Editor’s note: The author co-founded the Institute of Applied Metaprogramming and teaches this framework through the Certified Metaprogrammer (CMPr) course. The course is offered through Psychedelics Today’s Psychedelic Education Center under a revenue-sharing partnership. This piece was edited to PT’s standard editorial guidelines.

From the moment we’re born, and arguably before, we find ourselves pulled into the nature vs. nurture tug-of-war. Mostly beyond conscious awareness, our families, friends, religion, education, culture, politics, and media all play a role in programming our belief systems (jokingly abbreviated “B.S.” by author David Jay Brown and often quoted by Robert Anton Wilson), along with our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and reality tunnels.

A reality tunnel, a term coined by Dr. Timothy Leary, is the perceptual and cognitive filter through which the nervous system interprets experience. The version of reality we see is shaped by our imprints (early experiential patterns etched into the nervous system) and our beliefs. It is close to what writer Elizabeth Koch calls the perception box, a concept neuroscientists Drs. Heather Berlin and Christof Koch explore on their podcast of the same name: the brain’s constructed model of reality rather than reality itself. Everyone is living inside one. Few people ever question it. How deeply have you questioned yours?

Cultures around the world have developed systems for deconstructing these programs so they can be rebuilt with greater self-awareness. To metaprogram is to edit the programs that run beneath ordinary awareness. These programs begin as imprints, and metaprogramming works to re-imprint and replace them. A metaprogrammer is someone who has taken up that practice deliberately.

The term metaprogramming was coined by Dr. John C. Lilly, a 20th century consciousness explorer and researcher, inventor of the flotation tank, and one of the early pioneers of ketamine as a tool for inner investigation. Lilly used it to describe something he observed directly in his own experiments with sensory deprivation and altered states: the human nervous system has the capacity to consciously participate in constructing its own reality.

Leary and Wilson place this concept at the center of Circuit 6 (the Metaprogramming / Neuroelectric Circuit) within their 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness (8-CM). The 8-CM is a map of the nervous system that describes eight dimensions of perception and experience, from basic survival through non-dual consciousness, with the upper four circuits mapping the spectrum of non-ordinary states. In my clinical work as a ketamine-assisted therapist, I work as a metaprogrammer: facilitating this meta-awareness while exploring a client’s imprints and conditioning, and supporting the intentional reconstruction of their nervous system, “B.S.,” and reality tunnels.

A program, viewed through this lens, is a set of instructions governing behavior and perception that runs beneath conscious awareness. It might be the belief that you are fundamentally unlovable, that the world is not safe, or that your worth is conditional on your performance. Many of my clients report that much of their aspirations, interests, and hobbies are pursued because they feel like it’s what they are supposed to do, based on the expectations and validation of others. These programs shape how a person moves through the world, what they focus on or filter out, what they approach or avoid. Metaprogramming is the practice of stepping outside the reality tunnel and, from that vantage point, choosing how to rewire the nervous system.

Wilson often referred to Orr’s Law: “What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves.” The Thinker is the part of the mind that generates beliefs, hypotheses, and narratives about oneself and the world. The Prover is the part that finds evidence to confirm whatever the Thinker has already decided is true. The Prover is not interested in accuracy. Its only job is to find patterns that prove whatever the Thinker thinks.

Confirmation bias is one example of this mechanism. The nervous system’s job is to maintain a coherent experience, and it is metabolically expensive to constantly update one’s world model. So the Prover filters experience to confirm what the Thinker already believes. The problem arises when the Thinker is running programs installed by someone or something else: a parent, a traumatic event, a religion, the government, pop culture. For programs like “I am not fundamentally safe,” “I have to earn my place,” “I am too much,” or “I am not enough,” the Prover will confirm every one of them with relentless efficiency, every day, for the rest of a person’s life, unless something changes at the level of the Thinker’s program.

This is where psychedelics come in. In a profound psychedelic experience, the Prover’s normal operation is suspended. The filter comes down, and the nervous system is flooded with stimuli experienced without the usual editing. Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris’s REBUS model (Relaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics), building on his earlier entropic brain theory, describes this as the relaxation of rigid, top-down belief structures, allowing new patterns of meaning to form. Read this way, REBUS is a neuroscientific description of the metaprogramming function: the programs loosen enough that the programmer can finally see them clearly, perhaps for the first time.

