. 

For more information on attendance and registration, click here.

Petrie-Flom Center 2024 Annual Conference: Law and Policy of Psychedelic Medicine

June 15, 2024, Harvard Law School

Hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center

A major sea change seems likely on the legal treatment of psychedelic medicines. As Phase II and III psychedelic trials near completion, the FDA may soon approve psychedelic medicines for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression. This represents a paradigm shift for the agency, which recently released draft guidance on conducting psychedelic clinical trials. At the same time, other federal agencies are changing their attitudes toward psychedelics, and Congress is considering reducing barriers to psychedelic research.

With these changes come a myriad of legal and ethical issues. This conference, which will seed a book, seeks to explore the law and policy challenges and opportunities resulting from increased clinical research, private investment, and political interest in psychedelic medicines.

Psychedelics and the Future of Religion: Book Talk: “Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium” with Erik Davis

April 30, 2024, 5:30-7pm, Hybrid

CSWR Common Room and Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

The CSWR invites Dr. Erik Davis into conversation for the launch of his new book, Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium (to be released on April 2, 2024). Blotter is the first account of its kind, centering the history, art, and design of the iconic drug delivery device for lysergic acid diethylamide-25, or LSD. Created in collaboration with Mark McCloud’s Institute of Illegal Images, the world’s largest archive of blotter art, Davis’s boldly illustrated exhibition treats his outsider subject with the serious, art-historical respect it deserves, while also staying true to the sense of play, irreverence, and adventure inherent in psychedelic exploration.

Gary Nabhan: Sacred & Ceremonial Plant Protection in a Changing Climate: Biocultural Recovery Through “Plant Humanities” Initiatives

April 22, 2024, 12:00pm, Plimpton Room (Barker Center 133)

Hosted by the Mahindra Humanities Center

Like all plants on the planet, sacred and ceremonial plants used by faith-based and Indigenous cultures are at risk due to climate change, land development, and warfare. And yet, sacred plants—including sources of psychedelic substances used in ceremonial healing—are also being endangered by overharvesting by recreational users, cartels, and those naively engaged in cultural appropriation. Such issues cannot be solved simply by establishing new legal regulations or by biological conservation and ecological restoration; solutions will require the engagement of humanities scholars in ethics, religion, folklife studies, and cultural history. The talk will highlight examples of disrupted access or accelerated biological extirpation of sacred or psychotropic plant and animal populations, but will also showcase viable solutions from Lebanon, Morocco, the US Southwest, and Mexico. See event website for full details.

Bioethics, Legal Ethics, and Ethics of Care: An introduction to psychedelics and ethics // Psychedelics and Ethics Series

April 16, 2024, 5:30-7 pm, Sperry Room, Swartz Hall

Hosted by the CSWR and Petrie-Flom Center

This event will launch the CSWR’s new “Psychedelics & Ethics” initiative, which brings together interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners to explore ethical questions surrounding psychedelics. The series seeks to create a forum for constructive conversations about the role of psychedelics in society, with an eye toward justice and care.  

For our opening event, hosted by the CSWR and Petrie Flom Center at the Harvard Law School, we will ask: How can legal, philosophical, and religious ethical approaches inform psychedelic studies and promote safer psychedelic use? To answer this and related questions, we will be joined by experts Dr. Mason Marks, Dr. Christine Hauskeller, and Dr. Roman Palitsky, who will respectively represent legal, philosophical, and religious approaches to psychedelic ethics. 

Ayahuasca as Liquid Divinity with Andre van der Braak // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series

April 3, 2024, 5:30-7 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

The CSWR invites Andre van der Braak into conversation about his recent book, Ayahuasca as Liquid Divinity. In this text, van der Braak invites readers to assess the import of ayahuasca on ontological terms. Shifting away from common treatments of psychedelics in terms of individual experience, van der Braak proposes that ayahuasca-based ritual practices are intended to cultivate relationships with more-than-human powers. Van der Braak puts Bruno Latour’s concept of other-than-human persons as “beings of transformation and religion” into conversation with Neoplatonism to argue for an ayahuasca religiosity that facilitates our companionship with the gods as a means of practicing solidarity with all sentient beings.

The Curious Case of Psychedelic Integration // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series

March 30, 2024, 5:30-7 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

Integration is a prominent feature of psychedelic clinical trials, therapeutic approaches, and psychedelic spiritualities. Yet, it seems that there are as many approaches and definitions of integration as there are integrators. This panel brought together three approaches to integration—a training model for integration by Dr. Alex Belser, an ethnographic study of an integration group in Birmingham, AL, by Dr. Lisa Gezon, and a set of psychometric scales that purport to assess what is being integrated, and into whom, by Dr. Tomas Frymann. This interdisciplinary panel explored the spiritual and therapeutic applications of integration, enriched our conceptions of integration in diverse settings, and troubled any guarantees about a single surefire integrative technique.  

New Ideas for Substance Use Condition Treatment: Could Psychedelics Help?

