Psychedelics: Revolution and renaissance in human welfare
Monday 15 May 2023 08:30Location: | EP Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College |
About
Able to radically alter consciousness, humans have used entheogenic or ‘psychedelic’ substances for thousands of years.
From traditional use among numerous indigenous communities and ancient civilizations to the recreational use that helped spark the counterculture movement of the 1960s, psychedelics continue to shape humanity in unique and unexpected ways. Despite the ways in which the ‘war on drugs’ limited opportunities to better understand these substances, recent changes in legislation have opened the floodgates to waves of research, media attention, and public interest—leaving even the uninitiated unable to deny that we are in the midst of a new psychedelic era.
With clinical trials demonstrating dramatic quality of life improvements in those living with treatment resistant or terminal illness—often in as little as one to three sessions— multiple psychedelic substances have been granted ‘breakthrough therapy’ status in the past few years alone. The past two decades have seen the rise of ‘spiritual tourism’ as more and more Westerners travel the world seeking transformation from both traditional and modern healers employing the use of psychedelic substances. While many are inspired by the spiritual, mystical, and ontological implications of the psychedelic experience, others find value in their recreational use. Even those who have never had a psychedelic experience are taking an interest, creating businesses or leading studies centred around psychedelics.
Although the enthusiasm surrounding psychedelics shows no sign of slowing down, what is less clear is the impact this interest holds for humanity and the world as a whole. Despite the well-documented transformative power of psychedelics, where many see promise, others see problems. With stakeholders ranging from indigenous communities, spiritual leaders, anthropologists, and philosophers to medical professionals, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and Big Pharma, the consequences are significant and complex.
Join us at GTC’s 2023 Human Welfare Conference ‘Psychedelics: Revolution and renaissance in human welfare’ as we host a range of speakers from diverse backgrounds to explore some of these issues. Whether you are a seasoned psychonaut or have zero interest in psychedelics, anyone concerned with human welfare will benefit from understanding key conversations unfolding in this domain. No matter where you stand regarding the use of psychedelics, the global impact of the current revolution affects all of us.
About the speakers
Dr Rosalind Watts (Keynote Speaker)
Dr Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist and the founder of ACER Integration. Her contributions to the field of psychedelic therapy are numerous and include the development of the the ACE model ‘Accept, Connect, Embody’, which has been used in clinical trials of both psilocybin and DMT, as well as the Watts Connectedness Scale, which is a psychometric tool for measuring outcomes of psychedelic therapy.
Dr Watts is the former clinical lead on the Psilocybin for Depression trial at Imperial College London, and sits on the clinical advisory board of the Usona Institute.
Dr David Luke
Dr David Luke is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich. His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, primarily via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, such as Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, conducting DMT field experiments or observing apparent weather control with Mexican shamans he directs the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness salon and is a co-founder and trustee of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness.
Dr Maria Fernanda Gebara (Fê)
Dr Maria Fernanda Gebara is a social anthropologist, lecturer, and writer. Her work concentrates on integrating indigenous and scientific knowledges; understanding the needs of indigenous peoples to conserve their biodiversity and to disseminate their cosmologies; comprehending the influence of indigenous rituals and medicines in shaping Western individuation through diverse experiences and understandings of the nature of being; and studying issues related to other-than-human being consciousness, co-evolution, relationality, and shared intentionality. She has worked as a researcher, lecturer and consultant in leading centers in Brazil, Indonesia, the United States and the United Kingdom, and has vast first-hand experience working with indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon. She has several publications in top-ranked journals in development, environmental, and anthropology studies. Currently, she is writing her book called “Chanting Spring”. Using the clarion call of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, the book maps out our disconnection from the natural world and the consequences this has wrought on us, weaving a narrative of reconnection detailing many of her experiences with indigenous peoples in the Amazon and offering a mix of science and traditional knowledge as we transition to a post-pandemic world.
