March 21, 2022. Clinical research on psychedelics, such as psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in certain types of mushrooms), has experienced a renaissance in the past two decades, leading to spectacular successes in treating conditions such as addiction (1), treatment-resistant depression (2), mood (3) and anxiety disorders or even end-of-life anxiety of cancer patients (4). But what about what Michael Pollan, author of “How to change your mind” (5), calls “the betterment of well people”? Could altered states of consciousness in general and psychedelics in particular be used to support the development and personal growth of healthy individuals, and could it even be used to catalyse leadership development?
(a) Human brain on Placebo vs. (b) Human brain on psilocybin.
Source: Petri G, Expert P, Turkheimer F, et al. Homological scaffolds of brain functional networks. J R Soc Interface 2014; 11: 20140873.
In an exclusive inpraxi Life Long Learning (LLL) online seminar on March 31, 2022, we’ll explore these questions around “altered states of consciousness” as well as the perils and promises of using those states to influence your mind, your mindset and your trajectory in life and business. Infinity Institute Founder Christopher Kabakis and Evolute Institute co-founder Dmitrij Achelrod, Ph.D., will speak to questions such as:
Personal development as a necessary precondition for leaders’ success in the BANI world
How altered states of consciousness induced through psychedelics and other techniques (e.g. breathwork) can facilitate personal development in healthy people
How psychedelics work in the brain
What the pros and cons are of using psychedelics for personal growth
The legal status of psychedelics and how a safe and legal setting can be guaranteed
From the Silicon Valley to the mainstream: From “Stealing Fire” (6) to “New Work needs inner work” (7)
The future of leadership development
As Dr. Roland Griffiths, one of the world's foremost psychedelic researcher from Johns Hopkins University summarized: “Meditation is the tried and true course for understanding the human mind, and psilocybin is the crash course.” - Let’s explore that idea together on March 31st from 7-9pm (CEST)!
After the event you can see the recording of the event here for free for a couple of weeks. Enjoy :-)!
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(1)
Garcia-Romeu A, Davis AK, Erowid E, Erowid F, Griffiths RR, Johnson MW. Persisting Reductions in Cannabis, Opioid, and Stimulant Misuse After Naturalistic Psychedelic Use: An Online Survey. Front Psychiatry 2019; 10: 955.
Garcia-Romeu A, Griffiths RR, Johnson MW. Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences in the treatment of tobacco addiction. Curr Drug Abuse Rev 2014; 7: 157–64.
(2)
Griffiths R, Richards W, Johnson M, McCann U, Jesse R. Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. J Psychopharmacol Oxf Engl 2008; 22: 621–32.
Hendricks PS. Awe: a putative mechanism underlying the effects of classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Int Rev Psychiatry Abingdon Engl 2018; 30: 331–42.
(3)
van Schalkwyk GI, Wilkinson ST, Davidson L, Silverman WK, Sanacora G. Acute psychoactive effects of intravenous ketamine during treatment of mood disorders: Analysis of the Clinician Administered Dissociative State Scale. J Affect Disord 2018; 227: 11–6.
Barrett, F.S., Doss, M.K., Sepeda, N.D. et al. Emotions and brain function are altered up to one month after a single high dose of psilocybin. Sci Rep 10, 2214 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59282-y
(4)
Inverse, August 2020: Cancer patients say psilocybin can be both ‘therapy’ and ‘a beautiful experience’. https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/cancer-patients-psilocybin-psychedelic-therapy
Griffiths R. R., Johnson M. W., Carducci M. A., Umbricht A., Richards W. A., Richards B. D., et al. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized double-blind trial. J. Psychopharmacol. 30 1181–1197.
(5)
https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/
(6)
https://www.stevenkotler.com/book-pages/stealing-fire
(7)
http://www.vahlen.de/productview.aspx?product=29669155