March 19, 2024, 12:30-1 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center

New Ideas for Substance Use Condition Treatment: Could Psychedelics Help? provided an overview of psychedelic treatments, including ibogaine and psilocybin, for substance use conditions. During this panel discussion, an ibogaine researcher, a certified recovery coach with lived experience, and a drug law expert discussed existing research, potential benefits and risks, ongoing policy and legal reforms, and societal implications.

Into the Crucible: Psilocybin and Spiritual Care at End of Life // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series

February 28, 2024, 5:30-7 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

How can psilocybin and psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) support patients at the end-of-life? Can the spiritual experiences occasioned by psychedelics prevent the demoralization and crises of meaning-making that often afflict patients at this time? If so, what is the best way to utilize and structure such interventions?

In this Psychedelics and the Future of Religion talk, members of the Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Care Dimensions hospice center shared findings from a recent study on the feasibility and safety of psilocybin-assisted therapy for demoralized patients receiving hospice care. The panel discussed how PAT can best be used to support patients at the end-of-life and reflected on the experience of one study participant whose collaboration with hospice chaplaincy during treatment resulted in a transformational religious experience.

Book Talk: Expanding Mindscapes with Erika Dyck and Christian Elcock // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion

December 7, 2023, 2-3:30 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

In this book talk with Erika Dyck and Christian Elcock, the authors discussed their new book, Expanding Mindscapes. Elcock and Dyck discussed what it means to write a global history of psychedelics, and of psychedelic psychiatry.

Mescaline and Psychonauts with Mike Jay // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series

November 27, 2023, 10-11:30 am, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

As part of the Psychedelics and the Future of Religion series, the Center for the Study of World Religions presented an interview with author Mike Jay about his two most recent books, Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind, and Mescaline: A Global History of the First Pychedelic.  Mike Jay has written widely on the history of science and medicine, with a specialist interest in the mind sciences, mental health and psychoactive drugs.

View the event recording.

Psychedelics in Society and Culture: A Conversation with Michael Pollan

November 17, 2023, 6:00 pm, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall

Hosted by the Mahindra Humanities Center

How can psychedelics shed new light on age-old questions about human meaning, creativity, and existence? What are their implications for experiences of spiritual transcendence, our relationship with death, and the nature of consciousness? How does our understanding of psychedelics benefit not only from clinical investigations but also humanistic inquiry?

View the event recording.

Metaphysics and Meaning-Making in Psychedelia // Psychedelics and Philosophy

November 6, 2023, 1:30-3 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

As part of the Psychedelics and the Future of Religion series, the Center for the Study of World Religions hosted scholars Drs. Christine Hauskeller and Peter Sjostedt-Hughes. Philosophers Prof. Hauskeller and Dr. Sjöstedt-Hughes present a multi-perspectival hermeneutics of psychedelic-occasioned experiences. They discuss the question: How do we make sense of the myriad of experiences and extraordinary states of being that psychedelics can evoke through lenses ground from the discipline of Philosophy?

View the event recording.

Race and Exoticism in Global Psychedelic Spirituality // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion

October 26, 2023, 5:30-7 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

As part of the Psychedelics and the Future of Religion series, the Center for the Study of World Religions hosted scholars Dr. Amanda Lucia, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California-Riverside and Dr. Arun Saldanha, Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota for a discussion on “Race and Exoticism in Global Psychedelic Spirituality”. Drawing from their respective perspectives and scholarship, Professors Lucia and Saldanha discussed the racialized politics/ethics of the hallucinogenic experience (or discourses thereof) within the context of modern spiritualities.

View the event recording.

Psychedelic Law and U.S. Military Veterans

October 25, 2023, 12:30 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center

This event assembled a panel of leading experts on veterans health, psychiatry, public health, law, and psychedelic research to discuss the challenges facing veterans who seek access to psychedelic medicine. Panelists discussed efforts to increase funding of psychedelic research for veterans, nonprofit organizations that help veterans access psychedelics in jurisdictions where they are legal, efforts to educate Congress and federal agencies on psychedelic medicine, reducing the cost of psychedelic medicines, and current legislation to promote research and access, including state-level legal reforms, the federal Breakthrough Therapies Act, and federal defense spending bills.

Are Psychedelics Theologically Significant for Judaism?

April 27, 2023, 12-1:30 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

Throughout millennia, Jews have explored individual and communal consciousness through a variety of techniques and traditions. More recently, Jews have played an outsized role in the “psychedelic renaissance” as researchers, practitioners, and advocates, including prominent leaders. A surge of interest in these substances creates an opportunity to reflect on non-ordinary experiences in Jewish life and theology more broadly.

View the event recording.

Liquid Light Book Discussion // Psychedelics and the Future of Religion

March 27, 2023, 5:30-7 pm, Zoom

Hosted by the CSWR

On March 27, 2023 The Center for the Study of World Religions hosted an author discussion (Psychedelics & the Future of Religion Series) with Professor Bill Barnard. Charles Stang, Director of the CSWR, and Barnard discussed his recent book, Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Spirituality and the Santo Daime Tradition. Liquid Light offers an in-depth immersion into the complex and fascinating world of the Santo Daime – a relatively new religion that emerged out of the Amazon rainforest region of Brazil in the middle of the twentieth century, and which now has churches throughout the world

View the event recording.