The root of our suffering is not purely biological.
Psychedelics and other transformational medicines can help us to more authentically connect with ourselves, with our communities, with nature and with life - beyond the trauma and cultural narratives that unconsciously directs our lives.
These medicines include substances, therapies and experiences that can assist us in moving from one state of consciousness to another. They include psychedelics, plant, fungi and animal medicines, many of which have been used by indigenous and other communities for generations. Transformational medicines also include many modalities of practice and connection including breathwork, sound, and meditation, as well as a deeper connection to community, and nature.
A new world starts with a new vision.
Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives and we will call it fate.
— Carl Jung
The Time is Now
How many times are we going to diagnose a fish swimming in toxic water?
There is an urgent need for transformation – an urgent need to think differently about our world and lives, and to imagine new ways of solving our most critical mental health and collective challenges.
Intercultural Integrity
We recognize and honor the many ancient and indigenous traditions who have held these medicines at the core of their spiritual practice. We’re dedicated to supporting a genuinely integrated, multidisciplinary approach that honors these medicines in their ancient context, and that addresses whole-person alignment and the integration of body, mind, heart and spirit.
Treating Today’s
Mental Health Challenges
Treatment-Resistant PTSD Patients
MDMA is projected to be approved for PTSD treatment in 2023. Psilocybin is in phase 3 trials for treatment-resistant depression and is poised for approval by the FDA. Research on other psychedelic medicines is robust. The race for indications and approvals is on – and the results so far are extremely promising.
MDMA-assisted therapy
Placebo with therapy
Treating Depression and Anxiety in Cancer Patients
Psilocybin-Assisted Treatment For Alcohol Dependence
Contrary to what was publicized during the War on Drugs, most psychedelics are not only not addictive, research has shown their promise as medicines that can help many successfully break their addictions.
Smoking Cessation Programs and Their Abstinence Rates After Six Months
Program
Counseling
Therapy +
Nicotine
Replacement
Therapy
The Science
Promoting New Connections
Psychedelics open new ways of thinking, changing and enhancing new neural connections, to help shift perspective, relieve suffering and support true, transformational ways of being and living.
Brain on psilocybin
Brain on placebo
The Challenge
Why
The world we’ve created is challenged by injustice, division, disconnection, and for many, despair. Many find themselves struggling with PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction and hopelessness.
The Safety of Psychedelics
An unexpected truth
While psychedelics have been used throughout millenia in a wide variety of cultural contexts, America’s War on Drugs has caused them to be criminalized and stigmatized. But the reality is something different. When used with the proper mindset and in a supportive environment, research has proven them to be remarkably safe and potentially life-saving.
Harm caused by drugs
The Legality
A Brief History
Many of these medicines have a history of spiritual and medical use dating back thousands of years. Some were actively used for therapeutic purposes as recently as the 1970’s. While they have continued to be used in underground and in spiritual communities over the past half a century, they are also reemerging through regulatory channels. In addition, certain communities have had their use of particular medicines affirmed by federal courts, with many other churches being established over the past several years. States and municipalities are starting to decriminalize many of these substances and considering legalization - with Oregon the first to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use.
of the
War on Drugs
US Government stops research on psychedelics which was being conducted to establish their safety and efficacy.
President Nixon announces a “War on Drugs,” declaring drug abuse as “Public Enemy Number One.”
The Drug Enforcement Agency is created to oversee laws and to schedule substances including Marijuana, Note: A top Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, later admitted: “You want to know what this was really all about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” Nixon temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule One, the most restrictive category of drugs, pending review by a commission he appointed led by Republican Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer.
Jimmy Carter campaigns for president on a platform that includes decriminalizing marijuana and ending federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of the drug. He failed to get this passed once he became President.
First Lady Nancy Reagan Launches “Just Say No” Campaign
MDMA (Ecstasy) is placed on Schedule 1 after being used for years as a therapeutic medicine.
President Ronald Reagan signs the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which appropriates $1.7 billion to fight the drug war. The bill also creates mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses
President George H.W. Bush creates the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and appoints William Bennett as his first “drug czar.” Bennett aims to make drug abuse socially unacceptable.
Johns Hopkins University is the first institution to receive regulatory approval to restart research around use of psilocybin as a medicine.
US Supreme Court affirms the UDV Church’s right to use ayahuasca. The Santo Diame church follows in 2009
Denver becomes the first city to decriminalize the use of Psilocybin since the war on drugs.
The FDA grants breakthrough status to both MDMA and Psilocybin, recognizing their safety and promising benefits. Final approval is still pending with many states preparing for their use.
Oregon passes Measure 109 legalizing psilocybin for therapeutic use.