“Skin contains land and birds”: Understanding inner healing intelligence through critical vitalism and Indigenous thought
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.