Anthropology of Consciousness
July 30, 2022
Keith Williams, Osiris Sinuhé González Romero, Michelle Braunstein et al.
68 citations
The current resurgence of interest in psychedelics for treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addictions is driven by colonial extractivism, similar to the European Renaissance. Indigenous communities, who have long used these substances ceremonially, receive few benefits from the legalization and commercialization of psychedelics. The paper argues that Indigenous philosophical traditions can help reorient the psychedelic movement toward a more equitable future for Indigenous Peoples and the medicines themselves.
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
October 1, 2023
Keith Williams, Suzanne Brant
7 citations
Indigenous gift logic offers an alternative to the commercial extraction of sacred plant medicines in the global capitalist economy. Unlike barter or monetary systems, gift economies involve giving without expectation of future reward, underpinning a relational epistemology that treats plants and fungi as beings with agency rather than commodities. The article suggests reorienting the psychedelic resurgence toward relational ontologies indexed to place and informed by Indigenous gift logic.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
July 28, 2025
Keith Williams, Andrée-anne Bédard, Laura Pustarfi
1 citation
Inner healing intelligence (IHI) is a foundational concept in psychedelic-assisted therapy, describing an innate tendency toward healing. This paper expands IHI by drawing on vitalism and Indigenous philosophy from the Americas, conceptualizing it as an individual's capacity to engage with a vital life force specific to place and the more-than-human relationships that constitute the extended self. The authors invite the psychedelic therapy community to take IHI seriously and explore its implications, rather than offering a prescriptive framework. They foreground ontological and ethical consequences, suggesting this perspective can enrich therapeutic practice and support collective aspirations of the psychedelic renaissance, while proposing recommendations for a more emplaced, embodied, and relational enactment of IHI.
interconnections journal of posthumanism
December 9, 2024
Keith Williams, Michelle Braunstein
Synthesizing psilocybin in yeast raises ethical, cultural, and ecological questions that challenge the boundaries of synthetic biology. Drawing on Indigenous knowledges, postcolonial theory, and new materialism, the article uses fictional vignettes and drawings to explore how this technology affects relationships among space, time, and matter. It highlights the risk of commodifying beings traditionally embedded in Indigenous practices and considers matter's agency in entanglements with human intervention. The work provokes critical reflection on the onto-epistemological and psychedelic discourses surrounding synthetic biology, urging more nuanced approaches to its frontiers.