Amid the so-called psychedelic “renaissance” in science, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and elsewhere report that they can occasion “mystical-type experiences” among trial volunteers being treated for depression, addiction, end-of-life anxiety, and other conditions. Many studies correlate the strength of this experience with the therapeutic outcome. Other recent studies administer psychedelics to religious professionals without a clear therapeutic aim. In this case, an experience that might be assumed to be accessible to religious clergy through non-chemical means is administered within a “secular” biomedical framework. This panel brought together two psilocybin clinical trial participants, Rachael Petersen (Visiting Fellow, CSWR) and Rita Powell (Harvard Episcopalian Chaplain) in dialogue with the historian of religions Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University) to explore issue raised by these contemporary psychedelic trials: namely, what happens when the clinical becomes religious and the religious becomes clinical? How are religion, mysticism, and spirituality invoked, studied, and understood within psychedelic clinical contexts? What unspoken ontological and theological claims are at work?

Watch our first DOI (Diversity Outreach Inclusion) -led meeting with guest speaker, Dr. Alan Davis.

This is a video from the MGH Grand Rounds: Therapeutic Mechanisms of Psychedelics Presenting here is Robin Carhart Harris, who we were proud to have speak at a BPRG Meeting. Robin Carhart Harris is a Psychiatrist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Psychiatry Service; Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research. at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London.

Psychedelics and Mental Health Discovering the Therapeutic Potential of Psychoactive Plants Join Dr. Steve Haggarty, Scientific Director of Neurobiology at the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics for a deep dive into the botanical richness and medicinal power of the Amazon Rainforest and beyond. In this webinar, Dr. Haggarty describes the planned research of a library of approximately 100 psychoactive plants and fungi, curated by the late Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, Harvard Professor and a founding father of the field of ethnobotany. Dr. Haggarty demonstrates how the knowledge from this research will have the potential to give rise to new therapeutic psychedelics and how patient-derived and other cellular models can be used innovatively for the discovery of precision medicines targeting neuroplasticity. Questions regarding this talk or any other content from the MGH Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics can be submitted to Molly McCarthy at mmccarthy@mgh.harvard.edu.