Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century

Registration for Psychedelic Science in the 21^st Century is available through the MAPS webstore. The pricing structure is as follows *:

Registration Class	Regular Rate	Late rate begins March 15, 2010	Day Rate
General Public	$275	$325	$125
Medical Doctors (with CME credits)	$425	$475	$200
Other Medical, Health and Therapeutic Professionals (psychologists, nurses, social workers, etc. with CME/CE credits)	$325	$375	$150
Student	$225	$275	N/A

Limited scholarship registration is available for $120.00.

*All prices are for MAPS members. Non-MAPS members pay an additional $50. MAPS members have donated to MAPS within the past 12 months. To become a MAPS member visit: www.maps.org/donate or call MAPS headquarters at 831-429-MDMA (6362).Members of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, NORML, and Erowid are honored as MAPS members and are not required to pay the additional $50 fee.

Medical doctors and other medical professionals pay higher fees in order to receive CME credits. Medical doctors and other medical professional who do not want to receive CME credits are welcome to pay the general admission rate.

 

Scholarship Application Form Thank you for your interest in attending Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century. MAPS is awarding up to 10 scholarships for each 90 paid registrations. The scholarship registration is to encourage people to attend who might otherwise be unable to attend. This scholarship application will be used to help the Psychedelic Science scholarship committee determine to whom to provide discounted scholarship registrations. Scholarships will be awarded to people of limited financial means who have a demonstrated interest in psychedelic science or psychedelic psychotherapy. Decisions will be made based on four additional factors of equal consideration. Preference will be given to: 1) people who belong to groups that are historically underrepresented in academic discourse on psychedelics such as women, indigenous people, and people of color, 2) international attendees, students, senior citizens, veterans, disabled persons, or people who have not yet been to a conference on psychedelics, 3) people who have applied to present and been accepted, and, 4) individuals who are representing an allied organization. The priority deadline for scholarship submission is December 31. If you apply for a scholarship by December 31 and your application is not accepted, we will let you purchase a registration at the early bird price any time before March 15. We will accept scholarship applications on a rolling basis after December 31. We will reward the next round of scholarships by March 6, 2010, which means that if you are still not awarded a scholarship you can purchase a regular registration before March 15. Scholarship applications submitted after March 6 will be awarded based on availability. ***If you are given the scholarship rate, MAPS will email you a coupon code and a link to a page on the MAPS webstore where you can purchase your registration.*** You will be responsible for your own transportation and lodging during the conference. MAPS is unable to offer any discounts on lodging at the Holiday Inn, but the rooms are reasonably priced and include several meals. If you choose to stay elsewhere, but wish to eat meals at the conference hotel, they can be purchased for $20/meal (this does not include the Shulgin benefit reception on Saturday night). Double occupancy rooms cost $199 at the Holiday Inn and include meals for two people. If you were to share a room with more than two people, then each additional person would need to pay $20/meal in order to dine at conference meals (excluding the benefit dinner on Saturday night). > Download scholarship application as Adobe PDF. Please email the completed form to conference2010@maps.org. Your First Name Your Last Name Your Email Phone City State/Province Postal Code Please SelectOtherA CoruñaAargauAlabamaAlaskaAlavaAlbaceteAlbertaAlicanteAlmeriaAmerican SamoaAppenzell AusserrhodenAppenzell InnerrhodenArizonaArkansasArmed Forces AfricaArmed Forces AmericasArmed Forces CanadaArmed Forces EuropeArmed Forces Middle EastArmed Forces PacificAsturiasAvilaBadajozBaden-WürttembergBalearesBarcelonaBasel-LandschaftBasel-StadtBayernBerlinBernBrandenburgBremenBritish ColumbiaBurgenlandBurgosCaceresCadizCaliforniaCantabriaCastellonCeutaCiudad RealColoradoConnecticutCordobaCuencaDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFederated States Of MicronesiaFloridaFreiburgGenfGeorgiaGironaGlarusGranadaGraubündenGuadalajaraGuamGuipuzcoaHamburgHawaiiHessenHuelvaHuescaIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaJaenJuraKansasKentuckyKärntenLa RiojaLas PalmasLeonLleidaLouisianaLugoLuzernMadridMaineMalagaManitobaMarshall IslandsMarylandMassachusettsMecklenburg-VorpommernMelillaMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaMurciaNavarraNebraskaNeuenburgNevadaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNewfoundlandNidwaldenNiedersachsenNiederösterreichNordrhein-WestfalenNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthern Mariana IslandsNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOberösterreichObwaldenOhioOklahomaOntarioOregonOurensePalauPalenciaPennsylvaniaPontevedraPrince Edward IslandPuerto RicoQuebecRheinland-PfalzRhode IslandSaarlandSachsenSachsen-AnhaltSalamancaSalzburgSanta Cruz de TenerifeSaskatchewanSchaffhausenSchleswig-HolsteinSchwyzSegoviaSevillaSolothurnSoriaSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaSt. GallenSteiermarkTarragonaTennesseeTeruelTessinTexasThurgauThüringenTirolToledoUriUtahValenciaValladolidVermontVirgin IslandsVirginiaVizcayaVoralbergWaadtWallisWashingtonWest VirginiaWienWisconsinWyomingYukon TerritoryZamoraZaragozaZugZürich Country Please Select United States Canada Mexico Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegowina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Terr. Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote d'Ivoire Croatia (Hrvatska) Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands/Malvinas Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France France, Metropolitan French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Terr. Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Is. Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Dem. Rep. Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserra Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Is. Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia St. Vincent & Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome & Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa S.Georgia & S.Sandwich Is. Spain Sri Lanka St. Helena St. Pierre & Miquelon Sudan Suriname Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is. Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks & Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom U.S. Minor Outlying Is. Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican (Holy See) Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands (British) Virgin Islands (U.S.) Wallis & Futuna Is. Western Sahara Yemen Yugoslavia Zaire Zambia Zimbabwe Profession Credentials / Field-of-Study / Other Interests Please Selectaccounting & financeadmin / officearchitecture / engineeringart / media / designbiotech / sciencebusiness / mgmtcustomer serviceeducationfood / beverage / hospitalitygeneral laborgovernmenthuman resourcesinternet / webdesign / webadminlegal / paralegalmanufacturingmarketing / public relations / advertisingmedical / healthnonprofit sectorreal estateretail / wholesalesales / business developmentsalon / spa / fitnesssecurityskilled trade / craftsoftware / quality assessment / database adminstudentsystems / networktechnical supporttransportationtv / film / videoweb / info / graphic designwriting / editing / proofingother Scholarship Application:   Why do you want to attend Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century? (2000 character limit) (Maximum characters: 2000) You have characters left.   Please explain your involvement/interest in psychedelic science or psychedelic psychotherapy (1000 character limit) (Maximum characters: 1000) You have characters left.   Is this your first psychedelics conference? Yes No   Please briefly indicate why you are unable to pay regular priced registration (1000 character limit) (Maximum characters: 1000) You have characters left.   Have you applied to present at Psychedelic Science? No Yes   Would your attendance be on behalf of an organization? No Yes   Which organization?   What is the organization’s website?   What is the organization’s operating budget?   Are others applying from your organization? No Yes   What are their names?   Are there any other special circumstances we should know about? (1000 character limit) (Maximum characters: 1000) You have characters left.   Do you consider yourself to come from a group of indigenous people or from a first nation? Optional Yes No   How would you describe your ethnic or cultural background? (optional)   Do you identify yourself as a particular gender? (optional)   Are you a student? Optional Yes No   If so, where and in which program?   Are you a senior citizen? Optional Yes No   Are you a veteran? Optional Yes No   Are you on government disability? Optional Yes No   If you were encouraged to apply for a scholarship by a MAPS staff member, please indicate their name here: Thank you for filling out the scholarship application.

The conference will be held at the:

Holiday Inn
1740 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95112
United States

There are two Holiday Inns near the San Jose Airport. Be sure to book your room through our group rate at the Holiday Inn on North First Street, NOT the Holiday Inn on North Fourth Street.

Online booking is unavailable for our group rate.

Call the Holiday Inn at 408-793-3919 and book your room by mentioning "MAPS Psychedelic Science." Tell the clerk whether you would like a single or double occupancy room. (Single occupancy rooms are referred to as the "single block," double occupancy rooms are referred to as the "double block.")

Single occupancy rooms are $139/night; double occupancy rooms are $199/night.

We strongly recommend that you stay at the conference hotel and book your room through our group rate. The room rates are very competitive and are inclusive of tax -- group rates also include most meals during the conference.

If you make your hotel reservation through a third party such as Hotels.com or Expedia, you will not be eligible for conference meals. Competitors rates advertised online tend to not include tax until check out.

If you have more than two people in a double occupancy room, the additional people will need to purchase meal vouchers to dine at conference meals.

If you would like to have meals during the conference and choose not to stay at the Holiday Inn, meal vouchers must be purchased ahead of time.

Meal vouchers will be available for purchase for $15-25/meal at a later date (this does not apply to the tribute dinner on Saturday night).

There will be a special tribute dinner on the evening of Saturday April 17 to raise funds for the conference, with guests of honor Ann and Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, whose lifetime of achievements are inspiring. As a pharmacologist and chemist Sasha discovered numerous new psychoactive chemicals and authored the legendary books TIHKAL and PIHKAL, and hundreds of other scientific papers. Ann and Sasha are legendary for bringing rational and scientific perspectives to self-experimentation and psychoactive ingestion.

The benefit will cost $60 to attend and is not covered by the cost of the hotel room.

Tickets may be purchased for the benefit dinner in the MAPS webstore.

Several esteemed guests will speak at the benefit dinner, including:

Paul Daley, Ph.D.
Amanda Feilding
Alex and Allyson Grey
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D.
Charles Grob, M.D.
Bob Jesse
Mark Kleiman, Ph.D.
Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D.
David Nichols, Ph.D.
Nick Sand

A detailed schedule of the conference will be available after March 1. Below we have provided the basic structure of how the time will be used.

Thursday, April 15, 2010. 9 AM to 5 PM pre-conference workshops

Thursday, April 15, 2010. 5 PM to 9 PM registration open

Thursday, April 15, 2010. 7 PM to 9 PM opening reception

Friday, April 16, 2010. 7 AM registration opens. Full day of programming

Saturday, April 17, 2010. 7 AM registration opens. Full day of programming

Sunday, April 18, 2010. Programming will end at 4:30 PM

Monday, April 19, 2010. 9 AM to 5 PM post-conference workshops

See who else is coming to the conference, find people to share hotel rooms with, and plan ride-shares on the Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century Facebook page.

The Facebook page is a great platform for connecting with other conference-goers. If you have a Facebook account please RSVP to the conference event (Facebook accounts are free and easy to make).

MAPS staff will not be able to connect people with roommates or ride-shares. We understand that not everyone has a Facebook page and some people may prefer to not have one. We apologize to those who are inconvenienced by this method of finding room-shares and ride-shares.

MAPS would like to acknowldge the following co-sponsors and allies for their help promoting the conferernece:

The Institute of Noetic Sciences

The Heffter Research Institute

The Beckley Foundation

The Council on Spiritual Practices

The California Institute of Integral Studies

The Association of Transpersonal Psychology

Grof Transpersonal Training (Holotropic Breathwork™

Erowid

Mindstates

Gaia Media

The OPEN Foundation (Netherlands)

Evolver

What is the address of the hotel?
Holiday Inn
1740 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95112
United States

Google MAP location

There are two Holiday Inns near the San Jose Airport. Be sure to book your room through our group rate at the Holiday Inn on North First Street, NOT the Holiday Inn on North Fourth Street

Is there a special conference room rate?
Yes.  There are 2 blocks – single occupancy for $139, and double occupancy for $199. 

