Psychedelics & Society - Video & Recap
Psychedelics & Society, hosted at Journey Clinical in NYC. The evening landed at a remarkable moment. Roughly 1.4 billion dollars has flowed into the psychedelic space in recent weeks, an executive order on psychedelic access and research passed in April, and Compass Pathways released their positive Phase 3 psilocybin results just days before we gathered. We came together to ask what all of this means for society, and a clear thread emerged: healing doesn't stop at the individual. It moves outward, from one person, to the group, to the culture, to the living world.
The good news: we captured the evening, and here’s the video so you can experience it too. Follow PSYCA on YouTube [link] and Instagram [link] to view and share.
Here's the thread, speaker by speaker:
Myriam Barthes, CEO & Co-Founder, Journey Clinical "This will tremendously impact society and how we think about care itself. We're talking about one to four administrations per year, as opposed to a daily pill."
Healing begins with access, and Myriam has spent five years building the infrastructure so these medicines arrive with the right care model: preparation, dosing, and integration. journeyclinical.com
Court Wing, Founder, REMAP Therapeutics & Co-Founder, Psychedelics and Pain Association "Let's help the people whose pain is so bad that suicide seems like a better option."
Court's own story, a single psilocybin session resolving both five years of treatment-resistant depression and his chronic pain, shows how deeply mental and physical suffering are entangled. Free expert video courses at psychedelicsandpain.org and remaptherapeutics.com
Dr. AZA Stephen Allsop, Yale School of Medicine & Center for Collective Healing at Howard University "If we aren't thinking about the group dynamic as a fundamental aspect of how humans achieve health and wellness, we're missing an important part of the puzzle. The manifestations of that problem are clear: the mental health crisis, the loneliness epidemic, even our lack of ability to facilitate coordinated action around climate."
AZA's research moves healing from the individual to the group: unique brain circuits and a physiology of synchrony emerge only in genuine social connection, and psychedelics in the right container can move groups past polarization toward coordinated action, including ayahuasca peacebuilding circles bringing together Israelis and Palestinians. Center for Collective Healing
Devon Phillips, Head of Partnerships, MAPS "We're not marketers, we're educators. We don't want people to say, look, I did psychedelics, you should too. We want people to say, I tried this, and here's a way to learn more if you want to."
Devon shared the story of his aunt in deeply conservative West Texas, who ignored fifteen years of his research updates, then called him about ibogaine after a woman she loved on reality TV talked about it. His lesson for the field: "I'm the space. My aunt is the rest of the world." Culture changes when the message comes from someone who looks like your world. Music Is the Bridge series via MAPS.org
Joe Moore, Co-Founder, Psychedelics Today "I find myself using numbers more. Here's the economics."
Joe played translator between worlds, from a Rotary Club talk that taught him every audience needs a different doorway, to naming the polycrisis plainly: one-by-one therapy can never meet the scale of need. Community care is how healing reaches society. psychedelicstoday.com
Anne Philippi, Founder, The New Health Club "When former Governor Perry spoke at the MAPS conference, it was so powerful because nobody expected him, of all people. Suddenly people could really relate to this."
Anne kept the panel focused on how this movement leaves the bubble: unexpected messengers, the language we use in media, and a cultural shift away from the lone hero toward communities and relationships. The New Health Club podcast and the New Health Institute
Mahyad Tousi, Filmmaker & Creator of CURA "These medicines can only help you heal the wounds that you feel, not the wounds that you understand."
Mahyad carried the thread to its widest circle: the ecology. People have profound plant medicine transformations yet return home without the same passion for the Amazon that made their healing possible, because we relate to the climate crisis intellectually while the felt connection has been severed. For the indigenous communities he worked with across 38 tribes and 29 ceremonies, it's a hand on a candle: if the forest is burning, I am burning. CURA, his immersive installation built with the Cofán and Noke Koi communities, is designed to restore that ecological empathy, no medicine required. curastudio.art
What's next
We've seen people come together across the aisle for psychedelics, especially for veterans. At PSYCA, we want to see that same coming-together for our natural world. We'll be doing things in September to bridge community action, and we're exploring models for Climate Week: live action, working groups, real next steps. If you have ideas, reply to this email. We'd love to hear them.
I'll close with what I shared as we opened the night. We're about to go from a world where people know ketamine as the psychedelic therapy to a world with four or five major compounds available. That's a gamechanger, because more people will have access to the healing we need at this moment. And as our speakers made clear, healing that stays personal stays incomplete. The medicine works when it reconnects us, to each other and to the living world.
We're all healing in different ways right now, whether ceremonially in the Amazon, walking in nature with friends, or dancing at a festival. However you engage, you're part of this community, and we hope the next room includes you.
Warmly, Marissa Feinberg Founder, Psychedelics for Climate Action