That window is both the opportunity and the challenge. The opportunity is that the programs become visible, sometimes with startling clarity, and in the period of neuroplasticity that emerges during and after a session, new patterns can take root in ways that might otherwise require years of conventional practice. The challenge is that without a framework for working with what becomes visible, the window closes unused, the old programs resurface, and the Prover goes back to validating old narratives.

The 8-Circuit Model provides the map for locating an imprint in development, and metaprogramming guides the re-imprinting. In my practice, I work with a four-stage cycle: Observe, Identify, Interrupt, Re-imprint. The first step is to watch the programs run, without analyzing, judging, or immediately trying to fix anything. The 8-Circuit Model becomes operationally useful here because it gives practitioners and clients a shared language for noticing where any particular reaction, behavior, or belief is operating from.

From observation comes identification. Where does the observed belief come from, when was it installed, and what was the original context that made this response adaptive? Each circuit has its imprint windows, the critical developmental periods that shape all future beliefs and behaviors in that dimension of experience. A Circuit 1 program of “the world is not safe” was probably installed during infancy, before a person had language to articulate it. Knowing when something was installed doesn’t automatically free you from it, but it starts to loosen the grip, and it points toward the right tools for that domain. Somatic work is often more effective than talk therapy for Circuit 1 material, because the imprint at this level was preverbal.

Next, interruption is the process of creating a gap between the stimulus that triggers the program and the automatic response that follows. In meditation, this is called gap awareness. In the 8-CM, this gap is inherent to the Circuit 6 metaprogramming experience: the capacity to observe one’s own reaction without being completely identified with it.

Lastly, re-imprinting is the actual rewriting of the nervous system and the reconfiguring of the reality tunnel. New patterns are introduced and practiced until they begin to become the new default. This goes beyond affirmations or positive thinking. Re-imprinting is a visceral restructuring across somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions at once. Supported by a psychedelic experience, the process can move faster than years of conventional practice alone, though the work of stabilizing the new pattern still has to be done.

None of this happens automatically. A person can have the most paradigm-shifting psilocybin experience of their life and be back inside the same reality tunnel by Friday, with the Prover dutifully collecting evidence that nothing ever really changes. The difference is whether someone was watching the programs run, knew where they were installed, and had a plan for what to write in their place. That is the metaprogrammer’s job, whether the metaprogrammer is a trained practitioner or the person themselves.

The Certified Metaprogrammer (CMPr) course is available through the Psychedelic Education Center.

This section was prepared by the Psychedelics Today editorial team and was not written by the author.

Frequently Asked Questions About Metaprogramming

What is metaprogramming?

Metaprogramming is a term coined by Dr. John C. Lilly describing the nervous system’s capacity to consciously observe and rewrite its own beliefs, imprints, and automatic patterns. A metaprogrammer is someone who practices this deliberately rather than letting early conditioning run unexamined.

What is the 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness?

The 8-Circuit Model, developed by Timothy Leary and expanded by Robert Anton Wilson, maps eight dimensions of perception and experience, from basic survival through non-dual consciousness. Metaprogramming sits at Circuit 6, the capacity to observe and edit one’s own conditioning.

How do psychedelics relate to metaprogramming?

Robin Carhart-Harris’s REBUS model describes psychedelics as relaxing rigid, top-down belief structures. In that window of loosened beliefs and heightened neuroplasticity, old imprints become visible and new patterns can take root, if the person has a framework for working with what they see.

What is a reality tunnel?

A reality tunnel, Timothy Leary’s term, is the perceptual filter through which a nervous system interprets experience, shaped by imprints and beliefs. It is close to what writer Elizabeth Koch calls the perception box: the brain’s constructed model of reality rather than reality itself.

In this week’s Psychedelic Policy briefing, investigative reporter Jack Gorsline details the latest psychedelic reform developments out of Massachusetts and Louisiana, along with a curious development in the race to replace former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, potentially with another pro-psychedelic public health official currently serving in the Trump administration.

