January 19, 2016 - Peter H. Addy, PhD, Yale Associate Research Scientist in Anesthesiology, VA Connecticut Health Care System
Title - "Inaugural Session: Historical And Current Perspectives On Psychedelic Research"
February 9, 2016 - Albert Garcia-Romeo, MD, Research Associate in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Title - "Psilocybin in the Treatment of Smoking Addiction: Psychological Mechanisms and Participant Accounts"
September 20, 2016 - Jeffrey Guss, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, New York University Title - "Psychedelic Therapy: A Treatment in Search of a Disorder"
October 6, 2016 - Bia Labate, PhD, Visiting Professor at the Center for Research and Post Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Guadalajara, Mexico
Title - "Ayahuasca and Health: An Overview of Medical and Social Science Research"
October 11, 2016 - Alicia Danforth, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Researcher, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Title - "MDMA-assisted Therapy for Social Anxiety in Autistic Adults"
November 8, 2016 - Katherine MacLean, PhD, Research Scientist and Co-founder/Director of the Psychedelic Education and Continuing Care program in New York City
Topic - "Measuring the Mystical Experience, Integration of Psychedelic Treatment"
December 13, 2016 - Katrin Preller, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Zurich, Department of Psychiatry
Topic - "fMRI/EEG Studies Investigating the Pharmacological and Neural Correlates of Altered States of Consciousness"
March 8, 2016 - Tehseen Noorani, PhD, visiting scholar in Anthropology at the New York School for Social Research
Title - "Psychedelic-assisted Addiction Treatment: Participant Accounts and Qualitative Perspectives"
April 12, 2016 - Alexander Belser, PhD (cand.), MPhil, Fellow and Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Applied Psychology, New York University
Title - "Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy and Psychedelically Occasioned Mystical Experiences: A Preview of Recent Findings from NYU"
May 10, 2016 - Frederick Barrett, PhD, Instructor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
Title - "Psilocybin, Meditation, Mystical Experiences, and Neuroimaging"
May 19, 2016 - Leor Roseman, PhD (cand.), Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London Title - "Neural Correlates of LSD-Induced, Eyes-Closed, Psychedelic Imagery"
December 13, 2017 - Mason Marks, MD, JD, Visiting Fellow, Yale Law School, Information Society Project.
Title - "Legal Barriers to Research on Schedule I Controlled Substances" Watch a video of the presentation
November 29, 2017 - Brian D. Earp, MSc (Oxford), MPhil (Cambridge), Associate Director, The Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy, Yale University and The Hastings Center.
Title - "Pioneering Training in Psychedelic Therapy: The Experience of CHS and Future Directions"
October 23, 2017 - Tyler Gage, Co-founding partner and strategic advisor to NAKU, a healing center run by the Sapara people in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Title - "Plant Medicine Meets Biomedicine: Creating Integrated Healing Centers in the Amazon" Watch a video of the presentation
February 7, 2017 - Franz X. Vollenweider, DR., MD, FMH Psych., Director Center for Psychiatric Research, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Zürich.
Title - "The Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs: Implications for the Treatment of Mood Disorders"
March 7, 2017 - Janis Phelps, Ph.D., professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), Director of the CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research.
Title - "Pioneering Training in Psychedelic Therapy: The Experience of CIIS and Future Directions"
December 12, 2018 - Ingmar Gorman, PhD, Co-Clinical Investigator, MAPS MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Phase 3 Study; Postdoctoral Fellow, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing; Elizabeth Nielson, PhD, Psychologist, Experimental Therapeutics Research Laboratory, NYU School of Medicine
Title - "Psychedelic Integration and Compassionate Pragmatism in Clinical Encounters" November 15, 2018 - Kathryn L. Tucker, JD, Executive Director, End of Life Liberty Project
Title - "Psychedelic Medicine: Galvanizing Changes in Law and Policy to Allow Access for Patients Suffering Anxiety Associated with Terminal Illness" Watch a video of the presentation
November 7, 2018 - Discussants Dr. David Finitsis, Senior Scientist, Hartford Healthcare Center; and Dr. Andrew Putnam, Director of Adult Palliative Medicine, Smilow Cancer Hospital
Title - "Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Life-Threatening Cancer" October 17, 2018 - YPSG Welcome Event and Movie Screening
Title - "A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin"
May 8, 2018 - Kenneth Alper, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology Title - "The Ibogaine Project: Urban Ethnomedicine for Opioid Use Disorder"
April 4, 2018 - Alan K. Davis, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Title - "The Epidemiology and Therapeutic Potential of 5-MeO-DMT"
December 19, 2019 - Dr. Elias Dakwar, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is currently principal investigator on several studies evaluating
the effects of various medications on opioid, cannabis, or cocaine use disorders in both clinical and laboratory settings at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Title - "Ketamine in Psychiatry: Have We Been Mindful Enough?"