How do I book my hotel reservation to make sure I get the conference rate?
You can either book through the links on this webpage, or you can call the Holiday Inn directly at 1-866-241-9878. Tell them that you want to book at the Holiday Inn in San Jose on North First Street from April 15-18, and make sure they know that you want to be in the “MAPS Psychedelic Science” room block.

Can I book my hotel reservations myself, or at another hotel?
Yes, of course. But if you don't book with our block, you won't be included in our meal plan. The prices of our hotel rooms are very competitive when you include meals, plus the rates include tax.

How many meals are included in the MAPS rate at the conference hotel? 
There will be a reception on Thursday night with light snacks, 3 meals on Friday, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. The Friday night dinner will be followed by a presentation by Alex and Allyson Grey. Please note, no dinner will be provided on Saturday night due to the special benefit dinner being held to raise funds for the conference and honor Alexander “Sasha” and Ann Shulgin. Tickets may be purchased for the benefit dinner beginning in mid-October on the MAPS webstore.

If I’m staying somewhere else, can I still be on the meal plan?
Yes. Meal vouchers may be purchased separately at a later date for $20/meal.  This does not include the benefit dinner on Saturday night.

What time is the conference scheduled to start on Thursday?
The conference is scheduled to start with a recption at 7:00 PM on Thursday.

What time is the conference scheduled to end on Sunday?
The conference is scheduled to end no later than 4:30 PM on Sunday.

Do you know the schedule for the pre- and post-conference workshops?
Yes, the pre-and post-conference workshops are listed on this webpage.

I want to stay for the Monday workshops - is there a MAPS rate at the hotel for Sunday night?
You should be able to book your room at the Holiday Inn for $79 on Sunday night.

Is it one price for the conference, or is it one price for the conference, and also several other prices to go to certain presentations or classes?
Attendees only pay one rate for the conference from Thursday evening, April 15, through Sunday Afternoon, April 18. There are additional fees to attend one of the pre- or post-conference workshops.

I have food allergies, will I be able to dine at conference meals?
The hotel will have three options for each meal – vegetarian, meat, and an allergy avoidant meal. If you have a food allergy and wish to dine at the conference please let us know by emailing conference@maps.org and we will strive to accommodate you.

International experts will present the state of the art of psychedelic science and psychedelic psychotherapy studies, including:

• Biological and neurological effects of psychedelic substances
• MDMA-(ecstasy) assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Psychedelic psychotherapy for treating anxiety and depression associated with life-threatening illnesses
• Mystical-type experiences catalyzed by psychedelics and their therapeutic implications
• Psychedelics’ role in the treatment of drug addiction
• Psilocybin research with obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Standards for conducting psychedelic psychotherapy research

The intended learning objectives for medical doctors and ancillary medical professionals are:

1) Apply new techniques and strategies for enhancing communication, trust and therapeutic effectiveness with patients in their regular therapeutic practices, based on transferable lessons learned from presentations about recent psychedelic research and associated psychedelic psychotherapy techniques.
2) Counsel patients and their families more effectively with drug-related issues and/or questions by implementing knowledge of recent scientific research about the mechanisms of action and potential risks and benefits of psychedelic drugs.
3) Make informed decisions about initiating and/or improving their own clinical research with psychedelics, by having additional information on special regulatory issues, current research methodologies and therapeutic approaches.
4) Evaluate methodological rigor of clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and research in general, in light of presentations about the design of state-of-the-art research in the field.
5) Implement compassionate psychedelic psychotherapy intervention techniques in emergency room situations and in private practice when attending to patients undergoing acute psychedelic crises.
6) Refer patients with relevant medical conditions to active clinical trials.
7) Post conference, be able to share with colleagues knowledge from recent scientific studies pertaining to the medical and non-medical use of psychedelic drugs.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Institute for Medical Quality and the California Medical Association’s CME Accreditation Standards (IMQ/CMA) through the Joint-Sponsorship of CME Consultants and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). CME Consultants is accredited by IMQ/CMA to provide continuing medical education for physicians. CME Consultants takes responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity.

CME Consultants designates this educational activity for a maximum of 15.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.  Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This credit may also be applied to the CMA Certification in Continuing Medical Education.

Presenters in the CME track (in alphabetical order):

• Matt Baggott, Ph.D. Candidate, (University of California Berkeley, LSD, MDMA, MDA, Salvia Divinorum researcher)
• Jose Carlos Bouso, Psychologist, Ph.D. Candidate (Spain, MDMA/PTSD researcher)
• Alicia Danforth, Ph.D. Candidate (ITP, UCLA psilocybin researcher)
• Peter Gasser, M.D. (Switzerland, LSD/end-of-life anxiety researcher)
• Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University, psilocybin/mystical experiences, psilocybin/cancer anxiety, psilocybin drug dependence, dextromethorphan, Salvia Divinorum researcher)
• Charles Grob, M.D. (UCLA, psilocybin/cancer anxiety researcher)
• Stanislav Grof, M.D. (Co-founder of transpersonal psychology, leading theorist in psychedelic psychotherapy, founder of Holotropic Breathwork™)
• John Halpern, M.D. by video link (Harvard, MDMA, Peyote, Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, and LSD researcher)
• Julie Holland, M.D. (NYU School of Medicine, psychiatric emergency services)
• Sergio Marchevsky, M.D. (Israel, MDMA/PTSD researcher)
• John Mendelson, M.D. (UCSF, LSD, MDMA, MDA, Salvia Divinorum researcher)
• Michael Mithoefer, M.D. (U.S., MDMA/PTSD researcher)
• David Nichols, Ph.D. (Heffter Research Institute, Purdue University)
• Peter Oehen, M.D. (Switzerland, MDMA/PTSD researcher)
• Ingrid Pacey, M.D. (Canada, MDMA/PTSD researcher)
• Torsten Passie, M.D., Ph.D. (Germany, psilocybin research)
• Jordi Riba, Ph.D. (Spain, ayahuasca researcher)
• William Richards, Ph.D. (JHU, psilocybin/cancer anxiety researcher)
• Stephen Ross, M.D. (NYU, psilocybin/cancer anxiety researcher)
• Ben Sessa, M.D. (UK, psilocybin researcher)
• Franz Vollenweider ,M.D. (Switzerland, psychedelic neuroscience researcher)
• Andrew Weil, M.D. by video link. (Integrative medicine, introducing new approaches to medicine without backlash)
• Michele Weitz, B.A. (U.S., Clinical Research Expert)
• Christopher Wiegand, M.D. (Psilocybin/OCD researcher)

Matt Baggott, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California Berkeley
A graduate student at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at University of California Berkeley and research associate at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, Matt Baggott’s professional interests bridge neuroscience and psychopharmacology, and include mechanisms of hallucinations, toxicity of drugs of abuse, pharmacokinetics and dynamics of phenethylamines, and neural correlates of consciousness. His most recent studies are centered on Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD).

Jose Carlos Bouso, Ph.D. Candidate
Jose Carlos Bouso’s studies addressed the safety of different doses of MDMA administered in a psychotherapeutic setting to women with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) secondary to a sexual assault. He also obtained initial data on the efficacy of MDMA-assissted psychotherapy. He currently works on Dr. Riba's team conducting neuropharmacological research on psychedelics.

Alicia Danforth, Ph.D. Candidate
A graduate student of clinical psychology and a research associate and co-facilitator for the Harbor-UCLA cancer anxiety trial with psilocybin, Alicia Danforth will provide an overview of the research from the late 1950s through the early 1970s on the use of LSD and psilocybin in the treatment of severe autism in children. She will also discuss the potential use of MDMA-assisted therapy as a supplement to treatment for individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome.

Peter Gasser M.D.
Dr. Gasser will present data on an on-going randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues. This study will be completed in 2010 and will become the first study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in human subjects in over 35 years.

Roland Griffiths Ph.D.
Dr. Griffiths, a professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, has had a principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs. He will present research investigating psilocybin-induced mystical experiences in psychedelic naïve adults and psilocybin induced-mystical experiences in volunteers with cancer.

Charles Grob M.D.
Dr. Grob will discuss a completed, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with cancer. A paper about this study was submitted for publication in August 2009. His talk will also cover the psychobiologic effects of MDMA in humans, the MDMA-neurotoxicity controversy, the effects of MDMA on cerebral blood flow, and the neuropsychological effects of MDMA in recreational users.

Stanislav Grof M.D.
A pioneer researcher of the use of altered states of consciousness for purposes of analyzing, healing, and obtaining growth and insight into the human psyche, and one of the founding fathers of the field of transpersonal psychology, Dr. Stanislav Grof will be discussing LSD-assisted psychotherapy in patients with terminal cancer, the experimental use of psychedelic psychotherapy, the conceptual challenges from researching consciousness, and DPT as an adjunct in psychotherapy of alcoholics.

John Halpern M.D. (presenting by live video link)
Dr. Halpern will report on an ongoing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 12 subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer, taking place at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Data will also be presented from Dr. Halpern’s National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded 5-year controlled, blinded study of the neurocognitive effects of Ecstasy use. Preliminary data from this study has also been published and includes the psychological and cognitive effects of long-term peyote use among Native Americans and evidence of health and safety in American members of a religion who use a hallucinogenic sacrament.

Julie Holland, M.D.
Dr. Holland will present lessons she learned in a psychiatric emergency room at Bellevue Hospital, NYC. Dr. Holland, editor of Ecstasy: A Complete Guide, will also speak about the potential therapeutic use of MDMA in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Sergio Marchevsky M.D.
Dr. Marchevsky will report on data from an on-going randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with treatment-resistant PTSD, taking place at Beer Yaakov Mental Health Center in Israel.

Michael Mithoefer M.D.
Dr. Mithoefer, will report on data from the completed, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 21 subjects with treatment-resistant PTSD, and on the subsequent long-term follow up of these subjects > 1 year after study completion. He will also describe the design and progress of a dose-response MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study in US war veterans that he expects to complete in 2011.

David Nichols Ph.D.
The founding president of the Heffter Research Institute and Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology at Purdue University, Nichols is considered to be one of the world's top experts on psychedelics. His recent studies investigate the phylogeny and structure of serotonin receptors, their signaling systems and receptor oligomerization. The general theme of his research is to understand how changes in brain neurochemistry affect behavior, through the use of molecular probes. His laboratory has published numerous studies elucidating details both of the mechanism of action of MDMA and of the biochemical events related to the neurotoxic effects seen in animals following administration. Dr. Nichols coined the name 'entactogen' to describe the unique psychopharmacological effects of MDMA and related compounds.

Peter Oehen M.D.
Dr. Oehen will report on data from an on-going randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 12 subjects with treatment-resistant PTSD. The 12th subject has recently been enrolled into the study, which will conclude data-gathering around January 2010.

Peter Oehen M.D.
Dr. Oehen will report on data from an on-going randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 12 subjects with treatment-resistant PTSD. The 12th subject has recently been enrolled into the study, which will conclude data-gathering around January 2010.

Ingrid Pacey, M.D.
Dr. Pacey is a psychiatrist from Vancouver, Canada. She has worked with patients with PTSD for over 30 years. She trained in Holotropic Breathwork™ with Dr. Stan and Christina Grof 1987-1990 and facilitated Holotopic Breathwork groups mainly with trauma survivors for 15 years. She is principal investigator, along with Andrew Feldmar, M.A., for the Canadian MDMA/PTSD study which has been approved by Health Canada. It awaits further permits and will start in 2010.

