Psychedemia: Charting the future of interdisciplinary Psychedelic Studies

The field of psychedelic scholarship is expanding rapidly across clinical research, neuroscience, pharmacology, and the humanities. This special issue introduces the Psychedemia 2022 conference, hosted by the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education at The Ohio State University, which brought together diverse academic disciplines to discuss integrating psychedelics into society. The conference built on the first Psychedemia in 2012 at the University of Pennsylvania, which helped establish Psychedelic Studies as an interdisciplinary field. As psychedelic research gains mainstream acceptance and a projected multi-billion-dollar medical market emerges, academics have a crucial role in articulating stakeholder concerns and shaping policy, theory, and methodology across social, legal, economic, and environmental dimensions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Amidst an unfolding resurgence of psychedelic research, there is the opportunity to discuss new approaches for integrating psychedelics into both academia and society.In partnership with the newly founded Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) at The Ohio State University, the editors of this special issue convened the Psychedemia, 2022 conference as a rigorous interdisciplinary symposium for exchanging ideas, evaluating dominant perspectives, and critiquing current approaches to developing social frameworks for psychedelic use.Psychedelic scholarship is racing forward in clinical research, neuroscience, and pharmacology.At the same time, academics in varied disciplines from history and philosophy to anthropology and the arts are developing new ideas and syntheses, drawing on the humanities to situate psychedelics within the settings of our cultural landscapes.Given that psychedelic experiences defy disciplinary bounds, there is great value in diverse academic perspectives for the co-creation of theory, policy, and methodology.As psychedelic scholarship breaks into mainstream acceptance, the psychedelic medical market has been projected variously to reach valuations in the billions within a decade (FinancialNewsMedia, 2021).In this context, academics play an important role in identifying and articulating the concerns of diverse stakeholders as new industries build systems for psychedelic access with social, legal, economic, and environmental consequences.Our conference built on the vision of its first iteration, which convened at the University of Pennsylvania a decade prior with a $10,000 grant from the Perelman School of Medicine (Psychedemia, 2013).In 2011, a handful of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania collaborated with community members in Philadelphia to found one of the earliest psychedelic societies.The following year, they initiated the first university-sponsored, interdisciplinary academic conference on the study of psychedelics since the return of human trials in the late 20th century, with inspiration from Breaking Convention in the United Kingdom.The first Psychedemia was an attempt to realize the vision of an interdisciplinary academic field of Psychedelic Studies before such a field was formalized.As Psychedemia's founder Nes ¸e Devenot (née S ¸enol) wrote in "A Declaration of Psychedelic Studies" (2011): "At this inertial juncture in history, I propose the inauguration of Psychedelic Studies as an interdisciplinary field" (Devenot, 2013;S ¸enol, 2011).Psychedemia 2012 constructed a rigorous, interdisciplinary foundation for the study of psychedelics as a potent catalyst of experience.At a time when clinical research on psychedelics was just reemerging, that conference was notable for giving equal weight to the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.By the time of its second iteration-ten years and thousands of peer-reviewed papers later-mainstream recognition of the significance of psychedelics had changed institutions, cultural practices, and conceptions of healing (Pleet, White, Zamaria, & Yehuda, 2023;Schenberg, 2018;Wolswijk, 2021).Psychedelic Studiesnow actualized-remains at an inflection point, which heightens the stakes of facilitating cross-disciplinary communication about this field and its possibilities (Bartlett, Vallely, Williams, Nepton, & Feng, 2023).Psychedemia, 2022 was organized at The Ohio State University in the broad interdisciplinary spirit of the first Psychedemia.Academic sessions convened on topics ranging from Phenomenology to Political Philosophy and Policy, from Attitudes and Beliefs to Terence McKenna.The session on Pedagogy provided a crucial venue for sharing and visioning the