November 19, 2019 - Dr. David Dupuis, PhD. Doctor of Social Anthropology (EHESS, Paris) & Clinical Psychologist (Paris XIII University), David Dupuis is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Durham, where he collaborates with the interdisciplinary team "Hearing the Voice." His work focuses on the ethnographic and comparative study of the relationship between hallucinations and culture, with a particular focus on the use of plant hallucinogens in the practices of Metis shamanism in the Peruvian Amazon.
Title - "Demons of Will: Ayahuasca and Therapeutic Efficacy in the Clinical Treatment of Addiction in the Peruvian Amazon"
November 15, 2019 - In collaboration with the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a panel discussion was held between scholars of various academic backgrounds, from psychiatry to anthropology. The discussants were Dr. Jordan Slowsower MSc, MD, Dr. Emmanuelle Schindler MD, PhD, Brian Earp PhD-Candidate, Gary Rudnick PhD, and Robert Krause DNP, APRN-BC.
Title - "A Panel on Psychedelics Research at Yale"
October 8, 2019 - Dr. Ana Loizaga-Velder is a German-Mexican clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, who has been investigating the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of psychedelic plants for over 25 years, in collaboration with indigenous healers.
Title - "The Therapeutic Potential of Ayahuasca for the Treatment of Mental Health Disorders" September 25, 2019 - Yale Psychedelic Science Group Welcome Event and Documentary Screening Title - "Trip of Compassion"
July 19, 2019 - Yale Psychedelic Science Group’s end-of-year social mixer.
June 12, 2019 - Dr. Michael Bogenschutz is a Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center. Prior to joining the faculty of NYU in June 2015, he served as Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Vice- Chair and Division Director for Addiction Psychiatry, and Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
Title - "Psilocybin-assisted Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder"
May 8, 2019 -Dr. Stephen Ross directs the NYU Addictive Disorders and Experimental Therapeutics Research Laboratory at Bellevue Hospital Center and is co-Director of the NYU Psychedelic Research Group. He researches the therapeutic application of psychedelic treatment models to treat psychiatric and addictive disorders..
Title - "Psychedelics in the Treatment of Cancer-related Psychological and Existential Distress"
March 13, 2019 - Dr. Raquel Bennett is a psychologist, specialist in ketamine therapy, and founder of KRIYA Institute an organization devoted to understanding the therapeutic uses of ketamine and related medicines.
Title - "Therapeutic Ketamine: Models and Mechanisms in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy" Watch a video of the presentation
February 13, 2019 - Dr. Molly Crockett is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics.
Title - "Psychopharmacology of human morality: serotonin, psychedelics, and transformative experience"
December 7, 2020 - Ido Hartogsohn is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society, Bar Ilan University. He is a scholar, artist, and activist in the field of psychedelics. His work explores the role of collective set and setting in shaping psychedelic experiences for human cultures. Hartogsohn is the founder of the world’s first Psychedelic Video Museum. His book American Trip: Set, Setting and the Psychedelic Experience in the 20th Century appeared with MIT Press earlier this year.
Title - American Trip: Set, Setting and the Psychedelic Experience in the 20th Century
September 30, 2020 - Dr. Burke is a psychiatrist working as the Los Angeles site physician on the Phase III clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Dr. Marta is a psychiatrist in private practice at the California Center for Psychiatric Treatment (CCPT), where his clinic provides adult psychiatric care with a specialization in using ketamine for treatment-resistant Depression. He is the principal investigator at the Los Angeles site of the MAPS phase II and III trials using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. Joseph McCowan, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, currently working in Los Angeles as a co-therapist in the MAPS sponsored Phase 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.
Title - MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD
September 16, 2020 - Kathryn L. Tucker, J.D. is Special Counsel at Emerge Law Group, where she Co-Chairs the Psychedelic Practice Group. She is also Executive Director of the End of Life Liberty Project, an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and expanding the rights of the terminally ill, which she founded during her tenure as Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center, a leading disability rights advocacy organization.
