Psychedelic Science Denver – The cracks in the facade | Cannabis Law Report | How to buy Skittles Moonrock online
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Interesting editorial from Chacruna now this paricular event has receeded into the past.
I reprint in full below and also refer you to Michelle LhooqāsĀ piece in Rave New World; I consider her to be the best writer on psychedelics and drug culture on the planet at the moment and devour her work.
THE PSYCHEDELIC ILLUMINATI GOES TO CHURCH
These two reports from the conference and endless other comments and snippets iāve read suggest that as with cannabis the divide between the ultra capitalist vision of psychedelics and everybody else is widening daily. Thereās been a sort of uneasy unsaid alliance that capital has to play a large part in creating a regulated market / environment in order to make certain compounds available in a way that psychedelics can benefit society as a whole.
That appears to be unravelling in 2025.
Chacruna
Psychedelics are entering the halls of economic and political power.
But with visibility comes contradiction
Conservative politicians champion plant medicines while upholding carceral drug laws.
Corporations file patents on ancestral plants. Legalization becomes a race for licenses.
Psychedelic Confluence at PS2025: The Watershed Beyond the Renaissance |
| As the psychedelic renaissance fades, confluence offers the path forward, weaving diverse traditions and communities into a shared future. |
| The waters have changed. |
| At Psychedelic Science 2025, the largest gathering in the field, thousands converged in Denver: neuroscientists, therapists, Indigenous elders, entrepreneurs, artists, policymakers, and families. It was the first major MAPS conference since the FDAās rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy and the psychedelic marketās downturn. Though the official theme was āThe Integration,ā the atmosphere felt closer to the crossroads, a place of opposing forces, clashing visions, and decisions that will define the future. |
| While many gathered to resist a prohibitionist model that is still killing people and to support marginalized groups, others were given platforms to promote narcissistic ideologies unbound by any commitment to collective well-being. Alongside genuine voices of care and kinship, the event also gave space to a different current, marked by conspirituality, biohacking individualism, crypto-patriarchy, and elite spectacle. The presence of figures like Aubrey Marcus made these tensions visible, and reflected the divergent paths at the crossroads, each leading to very different destinations. |
| To move ahead with integrity, we must go beyond protest or passivity. We must think, analyze, and strategize. The MAPS conferenceāstill a meaningful act of resistance against the war on drugs in a time of war on othernessārevealed the light and shadow of the psychedelic movement. |
| Crossroads are not places of neutrality. They demand clarity. They demand prayer. They demand a decision. |
| The psychedelic waters are flowing. And we must learn to read their direction and their message. |
| The Psychedelic Renaissance Is Dead. And This Is Not the End. |
| For years, the idea of a āpsychedelic renaissanceā was seductive: a unified, science-driven revival, supposedly more ethical and credible (and also ācleaner,ā clinical, medicalized) than the counterculture of the 1960s. |
| That narrative has collapsed. |
| Internal conflict, exclusionary gatekeeping, underrepresentation of Global South, BIPOC, and queer voices, regulatory resistance, and ethical failures (including from ārenaissance architectsā) have made one thing clear: The psychedelic renaissance as we have known it is over. |
| But that is not a tragedy. |
| Why cling to a sanitized, medicalized adaptation of a concept rooted in 14th to 16th century Europe, when the use of plant medicinesāalongside songs, prayers, healing practices, and communal lifeāhas never ceased within Indigenous traditions? |
| We donāt need a renaissance. What we need is confluence. |
| What Is Psychedelic Confluence? |
| Quilombola philosopher NĆŖgo Bispo invokes the metaphor of confluence: A meeting of rivers. Each river maintains its course, identity, and force, but together, they shape the journey to the ocean. |
| As a political technology, confluence is a form of cosmic diplomacy. Distinct worldviews engage without losing their autonomy. Through contact, each is strengthenedānot by domination, but by synergy. |
| Psychedelic confluence offers a path through the crossroads. And it demands that we form the broadest possible alliance against Indigenous genocide, systemic injustice, and prohibition. |
| But not all alliances are equal. Rivers only converge if they move in the same direction. A river cannot merge with fire or with a pipeline. This is not a call for universalism. It is a call for a principled relationship. |
| Confluence demands open dialogue between cosmologies, sciences, epistemologies, and cultures. It invites us to recognize Indigenous systems of knowledge not only as āwisdom,ā but also as science. It challenges us to build therapeutic bridges without reproducing colonial hierarchies between biomedical and traditional knowledge. Relation over conquest. Solidarity over gatekeeping. Co-production of knowledge over patents. |
| In a field increasingly shaped by capital, hype, and regulation, psychedelic confluence reminds us that the transformation we seek cannot mimic the failures of Western psychiatry. This is not about pills, gummies, or new products. It is about a new ethos, where ethics and collective well-being rise together, while honoring real plurality. |
| Like many rivers flowing to one ocean of collective healing. |
| Indigenous Voices Shifting the Field |
| The psychedelic sciences owe an unpayable debt to Indigenous knowledge holders. Yet too often, this knowledge is extracted, tokenized, or stripped of its context by intermediaries with no real commitment to community. |
| At PS2025, signs of change appeared. |