Massachusetts Lobbying Day Highlights Increasing National Influence over Psychedelic Reform Efforts

Massachusetts lawmakers have advanced two bills to establish state-sanctioned pilot programs for psilocybin and other psychedelic therapies, creating a narrow medical framework following the scandalous defeat of a broad legalization ballot measure in 2024. The Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery approved the legislation on March 18, advancing it to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. While proponents view these clinical pathways as an opportunity to deliver regulated care to populations with PTSD and substance use disorders, the legislative push faces ideological divisions. Grassroots advocates argue for equitable access outside of traditional, expensive healthcare settings, while proponents of the bills, including Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), favor a stricter clinical model.

The bills also reveal the shifting economics of psychedelic reform as biotechnology firms and traditional healthcare entities intensify their lobbying efforts in the state. Simultaneously, grassroots organizations like Mass Healing are mobilizing a statewide coalition to expand the pilot beyond psilocybin to include compounds like ibogaine, which is derived from the root bark of the Tabernanthe iboga shrub. Because ibogaine carries distinct cardiac risks necessitating intensive medical oversight, advocates argue a state-level pilot would position Massachusetts at the vanguard of clinical research. Meanwhile, on June 18, VETS representatives, including Policy Director Logan Davidson,  met with Massachusetts lawmakers at the State House to advocate for the research and clinical frameworks needed to integrate psychedelic-assisted therapies into veteran care.

“Progress begins with education, collaboration, and a willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue,” VETS officials said in a social media post recapping the lobbying day. 

”We left Boston encouraged by the thoughtful discussions that took place and grateful to everyone who took the time to listen, learn, and contribute to the conversation.⁠”

Louisiana Opioid Settlement Fund Psychedelic Pilot Program Takes Effect August 1

Louisiana’s new law authorizing a pilot program for veterans and first responders officially takes effect on August 1, 2026, after passing without Governor Jeff Landry’s signature. Senate Bill 43, introduced by Senator Patrick McMath, mandates the establishment of a clinical framework to study the use of psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA in clinical trials. Eligible participants include those suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, opioid use disorders, and co-occurring substance use disorders. The law creates the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Program within the Louisiana Department of Health, ties the initiative into a national research consortium, and includes a 20% state revenue-share on any FDA-approved drug resulting from the research. The program will be funded by state opioid settlement dollars.

While the bill marks a significant policy shift, its focus remains strictly on clinical, research-based settings. Advocates and policymakers are now tasked with the regulatory roll-out, which must align with existing state health infrastructure and federal drug scheduling constraints.

FDA Shortlist Includes White House Aide and Psychedelic Supporter Heidi Overton

The Trump administration is finalizing its shortlist for a permanent FDA Commissioner following the May resignation of Marty Makary. Leading candidates include Heidi Overton, a deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, oncologist Jeffrey Vacirca of New York Cancer & Blood Specialists, and Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara.

Overton, who served as a White House fellow during Donald Trump’s first term, was chief policy officer and vice chair of the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute. Overton has become a central figure in the administration’s health policy portfolio, frequently appearing with President Trump at events regarding drug pricing and the administration’s April 18 executive order that fast-tracks research into psychedelic treatments. Other reported candidates include Ned Sharpless, the former leader of the National Cancer Institute, and Richard Pops, the retiring CEO of biopharmaceutical giant Alkermes.

The White House has not confirmed the candidate list, and Spokesman Kush Desai stated that reports of personnel nominations are “baseless hearsay.”

Note: This article was produced in partnership with Psychedelic State(s) of America – a nonprofit-sponsored news organization dedicated to rigorous independent psychedelic journalism. Learn more about PSA’s Media Partnerships Program and donate to the PSA Media Fund here.

If you’ve ever sat with a client in a ketamine or psilocybin session and quietly wondered whether you chose the right songs for your playlist, you’re not alone, and you’re already asking the right question.

Music is not just for creating a nice atmosphere in psychedelic-assisted therapy. It is, as researcher Mendel Kaelen put it after studying psilocybin sessions at Imperial College London, “It’s the music which is really driving what kind of experience patients have in the therapy, and what kind of experience they have predicts the outcome of the therapy.” And the kind of experience they have, he found, predicts the outcome. ¹

This means that in a well-designed psychedelic therapy session, the music may be shaping therapeutic results as meaningfully as the medicine itself. Some have suggested that the playlist and music are the “hidden therapist” in the room. 