Title - Cutting Edge Advocacy: Oregon’s Pioneering Effort to Enact Access to Psilocybin Therapy
July 29, 2020 - Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the Director of Psychedelic Studies at Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Tolland, CT. She provides individual therapy and supervises and trains clinicians in providing culturally responsible mental health treatment. Some of Sara’s prior
research work includes participating as a Sub-Investigator and Study Coordinator for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Phase 2 MDMA Clinical Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Outside of her clinical work, Sara participates as a member of the MAPS Advisory Board and Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.
Title - Cultural Considerations in MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD
June 30, 2020 - Franciose Bourzat, MA holds a MA in Somatic Psychology from New College of California (San Francisco, 1990) and she is a certified Hakomi Therapist (1991). She is an adjunct faculty in the East West Psychology Program at CIIS. Since 1987, Francoise has apprenticed with shamans and healers in the U.S. and Mexico. In the last 20 years, she has travelled with groups to Mexico, incorporating her counselling practice experience with her knowledge of expanded states of consciousness where she partners with Mazatec healers in Sacred Mushrooms ceremonies. Francoise leads trainings in the U.S, France, Lebanon and Israel and lectures internationally. Most recently, she authored the book, Consciousness Medicine (June 2018, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA) and is a co-Lead investigator in a study at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute on Safety and feasibility of psilocybin-assisted therapy in bereaved adults in the age of the coronavirus pandemic.
Title - Reciprocity in the Time of Psychedelic Commercialization: Sharing Knowledge with the Mazatec Tradition of the Sacred Mushroom
June 17, 2020 - Dr. Monnica T. Williams, PhD is a board-certified licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in the School of Psychology, where she is the Canada Research Chair for Mental Health Disparities. She is also Clinical Director of the Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Connecticut, where she provides supervision and training to clinicians for empirically-supported treatments. Dr. Williams has previously served as the Director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Louisville and as faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Her research focuses on African American mental health, culture, and psychopathology, and she has published over 100 scientific articles on these topics. She has also served as a PI in a multisite study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. She gives diversity trainings nationally for clinical psychology programs, scientific conferences, and community organizations.
Title - Psychedelics, Inclusion, and Racial Trauma
May 21, 2020 - Dr. Sam Gandy PhD, MRes has a PhD in ecological science from the University of Aberdeen and a MRes in entomology from Imperial College London. He is a writer, speaker, amateur mycologist and has a lifelong love of nature and wildlife. He has conducted field research in various parts of the world including the UK, Kefalonia, Almeria, Texas, the Peruvian Amazon, Vietnam and Ethiopia. He also has experience working in the psychedelic field, as a past scientific assistant to the director of the Beckley Foundation, and currently as a collaborator with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. His research is focused on the capacity of psychedelics to (re)connect humanity to nature, for the potential betterment of humanity and the biosphere at large.
Title - Psychedelics, Nature Relatedness, & Biophilia
May 14, 2020 - Dr. Brian Anderson, MD is an emergency department psychiatrist and an investigator who studies drug use and abuse. His has conducted ethnographic studies of people who use drugs in community settings in the Americas, and recently he completed an open label pilot study of psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralization in older, long-term AIDS survivor men. He is currently Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Title - Psilocybin Therapy: Safety Concerns and Clinical Approach
April 29, 2020 - Dr. Deborah Mash, PhD is one of the world's foremost experts on ibogaine. She is the CEO and Founder of DemeRx Inc., a clinical stage drug development company advancing ibogaine and its active metabolite - noribogaine for the treatment of opioid use disorder. She is an NIH-funded neuroscientist, lecturer, and inventor, who has contributed to studies of the human brain and addiction neurobiology. She received her Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from the University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed a fellowship in Neurology and Neuroanatomy at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is currently Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami School of Medicine.
Title - Breaking the Cycle of Opioid Dependence with Ibogaine
February 19, 2020 - Dr. Emmanuelle Schindler, MD, PhD is a board-certified neurologist at Yale School of Medicine and practices at the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System Headache Center of Excellence in West Haven.
Title - The Use of Psychedelics in Cluster Headache
November 30, 2021 - Ian Benouis is a West Point graduate, former US Army officer and Blackhawk helicopter pilot who participated in Operation Just Cause in the Republic of Panama. He is the General Counsel for the Mission Within. He has been working with veterans and earth medicines over seven years and has taken veterans to Peru and Mexico for healing.
Jesse Gould is a former Army Ranger and founder of Heroic Hearts Project which connects military veterans to psychedelic treatment options. Jesse has been working in this space for nearly five years and has led numerous veterans to life-saving healing all over the world. Heroic Hearts Project has worked with numerous universities to forward our understanding of psychedelics and has been involved with policy change on state and federal levels.
