This webinar was recorded on Wednesday 26th Apr 2023 and hosted by Anya Oleksiuk, as part of the Psychedelic Science and Harm Reduction team at the Psychedelic Society. In March 2024, a portion of that team became PsyAware. Please note that in the introduction, we refer to ourselves as the Psychedelic Society.

The world of psychedelics has a problem. In fact it has lots - and they threaten the safety and sanity of the planet.

We bring together two leading figures in the psychedelic space, Dr Rosalind Watts of ACER Integration (former Clinical Lead for Imperial College’s PsiloDep 2 trial, TED Speaker) and former BBC presenter turned-psychedelic community developer, Benjamin Ramm, to discuss some of the burning current events in the field with a critical (third) eye.

Within the last six years, psychedelics have gone from being the domain of fringe activists, eccentric philanthropic research and lone academic institutions to a multi-billion dollar industry, supported by the military complex, and commodified by a seemingly endless army of YouTube wellness influencers and toxic shock-jock pundits.

While psychedelics have great potential to heal trauma and address many neurological ailments, the space has been co-opted by billionaires, ruthless wellness entrepreneurs and other entities looking to make a fast buck. More worryingly, many have seen the influx of thinking that sees the Global South - the origin for many psychedelic substances, and their governing rituals - as expendable in the impending climate catastrophe.

How can tripping save us from climate change, when the same people profiteering from psilocybin are the ones that also own interests in the fossil fuel and defence industries? If psychedelics can open your mind, why do certain billionaires who advocate them, treat their employees so badly? Is the psychedelic industry a bubble that will eventually pop? And what can a bunch of psychonauts really do to save the world?

Dr Rosalind Watts and Benjamin Ramm will chew through these issues, and more including:

Spiritual Bypassing and ‘toxic spirituality’

The Psychedelic Response to Climate Change

Community & Collective-based solutions to our modern problems

Benjamin Ramm is the founder of Honeydew, an eco-community inspired by psychedelic integration, and author of the forthcoming book High Definition: A Vision of Our Psychedelic Future. He is former editor-at-large of openDemocracy, where he covered the failed 'war on drugs', and a writer for BBC Culture and presenter of documentaries on BBC Radio 4.

As former Clinical Lead of the Psilocybin for Depression trial at Imperial College London, Dr Rosalind Watts led a clinical team which facilitated over a hundred psilocybin treatment sessions. She developed the ACE model for psychedelic-assisted therapy ‘Accept, Connect, Embody’, which has been used in clinical trials of psilocybin and dmt and is now launching a global online integration community, ‘Accept, Connect, Embody, Restore’ (ACER) where members will follow a 12 month process together. She has developed a psychometric tool for measuring outcomes of psychedelic therapy (the Watts Connectedness Scale) is clinical track lead on the Synthesis Institute’s Psychedelic Practitioner Training, and sits on the clinical advisory board of the Usona Institute, a not-for-profit psilocybin manufacturer and research organisation.

Anya is a documentary filmmaker, host, and educator. She is a Co-Director of the Psychedelic Society UK, leading on video production, harm reduction, and education about psychedelics. She is also associated with the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands and is a consultant for the Polish Psychedelic Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Psychodeliczne).

Anya is a founder and director of Triptika Studios, which is a collective of independent filmmakers with interests in health, science, innovative solutions, mental health, drug advocacy, social and racial justice, and environment-friendly lifestyles. She is also the creator, director, and producer of The Psychedelic Renaissance - a not-for-profit documentary film about the worldwide re-emergence of the psychedelic movement and the crucial role of psychedelic substances, plants, and mushrooms in human culture.

If you're feeling generous, any donation you can offer would greatly support our harm reduction efforts.

Shadow of Mainstreaming Psychedelics with Benjamin Ramm, Dr Rosalind Watts & Anya Oleksiuk