This piece is a practical introduction to why that’s true, what the science says, and what it means for you as a practitioner. This article will cover the basics of music theory as it applies to psychedelic sessions, how to think about curating a playlist, and why this is a skill worth investing in, regardless of whether you’ve ever played an instrument in your life or understand music theory.

Why is Music Important? What the Research Says

The therapeutic use of music in psychedelic settings isn’t new. It dates back to the first wave of LSD research in the 1950s and ’60s, where music was already understood to be a key component of the session environment. Music therapist Helen Bonny, who worked at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center during that period, developed some of the earliest formalized playlists for psychedelic therapy, and her work continues to influence practitioners today. ²

What’s new is the quality of our scientific understanding of why it works.

A 2024 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry analyzed 494 ketamine/esketamine sessions across 37 patients with treatment-resistant depression. Patients who listened to music during treatment reported significantly lower anxiety, tolerated higher administered doses on average, and showed lower peak blood pressure responses compared to patients who did not listen to music. Anxiety scores averaged approximately 0.4 in the music group versus 1.4 in the no-music group during sessions. The study did not examine specific genres or playlist types but only whether music was present during treatment. 

A 2025 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry went further. Researchers at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne conducted phenomenological interviews with patients following psilocybin-assisted therapy sessions and found that music undergoes a profound transformation during psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Music shifted from externally heard recorded music into internally generated, multisensory, and deeply personal experiences. The music, in other words, is no longer experienced merely as background sound. It becomes woven into the experience itself. The music becomes something participants feel immersed in rather than simply listening to from the outside. 

Kaelen’s research at Imperial College took this further still. He found that the quality of a patient’s experience of music during a psilocybin session was directly associated with mystical and therapeutic insights and that this musical experience, rather than the intensity of the drug alone, seemed to predict improvements in depression a week later. ¹ 

A 2024 review in Psychedelic Medicine concluded that music plays a central role in both therapeutic and ceremonial psychedelic experiences, influencing emotion, memory, meaning-making, and the overall trajectory of the experience itself. At the same time, the authors noted that the field still lacks a nuanced understanding of how specific musical elements, cultural contexts, and individual differences shape therapeutic outcomes. Rather than functioning as simple background ambiance, music may operate as an active component of the psychedelic process itself. ⁵ 

The Oldest Curriculum We Have

Long before clinical trials and controlled conditions, indigenous communities across the globe had already developed sophisticated musical frameworks for navigating psychedelic states.

Across many Amazonian healing traditions, icaros, the ceremonial healing songs sung during ayahuasca rituals, are understood as an essential part of the medicine itself. A recent phenomenological study of participant experiences at the Takiwasi Center in Peru found that these songs were often experienced not simply as music, but as active guiding forces within the ceremony, shaping visions, emotional processing, bodily sensations, and the overall trajectory of the experience. Participants frequently described the songs as calming, protective, emotionally evocative, and even physically embodied, with some reporting that the songs felt as though they were moving through the body or carrying the intention of the healer. Rather than functioning as background sound, the icaros were experienced as relational and immersive aspects of the healing process itself. ⁶ 

In West Africa, Bwiti practitioners using ibogaine play drums, rattles, sing, and strum continuously for twelve to fifteen hours across multi-day ceremonies. The music does not stop because stopping would mean abandoning the journeyer mid-voyage.

In Native American traditions that use peyote and San Pedro, they play drums, chant, and use rattles in a clear wave structure: gentler at the opening, building toward intensity, then returning to softness at the close.

Every culture that developed a sustained relationship with plant medicines discovered the same shape independently. The wave. The arc. A beginning that opens, a middle that intensifies and releases, and an ending that brings the traveler home.

Meanwhile, the Johns Hopkins psilocybin playlist, developed by researcher William Richards, drawing partly on Helen Bonny’s earlier tapes, is divided into distinct segments: background music as the participant arrives; music as the drug begins to take effect; the ascent; the peak; the post-peak; and the “welcome back” music. ² While modern clinical psychedelic therapy approaches music differently than Indigenous ceremonial traditions, both frameworks recognize that music can shape emotional tone, guide attention, and influence the unfolding trajectory of the experience itself. 