Mike O’Dowd spent over nine years in Naval Special Warfare with extensive combat operations experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served as a JTAC, Intelligence Analyst, Lead Breacher, Communications Specialist and various other qualifications for his team. He spent his last three years in the Navy teaching combat shooting and helping to develop the modern-day Combatives program at the
Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUDS). He has an MBA from University of California, San Diego and a Bachelors from Boston University. Mike now consults with Field Trip Health on their Basecamp Veteran initiative, which brings ketamine-assisted therapy to veterans and first responders.
Title - Military Veterans’ Perspectives on Psychedelic-Assisted Treatments
November 18, 2021 - Dr. Hannah McLane (MD, MA, MPH) is a physician, psychotherapist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and clinical director of the SoundMind Center, a psychedelic therapy center and nonprofit in West Philadelphia, aimed at providing accessible and inclusive psychedelic care and education. She teaches psychedelic therapy training courses and has trained over 125 therapists and clinicians. She conducts research that focuses on cognitive diversity, psychedelic science, ethics, PTSD, and emerging alternative therapies for mental health issues. She also has a background in teaching meditation and has participated in numerous silent retreats over the past two decades. More information can be found at www.soundmind.center.
Title - Equity and Inclusion in Psychedelic Therapy
October 14, 2021 - Dominic Sisti, PhD, directs the Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care and is an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry, where he directs the ethics curriculum in the residency program, and the Department of Philosophy. Dr. Sisti examines ethical and policy challenges in mental health care, including long-term psychiatric care for individuals with serious mental illness, clinical ethics issues in correctional settings, and ethical issues in psychedelic research and clinical application. Dr. Sisti's writings have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA, JAMA Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, the Hastings Center Report, and the Journal of Medical Ethics. His scholarship has been featured by popular media outlets and he is editor of three books. Sisti received his bachelor's degree in biology from Villanova University, a master of bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania, and his doctorate in philosophy from Michigan State University.
Title - Ethics in Psychedelic Medicine: The Challenge of Informed Consent
July 29, 2021 - Samuel Ko, MD, MBA is the founder and medical director of Reset Ketamine, ketamine infusion clinic in Palm Springs, California. His clinic has been featured in Vice, White Coat Investor, Gizmodo, and NBC Palm Springs. He is committed to providing an innovative and rapid treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic pain so that patients can go back to living a whole, healthy life. Dr. Ko is a Board-Certified Emergency Physician, a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and a member of the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists, and Practitioners. He is a graduate of University of Rochester’s combined MD/MBA program and has additional training from Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), Reiki therapy, NLP, & Time Line Therapy.
Title - My Journey of Starting Up A Ketamine Clinic
July 15, 2021 - Ismail Lourido Ali, JD is Director (acting) and Counsel, Policy & Advocacy Department at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). In this role, Ismail develops and implements legal and policy strategy, and supports MAPS’ governance, non-profit, and ethics work. Ismail is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Bar Association, he currently serves on the board
of directors for Sage Institute, and he has previously served as Chair of the board of directors for Students for Sensible Drug Policy. He is also part of Chacruna Institute’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants and on the advisory council for the Ayahuasca Defense Fund. Ismail is passionate about setting sustainable groundwork for a just, equitable, and generative post-prohibition world.
Title - Landscapes of the Psychedelic Ecosystem
June 15, 2021 - Rebecca Lee, JD (Journey Colab Chief Legal Officer) & Monica Welling (Journey Colab Chief Development Officer). Rebecca is a graduate of Yale College and the UC Berkeley School of Law and an attorney who has represented and advised progressive organizations and public entities in high-stakes impact litigation and strategic social change campaigns, including the City of San Francisco, NRDC, SEIU, and the Writers Guild of America. Monica is a life science executive with over 25 years’ experience working in a variety of strategic, operational development, and commercial executive positions in multinational life science companies (Novo Nordisk, Allergan), start-ups (Addiction Healthcare Services, CEO of Oncology Start-up), and consulting.
Title - Journey Colab: Building a Third Way in Psychedelic Drug Development
June 3, 2021 - Nicholas Brüss, EdD, LMFT is an integrative psychotherapist who specializes in helping people with psychedelics-assisted therapies. He was trained by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and is a therapist on the MAPS-sponsored FDA Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Certified in both IFS and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, he’s been provided ketamine-assisted IFS therapy in Los Angeles since 2017. Nicholas is the Co-founder and Lead Trainer of the Psychedelic Coalition for Health and the Clinical Director of Psychedelic Therapies at Hope Integrative Psychiatry.