Jordi Riba M.D.
Dr. Riba conducted the first controlled pharmacological study of ayahuasca in experienced psychedelic users. These studies have assessed the general pharmacology of ayahuasca in humans, including alkaloid disposition, and electroencephalography and neuroimaging measures of acute ayahuasca effects. The results of these studies have been published in various scientific journals like Psychopharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. He is currently conducting a neuropsychological study assessing the effects of long-term ayahuasca use.

William Richards, Ph.D.
William A. Richards, Ph.D. is a psychologist in the Psychiatry Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Bayview Medical Center. His graduate degrees include a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, a Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) from Andover-Newton Theological School, and a Ph.D. from Catholic University. Richards also studied with Abraham Maslow at Brandeis University and with Hanscarl Leuner at Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany, where his involvement with psilocybin research originated in 1963. From 1967 to 1977, Richards pursued psychotherapy research with LSD, DPT, MDA and psilocybin at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. His research included protocols designed to investigate psychedelics as a treatment for alcoholism, severe neuroses, narcotic addiction, and the psychological distress associated with terminal cancer, and also their use in the training of religious and mental-health professionals. He helped design and served as the primary guide in the John Hopkins research that demonstrated the positive correlation between psilocybin and mystical experiences (see Griffiths, et al. 2006).

Stephen Ross, M.D.
Stephen Ross, M.D. is Principal Investigator of the new Psilocybin Cancer Project at NYU. He is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Oral Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and College of Dentistry. Dr. Ross completed general psychiatry training at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, and received addiction psychiatry fellowship training at Bellevue Hospital & the NYU School of Medicine. Currently, Dr. Ross is the Director of the Division of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital, the Clinical Director of the NYU Langone Center of Excellence on Addiction, and the Associate Director of Addiction Education, NYU Department of Psychiatry. He has received eight teaching awards relating to education of medical students, general psychiatry residents, and addiction psychiatry fellows. His research focuses on co-occurring disorders, personality disorders, music therapy, public health, and the therapeutic application of hallucinogens.

Ben Sessa, M.D., B.Sc., M.R.C.Psych.
A child and adolescent psychiatrist working in the South West of England, Dr. Sessa developed a lifelong interest in psychedelics as a youth and has spent the last several years working to present his skeptical peers in psychiatry with a straight-laced, objective and unbiased point of view on the history and potential of these contentious and fascinating substances. Since publishing an article in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2005, he has had ten peer-reviewed articles in medical journals, and presented at medical conferences throughout the UK and Europe, chairing two symposiums at the Royal College of Psychiatry, offering consultation to the British Government on MDMA and contributing to numerous media articles in the British press on psychedelics. He will be giving a brief presentation on the History of Psychedelic Research in the UK, with particular reference to the work of Ronald Sandison, M.D. and LSD treatment explored by the maverick psychiatrist RD Laing, and will describe a pilot study that has recently been completed at Bristol University using intravenous psilocybin in healthy human volunteers in a mock-MRI scanner environment. The goal of the pilot study was to establish set/setting and dosage parameters for a double-blind placebo-controlled fMRI study (to begin in 2010) that will use neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that subjects have a greater access to repressed emotional memories under the influence of psilocybin. The hope is that this study will provide empirical data to support the much-used claim that psychedelic psychotherapy allows a deeper access to the unconscious.

Franz Vollenweider M.D.
During the past ten years, Dr. Vollenweider has established a research program aiming to understand the neural basis of altered states of consciousness in health, schizophrenia, and affective disorders. Dr. Vollenweider’s research interests have increasingly focused on the understanding of the neural basis of drug (e.g. psychedelic) and non-drug (e.g. pathological) - induced altered states of consciousness. In search of the neuronal correlates of altered states, the subjective and neurobiological effects of classic hallucinogens, dissociative anesthetics and psychostimulants have been assessed in more than 500 healthy human volunteers using neuropsychological and brain imaging methods such as positron emission tomography and high density electroencephalography, and measures of information processing. Dr. Vollenweider’s research has been continuously funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss Federal Health Office, and the Heffter Research Institute (USA). He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, including many addressing the mechanisms sub-serving the effects of psychostimulants, hallucinogens, and entactogens.

Andrew Weil M.D. (presenting by live video link)
Andrew Weil, M.D., is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing oriented approach to healthcare, which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (AzCIM) at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, where he is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health and the Lovell-Jones Professor of Integrative Rheumatology.

Michele Weitz, BA
Michelle Weitz has 15 years experience in a clinical research setting and is an expert on good clinical practice for pharmaceutical research. She designs and evaluates quality assurance infrastructure and clinical operation processes to prepare researchers for inspections by regulatory agencies. She will provide training for investigators who are interested in conducting clinical trials of psychedelic therapy in line with international standards for pharmaceutical research.

Christopher Wiegand, M.D.
Christopher Wiegand, M.D., is a psychiatrist currently in private practice in Tucson, Arizona. His clinical practice includes outpatient psychopharmacology and psychotherapy, hospital and nursing home consultation, and electroconvulsive therapy. In addition, Dr. Wiegand is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona; he participates in research, resident supervision, and medical student education. He received his B.A. in Archaeology at the University of Virginia in 1995, his M.D. at the University of Virginia in 1999, and completed Psychiatry residency training at the University of Arizona in June, 2003. Dr Wiegand will be discussing, among other things, the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of psilocybin in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

The non-cme track will have presentations about a variety of topics related to psychedelic research, psychedelic psychotherapy, applied science, neurobiology, issues relevant to healthcare, and social, cultural, and psychological issues surrounding the therapeutic and spiritual uses of psychedelics.

The call for proposals to present is closed. The following presenters have been selected (in alphabetical order):

Peter Addy, Ph.D. (cand.)	Salvia divinorum
Allan Ajaya, Ph.D.	LSD-Assisted Myofacial Therapy: A Case Study
Brian Anderson	The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research
Sylvia C. Bagge, R.N.	Psychedelic Therapy and the Alexander Technique
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro Barbosa, Ph.D.	A Six-Month Prospective Evaluation of Personality Traits, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Quality of Life in Ayahuasca-Naive Subjects, and The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research
Simon Brandt, Ph.D.	The Chemical Anaysis of Hallucinogenic Tryptamines Obtained from Organic Synthesis
Susana Bustos, Ph.D.	Icaros: Song and Healing in Ayahuasca Ceremonies
Shannon Campbell, M.S.	Enhanced Mysticism, Perception, and Cognition of Psychedelic States of Consciousness: Assessment of a New Questionnaire
Clinton Canal, Ph.D.	Hallucinogenic behavioral response in rodents: role of serotonin 2A and 2C receptors
Henry Cox, Ph.D. (cand.)	Pituri: Identity and Effect
Nicholas Cozzi, Ph.D.	Recent developments in N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) pharmacology
Alicia L. Danforth, Ph.D (cand.)	Psychedelics, Research and Safety: Above All, Do No Harm
Frank Echenhofer, Ph.D.	Shamanic EEGs and Adult Development
Earth and Fire Erowid	Public Education: Psychedelic Information on the Internet
Yalila Espinoza	Erotic Healing Experiences with Ayahuasca
Josep Maria Fabregas, M.D.	Long Term Effects on Mental Health of Ayahuasca Ritual Use
James Fadiman, Ph.D.	Psychedelics as Entheogens: How to Create and Guide Successful Sessions
Kevin Feeney, J.D.	Revisiting Wasson's Soma: Exploring the Effects of Preparation on the Chemistry of Amanita muscaria, and Re-examining the role of muscarine in the chemistry of amanita muscaria
Amanda Feilding	Director of The Beckley Foundation
Robert Forte	Ayahuasca, Indigenous Medicine, and Cancer: Preliminary Findings
Carolyn Garcia	aka Mountain Girl
Neal Goldsmith, Ph.D.	(Author, Psychotherapist)
Alex and Allyson Grey	(Chapel Of Sacred Mirrors)
Charles S. Grob, M.D.	Psychedelics, Research and Safety: Above All, Do No Harm
Alberto Groisman, Ph.D.	Ayahuasca Religions in Contemporary Society: Law, Health, and Cultural Implications
Rafael Guimarães dos Santos	The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research
Jeffrey Guss, M.D.	The NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Research Project's Psychedelic Psychotherapy Training Program
Rachel Harris, Ph.D.	Ayahuasca in North America
Andreas Hernandez, Ph.D.	Cultural Trauma, Capitalist Modernity, and the Global Expansion of Santo Daime: 1930-2009
Scott Hill, Ph.D.	Implications of Jungian Psychology for Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Bob Jesse	- the Council on Spiritual Practices
Henrik Jungaberle, Ph.D.	Learning from the Best (and also from the Rest): The Development of a Professional Rule Culture in Psychedelic Therapy
James Kent	The Mechanics of Hallucination
Beatriz Caiuby Labate	The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research
David Lukoff, Ph.D.	Implications of Jungian Psychology for Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Marcelo Mercante, Ph.D.	Ayahuasca, Spontaneous Mental Imagery, Homeless People, and the Treatment of Drug Addiction and Alcoholism, and The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.	Psychedelic, Psychoactive and Addictive Drugs and States of Consciousness
Michael Montagne, Ph.D.	Metaphors and Meanings: How We Interpret and Understand Psychedelic Drug Experiences
Levente Moro, Ph.D. (cand.)	Autognosis, Life Quality, and Spirituality in Psychedelic Drug Users
Thomas Munro, Ph.D.	Toward the human pharmacology of salvinorin A
Tom Pinkson, Ph.D.	Psychedelics and Death: Exercising the 'Letting Go' Muscle
Silvia Polivoy, Ph.D.	Ayahuasca: Handle with Utmost Care
Alexandre Quaranta, Ph.D.	Psychedelics Use and Lucid Dreaming: The Providential Synergy
Deborah Quevedo, R.N., Ph.D.	Psychospiritual Integration of an Ayahuasca Retreat Experience
Maggi Quinlan, Ph.D.	Healing from the Gods: Ayahuasca and the Curing of Disease States
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D.	Public Education: A University Course in Psychedelics
Zeno Sanchez-Ramos, M.D.	Effects of Psilocybin and other Selective Serotonin Agonists on Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Neurogenesis
Ben Sessa, MD, BSc, MRCPsych	Recent History of Psychedelics in the United Kingdom
Bruce Sewick	Public Education: A University Course in Psychedelics
Diana Slattery, Ph.D. (cand)	Ecstatic Significations: Psychedelics and Language
Kaleb Smith	Hyper-Sensitive States and Indirect Semantic Priming: Inferring The Mechanics of Psilocybin's Novel Association Effect
Leanna Standish, N.D., Ph.D., L.Acup, FABNO	Ayahuasca, Science and Medicine
Luis Fernando Tofoli, M.D.	Mental health safety of Ayahuasca religious use: results from an epidemiological surveillance system by the União do Vegetal in Brazil
Steven Toth, R.M.T.	Incorporating Bodywork into the Psychedelic
Stephen Trichter, Ph.D.	Out of the Jungle and onto the Couch: Applying Ayahuasca's Lessons to the Therapy Room
Kenneth Tupper, Ph.D. (cand.)	Psychedelics, Entheogens, and Public Policy
Brian West	Education and Training
Bob Wold	Cluster Busters

Peter Addy, Ph.D. (cand.) – Salvia divinorum
I performed basic scientific research administering the psychedelic plant Salvia divinorum to 30 human participants. I utilized a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study design that incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis in my attempt to study the subjective experience of S. divinorum and consequences of use after 8 weeks. Participants were screened for medical and psychological issues in order to minimize the chance of a negative reaction. An Emergency Medical Technician was present during administration of either 1000 mcg salvinorin A or placebo dose. I found that smoking salvinorin A in a controlled research setting facilitated psychedelic and transpersonal experiences with few negative experiences reported. The effects were sudden, fleeting, and incomparable to the effects facilitated by other psychoactive. During an 8-week follow-up interview no participants met DSM criteria for substance abuse or dependence of S. divinorum. Use of this plant is increasing, and medical professionals should be aware of what an S. divinorum experience can look like and how to treat a user. This presentation will serve as both an introduction to the plant, its use as a psychedelic, my research findings, and suggestions for future research.