A Beginner’s Guide to Music Theory for Psychedelic Sessions

You do not need to read sheet music or understand chord progressions to become an effective music facilitator. But a few foundational concepts will immediately improve how you think about playlist design.

Major Key vs. Minor Key

Within psychedelic therapy, the musical key can play an important role in shaping the emotional tone and psychological movement of a session. While every participant responds differently to music, many facilitators intentionally use shifts between major and minor tonalities to support different phases of the journey.

Major keys sound bright, open, and resolved. Think of morning light, a sense of arriving somewhere safe. Major key music communicates to the nervous system: you are okay, there is ground beneath you, and you can open.

Minor keys sound inward, deep, and emotionally complex. They create a sense of interiority — the feeling of going somewhere, of moving through something. Minor key music communicates: we are traveling, stay with it.

When creating playlists for participants, you can think of using the major and minor keys as follows:

• Open with major key music as it establishes safety and readiness before the medicine takes hold
• Shift to a minor key as the journey deepens, as it supports and mirrors the inward movement of the experience
• Return to the major key during the descent and landing, as  it signals to the nervous system that the traveler is coming home

Rather than rigid rules, these shifts can be understood as emotional and relational cues that help support orientation, surrender, emotional processing, and eventual re-grounding throughout the psychedelic experience. 

Tempo and BPM

BPM stands for beats per minute, the speed of a track. For psychedelic sessions, tempo functions like a pacemaker for the journey.

• Slow BPM (60–80): Grounding, meditative, receptive. Appropriate for opening and closing phases when the client needs to settle into or return from the experience.
• Medium BPM (80–110): Moving, building, emotionally propulsive. Useful during the onset and deepening phases.
• Higher BPM (110+): Driving, intense, peak-associated. The music of the session’s climax — what carries the client through the most charged territory of the experience.

David Starfire, who has designed playlists for sessions with Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk, and Richard Schwartz, stressed one point specific to ketamine: for high-dose ketamine sessions, beats are not optional. Without rhythmic forward momentum, clients can fall into loops, which can lead to cycling through the same material without being able to move through it. “With ketamine, especially high-dose ketamine, it’s important to have beats and to have different music changing over time,” he says. “Because that’s how the journey is.”

For low-dose ketamine sessions in a talk therapy context, the opposite applies: no beats, ambient only, and major keys. The music must stay soft enough to support conversation. Research on music during esketamine infusions supports this distinction, finding that musical context meaningfully shapes the character of the dissociative experience rather than merely accompanying it. ³

Key-Based Playlist Sequencing: The Circle of Fifths

The Circle of Fifths is a diagram that arranges all twelve musical keys so that adjacent keys are harmonically compatible, they share chord tones, and sound smooth when played one after another.

The practical implication for practitioners: sequence your playlist so that each song’s key neighbors the previous song’s key on the circle. Going from a C major song directly to a C# major song creates subconscious dissonance. Clients in altered states are particularly sensitive to this, and it can feel like something is going wrong without knowing why.

Free Circle of Fifths charts are widely available online. Combined with free key-detection software like Mixed in Key Live,  which identifies the key and BPM of any track playing on your computer in real time, this gives any practitioner, regardless of musical training, the ability to build playlists that flow harmonically from beginning to end.

Track Length and Scene Changes

Aim for tracks of five to seven minutes. Each track functions like a scene in a film. When the music shifts, the client moves to the next scene. That micro-transition, a small opening, a moment of reorientation, is what prevents looping and keeps the experience moving forward.

Tracks that are too short can be jarring. Tracks that are too long can trap a client in a particular emotional space past the point of productive engagement. Five to seven minutes is the practical sweet spot.

Transitions between tracks matter as much as the tracks themselves. If you use Spotify, you can use Spotify’s crossfade feature, but there are limitations. For example, if you want to switch a track early and hit the “next” button, the transition doesn’t do a crossfade and can be jarring with the abrupt change. It is better to own the audio files and use a DJ software like Mixxx, where the crossfade feature works better. If the music program doesn’t offer a crossfade and there are silent gaps between tracks, use a rain stick, a shaker, or a set of chimes so the silence between songs is held rather than dropped.