Title - Opening Space for Parts: Psychedelic-Assisted Internal Family Systems Therapy
May 13, 2021 - Maxi Cohen is the executive producer for the film From Shock to Awe, a story about veteran's suffering from PTSD who seek healing with ayahuasca. Maxi has made films for SNL, Fox Television, ARTE and developed series for the BBC, CPB, HBO and Turner. Maxi's first media for social change experiment – a weekly TV series in Cape May, N.J. – helped reverse the town’s demise, becoming one of four landmarked towns in the country, changing its social, cultural and economic future. In response to governments internationally misunderstanding Ayahausca, she made a film about the Santo Daime, a church emanating from Brazil that drinks Ayahausca called the “Holy Give Me”. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Karan Weiss Foundation, Jerome Foundation, among others.
Title - From Shock to Awe - Film Screening
March 18, 2021 - Dr. Charles Nichols earned his BS at Purdue University, his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University studying developmental neurogenetics in Drosophila melanogaster, and performed his postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, researching mammalian serotonin 5-HT2 receptor neuropharmacology. His research has focused on
5-HT2A receptors and psychedelics for the past 24 years, where he has made several key discoveries. These include identification of specific populations of cell types within the brain that directly respond to psychedelics, the development of animal models to study the antidepressant-like effects of psilocybin, and discovery of the potent anti-inflammatory effects of psychedelics. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Title - Anti-Inflammatory and Antidepressant Effects of Psychedelics in Preclinical Models
February 17, 2021 - East Forest’s 2019 five-hour album, Music for Mushrooms: A Soundtrack for the Psychedelic Practitioner, is the singular musical guide in existence for supporting people during their experience specifically with psilocybin. The five-hour experience is designed to musically guide the psilocybin experience from start to finish. The album also reached #1 on the iTunes charts after its release (May 2019). With ten years of active research and development of his methodology through guiding hundreds of individuals through therapeutic psilocybin ceremonies, East Forest offers an unprecedented musical tool to help support the emerging field of psychedelic therapy for which music plays a central and fundamental role.
Title - Music for Mushrooms: A Discussion and Guided Meditation with East Forest
January 25, 2021 - Brian C. Muraresku graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University in 2002 with a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. As an alumnus of Georgetown Law and a member of the New York Bar, he has been practicing law internationally for fifteen years. The Immortality Key was published by St. Martin’s Press in September 2020. Muraresku launched his instant bestseller on The Joe Rogan Experience and has now appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius XM, goop and The Weekly Dish with Andrew Sullivan. He has been featured in Forbes, The Daily Beast, Big Think and VICE. All media to date is available here. Muraresku lives outside Washington D.C. with his wife and two daughters.
Title - Brian Muraresku: The Immortality Key
January 11, 2021 - Claudia Costa is a Colombian/Italian musician visiting the Ukumari Kankhe indigenous reservation of the Cofanes in Colombia. The Cofán communities are the original wisdom keepers of the yagé traditions and have a rich tradition using medicinal plants and performing cleansing rituals. Claudia has been honored to play music for yagé ceremonies, along with fellow Colombian musician Juan Carlos Heredia, led by the spiritual leaders of the Queta family. Taita Querubín Queta is the cacique and spiritual head of the A’i-Cofan communities of Ecuador and Colombia, as well as governor of the Ukumari Kankhe village. He carries 107-years of Cofán wisdom, and many of his family members have followed his path of traditional healing. Claudia speaks with his nephew, Taita Reinerio, about the history and role of music in Cofán ceremonies. Juan Carlos also shares his knowledge and experience as a ceremonial musician.
Title - Sound Healing and the Role of Music in Ceremony in the Cofán Tradition
August 10, 2022 - Payam Rahimian is a Psychedelic Somatic Internal Family Systems Practitioner who interfaces with various traditional and non-traditional psychedelic compounds in the treatment of trauma and chronic pain.
Title: “Integrative Holistic Ceremonial use of MDMA”
Disclaimer: The Yale Psychedelic Science Group does not endorse the views or practices of Mr Rahimian. An email was sent out to the YPSG community in response to a number of concerns raised by this seminar. The letter can be found here. The YPSG Leadership Team apologizes for any harms caused to any attendees or others.