Allan Ajaya, Ph.D. – LSD-Assisted Myofacial Therapy: A Case Study
Wilhelm Reich and his successors have elucidated the way in which childhood and other traumas lead to the formation of body armoring and character structure. Dissociation or disembodiment, emotional and physical frozenness, identification with the intellect, denial of the body, and heartlessness are consequences of avoiding the pain of past traumas. A host of therapies have evolved that work with the body to release such long held reactions to traumas. While hundreds of reports, research studies and books have documented the effectiveness of LSD in facilitating psychotherapy, this presenter has not found any in-depth reports that demonstrate the use of LSD to enhance the effectiveness of body centered therapies. This is a case presentation of an adult male who undertook weekly sessions of myofacial therapy over the course of eighteen months. Most of these sessions were experienced after ingesting mild to moderate dose of LSD. The progression of his unfolding is described from his perspective. The way in which these experiences differed from myofacial sessions when he had not ingested LSD is considered. Effects of myofacial release that he was unaware of during sessions without LSD became vivid. His capacity to shift from an observing awareness to direct participation in the bodily, emotional, and energetic releases was made possible by LSD. He was able to open and become more responsive to touch, experience safety, being nurtured and to experience a greater sense of embodiment and presence in ways that did not occur in sessions that were not facilitated by LSD.

Brian Anderson – The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research. With Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Marcelo Mercante, and Paulo César Ribeiro Barbosa.
The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research This discussion will present a series of reflections on the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of Ayahuasca in the treatment and handling of substance dependence problems. Anthropological and psychiatric data on the ritual use of Ayahuasca for “healing” dependence in psychotherapeutic centers (in Peru and Brazil), as well as in Ayahuasca religions (in Brazil), are reviewed and critiqued. Methodological, ethical and political considerations for current and future research in this area are then discussed, and an interdisciplinary agenda for studies on the use of Ayahuasca to treat or handle substance dependence is proposed.

Sylvia C. Bagge, R.N. – Psychedelic Therapy and the Alexander Technique
I am a registered nurse working in an AIDS hospice in San Francisco called Maitri. I am currently working on a paper that addresses the potential relationship between psychedelic therapies and the Alexander Technique aimed at the resolving of musculoskeletal pain and the restoration the body's functional organization following traumatic injury, repetitive strain injury, and scoliosis. This paper explores the possibilities of re-patterning unconscious habits of "harmful use" of the body through the experience the spine's natural energetics rapidly through psychedelic insight. The method of F. Matthias Alexander is particularly suited for use with psychedelic therapies because of its focus upon the cessation of "fixing" ourselves, and its insistence upon awakening the body's natural flow of movement through the zen-like mental discipline of "not trying." Aldous Huxley himself studied the technique in London in the 1930's and stated "...we cannot ask for more from any system." I am enthusiastic about this paper because I observe the allopathic medical model pathologizing pain in a way that locks people into pain replicating patterns. This encourages the sometimes unnecessary long-term or permanent use of pharmaceutical opiates, anti-inflammatories, and medications for neuropathic pain that are associated with many serious side-effects.

Paulo Cesar Ribeiro Barbosa, Ph.D. – A Six-Month Prospective Evaluation of Personality Traits, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Quality of Life in Ayahuasca-Naive Subjects
The authors assessed 23 subjects immediately before and six months (27.5 weeks) after their first Ayahuasca session experienced within the urban Brazilian religious context of Santo Daime (N = 15) and União do Vegetal (N = 8). The measures applied included: 1) the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised Edition (CIS-R), which is designed to assess minor psychiatric symptoms; 2) the Short Form–36 items Health Survey (SF-36), a questionnaire designed to measure eight dimensions of general health and well-being (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and mental health); 3) the Temperament and Character Inventory–125 items (TCI-125), which measures four domains of temperament (novelty seeking, reward dependence, harm avoidance and persistence) and character (self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence). Independent variables were the frequency of Ayahuasca use throughout the period and the length of Ayahuasca wash-out after six months. Santo Daime subjects showed a significant reduction of minor psychiatric symptoms, improvement of mental health, and a change in character traits towards decreased harm avoidance behavior (i.e. less anxious and pessimistic and more outgoing and optimistic). The União do Vegetal group showed a significant decrease in physical pain, and temperament change towards less reward-dependent behavior (i.e. less social approval-seeker and more cold and aloof). Changes in reward dependence was positively correlated with the frequency of Ayahuasca use and negatively correlated with the length of wash-out period. We discuss possible mechanisms by which these changes may have occurred and suggest areas for future research.

Simon Brandt, Ph.D. – The Chemical Anaysis of Hallucinogenic Tryptamines Obtained from Organic Synthesis
Several N,N-dialkylated tryptamine derivatives are known to induce altered states of consciousness and the term ‘‘hallucinogens’’ is commonly used in an attempt to describe their powerful impact on the human mind. These compounds have generated growing interest in the psychiatry, neuroscience, psychopharmacology and recreational communities. Recent representatives that have been used in human clinical studies include N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and psilocybin. A large number of these derivatives are classified as controlled substances and one predictable consequence of prohibition by legislation is the creation of a clandestine trade. The corollary of this is the inability to exercise quality control over the illegally prepared compounds which often leads to low quality drugs with unpredictable biological activity and ill-defined impurity profiles. One reason for the analytical characterization of synthetic procedures is to install proper pharmaceutical quality control protocols in order to comply with regulative issues when clinical use is concerned. Another reason is based on the necessity to provide information about the principal drugs and their impurities to the clinical welfare, forensic or drug rehabilitation communities. An introduction to the topic is presented and a few representative examples from research experience are provided. It is also aimed to include an example about the incorporation into university teaching.

Susana Bustos, Ph.D. – Icaros: Song and Healing in Ayahuasca Ceremonies
This paper discusses some of the results of an exploratory study of healing experiences attributed to an icaro (a type of shamanic song) by individuals who participated in Ayahuasca ceremonies in the context of the Peruvian vegetalismo tradition (Bustos, 2008). The data were collected in Peru during an eight-month fieldwork period. Participants in this study were 5 adult men and women with extensive past experience with Ayahuasca, who reported their healing experiences after a sound-recorded ceremony and identified the icaros that were significant to them. The method of analysis was Giorgi’s (1986, 1997) descriptive phenomenology as it pertains to psychology, which uncovered the essential structure of meaning of the phenomenon under study, as it emerged in lived experience. This paper discusses the connections between musical perception and meaning constituents, thus aiming to contribute to the larger understanding of the use of singing in facilitating therapeutic states of consciousness under psychotropic effects in a controlled setting.

Shannon Campbell, M.S. – Enhanced Mysticism, Perception, and Cognition of Psychedelic States of Consciousness: Assessment of a New Questionnaire
Natural psychedelics have been used by indigenous cultures for centuries for spiritual, medicinal, and educational use. So far current research is limited regarding the full range of possible uses. The new Cognitive Tool Questionnaire was created to assess the self perceived changes and enhancements in the cognitive effects of psychoactive cacti and psilocybin mushrooms using Gardner’s multiple intelligences as a framework. Strassman’s Hallucinogen Rating Scale and Hood’s Mysticism scale were also included in the survey given to 215 participants on the internet to assess the physiological and mystical effects of natural psychedelics. Results showed little increase in the physiological effects of the experience over time, but a greater enhancement of mystical experiences and cognitive benefits for those users with a healthy diet, a more traditional or non-traditional religious affiliation, and those users with the most experience with the natural psychedelics. These results highlighted the importance of not only the vegetarian diet of many South American shamans, but also how the natural psychedelics have greater spiritual significance as entheogens. This study also found that these natural psychedelics can be used as cognitive tools to aid in human development.

Clinton Canal, PhD – Hallucinogenic behavioral response in rodents: role of serotonin 2A and 2C receptors
Hallucinogenic serotonin 2A (5HT2A) receptor partial agonists, such as 1-[2,5­dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl]-2-aminopropane (DOI), induce a frontal cortex-dependent head-twitch response (HTR) in rats and mice that is blocked by 5HT2A receptor antagonists. In addition to 5HT2A receptors, DOI and most other serotonin-like hallucinogens have high affin­ity and potency as partial agonists at 5HT2C receptors. We tested for involvement of 5HT2C receptors in DOI-induced head-twitch, a behavioral proxy of a hallucinogenic response in mice. Comparison of 5HT2C receptor knock-out and wild-type lit­termates revealed an approximately 50% reduction in DOI-induced HTR in knock-out mice. We conclude that the HTR to DOI in mice is strongly modulated by 5HT2C receptor activity. This novel finding invites reassessment of hallucinogenic mecha­nisms involving 5HT2A receptor function in human clinical populations.

Henry Cox, Ph.D. (cand.) – Pituri: Identity and Effect
Australian Aboriginal people have relied on their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) for some 50,000 years in the Australian landscape. They have utilised a natural larder known in Australia as "bush-tucker" and "Pituri", a plant-based chewing product from Duboisia hopwoodii, an inland desert plant in the Solanaceae family, is one of these items. It was traded across the continent and even at the time of British Sovereignty was regarded by Aboriginal people as the most valuable trade item in the country. It was initially investigated in the 19th Century by Australian doctors and described as a 'narcotic'; it kept a low profile until the late 20th century, where it is even credited as having played a significant role in "D-Day". In the 1980's it was re-described by visiting American anthropologist Marlene Dobkin de Rios as a ‘hallucinogen’. What then does this transition in nomenclature tell us about the plant and substance, and more importantly, western science? Is the change in identity simply a matter of an incremental advance in a positivist epistemological field of endeavour, or is there something else at play behind the overt science involved? What indeed are some of the cultural constructions which surround not only this case study of pituri use, but the hallucinogens in general? How is it, that if one assumes that modern western medicine is founded on principles of an evidence -based approach, and risk management, that substantial Traditional data and early western research into the therapeutic uses of the hallucinogens (and associated chemicals) clearly showing potential benefits, was curtailed worldwide. How is it that an international regulatory framework denies the legitimacy of current day human research? This paper examines the historical and present day cultural constructions of pituri use through a deconstruction of the terms 'hallucinogen', 'narcotic' and ‘Aboriginal’, and a Foucauldian analysis of the associated power relations.