The Question of Lyrics

The rule of thumb is to avoid tracks with lyrics from native and familiar languages. This is one of the most consistent pieces of guidance across practitioners. In a non-ordinary state, words can have an impact. A familiar lyric, even from a song the client loves, can redirect the journey, trigger associations, or impose a narrative that belongs to the song rather than to the client’s process.

A 2024 review in Psychedelic Medicine noted that music selection guidelines consistently recommend avoiding music with lyrics for this reason, as semantic content competes with the client’s inner narrative during the session. ⁵ Vocal music in non-native languages can be valuable; the human voice carries something that no instrument can replicate, but wordless musing, chanting, and vocalization allow that quality through without the semantic freight of language.

Curating a Playlist: A Framework for Beginners

The session arc, drawn from both indigenous traditions and contemporary clinical practice, looks like this:

Phase 1:  Preparation (before the medicine)
This is the arrival. The music should help the person settle into the space and slowly let go of the outside world. Soft ambient music, gentle major key tones, guided meditations, or even subtle theta-oriented binaural beats can work well here. Avoid anything too rhythmic or emotionally demanding. The feeling is less “we are starting” and more “something is beginning to open.” It’s about grounding and getting ready. 

Phase 2: Onset
As the medicine starts coming on, the music begins to shift with it. The energy becomes a little more inward. Minor keys often start to appear here, along with subtle percussion, flutes, drones, or world instruments. The music is still supportive and spacious, but there’s now a sense of movement and a feeling that the journey is beginning to deepen.

Phase 3: Deepening
This is where the music starts carrying more momentum. Rhythm becomes more noticeable, and layers build. Tracks may feel emotionally richer, with more texture, and feel more alive/dynamic. Ideally, the music evolves gradually enough that the participant can continue moving with it rather than feeling pushed by it. The goal is to support immersion as the medicine begins to take effect.

Phase 4: Peak
This is often the most emotionally charged part of the experience. The music may become bigger, more rhythmic, more intense, or more cinematic. Drums, strong melodies, layered instrumentation, and emotionally evocative pieces are often used here to help support depth, surrender, and emotional breakthrough. As Peruvian ceremonialist Claudia Cuentas says, “Whatever it is, it always has to have some heart.”

Phase 5: Descent
Eventually, the intensity of the journey begins to soften. The music follows that movement. Rhythms slow down, spaciousness returns, and major key elements often begin reappearing. The feeling here is less about pushing deeper and more about helping the participant reconnect with themselves, their body, and the room around them. 

Phase 6: Landing
This phase is gentle, warm, and grounding. Soft melodies, light vocals, acoustic textures, and calming ambient pieces can help create a sense of safety and return. The nervous system is settling. The experience is still present, but the music now feels more like reassurance than exploration.

Phase 7: Integration
As the session transitions into conversation and reflection, the music moves into the background. Quiet ambient tracks without strong beats, dramatic emotional shifts, or distracting vocals tend to work best. The music is no longer leading the experience. It’s simply holding the space while the person begins making sense of what emerged.

What Playlist Curation Actually Requires

Crafting a playlist can seem like a daunting task. Where and how do you start? Most practitioners can understand the framework, but they don’t know how to find music that fits within each phase. Also, music can feel subjective. Certain tracks can fit into multiple phases. 

Try not to think of creating a playlist as a “task” but rather as a practice. It develops over time through intentional listening. And with intentional listening, listen to as much diverse music as possible. 

Start with your own resonance. Byron Metcalf’s foundational advice: explore music experientially before you use it in sessions. Listen to it in a quiet, receptive state. Breathe with it. Notice what happens in your body. If a track creates even a flicker of dissonance or aversion in you, that response will be part of the field you bring into the session.

Work from elimination as much as selection. Notice what doesn’t work for you, and be honest about why. The playlist you would want to journey to yourself is the best starting point you have.