Darren Le Baron
Darren Le Baron is a dynamic and knowledgeable educator, researcher, and event organizer based in the UK. He is internationally recognized for his Shroomshop Masterclasses and as a keen mushroom cultivator and teacher. He has been growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for over ten years and has translated his home-growing experiences into a social enterprise. Darren is also an Organic Horticulturist and Permaculture tutor who supports schools, businesses, and hard-to-reach communities worldwide to create holistic and sustainable working systems. He is passionate about sharing his research and findings on ancient African plant medicines, their history and various applications. As a member and presenter at the London Psychedelic Society, a chair, and Breaking Convention committee member, Darren is a regular presenter at numerous conferences and festivals worldwide, including the Detroit Psychedelic Conference, Ozora, Noisily, and Lightening in a Bottle Festivals, sharing his extensive research on psychedelics and how they can help support humanity in the here and now. Collectively, his work aims to inform and empower individuals from diverse backgrounds to cope with social challenges and contribute to community development as well as self-improvement in an innovative, creative, culturally-aware style.
Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind and metaphysics who specialises in the thought of Whitehead, Spinoza, and Nietzsche, and in fields pertaining to altered and panpsychological states of consciousness. He is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of Exeter where he has co-founded the Exeter Psychedelic Research Group, the ambit of which includes taught modules, conferences, workshops, and publications. Peter is the author of Noumenautics, Modes of Sentience, editor of Bloomsbury’s Philosophy and Psychedelics volume, the TEDx Talker on ‘psychedelics and consciousness’, and he is inspiration to the recreation of inhuman philosopher Marvel Superhero, Karnak.
Professor Robert Arnott
Professor Robert Arnott is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College. An archaeologist and medical and disease historian, he is the author or editor of five books and over seventy papers and has excavated on Crete, at Troy, on the Greek Mainland and the islands and in Northern Italy. He is an authority on disease and medicine in the Aegean and Anatolian Bronze Ages, 1900-1100 BC, but in recent years, his interest has turned to India, where he frequently travelled for his work in modern global health. Some of his latest publications have concentrated on health, disease and medicine in the Indus Civilisation, 2600-1900 BC.
Dr Ben Sessa
For over 15 years Dr Ben Sessa has been at the forefront of psychedelic research in the UK through his affiliations with Imperial College London. Ben qualified as a medical doctor from UCL in 1997 and went on to specialise in psychiatry. For 25 years he has worked as a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with young people and adult patients in the field of addictions and trauma-related psychiatry. Ben started studying psychedelics as a junior doctor and has taken part in research projects at Bristol University, Cardiff University and Imperial College London with LSD, psilocybin, DMT, ketamine and MDMA – receiving and/or administering all of these compounds in legal research settings. One of the first doctors to develop the field of contemporary psychedelic research in the UK, he was the co-founder and Head of Psychedelic Medicine at Awakn Life Sciences, a Bio-Tech company carrying out psychedelic research into addictions, with ketamine and MDMA. Awakn opened four centres in the U.K. and Europe to date, with plans for more high street clinics in coming years, providing psychedelic psychotherapy – initially with ketamine, then with MDMA and psilocybin – for a wide range of psychiatric indications. Ben was one of the first Medical Cannabis psychiatric prescribers in the UK. Ben is an approved and registered MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin therapist. He has led research into MDMA-assisted therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder and is published widely in the academic and medical press. Ben is the co-founder and past president of the Breaking Convention conference. He is the author of The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012/2017), the novel ‘To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic’ (2015) and Altered States (2021). Ben lives and works in Bristol, UK.
Kenneth Shinozuka (Panel Moderator)
Kenneth Shinozuka, 24, is a second-year PhD student in neuroscience at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing at Oxford University. He is conducting research about the effects of psychedelics on the human brain. He is also the President of the Oxford Psychedelic Society, which hosts talks, healing workshops, and social events for promoting communities centered around psychedelics.
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