Nicholas Cozzi, Ph.D. – Recent developments in N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) pharmacology
Background: The plant hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) has been used for religious and other purposes for many centuries. The psychological effects of ingested DMT are characterized as an intense dream-like state with fantastic visual imagery, altered time and space perceptions, changes in body image and sensations, and feelings ranging from euphoria to sadness to amazement. Over the past several decades, scientists have linked the psychoactive effects of DMT to various neurochemical processes including binding to serotonin receptors, serotonin uptake transporters, and monoamine oxidase enzymes.
Latest findings: We recently identified the sigma-1 receptor as the latest molecular target for DMT. We reported that DMT binds to sigma-1 receptors at low micromolar concentrations, inhibits sigma-1 receptor-regulated sodium ion channels at higher concentrations, and induces a hypermobility response in wild-type mice that is abolished in sigma-1 receptor knockout mice (Fontanilla et al. 2009). In a later study, we reported that DMT and other psychedelic tryptamines exhibit substrate behavior at plasma membrane and synaptic vesicle uptake transporters (Cozzi et al. 2009). We hypothesize that these uptake processes may allow the accumulation of DMT within neurons to reach relatively high levels and, when stored in synaptic vesicles, to function as a releasable transmitter. We have now obtained direct experimental evidence in support of this hypothesis by observing that DMT can be taken up by model neuronal cells (PC12 cells) and subsequently released by these cells under conditions of controlled depolarization. The psychedelic effects of DMT and related compounds likely arise from a complex interplay among all of these enzyme, receptor, and transporter mechanisms.

Alicia L. Danforth, Ph.D (cand.) – Psychedelics, Research and Safety: Above All, Do No Harm

Frank Echenhofer, Ph.D. – Shamanic EEGs and Adult Development
The Amazonian psychoactive brew ayahuasca induces shamanic journey experiences and is reported to facilitate psychological and physical healing, creativity, and spiritual development. A new model regarding the experiences, functions, and neural processes of ayahuasca, that integrates evidence from neuroscience and the human sciences, suggests ayahuasca facilitates three main sequential psychophysical change process stages of form dismantling and healing processes, form creation processes, and form expression processes. Dominant experiential ayahuasca themes will be summarized and related to similar process themes in psychotherapy, mythology and religion. Our EEG research shows ayahuasca significantly alters global EEG frequency coherence patterns across widely distributed neural networks. The reported neural changes and benefits of ayahuasca may arise through the enhancement of a normal although rare state of consciousness involving widespread neural networks combining both deliberative thought and spontaneous thought processes within a unified field of consciousness where highly complex and creative cognition emerges spontaneously.

Earth and Fire Erowid – Public Education: Psychedelic Information on the Internet

Yalila Espinoza – Erotic Healing Experiences with Ayahuasca
This presentation will explain how the spiritual guidance inherent in the practice of vegetalismo (entheogenic plant medicines) provides the individual with erotic experiences that can transform the quality of his/her spiritual life. I argue that the multi-dimensional energies of plant medicines are a pathway to eroticism, and that plant-induced trances and dream-time are altered states of consciousness in which spiritual learning can occur. The work in vegetalismo involves energetic openings and realignments that inspire transformation on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. “Eroticism” for the purpose of this presentation, means an intimate energetic union between physical beings in the worldly realm and non-physical entities in the cosmic realm. This study’s focus on women’s experience is intended to empower the valuable female voice within vegetalismo practices, and the goal of this presentation is to affirm the erotic nature of reality, the feminine, and women’s embodied wisdom.

Josep Maria Fabregas, M.D. – Long Term Effects on Mental Health of Ayahuasca Ritual Use
Scientific research regarding the long-term effects of the use of hallucinogens is scarce. Only few well-designed studies have thoroughly researched this topic. In 2004, our research team went to different Brazilians communities in order to initiate long-term studies with the objective of assessing the effects of the chronic consumption of Ayahuasca on user’s mental health. We administered tests to assess personality, neuropsychological functions, psychosocial wellbeing, purpose of life, and spirituality to 120 Ayahuasca practitioners and then were compared them to 115 control subjects. Eight months later, the same tests were administered with the objective of assessing the stability of the results. The results found in these studies will be showed in this talk.

James Fadiman, Ph.D. – Psychedelics as Entheogens: How to Create and Guide Successful Sessions
98 % + of people using psychedelics worldwide use them illegally. In the United States alone, there are 600, 000 new users of LSD each year. Restrictive laws have not led to any less use. Many users can only guess at how to prevent harm and maximize the benefits of their experiences. Manuals have been developed to teach how these experiences can be made safe and supportive by the proper understanding of set, setting, sitter, substance, session and support. We will consider the advantages and limitations of the use of guides and discuss how to establish the best possible conditions for spiritual or entheogenic (as distinct from psychotherapeutic and other uses) experiences. Other manuals have been developed for psychotherapeutic use, as well as for scientific or technical problem solving. These will be presented and discussed as time allows.

Kevin Feeney, J.D. – Revisiting Wasson's Soma: Exploring the Effects of Preparation on the Chemistry of Amanita muscaria
In 1968 R. Gordon Wasson first proposed his groundbreaking theory identifying Soma, the hallucinogenic sacrament of the Vedas, as the Amanita muscaria mushroom. While Wasson’s theory has since garnered much acclaim, it is not without its faults. One omission in Wasson’s theory is his failure to explain how the pressing and filtering of Soma, as described in the Rig Veda, supports his theory of Soma’s identity. Several critics have reasoned that such preparation should be unnecessary if equivalent results can be obtained “by simply chewing the plant materials, as is the case with psychotropic mushrooms.” While many areas of Wasson’s theory have been subject to criticism, it is my contention that a proper understanding of the chemical properties of Amanita muscaria, and how they are altered by the preparations described in the Rig Veda, will lend further credence to Wasson’s theory. To determine the importance of preparation on Amanita muscaria inebriation I have collected and analyzed hundreds of anecdotal reports detailing various preparations of Amanita muscaria and the resulting effects. While the chemistry of Amanita muscaria is not yet fully understood, my findings help explain the significance of preparation on the effects of this mushroom.

and:

Kevin Feeney, J.D. – Re-examining the role of muscarine in the chemistry of amanita muscaria
The chemistry of the Amanita muscaria mushroom has long been a puzzle for scientists, and many pieces of this puzzle remain in dispute. One recurrent dispute centers on the role of muscarine in Amanita muscaria inebriations and poisonings. Currently, it is widely (and mistakenly) believed that muscarine does not occur in Amanita muscaria in pharmacologically active levels. While muscarine is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier, and contributes no psychoactive effects to Amanita muscaria inebriation, a review of anecdotal case reports suggests that muscarine is present in sufficient quantities to have a physiological effect when moderate amounts of this mushroom are consumed. Failing to recognize the physiological contribution of muscarine to the Amanita muscaria experience leaves us with an incomplete picture of the properties of this mushroom and how it was perceived by the cultures who revered it.

Amanda Feilding - Director of The Beckley Foundation

Robert Forte – Ayahuasca, Indigenous Medicine, and Cancer: Preliminary Findings
There are many ways to do research with psychedelics that are legal, valid, important, and outside the domain of the FDA regulations. This presentation offers one example that shows the merits and drawbacks of what we might call "guerilla" research. Inspired by a growing number of compelling anecdotes which showed positive effects of Ayahuasca and other elements of indigenous medicine on cancer, for this project, we recruited two cancer patients and embarked on a month long immersion in traditional medicine at the astonishingly beautiful Mayantuyacu, deep in the jungle of northern Peru. There, under the guidance of the acclaimed ayahuascero-curandero, Maestro Juan Flores Salzaar, we participated in Ayahuasca ceremonies nearly every other night, in addition to consuming two other botanical medicines of the traditional Ashanika pharmacopoeia three times a day. This presentation begins with a presentation of background anecdotes that inspired the study, 3 case histories, and includes many beautiful slides of the Mayantuyacu expedition, as well as digital recordings of the icaros, the sacred songs, that guided the Ayahuasca journeys. Projects like this can point the way to further, more systematic inquiries into the healing potential of psychedelics.

Carolyn Garcia, aka Mountain Girl

Neal Goldsmith, Ph.D. (Author, Psychotherapist)

Alex and Allyson Grey (Chapel Of Sacred Mirrors)

Charles S. Grob, M.D. – Psychedelics, Research and Safety: Above All, Do No Harm

Alberto Groisman, Ph.D. – Ayahuasca Religions in Contemporary Society: Law, Health, and Cultural Implications
Motivated by the fundamentals of the transubstantiation doctrine, as researchers like Jonathan Ott have argued, Christianity nowadays may experience a relevant paradigmatic controversy with the emergence in Contemporary Society of a set of Christian Religions known as Entheogenic Religions. These religious systems, most of them founded in the Americas, reunite people around the ritual use of psychoactive substances, classified pharmacologically as hallucinogenic, but more recently conceptualized as entheogenic sacraments. This paper has as an aim to present and discuss the contemporary impact of the emergence, increasing visibility of, and the growth of the number of participants at, the Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions, worldwide. It has also as a particular interest to raise and discuss the implicit implications which the emergence and visibility of these religious systems may have in to influence the way different cultures and specifically their legal systems may develop to deal with the use of psychoactive substances in general.

Rafael Guimarães dos Santos – The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research. With Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Brian Anderson, Marcelo Mercante, and Paulo César Ribeiro Barbosa.
The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research This discussion will present a series of reflections on the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of Ayahuasca in the treatment and handling of substance dependence problems. Anthropological and psychiatric data on the ritual use of Ayahuasca for “healing” dependence in psychotherapeutic centers (in Peru and Brazil), as well as in Ayahuasca religions (in Brazil), are reviewed and critiqued. Methodological, ethical and political considerations for current and future research in this area are then discussed, and an interdisciplinary agenda for studies on the use of Ayahuasca to treat or handle substance dependence is proposed.

Jeffrey Guss, M.D. – The NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Research Project's Psychedelic Psychotherapy Training Program
In September 2008, the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Research Project began a training program for study therapists. The program integrated training in the basics of palliative care with preparation to become psychedelic psychotherapists in preparation to work with subjects enrolled in our research study. In this presentation, I will present: 1) Goals of the training program; 2) Structure of the training program (didactic, experiential and supervisory) and 3) Feedback from therapists regarding the components of the training and relevance to work with subjects.

Rachel Harris, Ph.D. – Ayahuasca in North America
This research explores how Ayahuasca is being used in North America. The sample will be described in terms of gender, age and education. The focus is not on the Ayahuasca experience, itself, but on the impact the experience has in a person's on-going life. How do people prepare for the experience? How do they change as a result of their Ayahuasca experiences? How do their lives change? Is there a difference in their moods, self-acceptance or spiritual experiences? How do their relationships with others change? Most people report using Ayahuasca with great care given to set and setting. The context is usually spiritual with careful attention to preparation and intention. People report that their Ayahuasca experience leads to greater self-acceptance and compassion, often mentioning a sense of heart opening. They also describe improvement in health habits like giving up drinking and smoking. Some mention stopping habitual use of marijuana. Many report a personal relationship with the spirit of Ayahuasca that continues and develops beyond the experience. Preliminary findings from the quantitative scale adapted from the Persisting Effects Questionnaire used in the Hopkins psilocybin study will be described.

Andreas Hernandez, Ph.D. – Cultural Trauma, Capitalist Modernity, and the Global Expansion of Santo Daime: 1930-2009
This paper is a historically grounded analysis of the political economy associated with the expansion of the Ayahuasca based Santo Daime religious movement. Analyzing Santo Daime’s expansion historically, this paper argues that Santo Daime has transformed from a counter-modern to post-modern movement, through a series of adaptive and innovative responses to crisis moments in capitalist modernity. The paper interprets these crisis moments as ‘cultural trauma’- impacts which 'tear' the tissue of the 'social body'. It concludes that Santo Daime's expansion has not only been a restitutive response to the cultural, psychological and subjective fractures of capitalist modernity, but also increasingly an attempt to reconstruct culture beyond this modernity.