Consider the instrument. For live sound in sessions, David Starfire recommends beginning with instruments that don’t require years of training: Koshi chimes for opening and closing rituals, rattles for peak phases, Tibetan or crystal singing bowls for harmonic resonance (noting that every bowl must be tuned to match the key of whatever recorded track is playing — dissonance is counterproductive). Free software can identify the key of any track in real time, eliminating the guesswork.

Avoid lyrics. This bears repeating. Default to wordless music. If you use vocal tracks, ensure the vocals are musing rather than semantic. ⁵

Categorize the Music: As you develop an intentional listening practice and track the feeling that the music fosters, categorize the music into different playlists. You cna use cateogorize the music with the phases above. For example, if you listen to a track that “feels” like a “Peak” track, add that to a playlist called “Peak.” This will help you stay organized and also have an easier time putting a playlist together. 

Download everything before the session. If you can, try not to stream live over Wi-Fi. A dropped connection mid-session can disrupt the journey – from a journeyer’s perspective, the music has stopped, and they might be asking, “What’s going on?” From the practitioner’s perspective, you might be scrambling to troubleshoot, and your focus turns away from the participant and more towards technical problem-solving. It is an event in the session itself, and it can be a destabilizing one. The best option is to purchase albums or tracks through a website like Bandcamp and use local files. 

Why Every Practitioner Needs Training in Music

There is broad agreement across psychedelic research that music is not simply background ambiance during psychedelic-assisted therapy, but it is an active part of the therapeutic environment itself. Multiple papers suggest that music can shape emotional tone, influence meaning-making, support emotional breakthrough, regulate difficult states, and affect the overall trajectory of a psychedelic experience.

At the same time, the field still knows surprisingly little about how music should actually be used in practice. A 2025 review on music selection in psychedelic-assisted therapy noted that only three empirical studies had directly examined which types of music best support psychedelic therapy, while also highlighting substantial disagreement among experts around issues such as playlist structure, percussion, familiarity, vocals, emotional intensity, and cultural context. ⁸ A separate critique of the Copenhagen Music Program argued that psychedelic playlists are not neutral therapeutic tools, but may actively guide, constrain, and shape participants’ experiences in ways practitioners may not fully appreciate. ⁹

A 2025 phenomenological study on music in psilocybin-assisted therapy found that participants often stopped experiencing music as external sound altogether, instead describing it as immersive, relational, emotionally intelligent, and woven directly into the therapeutic process itself. ⁴ Similarly, research on Amazonian icaros at the Takiwasi Center in Peru found that participants experienced ceremonial healing songs not merely as music, but as active guiding forces that shaped visions, emotional processing, bodily sensations, and the unfolding movement of the ceremony. ⁶

Taken together, these findings suggest that music may function less like “background support” and more like a co-facilitator within psychedelic work.

Music can help regulate fear, support surrender, deepen introspection, evoke memory, create emotional safety, and help participants navigate difficult psychological terrain. But music can also overwhelm, distract, over-direct, rupture emotional flow, or subtly impose therapeutic assumptions onto the experience. In altered states where perception, suggestibility, and emotional sensitivity are heightened, these choices matter.

This does not mean there is one perfect playlist or one universally correct approach. In fact, the recent literature increasingly argues the opposite: that music selection is relational, culturally situated, participant-dependent, and far more complex than many early psychedelic therapy models assumed. ⁸

The emerging field of psychedelic-assisted therapy needs practitioners who understand this complexity. Practitioners who can think critically about music rather than simply inheriting playlists from existing protocols. Practitioners who understand pacing, emotional arc, nervous system regulation, cultural context, symbolism, silence, and the ways sound interacts with altered states of consciousness.

That relationship with music takes time to develop. Like therapy itself, it is part intuition, part attunement, part experimentation, and part practice.

The best time to begin developing it is now. 

Learn More About Music for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

If you’ve read this far and are thinking, “But I’m not a musician,” here is the important thing to understand: You do not need to be a trained musician to work skillfully with music in psychedelic therapy.

You do not need to understand music theory (although it can be helpful), compose songs, or build perfect playlists from scratch. What you do need is curiosity, attention, and a willingness to listen closely and not just to the music itself, but to what happens in the room, in the participant, and in your own nervous system when certain sounds enter the space.

