More Images and Details: Highlighting Bias and Misinformation from Psymposia and its Supporters
Further Details from Public Records
Reliance on Hearsay and Anonymous Statements
Pushing the False Claim that MAPS is a Therapy Cult (Twitter/X)
Personal Attacks
On Rick Doblin
Anti-Military Views
Anti-Medical Model
“Psychedelic Guide Industrial Complex”
Anti-Capitalist Views and Taking Down “Corporadelic”
Right-Wing Forces are Overtaking Psychedelics
Gloating and Revealing Alliances After the Hearing
Psymposia’s Biased Position
Excerpts from Talk: You Can Be Pro Psychedelics and Anti-Hype, Neşe Devenot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY_VYYT_Ens&ab_channel=BreakingConvention
So the reason I was mentioning i was optimistic was that the show [Last Week Tonight] has a history of highlighting the self-serving tactics of unaccountable corporations, which is an issue with psychedelics, the failure of regulatory agencies to act in the public interest and the complicity of the mainstream media in advancing narratives that serve the powerful, all of these factors are fueling hype in the psychedelic field and all of this is really important to consider given that the psychedelics industry has global ambitions, and there are people that work in the industry side of things that if you say “Hold on, let’s try to go more slowly, do more science, think critically about the way that we’re rolling this out”… I’ve seen people say “You must want global climate change to destroy the planet, you must want us to not be able to survive as a species, because we need psychedelics to cure depression and anxiety to fix climate change, to fix political polarization and to address the rise of fascism so if you don’t want us to be pushing ahead with this field you must want all of these things to get worse.
The problem is all of these things are actually field by inequality. And so If we don’t address those underlying structural factors then we’re ultimately dealing with a sleight of hand situation where the corporations are saying / CEOs are thinking “This is my chance to be a billionaire this is my chance to helm a unicorn corporation,” so they’re increasing inequality while they’re claiming to have a solution for the effects of inequality.When I read this [the quotation from a psychedelic guide that you need a guide for psychedelic experiences from Facebook] I was just like all of my experiences that had incredible healing they were all just with my friends. I was never in a situation with therapy. To say that you need a guide or a guide will protect you from harms in these contexts is preposterous, hiking and camping with psychedelics can be amazing for sure and to claim that that’s irresponsible is irresponsible. It’s also goofy as hell, like I cannot take that seriously at all. And so to normalize that as like “I am the wise professional guide and I’m telling you must - you can’t trust yourself or your friends,” you have to trust a stranger who is putting out a shingle at a time when there is still a lot to be learned as the leader or the guru is like that is more dangerous. We don’t have enough clinical trials right now for everyone to go into, so people are going to the underground and finding these figures who are self identifying as they guide that you need. I would argue there’s a higher likelihood for harm sending people to strangers that have some sense of magic psychedelic powers versus people camping in the woods with people they know and love and have community with, and that psychedelics can actually be a community building opportunity for people in a mutual aid grassroots support system framework that doesn’t require these hierarchies of knowledge that the medical model is currently promoting. I just want to end by saying Decriminalize! Decriminalize mutual aid. Decriminalize community self support. Keep psychedelics for the people.
Substack Posts
Excerpts from the above linked article showing lack of evidence and speculation
One of those risks is “cultogenic” — psychedelics have historically given rise to cults, where suggestibility is magnified by charismatic leaders. It was clear to me that many cultic groups with power in the psychedelic field would be sidling up to these ethicists with their best face forward, hoping to make a great impression that could land a “seal of approval” for their organizations and practices.
Psymposia Articles
Lucy in the Sky with Nazis, by Brian Pace
https://www.psymposia.com/magazine/lucy-in-the-sky-with-nazis-psychedelics-and-the-right-wing/
Excerpts from the above linked article showing clear bias
Perhaps at the end, this is a call for an expanded, politically-active psychedelic integration, one that calls for us to embrace each other in the real world as lovingly as we do the void. If we want a better world, whatever we believe that looks like, we will have to fight for it, in our communities and beyond.
Making psychedelics boring again, unless you’re a privileged psychedelic executive, of course, by Russell Hausfeld
https://www.psymposia.com/magazine/unless-youre-a-privileged-psychedelic-executive-of-course/
Excerpts from the above linked article showing clear bias
I would contend that the amount of global suffering stemming from the unchecked systems of American capitalism, imperialism, and militarism would have been far greater without the catalyzing impact of psychedelics on the psyches of those involved in resistance movements. To lament the loss of a mythologized “research monopoly” is to turn a blind eye to the really-existing histories of suffering in the real world.
You’d be hard pressed to find a psychedelic pharma exec discussing the contexts in which psychedelics have been safely used, though: people’s homes, camping trips, music festivals, with or without sitters. Even when acknowledging the financial attractiveness of psychedelics based on their safety attributes, they would still have us conform to a new psychedelic medical industry of their making.
Never Forget: Before there was a Mush Rush, there was a plea for decency , by Russell Hausfeld
Excerpts from the above linked article showing clear bias and antagonism
In the end, advocating for a system like this may fall less on the signatories who refuse to speak up, and more on communities of psychedelic users and concerned parties who aren’t afraid to raise their “un-sanctioned” voices to those in power and demand a little decency—at the very least.