Scott Hill, Ph.D. – Implications of Jungian Psychology for Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Scott Hill will discuss how Jung’s therapeutic method of integrating unconscious material into consciousness can contribute to the theory and practice of psychedelic psychotherapy, especially work with difficult psychedelic experiences occurring in response to overwhelming material released from the deepest layers of the unconscious. Scott will also discuss the role that therapists can play in mediating ego-consciousness on behalf of the individual undergoing psychedelic psychotherapy. Drawing on the unique and extensive clinical experience of two pioneering Jungian-oriented British psychedelic therapists, Margot Cutner and Ronald Sandison (who coined the term psycholytic therapy), Scott will discuss the issue of using Jungian integration to increase conscious participation by individuals during psychedelic psychotherapy, potentially enhancing the inherent healing effects of the psychedelic experience itself.

Bob Jesse - the Council on Spiritual Practices
Bob Jesse is convenor of the , which aims to shift modernity's awareness and practices with respect to primary religious experience (csp.org/PRE). CSP also encourages people to imagine and develop social contexts to contain such experiences and help them yield lasting benefit. Through CSP, Bob and his colleagues initiated a study, conducted at Johns Hopkins and reported around the world, of the psycho-spiritual effects of psilocybin in healthy volunteers (csp.org/psilocybin). This expands the emphasis in hallucinogen research beyond the medical treatment of ill people to include the betterment of well people, contributing to a science of pro-social development.

Henrik Jungaberle, Ph.D. – Learning from the Best (and also from the Rest): The Development of a Professional Rule Culture in Psychedelic Therapy
In a research project at Heidelberg University we collected data (2003-2006) from those psychotherapist who were able to legally perform outpatient psycholytic therapy in Switzerland between 1988-1992 (Swiss Association of Psycholytic Therapy). We analysed this data with qualitative research methods (content analysis) and were able to formulate 39 "rules" that guided the practice of these medical doctors. These rules are considered a repertoire of collective knowledge that these professionals developed in a process of trial and error. This rule culture provides an up-to-date treasure of reflective practice that seems to be relevant for current studys and future regular psychotherapy with LSD, MDMA and Psilocybin. Beyond these professional guidelines ("rules") it was also important to analyse the group process within this network of psychedelic experts over a period of 20 years (retrospectively). In our presentation we will discuss the reported developments with respect to standards in psychotherapy research.

James Kent – The Mechanics of Hallucination
Psychedelic hallucination is at the core of all psychedelic transformation and therapy. The geometric visuals and dreamlike archetypes of psychedelic hallucination are universal, indicating that there are fundamental properties of the human brain that allow for spontaneous creation of phantom matrices. By examining the connective structure of the perceptual system and the methods by which the brain processes sensory data, it is possible to model the pharmacological and neural origins of hallucination, and the unique physical conditions which describe a psychedelic experience. Topics discussed will include dreaming, psychosis, psychedelic pharmacology, phosphenes, geometric hallucinations, dreamlike hallucinations, the visual processing system, perceptual destabilization, ego dissolution, and memory. This presentation will be in the Ignite format of 20 slides in 5 minutes, with roughly 15 seconds per slide. There will also be a five-minute question and answer period.

Beatriz Caiuby Labate – The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research. With Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Brian Anderson, Marcelo Mercante, and Paulo César Ribeiro Barbosa.
The treatment and handling of substance dependence with Ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research This discussion will present a series of reflections on the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of Ayahuasca in the treatment and handling of substance dependence problems. Anthropological and psychiatric data on the ritual use of Ayahuasca for “healing” dependence in psychotherapeutic centers (in Peru and Brazil), as well as in Ayahuasca religions (in Brazil), are reviewed and critiqued. Methodological, ethical and political considerations for current and future research in this area are then discussed, and an interdisciplinary agenda for studies on the use of Ayahuasca to treat or handle substance dependence is proposed.

David Lukoff, Ph.D. – Implications of Jungian Psychology for Psychedelic Psychotherapy
David Lukoff will present on psychotherapeutic methods, based on Jungian theory, for integrating psychedelic experiences that have been problematic for the individual, at times even leading to psychiatric hospitalization. This approach is based on the concept of spiritual emergencies which are crises that include non-ordinary states that in the west would be seen and treated as psychosis and treated with suppressive medication. But using Stanislav Grof’s observations from his study of non-ordinary states and also of diverse spiritual traditions, such episodes can be treated as crises of transformation or crises of spiritual opening. If properly understood and properly supported by the therapist, they are actually conducive to healing and transformation.

Marcelo Mercante, Ph.D. – Ayahuasca, Spontaneous Mental Imagery, Homeless People, and the Treatment of Drug Addiction and Alcoholism
The objective of this presentation is to contribute to the investigation of the subjective experiences of participants in drug and alcohol addiction programs which ritualistically use the psychoactive drink Ayahuasca as part of their treatment model. This application of Ayahuasca seems to promote novel subjective experience, perception, and perspective in substance abusers, thus creating a foundation for changing their life habits. The spontaneous mental imagery associated with the experience seems to be at the core of that process. They are "revelatory moments" that put into evidence internal and external dimensions of being. The physical, social, and spiritual transformation of the participant appears in the form of spontaneous mental imagery that draws on what is already present in the participant’s own consciousness – memories from the past, interpretations of present experience, and dreams about the future. The presentation will be about two different sets of research data. The first research was conducted during 2007 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, where a group called Ablusa – led by a psychiatrist, was using Ayahuasca as a tool to help homeless people have a “normal life” again. The second research was conducted in three diferent places: the Takiwasi Center, in Peru; the Ceu Sagrado, in Sorocaba, Brazil, and the Centro de Recuperação Caminho de Luz, in Rio Branco, Brazil. The Brazilian centers are linked to the Santo Daime (Ceu Sagrado) and União do Vegetal (Caminho de Luz), both Brazilian Ayahuasca religions. They have different treatment systems, and during my presentation I will be exploring the points they have in common and their differences. I will present data concerning the effectiveness of their treatments, and about the links between the spontaneous mental imagery of people undergoing that kind of treatment and its relationship with their recovery.

Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.– Psychedelic, Psychoactive and Addictive Drugs and States of Consciousness

Michael Montagne, Ph.D. – Metaphors and Meanings: How We Interpret and Understand Psychedelic Drug Experiences
Psychedelic drug experiences are unique, malleable, highly variable, often tacit and profound in nature. The neuropharmacological changes produced by psychedelic drugs require perception, interpretation, description, and comprehension, in order for the experience to have significance for the user. Social context and reason for use can direct the types of effects that are experienced and described, whether medical-therapeutic, creative, spiritual, or destructive. How do users come to understand the meaning of their experiences? It is constructed individually and socially, primarily through the use of metaphors, language that describes something new in terms of other experiences that are more familiar. In this presentation, metaphors for the psychedelic drug experience are presented and described. The process of applying meaning to these experiences and attributing effects to the drug that is taken are delineated. Guidance on employing metaphors in therapeutic and other contexts is provided with the goal of improving beneficial outcomes from psychedelic drug use.

Levente Moro, Ph.D. (cand.) – Autognosis, Life Quality, and Spirituality in Psychedelic Drug Users
A growing number of cultural studies and anecdotal evidence indicate that purposes of psychoactive drug use - both legal and illegal - may also include the pursuit of increased personal well-being. Psychoactive substances, especially psychedelics (e.g., LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, LSA, and salvinorin-A), have been used in relation to religious and spiritual practices, creative processes, social cohesion, and autognostic purposes (i.e., for increasing self-knowledge). The salutogenesis model of Antonovsky assumes that the meaningful interpretation of exceptional life events - which could include psychedelic experiences as well - may lead to a better psychological functioning and an improved quality of life. In our recent on-line survey study, we assessed 667 drug users and non-users with three psychological instruments regarding their life quality, coping, and spirituality. Our target "psychonaut" group - consisting of participants who previously used or currently use mostly psychedelic drugs with primarily autognostic purposes - was matched against drug user and non-user control groups. Results from a cross-table of 23 psychoactive drugs and 14 drug use purposes show a strong connection between psychedelic drugs and autognostic purposes. Moreover, we found support for the initial hypothesis about a positive relationship between psychedelics and self-evaluated life quality. Contradictory to suggestions of previous studies about spirituality as a protective factor against drug use, we also found a positive correlation between spirituality and autognostic purposes of psychedelic drug use. In light of our results, the autognostic use of psychedelics may play a kind of role in mental well-being that cannot be interpreted within psychopathological or social-deviance models of drug abuse. These questions are to be explored in our further qualitative interview studies about psychonaut culture, patterns of autognostic drug use, health behavior, and quality of life.

Thomas Munro, Ph.D. – Toward the human pharmacology of salvinorin A
Salvinorin A, from the Mazatec traditional remedy Salvia divinorum, is a natural hallucinogen which acts at the kappa opioid receptor. There is growing evidence that this receptor influences mood and anxiety, and that this drug may assist in the development of treatments for disorders including depression, bipolar disorder and addiction. To date, no controlled human studies of this compound have been published. This talk will discuss progress to date in the first such studies, currently underway. The goals and methods of the studies, the technical and regulatory obstacles encountered, and the lessons learned so far will be discussed. The medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of salvinorin A will be reviewed, covering a growing number of semisynthetic derivatives with altered pharmacology, which may shed light on other aspects of the opioid system.

Tom Pinkson, Ph.D. – Psychedelics and Death: Exercising the 'Letting Go' Muscle

Silvia Polivoy, Ph.D. – Ayahuasca: Handle with Utmost Care
Many people aren’t aware of the intricacies of working with sacred plant teachers like Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is sometimes mistakenly categorized with recreational psychedelic drugs. When used in a proper set and setting, Ayahuasca may help to heal the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—not just alleviating or suppressing symptoms. Although Ayahuasca is not a quick fix; a person working with it must have honest intention and commitment to change their patterns of behavior. Sometimes people relive traumatic experiences and then release repressed memories that are tucked in the corridors of the unconscious. Deep emotional issues that do not respond to conventional psychotherapy are often resolved. Ayahuasca should never be used without first knowing and understanding both the benefits and potential adverse effects.

Alexandre Quaranta, Ph.D. – Psychedelics Use and Lucid Dreaming: The Providential Synergy
Lucid dreaming is the amazing possibility of being fully awake and aware in the dream state while having at the same time access to faculties such as will, reason, memory (notably of waking state based intention), imagination, intuition, empathy. It is today proven to be a learnable skill which wide opens the door of the pure and free ecstatic imagination and of the transpersonal realm. The practice of lucid dreaming (and not reasoning or discussing on it) is today known to be as efficient as psychoactive substances to deconstruct the way we create and coagulate our perceptions at several levels and can be considered a providential "hack" for that purpose. For that reason genuine lucid dreaming exploration necessarily leads to freeing philosophical considerations and metaphysical insights. This presentation is designed to offer a panoramic view on lucid dreaming possibilities, describe more precisely some of them, and to offer also some practical understanding on how the lucid dream state can be achieved. Then, the link with the subject of hallucinations become obvious and possibly a new light can be casted on the understanding of the variety of such phenomenon.

Deborah Quevedo, R.N., Ph.D. – Psychospiritual Integration of an Ayahuasca Retreat Experience
The results of my dissertation research study will be presented. Ayahuasca is an entheogen that has been used for several thousand years by the indigenous people of the Amazon jungle for healing, learning, and divination. This research was conducted at neo-shamanic Ayahuasca retreats in Brazil that were led by a transpersonal psychotherapist. The retreats were conducted without the overlay of a religious doctrine or a particular cosmology. Twenty-two international (English-speaking) retreat participants completed quantitative and qualitative assessments on a confidential website using a repeated measures design.

