#  Video: Transcendence, Transformation, and Trans-Psychedelia with Hil Malatino and Susan Stryker 

 





February 26, 2026

 

 

Public conversations about both psychedelics and gender transition have often been constrained by two parallel limits: a focus on clinical applications and the presumption that those who take psychedelics or change gender do so primarily as “patients.” This framing has obscured a rich history in which psychedelics and gender transition have served as sites of religious experimentation and metaphysical speculation. Practices that might be called “trans psychedelia” have unfolded through encounters with Indigenous religious traditions, more-than-human communication in altered states, and theories of transformation that exceed the limits of biomedicine.

Bringing together scholarship on psychedelia, gender, and religion, this conversation with Hil Malatino and Susan Stryker explored how drugs—and the stories told about them—have functioned as religious technologies. The discussion considered how these substances have shaped experiences of dissociation and transcendence, informed metaphysical accounts of selfhood and transition, and mediated exchanges between anthropology, New Age spirituality, and Cold War–era social engineering.

**HIL MALATINO**  
Hil Malatino is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Philosophy at Penn State University. He is the author of *Side Affects* (2022) and *Trans Care* (2020).

**SUSAN STRYKER**  
Susan Stryker is Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona and a distinguished visiting scholar at Stanford. An Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, she is the author of *Transgender History* and editor of foundational works in transgender studies.



 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ psychedelics ](/topic-tags/psychedelics)
- [ Public Health ](/topic-tags/public-health)
- [ Religion ](/media-topic/religion)
- [ Transcendence and Transformation ](/programming-threads/transcendence-and-transformation)
- [ Spirituality and Psychedelics ](/programming-threads/spirituality-and-psychedelics)
- [ Psychedelics and Ethics ](/programming-threads/psychedelics-and-ethics)
- [ Psychedelics and the Future of Religion ](/programming-threads/psychedelics-and-future-religion)