Psychedelics and Ethics

Ayahuasca originated in the Amazon and has long been considered sacred by many Indigenous and mestizo communities across South America. Fueled by the “psychedelic renaissance” and growing interest in its visionary and healing potential, groups serving the...

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.”...

According to the 2024 Global Psychedelic Survey, while personal growth and well-being are common reasons for illicit drug use, recreation—music events, festivals, parties, raves—remains a leading but poorly defined motive. This panel featured Michelle...

Anthropologist Manvir Singh, PhD, joined Professor Charles Stang for a conversation about Singh’s new book, Shamanism: The Timeless Religion (Knopf, 2025), which draws on immersive research with shamans in Indonesia and the Colombian Amazon. Singh...

To conclude the 'Psychedelics and Ethics' series, visiting scholar Christine Hauskeller facilitated a symposium that explored material covered during the psychedelic ethics and decoloniality workshop. This symposium focused on the harm caused by...

This event launched the CSWR and the Petrie-Flom Center's new “Psychedelics & Ethics” initiative, which brings together interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners to explore ethical questions surrounding psychedelics. The series seeks to create a forum...

The newly founded Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture is an interdisciplinary effort across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Law. It seeks to “transform the psychedelics research landscape by producing...