Maggi Quinlan, Ph.D. – Healing from the Gods: Ayahuasca and the Curing of Disease States
This presentation describes the medical healing reported, as experienced through the use of Ayahuasca, in a case study with five co-researchers and myself. In each of the accounts the co-researcher was suffering from either a terminal or chronic illness. In four instances, the people came to Ayahuasca because they had exhausted all other options within the allopathic system. Two of those were facing imminent death. One person chose not to engage with allopathy beyond diagnosis. One person was both shown the presence of the illness, and the healing was facilitated with Ayahuasca alone. Another instance revealed ADHD/ADD and other "leaning disabilities" as an evolutionary process rather than a pathology. This presentation explores concepts of healing: what healing means and how it is achieved with psychedelics/entheogens. It is a record of the inner and outer journey through illness that each person experienced using Ayahuasca as the catalyzing agent for the curing that was reported. It investigates the potential for healing that does not currently exist in an allopathic system of medicine. Ayahuasca, and other entheogens, offer a potential to change that paradigm, and to expand current medical options in treating terminal and chronic illness. By providing access to a larger image of the psyche, Ayahuasca shows us the transpersonal and perinatal roots of symptoms and the energetic concept of healing that offers a new model of medicine.

Bruce Sewick and Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. – Public Education: A University Course in Psychedelics
Bruce Sewick teaches a 1-credit weekend class called "Psychedelic Mindview" at the College of DuPage that is open to anyone with no prerequisites, and Tom Roberts teaches a 3-credit course, currently under the title of Foundations of Psychedelic Studies, that is open to undergraduate juniors and seniors of all majors who are enrolled in the Honors Program at Northern Illinois University. They will discuss the experiences, possibilities, and pitfalls of offering these courses and hints for people who would like to offer similar courses at their colleges or universities.

Zeno Sanchez-Ramos, M.D. – Effects of Psilocybin and other Selective Serotonin Agonists on Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Neurogenesis
A. Does Psilocybin Impact Neurogenesis in Adult Hippocampus? Selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are known to stimulate the production of new neurons in the hippocampus by increasing synaptic concentration of serotonin (5-HT). The delay in the appearance of anti-depressant effects corresponds to the time required to generate new neurons. However, it is not clear which of the many serotonergic receptors in the hippocampus are responsible for the enhanced neurogenesis. The current study evaluated the effects of the acute and chronic administration of 5HT2A agonists psilocybin and 251-NBMeO and the 5HT2A/C antagonist ketanserin on hippocampal neurogenesis. To investigate the effects of acute drug administration mice received a single injection of varying doses of psilocybin, 251-NBMeO, ketanserin or saline followed by i.p. injections of 75 mg/kg bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) for 4 consecutive days followed by euthanasia two weeks later. For chronic administration 4 injections of psilocybin, ketanserin or saline were administered weekly over the course of one month. On days following drug injections mice received an injection of 75 mg/kg BrdU and were euthanized two weeks after the last drug injection. Unbiased estimates of BrdU+ and BrdU/NeuN+ cells in the dentate gyrus revealed a significant dose dependent reduction in the level of neurogenesis after acute 5HT2A receptor agonist or antagonist administration. Interestingly, chronic administration of psilocybin increased the number of new born neurons in the dentate gyrus while the antagonist suppressed hippocampal neurogenesis, suggesting that the 5HT2A receptor appears to be involved in the regulation of hippocampal neurogenesis.
B. Does Psilocybin Affect Hippocampal-Dependent Learning? Aberrations in brain serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission have been implicated in psychiatric disorders including anxiety, depression and deficits in learning and memory. Many of these disorders are treated with drugs which promote the availability of 5-HT in the synapse. However, it is not clear which of the 5-HT receptors are involved in behavioral improvements. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of psilocybin, a 5HT2A receptor agonist on hippocampal-dependent learning. Mice received a single injection of psilocybin (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 mg/kg), ketanserin (a 5HT2A/C antagonist) or saline 24 hours before habituation to the environment and subsequent training and testing on the fear conditioning task. Trace fear conditioning is a hippocampal-dependent task in which the presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS, tone) is separated in time by a trace interval to the unconditioned stimulus (US, shock). All mice developed contextual and cued fear conditioning; however, mice treated with psilocybin extinguished the cued fear conditioning more rapidly than saline treated mice. Interestingly, mice given the 5HT2A/C receptor antagonist ketanserin showed less of cued fear response than saline and psilocybin treated mice. Future studies should examine the temporal effects of acute and chronic psilocybin administration on hippocampal-dependent learning tasks.

Ben Sessa, MD, BSc, MRCPsych – Recent History of Psychedelics in the United Kingdom
Psychedelic drug experiences are unique, malleable, highly variable, often tacit and profound in nature. The neuropharmacological changes produced by psychedelic drugs require perception, interpretation, description, and comprehension, in order for the experience to have significance for the user. Social context and reason for use can direct the types of effects that are experienced and described, whether medical-therapeutic, creative, spiritual, or destructive. How do users come to understand the meaning of their experiences? It is constructed individually and socially, primarily through the use of metaphors, language that describes something new in terms of other experiences that are more familiar. In this presentation, metaphors for the psychedelic drug experience are presented and described. The process of applying meaning to these experiences and attributing effects to the drug that is taken are delineated. Guidance on employing metaphors in therapeutic and other contexts is provided with the goal of improving beneficial outcomes from psychedelic drug use.

Diana Slattery, Ph.D. (cand) – Ecstatic Significations: Psychedelics and Language
Examining psychedelic experiences of language, a new perspective on the relations of language, consciousness, and reality emerges. Embedded in cocoons of culture woven between ourselves and nature, our realities are symbol-laden and symbol-driven. Psychedelics can propel one outside the veil of language, to a place exterior to culture and cultural conditioning. From this vantage, “natural” languages can be perceived as more technological than natural, the software of social intercourse and civilization. With the decoding of DNA, and the molecular designs of nanotechnology, the biosphere and the material world have become “linguistically pliable,” in Mark Pesce’s words. This presentation surveys these phenomena and relates them to the neurobiological models of Charles Laughlin, Michael Winkelman, and Steve Farmer. The phenomenological data, the reports from lived experience of individuals, stand in reciprocal, mutually informing relation to these scientific models. The question becomes not only, “How can these (or other) neurobiological models explain these linguistic phenomena in all their diversity?” but “What can these linguistic phenomena, however anomalous, tell us about our models of brain and cognition?”

Kaleb Smith – Hyper-Sensitive States and Indirect Semantic Priming: Inferring The Mechanics of Psilocybin's Novel Association Effect
The semantic network model provides a powerful analogy with which to understand the nature of the attentional processes which act and interact in the composition of a thought. While the metaphoric nature of the semantic network, itself, has been argued, (Anderson (2000) claiming his ACT-R model as something closer to a neurological actuality), several studies (A. Pecchinenda, C. Ganteaume, & R. Bansestudies, 2008) have suggested that a subjective networking structure underlies the biological networking structure of neuronal interconnection in the brain, supporting the notion of spreading activation and semantic priming. Throughout the presentation, I intend to explore what may be implied from the developed instrumentation and data of these and other studies and form an argument which seeks to describe the effects of psilocybin using the semantic network by expanding upon the cognitive mechanism of latent inhbition (LI) described by Carson (2003) and its correlatable research data. Key to relating the LI model to the activity of psilocybin on the semantic network is the indirect priming and schizophrenia research of Spitzer (1996, 1994). By interpreting semantic priming as a function of attention, the length of activational spread within the network can be seen as dependent on, not only the capacity of memory, but also the capacity of one's attention span.

Leanna Standish, N.D., Ph.D., L.Acup, FABNO – Ayahuasca, Science and Medicine

Luis Fernando Tofoli, MD – Mental health safety of Ayahuasca religious use: results from an epidemiological surveillance system by the União do Vegetal in Brazil
The risk of psychotic outbreaks and major psychiatric incidents is an important but yet unresolved issue regarding the safety of the Amazonian entheogenic beverage Ayahuasca. The União do Vegetal (UDV, one of the Brazilian syncretic Ayahuasca religions) has a set of customs and beliefs that reinforces the attention to one’s mental health status before approving one’s experience with Ayahuasca.

Steven Toth, R.M.T. – Incorporating Bodywork into the Psychedelic

Stephen Trichter, Ph.D. – Out of the Jungle and onto the Couch: Applying Ayahuasca's Lessons to the Therapy Room
Ayahuasca is one of many substances in a group of compounds that have shown promise in harnessing the power to increase an individual’s spirituality and strengthen their sense of well-being. These substances, known as entheogens, a term etymologically rooted in Latin that means “generating the divine within,” are commonly referred to as psychedelics or hallucinogens. Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant brew from the Amazon basin that has been used as part of healing ceremonies by the region’s indigenous people for centuries, has found more recent use in a wide variety of modern spiritual contexts and communities, and is now consumed by growing numbers of people throughout the world. Anecdotal evidence and previous research suggest that participants who take part in Ayahuasca ceremonies experience significant spiritual effects. A study conducted by the presenter (Trichter, Klimo, and Krippner, 2006) found statistically significant changes in novice participants’ subjective spiritual experiences as a result of participation in their first Ayahuasca ceremony. “Out of the Jungle” will present the research findings from this study, examine the psychospiritual risks and challenges that come with the adoption of these practices in Western culture, and propose a preliminary psychoanalytic model of how Ayahuasca ceremony can be integrated into treatment to maximize potential benefits and minimize potential harm to patients.

Kenneth Tupper, Ph.D. (cand.) – Psychedelics, Entheogens, and Public Policy
This presentation considers how policy makers should respond to re-emerging evidence of the therapeutic and other benefits of psychedelics or entheogens. After a period of quiescence for several decades, academic research on psychedelics has begun to pick up momentum and is already beginning to corroborate many of the positive findings initially generated in the 1950s and 1960s. These include not only specific medical indications for clinical disorders, but also broader psychological and/or spiritual benefits for healthy individuals. At the same time, novel information and communications technologies allow for a much more rapid dissemination of ideas and social trends involving such substances than ever before. Along with these new research findings and cultural shifts come new challenges for how to translate academic knowledge not only into effective clinical interventions, but also into healthy public policy. One such challenge is how to balance the biomedical perspective of psychedelic therapy with the spiritual perspective of entheogenic practices. The techniques, methods and explanatory frames of psychedelic therapy have been grounded in the Western biomedical paradigm, whereas those of entheogenic healing or spiritual practices have a much longer history stemming from traditional indigenous forms of cultural knowledge. The globalization of the traditional Amazonian brew Ayahuasca presents a useful case example of the potential divergence between these two approaches: Ayahuasca drinkers frequently attest to its health and/or spiritual benefits with “evidence” apprehended directly from experience with the brew, whereas physicians working from a biomedical perspective have very different requirements of evidence. From a public policy perspective, such differences demand a difficult balancing of competing interests of the state, including public health, human rights, criminal justice and free-market economics.

Brian West – Education and Training

Bob Wold – Cluster Busters

Thursday, April 15, 2010. 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, with morning, lunch and afternoon breaks (food is not included).

$130: Pre-registration is required.

Michael Mithoefer, M.D., Annie Mithoefer, B.S.N., and Rick Doblin, Ph.D. will lead a workshop on therapist techniques used during MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. This full-day workshop will explore issues discussed in MAPS’ MDMA-therapist manual, lessons learned from MAPS MDMA/PTSD pilot study, and theoretical applications of these techniques for use with patients who don’t suffer from PTSD. You won’t want to miss this workshop if you have an interest in becoming a psychedelic therapist.