June 12, 2022 - Janusz Welin is a meditator, teacher, and psychedelic integration coach with over a decade of experience. Janusz is the founder of the Deep Mindfulness Collective and has co-taught with meditation expert Shinzen Young. Janusz has also studied with teachers such as Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, and many others. The YPSG presentation and facilitated discussion covers how meditation and psychedelics can have a symbiotic relationship and how combining the two can catalyze transformation and aid integration of psychedelic experiences.
Title: “Meditation and Psychedelic Experiences”
June 6, 2022 - Simon Ruffell studied medicine at the University of Sheffield before specializing in psychiatry. He completed his core psychiatric training at The Maudsley Hospital in London and worked at King’s College London as a Senior Research Associate investigating the use of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. Simon has a keen interest in transcultural psychiatry and has worked for a variety of charities overseas. Since 2016 he has conducted research into the traditional psychedelic brew ayahuasca and its effects on mental health based in the Peruvian Amazon and is currently completing his PhD in this based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Simon now works for the Psychae Institute as a Senior Research Fellow, running randomized controlled trials investigating the potential therapeutic application of ayahuasca. In his spare time Simon volunteers for Psycare – a charity offering support to those undergoing challenging drug experiences at music festivals.
Title: “Ayahuasca: From the Jungle to the Lab"
April 14, 2022 - Dr. Cody Wenthur, PharmD, PhD, is a translational investigator in psychopharmacology who has been on the UW–Madison faculty since 2018, following receipt of his PharmD at Purdue University in 2011, his PhD in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University in 2015, and a post-doctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla. His work is focused on improving our understanding of the basis for beneficial and detrimental effects of opioids, cannabinoids, psychedelics, and other neuroplasticity-inducing approaches in the context of novel therapeutic approaches for promoting and maintaining mental health.
Title: "Polypharmacologic and Extrapharmacologic Modifiers of Long-term Effects of Psychedelics Across Species"
March 24, 2022 - Lucas Richert, BA/MSc/PhD is an Associate Professor at UW-Madison, where he holds the Urdang Chair in Pharmacy History. He is the author of three monographs, including Break On
Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture (The MIT Press, 2019). More recently, he co-edited Cannabis: Global Histories (The MIT Press, 2021). He also serves as the Historical Director at the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.
Title: "Psychedelic Wars: Past, Present, and Future."
February 3, 2022 - Raquel Bennett, PsyD is a psychologist and ketamine specialist from Berkeley, California. She primarily works with people who are living with severe depression, bipolar disorder, and/or suicidal ideation. Dr. Bennett is fascinated by the antidepressant and anti-obsessional properties of ketamine, and has been studying them since 2002. She also has a long-standing interest in the psychedelic and mystical properties of ketamine, and the potential for this medicine to be used for spiritual exploration. Dr. Bennett is the founder of KRIYA Institute and KRIYA Conference, which are both devoted to the use of ketamine in psychiatry and psychotherapy. She has given hundreds of lectures and trained thousands of clinicians worldwide on the safe and legal use of ketamine in clinical practice. You can learn more about her work at: www.kriyainstitute.com/
Title - Expanding Our Understanding of Ketamine in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
February 2, 2022 - Paul Hutson is a pharmacist with a practice on the inpatient palliative care unit at the UW Hospital, and his didactic teaching is in clinical pharmacokinetics, oncology, and psychoactive substances. He holds the Investigational New Drug exemption for psilocybin at the UW, and is a co-investigator on multiple clinical studies of psychoactive drugs at the University of Wisconsin Madison campus. He was PI on the UW psilocybin dose-escalation study. He also serves as a resource in pharmacokinetic study design and modeling for the UW Madison campus through the NIH-funded UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
Title: "From Spores to Fruiting Bodies: The University of Wisconsin Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances"
May 18, 2022 - David Casimir is a patent attorney with Casimir Jones, an intellectual property law firm that specializes in biological and chemical technologies. David has a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and a law degree from Stanford University. In addition to his legal practice, David teaches at the University of Wisconsin law school and has guest taught courses at the University of Wisconsin business school and the University of Michigan school of pharmacy. David is a board member of the EHE Foundation (a rare cancer organization supporting research and patient services) and the Isthmus Project (a subsidiary of UW Health focused on innovation) and is an advisory board member for the University of Wisconsin Law School Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. David is one of the co-founders of Porta Sophia, a psychedelic prior art library.
Title - Protecting the Integrity of the Psychedelic Patent Landscape