Center for the Study of World Religions The event drew 400 attendees in-person and online to hear expert insights on key philosophical, legal, and spiritual issues in the field of psychedelics and ethics, including the contribution of bioethics, decolonial ethics, the role of informed consent, as well as the value of spiritual care approaches to…
Sacred Plant Biocultural Recovery Initiative Launched!
Mahindra Humanities Center In an Earth Day lecture at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University, Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan reported initial results from a new assessment that underscores the globally unprecedented threats globally to plants traditionally employed by Indigenous cultures and religious faiths for centuries, if not millennia….
Unlocking Transformation: The Crucial Role of Psychedelic Integration
Center for the Study of World Religions The event, part of the “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion, Transcendence, and Transformation” programming series, focused on integration, a pivotal aspect of psychedelic therapy and spiritual experiences. The panelists collectively addressed the diverse frameworks and methodologies used in integration, ranging from training models to ethnographic studies and…
Towards Intersectionality in Critical Psychedelic Studies: The Psychedelic Intersections Conference
Center for the Study of World Religions The “Psychedelic Intersections: Cross-cultural Manifestations of the Sacred” conference, held at Harvard Divinity School on February 17, 2024, provided an unprecedented forum for the exploration of psychedelic spirituality across diverse cultural and disciplinary landscapes, and welcomed more than 230 in-person and 800 remote attendees. The conference sought to…
From Entheogens to Evangelicalism: Spiritual Practices Among Hispanic/Latin Americans
Fernando Espi Forcen, Psychiatric Annals Hispanic, Latinx people practice spirituality in a wide array of forms. Whereas Catholicism has been the dominant religion for centuries, a re-birth of Native American, African spirituality has taken place over the last few decades. In parallel, the influence of the United States in the Latin world is reflected in…
Psychometric brahman, psychedelic science: Walter Stace, transnational Vedanta, and the Mystical Experience Questionnaire
Jeffrey Breau and Paul Gillis-Smith, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews The longstanding juncture between science and religion in psychedelic research is mediated most notably by the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). The MEQ is a psychometric survey for assessing mystical experiences, and it relies on the work of philosopher Walter Stace for its typology and philosophy of mysticism….
How Should the FDA Evaluate Psychedelic Medicine?
Mason Marks and I. Glenn Cohen, New England Journal of Medicine Mounting clinical evidence could lead to the approval of new psychedelic medicines. The FDA’s draft guidance on psychedelics research includes several recommendations that may be contentious….
Race, ethnicity moderate the associations between lifetime psilocybin use, crime arrests
Grant Jones, Maha Al-Suwaidi, Franchesca Castro-Ramirez, Taylor C. McGuire, Patrick Mair, Matthew K. Nock; Frontiers in Psychiatry This study investigates how race, ethnicity moderate the associations between lifetime psilocybin use, crime arrests. Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use, Health (2002–2020) with 734,061 adults, it finds that race, ethnicity significantly moderate the associations…
Psychedelics, Related Pharmacotherapies as Integrative Medicine for Older Adults in Palliative Care
Kabir Nigam, Kimberly A. Curseen, Yvan Beaussant, Clinics in Geriatric Medicine This review article discusses the potential of psychedelics, related pharmacotherapies as integrative medicine for older adults in palliative care. It explores the use of these substances in addressing existential distress, serious illness, end-of-life care, highlighting the need for further research, consideration of psychedelic-assisted therapy…
Pressing regulatory challenges for psychedelic medicine
Amy L. McGuire, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Lewis A. Grossman,, I. Glenn Cohen; Science This article discusses the regulatory challenges faced in the development of psychedelic medicine. It highlights the growing interest, investment in psychedelic drug development, the complexities of applying traditional clinical trial, premarket approval processes to these substances. The article emphasizes the need for…