Study Group Reading

Psychedelics: Mysticism, Religion and Philosophy

This study group will discuss the potential use of psychedelics during the Eleusinian Mysteries in Ancient Greece and its subsequent influence on Western thought, philosophy and early Christianity. Additionally, we will examine St John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul mystical experience and how it can be reconceptualised under Stanislav Grof’s ‘perinatal’ experiences for fostering spiritual development with psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Watch this video: https://youtu.be/iC6DDvzM6Nc

Read this paper: Mysticism and Psychedelics: The Case of the Dark Night

Toward a contextual psychedelic-assisted therapies: Perspectives from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and contextual behavioral science

The Other Side

Powerpoint: The Critiques, Risks and Stigmas of Psychedelics and Psychedelic-Assisted therapies

Critique RANZCP psychedelic therapy clinical memorandum

Therapeutic use of psychedelics

MDMA Threatens Rare Cambodian Tree

Magic mushrooms grow inside man’s bloodstream after he injected ‘psychedelic’ tea

TOPIC: Freedom of consciousness and the psychedelic dimension

– Introduction to human consciousness
– Brief introduction to the history of consciousness
– Arguments for and against freedom of consciousness and cognitive liberty
– The clinical context and why regulation is important
– Shamanic practices (to introduce the use of psychedelics in relation to consciousness)
– Use of psychedelics in relation to Human consciousness
– Use of psychedelics in relation to Human Rights

3 ARTICLES: 

1. Dimensions of consciousness and the psychedelic state

2. Do psychedelic drug laws violate Human Rights? 

3. Don’t legalise drugs

Topic: Trauma – reconnecting with self through the psychedelic experience

Hypothesis: The Psychedelic Ayahuasca Heals Traumatic Memories via a Sigma 1 Receptor-Mediated Epigenetic-Mnemonic Process

Childhood physical abuse and emotional neglect are specifically associated with adult mental disorders

Trauma and the psychedelic experience (Powerpoint)

Toward understanding the impact of trauma on the early developing human brain

Topic: Colonialism & Plant Medicine

The rush to integrate psychedelics within western medicine is occurring at rapid-fire.

Simultaneously, the First Nations’ knowledges and traditions embedded within plant medicines are being commodified and profited from.

How do we/ they move towards models that are grounded within consent, reciprocity & inclusion?

Readings:

The role of Indigenous knowledge in psychedelic science

Decolonization is not a metaphor

Inside the movement to decolonize psychedelic pharma

Topic: Complementing Consciousness: Theory, Practice, and Integration of Altered States of Consciousness

Readings:

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness

An Ego-Psychological Theory of Altered States of Consciousness

Holotropic breathwork: New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration

Presentation