Nurturing Our Eco-consciousness with Dr David Luke, Dr Andy Letcher, Sophia Rokhlin and Dr Sam Gandy

Psychedelics are being proven to be powerful tools in combating the current global mental epidemic. But are we paying enough attention to the ecological crisis? Are concerns over the state of our mental health taking up all of our focus so that we’re ignoring the blatant destruction of the ecosphere? Whether through changing the way we perceive the natural world or uncovering a deep connection native to our very being, psychedelics have the ability to enhance our nature-connectedness, teaching us to fall back in love with planet Earth.

How can we utilise the phenomenon of nature-connected as a means to tackle the ongoing climate emergency? Is simply experiencing greater affinity with the natural world enough? It’s time we explore ways in which we can manifest increased nature-connectedness with greater engagement towards building a more sustainable and symbiotic relationship with our planet.

During this panel discussion, we will explore the mysteries of nature-connectedness and theories of why psychedelics produce this phenomenon, even when experienced in non-natural settings. We will investigate how nature-connectedness prevails amongst indigenous communities who ritualistically use plant sacraments, and what lessons we can learn from such communities in increasing global biophilia.

Join us for this fascinating discussion on the role of psychedelics in animism and eco-consciousness with expert researchers from the fields of ecology, transpersonal psychology and shamanism.

SPEAKER PROFILES:

Dr Andy Letcher

Dr Andy Letcher has doctorates in Ecology (from the University of Oxford) and the Study of Religion (King Alfred’s College, Winchester). He is a Senior Lecturer at Schumacher College, Devon UK, where he is the Programme Lead for the MA Engaged Ecology. His research interests focus on the contemporary use of psychedelics with a particular interest in the discourses by which people frame their experiences and by which those experiences become meaningful. He is currently researching ritual and animistic usage of psychedelics by contemporary British Druids. He is the author of numerous papers on subjects as diverse as environmental protest, animism, fairies, the revival of the Heathen lyre, and the distribution of mammals across continents. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom. In a quest for homegrown acoustic (ADM) he plays English bagpipes and Dark Age lyre.

Dr David Luke

Dr David Luke is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, UK, where he has been teaching an undergraduate course on the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience since 2009. He is also Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, and Lecturer on the MSc Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology for Alef Trust and Liverpool John Moores University. His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including ten books, most recently Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience (2nd ed., 2019). When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, conducting DMT field experiments or observing apparent weather control with Mexican shamans, David directs the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness salon at the Institute of Ecotechnics, London, and is a cofounder and director of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. David has given over 300 invited public lectures and conference presentations; won teaching, research and writing awards; organised numerous festivals, conferences, symposia, seminars, retreats, expeditions, pagan cabarets and pilgrimages; and has studied techniques of consciousness alteration from South America to India, from the perspective of scientists, shamans and Shivaites.

Sophia Rokhlin

Sophia Rokhlin MSc. is an author, speaker and nonprofit organizer dedicated to supporting the conservation of forest peoples' wisdom and territories. She currently serves as Technical Secretariat of the Amazon Emergency Fund. She has worked with the Environmental Justice Atlas mapping grassroots activism related to commodity extraction in the Americas. Sophia previously served as a Program Coordinator at the Chaikuni Institute, supporting regenerative agriculture in the Peruvian Amazon. She is a co-author of When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance (Watkins, 2019) and is a member of the Ayahuasca Community Committee for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Her research has been featured in publications including the New York Times, PBS, the BBC and others.

Dr Sam Gandy

Sam is a lifelong nature lover and has been fortunate enough to conduct ecological field research in various parts of the world. He is a PhD ecologist, writer, and speaker and has experience working within the psychedelic field, as a past scientific assistant to the director of the Beckley Foundation, and working as an ecopsychology coordinator with the Synthesis Institute designing nature-based programmes for people undergoing psilocybin therapy for depression. He is an ecologist with environmental consultancy Sanctus Limited is also a collaborator with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, with a research interest in the capacity of psychedelics to influence our connection to nature.

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