Rick Doblin is the Executive Director and founder of MAPS. Michael and Annie Mithoefer are the Principal Investigators for MAPS’ MDMA/PTSD pilot study and upcoming MDMA/PTSD study with veterans of war.

Thursday, April 15, 2009. 10AM-1AM and 2AM to 5PM (two periods of 3 hours; food is not included)

$130: Pre-registration is required.

Visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey teach painting and drawing from the wellspring of divine imagination.  In this workshop artists at any level of experience draw and paint from the sacred ground and the mystic eye.  Through an illustrated talk, a vision practice, and group interaction, participants can enter the doors of the imagination to the theater of revelation.  Utilizing basic materials such as graphite, colored pencils, pastels, and watercolors, we commit mental pictures to paper and discuss the aesthetic dimension of our mystical experiences.

BIOS:
Alex Grey
Best known for paintings that “X-ray” multiple dimensions of reality, Grey interweaves biological anatomy with psychic/spiritual energies.  His visual meditation on the nature of consciousness has led to exhibitions and keynote addresses from Tokyo to Sao Paulo, features on Discovery Channel, Newsweek, Time, and album art for Grammy Award winning bands such as Tool, Beastie Boys, Nirvana and SCI.

Allyson Grey

An accomplished visionary artist, Allyson Grey's paintings invent a symbol system representing chaos, order and secret writing. Allyson has taught art for decades and exhibited widely.  She co-founded the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Tufts University, has edited and co-written a dozen books and journals including CoSM Journal of Visionary Culture and Damanhur: Temples of Humankind, .

Material list for Visionary Art Intensive

The following is a list of items to bring with you to the workshop:

• Pencils and pens for drawing
• Pencil sharpener
• Drawing/watercolor pad with heavy paper – 11” x 14”
• Colored pencils—20 or more colors
• Kneadable eraser

  Optional:

• Watercolor set and brushes
• Watercolor paper block
• Images of past work – small portfolio or CD of images preferred

 

Monday, April 19, 2010. 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, with morning, lunch and afternoon breaks (food is not included).

$130, pre-registration is required.

In this slide-illustrated seminar, we will use the paintings from depth-psychological work with psychedelic substances and Holotropic Breathwork ™ to explore the new extended map of the psyche that has emerged from modern consciousness research. We will put special emphasis on the process of psychospiritual death and rebirth. The understanding of this process throws a new light on emotional and psychosomatic disorders and is essential for any serious approach to the ritual and spiritual history of humanity - shamanism, rites of passage, healing ceremonies of native cultures, ancient mysteries of death and rebirth, the great religions of the world, and the mystical traditions of all times and countries.

The insights from this work also offer new insights into two forces that have been driving human history - insatiable greed and unbridled violence - and into sociopolitical psychopathology, such as wars, bloody revolutions, terrorism, suicide bombing, concentration camps, and genocide. In a series of slides, we will demonstrate the remarkable similarities between the symbolism of posters and cartoons from the time of wars or revolutions and the visions accompanying the reliving of birth and the experience of psychospiritual death and rebirth.

Objectives:

1. To describe - with the use of paintings of individuals undergoing therapy and self-exploration in non-ordinary states of consciousness - the vastly extended model of the human psyche that has emerged from this research and explore its implications for psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy.
2. To discuss the relevance of this new cartography for the understanding of the ritual and spiritual life of humanity.
3. To show that unbridled violence and insatiable greed - have their deep roots in the domains of the unconscious as yet unrecognized by mainstream psychiatry and psychology (the perinatal and transpersonal domain) and explore the implications of this finding for the current global crisis and its alleviation.
4. To illustrate the political relevance of the new findings by comparing the symbolism of political posters and cartoons from the time of wars, revolutions, and societal crises with painting of persons depicting their perinatal experiences in non-ordinary states.

Dr. Grof is a psychiatrist with over forty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness (induced by psychedelic substances and various non-drug techniques) and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. Dr. Grof 's early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was Principal Investigator of a program systematically exploring the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. After completion of this two-year fellowship, he stayed in the US and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence writing, giving seminars, lecturing and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife Christina Grof. He is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and its past and current president. At present, he lives in Mill Valley, California, conducting training seminars for professionals in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology and writing books. He is also Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and at the Pacifica Graduate School in Santa Barbara and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held at Asilomar, California.

Monday, April 19, 2010. 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, with morning, lunch and afternoon breaks (food is not included).

$130, pre-registration is required.

David Nichols, Ph.D. and Franz Vollenweider M.D. will lead an intensive workshop about the neuroscience and mechanisms of action of psychedelic substances. This is an invaluable workshop for anyone with a deep interest in the neurobiology of psychedelic use by human beings.

Dave will speak about his extensive research into the receptor sites of LSD. Franz will discuss data from PET scans, MRIs and other brain scanning technology about neurobiological correlates of states of consciousness based on over 20 years of research.

Monday, April 19, 2010. 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, with morning, lunch and afternoon breaks.

$130, pre-registration is required.

In this workshop we will use methods derived from the shamanic, yogic and alchemical traditions of spiritual growth and consciousness transformation – methods that have been tested and applied in psychedelic as well as non-drug forms of psychotherapy and practice over the past twenty years. They are processes of structured intuitive inquiry, using yoga practices supported by rhythmic rattling/drumming for  mildly heightened states of consciousness.  Small group sharing, toning and drawing are used to further the integration of insights received (participants should bring art materials to the workshop).

We work in the spirit of the Roman deity Janus, god of doorways and transitions, whose two faces look in a balanced way into the past and the future.  We start by recognizing and exploring the interconnected web of relations that constitute our Present, the field of awareness and identity we call our Self, our life-world.

Using focused regression we can connect with unresolved or incomplete aspects of our past experience, especially the formative years of childhood and youth, to re-member and re-integrate them into our present life-world. This leads to a deepened sense of self and its history, and greater freedom to make choices in the present. These processes have applications in psychotherapy and healing.

Using focused anticipatory visioning, we can search the probability lines of possible future developments in work, relationships, creativity and spiritual growth. This leads to a heightened sense of self and its potentials and inspiration to realize our highest aspirations. These processes have applications in coaching and the development of creativity.

Objectives:

• To experience and practice the meditative therapeutic divination methods developed by Ralph Metzner from shamanic, yogic and alchemical traditions.
• To experience how this kind of divination encompasses both therapeutic and healing processes involving the past, as well as visionary anticipation of future possibilities, providing guidance and inspiration.
• To experience how our developmental past can be accessed for healing and therapy; and our possible/probable futures can be accessed for increased freedom of choice and expression.
• To experience how simple rhythmic drumming/rattling can support a concentrative process for the asking of questions and receiving answers from inner sources of intuition.

Monday, April 19, 2010. 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

$65, pre-registration is required.

EXPANSION, INFUSION, ENGAGEMENT
The Women's Visionary Council (WVC) is a nonprofit organization that supports women healers, scholars, activists and artists who explore the therapeutic and spiritual dimensions of expanded consciousness. The WVC organizes the annual Women’s Visionary Congress and regional salons where women discuss how they apply knowledge gained in their visionary experiences. This workshop will focus on the WVC’s three main areas of interest:  EXPANSION of scientific inquiry in our field to include of a variety of rigorous research approaches most often practiced by women ; INFUSION of vitality into the larger culture through exploration of visionary space; and  ENGAGEMENT with the dying process in both visionary and practical ways. While our mission is to privilege the voices of women, our events are inclusive of the gender spectrum and all genders are invited.

In additional to thoughtful discussion and reflection on these topics, this workshop will include performances by local women artists who share our interests. We acknowledge that women arrive at visionary experiences in different ways. Deep insights can be reached through inner reflection, meditation, music, prayer, dance, love, art, the use of sacred medicines, encounters with the natural world and other catalysts that open us to divine inspiration. After the moment of clarity has passed, the challenge is how to sustain and manifest that vision.

Help support MAPS by posting one of our banners on your homepage, facebook, myspace, or blog. Select the banner of your choice and follow the directions below to link the banner on your website. MAPS' success relies on people like you spreading the word - thanks so much for your help! An audio ad for the conference is availible in MP3 format for both download and listening.

1. Copy and paste this HTML into your webpage: <a href="http://www.maps.org/conference/" title="Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century"><img src="/images/2010conference_banner.jpg" width="700" height="180" alt="Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century" /></a> -or- 2. Grab the photo's URL: 1. Copy and paste this HTML into your webpage: <a href="http://www.maps.org/conference/" title="Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century"><img src="http://www.maps.org/images/conference_banner_long.gif" width="700" height="180" alt="Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century" /></a> -or- 2. Grab the banner's URL:

Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century Exhibitors and Consignment Policy

Psychedelic Science will be a groundbreaking conference. The primary objective is to present contemporary scientific research with psychedelic drugs in order to further legitimize psychedelics as potential medicines for the future. The conference organizers are bringing researchers from around the globe to present studies to a broad audience of medical professionals and people with an interest in psychedelics. MAPS expects to have between 400 and 800 attendees at the conference. Psychedelic Science will provide an excellent venue for exhibitors to display and sell items to a targeted audience. The conference will also provide an excellent opportunity for approved organizations to engage attendees with respect to activities and objectives they are working on. This may include, but is not limited to: other conferences and/or CME opportunities, public outreach and education efforts, retreat and/or travel marketing, western or alternative health practices and/or product marketing, etc. The conference layout and program will allow conference attendees the ability to browse exhibitor booths with ample time and ease.

In accordance with the requests of some of the presenters at the conference, MAPS has agreed to not allow exhibitions by drug policy groups, marijuana related groups, nor allow sales of drug paraphernalia, marijuana products, or other items that may distract from the scientific merit of the presentations. Exhibition space will be sold at the sole discretion of MAPS.

MAPS encourages vending of books, literature, clothing, art, organization memberships, green and environmental products, and most other products that would not divert from the mission of the conference. Any questions on the appropriateness of your vending items can be put into the form below, and will be addressed when your request is processed.

Pricing for exhibition space

Exhibitor space at Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century includes:

*Two registrations for the conference
*One 10’ x 10’ exhibition space (more space available by request and an additional fee)
*A skirted 6 foot table and 2 chairs for the duration of the conference
*Mention in the conference program
*Option to place a brochure/flyer in the conference materials that will be handed out to attendees

MAPS has a working base price of $650 for exhibiting space at the conference. Discounts for non-profits and other approved organizations will be available, please provide an explanation below if you are applying for a discounted rate. Also, mutually beneficial trades for exhibiting space may be available depending on your organization and resources. Potentially appropriate examples include exhibition space at a conference your organization may be hosting, or for art vendors- a negotiated number of limited edition pieces that MAPS will be able to sell at one of our fundraising events outside of the conference. MAPS will not be hosting an art gallery at the event, so applications from artist collectives and other groups are highly encouraged.

Selling items on consignment with MAPS

MAPS may be willing to take a small number of items on consignment to be sold at the MAPS store during the conference. MAPS consignment runs on a 50/50 profit sharing model with artists and will keep 50% of the sale price of books. Splitting proceeds of other products may vary depending on the product and suggested retail price. If you have authored a book or would otherwise be interested in selling a certain product or products through the MAPS store, please note this in your responses below.

Thank you for your interest in exhibiting at Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century. We will be contacting you promptly after your submission has been processed. If you have any questions that have not been addressed here, you may include them in your application below.

Please contact Brian Wallace if there was an error in your application submission or for further questions.