Psychedelics and Nature: Connectedness, Culture & Practice

A One Day Online Symposium

How do psychedelic experiences change the way we relate to the natural world?

From feelings of profound connection with nature to encounters with seemingly animate or intelligent aspects of the natural world, psychedelic experiences can challenge how we understand our place within the living world. But how should we interpret these experiences, and what might they mean for our relationships with nature, culture and the environment?

Join us for a one-day online symposium bringing together leading voices from anthropology, psychology, ecopsychology, wilderness practice and psychedelic research. Together, we’ll explore the relationships between psychedelic experiences and nature connectedness, animism, Indigenous plant traditions and contemporary therapeutic practice.

Chaired by ecopsychologist Adrian Harris, the symposium will create space for interdisciplinary exchange, bringing scientific research into conversation with cultural perspectives, traditional knowledge and lived experience. Across six talks, speakers will examine how psychedelic experiences shape our perceptions of the natural world, how these experiences are understood across different cultural contexts, and what they might offer - or complicate - our efforts to cultivate more reciprocal relationships with the environments we inhabit.

What we’ll explore

• Psychedelics and nature connectedness: How might psychedelic experiences influence our sense of belonging to the natural world, and what does research tell us about these relationships?
• Animism and more-than-human worlds: What happens when plants, landscapes and other aspects of nature are experienced as alive, relational or possessing agency?
• Indigenous plant traditions and cultural perspectives: How can we understand psychedelic plants within the cultural, spiritual and ecological contexts in which they have long been used?
• Psychedelics, ecology and environmental practice: Can psychedelic experiences inform how we relate to the places we inhabit and the wider living world?
• Research, interpretation and integration: How can scientific, psychological and cultural approaches illuminate different dimensions of psychedelic experiences in nature?

Meet the speakers

The symposium brings together Luis Eduardo Luna, David Luke, Sam Gandy, Anja Loizaga-Velder, Brian Stafford and Fe Gebara, with expertise spanning anthropology, psychology, psychedelic research, Indigenous plant traditions and wilderness practice.

Chaired by Adrian Harris, ecopsychologist, the day will encourage dialogue across disciplines and perspectives, making room for both established research and questions that remain open.

Symposium format

The day will feature six 30-minute talks, organised into three themed pairs. Each pair will be followed by a joint Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to explore connections between the presentations, ask questions and engage with the speakers. The symposium will conclude with a closing synthesis from the chair.

The event will take place entirely online, with international time-zone conversions for the UK, Europe, the US and India available on the sign-up page.

Who is this symposium for?

This symposium is for anyone interested in the intersections of psychedelics, nature, culture and human experience. It may be particularly relevant to psychedelic researchers and practitioners, psychologists, anthropologists, ecologists, environmental educators, wilderness guides and those interested in Indigenous knowledge systems and our changing relationship with the natural world.

Whether you approach the subject through scientific research, cultural inquiry, professional practice or personal curiosity, the symposium offers an opportunity to encounter different perspectives and consider new questions.

Join us for a day of interdisciplinary talks and discussion exploring how psychedelics might reshape our understanding of nature, our place within it, and the relationships between human, more-than-human and cultural worlds.

⚠️ Please note: This is an educational and experiential symposium. No medical or clinical advice can be given during this session.

The ticket price includes lifetime access to a recording of the whole event so you can catch up on anything you missed or revisit you favourite presentations.

Your Host

Dr. Adrian Harris is an ecopsychologist, psychotherapist, and psychedelic integration coach who has been involved with ecotherapy for over twenty years. He is the author of Nature Connection: Remembering Wholeness and Lead Editor of the European Journal of Ecopsychology.

Adrian has been taking psychedelics since his early 20s. He joined the Synthesis Institute as Director of Ecopsychology in 2020 and subsequently became a Learning Mentor on their first Psychedelic Practitioner Training. He also worked as a Retreat Facilitator with Synthesis until February 2023. He is a Guest Lecturer on the PGCert Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture at the University of Exeter and a member of the University's clinical research team and recently joined Exeter Psychedelic Interdisciplinary Centre (EPIC) as an Associate Research Fellow.

Web: natureconnection.org.uk
TikTok: @dr.adrianh · X: @dradrianharris · Instagram: @dr.adrianh

Your Speakers

David Luke is Professor of Exceptional Experience at the University of Greenwich, UK, where he leads the new Psychedelic and Exceptional Experience Lab. He is also a current Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher (via Trinity College, Cambridge) researching altered states and psi. His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, ecodelia, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, such as Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, studying lucid dream precognition, or exploring apparent weather control with Mexican shamans he manages a small ancient woodland and is a cofounder and trustee of Breaking Convention.

Luis Eduardo Luna is a Colombian anthropologist and leading researcher of Amazonian ethnobotany, ethnomedicine and shamanism. He is the author of Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon and co-editor of Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine. He directs Wasiwaska, a Brazilian research centre dedicated to psychointegrator plants, visionary art and consciousness. Since 2022, he has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Sam Gandy, PhD ecologist, independent researcher and science communicator. He has a lifelong love of nature, and his work has spanned the ecological and the psychedelic fields. His work as an independent researcher has involved collaborations with a range of academics and institutes including collaborators from the University of Zurich, University of Virginia, University of Greenwich, the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, Onaya Science, Beckley Psytech and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He has broad research interests but primary among them is the capacity of psychedelics to influence the human relationship with nature.

Anja Loizaga-Velder, PhD, is a German-Mexican clinical psychologist and integrative psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience working alongside Indigenous healers specialising in sacred plant medicines and ceremonial practices. Her work bridges traditional knowledge with trauma-informed approaches to mental health. She researches the therapeutic potential of psychedelic plant medicines and trains therapists in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Anja is a founding member and Director of Research and Clinical Services at Mexico’s Nierika Institute for Intercultural Medicine, which supports Indigenous traditions and explores their therapeutic applications.

Brian Stafford is a psychiatrist, professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Director of its Psychedelic Certificate Programs, with over 40 publications on psychiatry, human development and culture. He trained as a wilderness and vision fast guide with the Animas Valley Institute and as a psychedelic guide, trainer and researcher with CIIS/MAPS. He is a Senior Guide, Trainer and Director of International Programs at Animas, and co-founded the Wild Mind Training Program with Bill Plotkin, PhD, in 2014. Brian guides wilderness fasts, eco-depth retreats and ceremonies worldwide.

Dr Fernanda Gebara is a Brazilian writer, lawyer, climate scientist and social anthropologist whose work weaves forest worlds and global debates on climate, health and the future. She has been collaborating with Indigenous peoples in Brazil and beyond since 2005, learning how cosmologies, rituals and traditional medicines carry vital knowledge about consciousness, healing, spirituality and coexistence. She is the author of Chanting Spring: Indigenous Wisdom for Ancestral Futures and has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals, lectured and collaborated with universities including Oxford and Harvard, and created a wide range of media content. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and collaborates with the Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute and the Runyn Pupykary Yawanawá Institute. To find more about her work visit: www.fegebara.com

Your Organiser 

Ryan is the Online Events Coordinator for The Psychedelic Society and a life-long psychedelic enthusiast. He is completing his MSc in Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine & Culture at The University of Exeter where he specialised in the extra-pharmacological factors affecting psychedelic assisted therapy. 

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