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….
Intersections with Indigeneity in Psychedelic Buddhism
Colin Simonds, CSWR Psychedelic Intersections: 2024 Conference Anthology This paper critically analyzes two approaches to Psychedelic Buddhism by Buddhist teachers Mike Crowley and Spring Washam and explores how these teachers think through, talk about, and engage with the Indigenous communities from which their practices originate….
Psychedelic therapies: healing for the wrong reasons?
Eduardo Schenberg, Christine Hauskeller, Claudia Gertraud Schwarz, and Franklin King IV, Nature Mental Health When critically examining the assertion that biomedical treatments work for the ‘right’ reasons compared with alternative approaches, philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers1 coined the phrase ‘healing for the wrong reasons’. Here, we discuss the cognitive dissonances and regulatory misalignments apparent in the…
Xochipilli: Psychedelic Plants, Song, and Ritual in Aztec Religion
Osiris González Romero, CSWR Theosis Xochipilli, a deity linked to songs, flowers, the rising sun, joy, games, and fertility, holds profound significance in Aztec religion. Historical sources characterize this deity as revered by nobles, elite principals, and guilds of artists, revered in both masculine and feminine forms. Yet Xochipilli is an understudied deity. This essay offers…
People Are Trying Magic Mushrooms for Depression — and Accidentally Meeting God
Rolling Stone // Center for the Study of World Religions The medicalization movement is faltering. Maybe that’s because psychedelics have been spiritual tools all along. By Cassady Rosenblum, featuring Jeffrey Breau….
From the Eleusinian Mysteries to Modern Mysticism: The Role of Religion in the Psychedelic Experience
Psychedelics Today // Center for the Study of World Religions In this episode of the Psychedelics Today Podcast, Joe Moore interviews Charles Stang, Professor of Early Christian Thought and the Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions….
Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium
Center for the Study of World Religions This event in the CSWR’s Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series focused on Dr. Erik Davis’s book, “Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium.” Released in collaboration with Mark McCloud’s Institute of Illegal Images, the book delves into the complex world of LSD blotter paper and…
How to untangle ethics of psychedelics for therapeutic care
Harvard Gazette // Center for the Study of World Religions and Petrie-Flom Center Experts from law, philosophy, spiritual care discuss issues surrounding research, safer use, kicking off Divinity School initiative….