| Indigenous presence was potent. Leaders from the Global North and SouthāSandor Iron Rope, Biraci Nixiwaka, Daiara Tukano, Adana Kambeba, Alvaro Tukano, Christine McCleave, Osiris Cerqueda, Raine PiyĆ£ko, among othersābrought an impactful counter-colonial current to the event. The Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund led a powerful delegation. The Psychedelic Parenthood Community held open dialogues with Indigenous leaders at their booth throughout the conference. Some panels created shared space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices. |
| True integration, however, demands more than representation. It requires protocols that honor ancestry, include Indigenous voices in decision-making, and value traditional medicines as equal partners in healing. Despite being a minority presence, Indigenous voices created new gravitational fields in the conference and shifted its magnetic pole. |
| Policy Is More Than Regulation |
| Psychedelics are entering the halls of economic and political power. But with visibility comes contradiction: Conservative politicians champion plant medicines while upholding carceral drug laws. Corporations file patents on ancestral plants. Legalization becomes a race for licenses. |
| Psychedelic confluence offers another path. |
| It means building coalitions that align science, culture, and justice. |
| At PS2025, veterans called for trauma healing. Mothers advocated for family spaces. Indigenous leaders defended sacred territories. BIPOC presenters addressed racial trauma. Community voices argued that psychedelic parenthood should be a human right. Hundreds of participants were immigrants. |
| What stance will the psychedelic field take toward the marginalizedāNorth and South?Good policy is never neutral. It must honor the ancestors, protect the land, secure rights, and support communities. In sociological terms, it must reenchant the world in disenchantment times. |
| The Kinship Paradigm |
| Who leads? |
| Who is visible? |
| Who defines legitimacy? |
| Who determines risk? |
| Who is allowed to speak? |
| At PS2025, confluence outshone influence. The workshop āPlant Medicines, Indigenous Healing Traditions and Right Relationshipā drew more attention than Conscious Capitalism, illustrating how a new gravity center is emerging from the margins. |
| These voices are no longer asking for inclusion. They are setting the terms of a new paradigm of kinship. |
| While todayās mental health systems treat symptoms in isolation, psychedelic confluence calls us toward a deeper paradigmāone rooted in interdependence among beings, systems of knowledge, and territories, collective healing, intergenerational trauma, and just benefit-sharing. |
| A group of Indigenous scholars has even proposed a new term: Kindelicsānot just mind-manifesting, but kinship-manifesting. For all our relations. And one of the most powerful sign of this new paradigm came from the children. |
| For the first time, a major MAPS psychedelic conference welcomed families, offering childcare, youth programming, and panels for parents. Grassroots initiatives like the Psychedelic Parenthood Community and Plant Parenthood held space on Rick Doblinās track, following a pivotal moment at Breaking Convention in the UK. |
| As Adana OmĆ”gua KambebaāIndigenous physician, traditional healer and the first of her people to become a medical doctor in Brazil, as well as the first Indigenous woman to serve a Federal Medical Council committeeāreminded us: The resistance to family inclusion isnāt scientific. Itās social stigma. |
| Healing doesnāt begin at 21. It begins in the family. In community. In kinship. The closer we are to traumaās roots, the more healing can unfold naturally. |
| Some wounds and traumas have collective roots, and the time has come to consider not only individual healing, but also collective and intergenerational healing. |
| From Renaissance to Responsibility |
| After all the buzz surrounding psychedelics at PS2023, the expectations for PS2025 were high. Though smaller in scale, the 2025 gathering offered something valuable: A moment of divergence, of difference, of decision. A true crossroads. |
| And one of the most important lessons, from the FDAās rejection to the conferenceās most vibrant moments, is this: What comes next must not be defined by headlines, but by coherence. And coherence will not come from the top. It will come from relationships. |
| We donāt need a new generation of psychedelic CEOs, curated lists of āmost influential voices,ā or more branded solutions. We need what we already have: communities, talking together, walking together. We need cosmic councils with diverse voices, cultures and cosmologies. Healers. Scientists. Elders. Youth. Parents. Artists. Funders. Also plants, fungi, animals, biocultures. Cosmopolitics. |
| Let the scientist learn from informed consent. Let the shaman advise the doctor. Let the funder hear about benefit-sharing. Let families decide together. To be egocentric or cosmocentricāthat is the question. |
| The Weaving Ahead |
| Waters cannot be domesticated. They have their own flow. Psychedelic confluence is not a trend or a brand. It is a watershed. A zeitgeist. |
| Some voices have already become bridges for this shift, like Rick Doblin, whose resilience has helped open the doors to a multiplicity of voices; David Bronner, whose steady alignment with progressive causes remains a beacon in uncertain times; and Daiara Tukano, who moves between worlds with grace and courage, sowing the seeds of art and raising her voice for the rights of Indigenous peoples to their sacred medicines and biocultures. |
| Some initiatives are already walking in confluence, such as the World Ayahuasca Forumāan alliance between Global South and North, Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, uniting ICEERS, Instituto Yorenka Tasorentsi, and Instituto Nixiwaka. |
| This is a reminder: Itās not the plants that must be integrated into the West. Itās the West that must be re-woven into the living tapestry of the Earth. PS2025 may be remembered for its size and ambivalences. But it should be remembered for its watershed. And now, the current flows to us. |
| If we each commitāto listen, to unlearn, to walk in reciprocityā not as owners of psychedelics but as their friends, we might say that in 2025, we didnāt just witness a turning point. |
| We began to flow in psychedelic confluence. |
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