Over time, experienced facilitators begin developing a felt sense for music. They notice when a track creates spaciousness, when rhythm increases tension, when vocals become distracting, when silence is needed, or when a participant seems supported, overwhelmed, softened, opened, grounded, or emotionally activated by what is playing.

The goal is not to control the experience through sound. It is to become more attuned to how music interacts with emotion, memory, embodiment, symbolism, safety, and altered states of consciousness.

Like therapy itself, this is ultimately relational work.

And like all relational work, it deepens through practice, reflection, humility, and careful attention over time.

If you want to deepen your understanding of how music functions within psychedelic-assisted therapy, including playlist design, emotional arc, nervous system regulation, ceremonial and clinical approaches, major and minor tonalities, rhythm, silence, and the emerging research in the field, we invite you to join Polaris Insight Center’s new course, Advanced Music Module for Psychedelic Therapy. 

Whether you are brand new to working with music or already building playlists for clients, this training is designed to help you develop a more intentional, ethical, and therapeutically informed relationship with sound.

References

1. Kaelen, M. et al. (Imperial College London). Music and the psychedelic experience. Cited in: The Third Wave. The Psychedelic Score: How Music Magnifies Meaning. https://thethirdwave.co/the-psychedelic-score-how-music-magnifies-meaning
   
2. Johns Hopkins Medicine. (2020). Inside the Johns Hopkins psilocybin playlist. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2020/10/inside-the-johns-hopkins-psilocybin-playlist
   
3. Hauser, J., Sarlon, J., Liwinski, T., Brühl, A.B., & Lang, U.E. (2024). Listening to music during intranasal (es)ketamine therapy in patients with treatment-resistant depression correlates with better tolerability and reduced anxiety. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1327598. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1327598
   
4. Dwyer, J., Johnston, R.B., O’Callaghan, C., Kallianis, V., & Ross, M.L. (2025). Music as a collaborating actor: new insights into the nature and role of music in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1541528. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1541528
   
5. Efthimiou, A.A., Cardinale, A.M., & Kepa, A. (2024). The role of music in psychedelic-assisted therapy: A comparative analysis of neuroscientific research, indigenous entheogenic ritual, and contemporary care models. Psychedelic Medicine, 2(4), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1089/psymed.2023.0058
   
6. Sherwin, M., Friso, F., Fachner, J., & Politi, M. (2025). Participant experiences of icaros (Amazonian curative songs) during a traditional medicine ceremony at the Takiwasi Center, Peru. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 9(2), 149-168. https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2024.00370
   
7. Moskovitz M. (2025). The Research Deficit and Expert Disagreement Regarding Music Selection for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. ACS pharmacology & translational science, 8(10), 3684–3690. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.5c00583
   
8. Ratkovic G, Sosteric M, and Sosteric T (2023) A case-study evaluation of the “Copenhagen Music Program” for psilocybin-assisted therapy. Front. Psychol. 14:1156852. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1156852
   
9. Weiss, B., Roseman, L., Giribaldi, B. et al. Unique Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Psilocybin Therapy Versus Escitalopram Treatment in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder. Int J Ment Health Addiction 22, 806–841 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01253-9 

The introduction of S.4031, the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act, moves psychedelic research into a federal healthcare framework.

Full text is available here.

The bill, introduced by Sens. Ruben Gallego, Sheehy and David McCormick, would establish specialized research and treatment centers within the Department of Veterans Affairs to study therapies for PTSD, traumatic brain injury, depression, substance use disorders, and chronic pain. The bill specifically names MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine, ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT as the compounds under study.

It authorizes funding and requires internal data systems.

From Parallel Efforts to a System

Psychedelic research in the United States has developed in separate tracks. Academic trials, nonprofit funding, and private investment have all advanced with different protocols, small sample sizes, and limited coordination.

S.4031 would bring that work under one federal roof — standardized protocols, formal clinician training, centralized data collection, and multi-site trials.

If passed, it would be one of the most serious federal attempts to run coordinated psychedelic research inside a healthcare institution it already operates.

Why the VA

The VA is not just large. It functions as a single, integrated system.

It tracks patients over long periods, applies consistent standards across sites, and serves a population with high rates of treatment-resistant conditions — making it one of the few places where outcomes can be measured in a way that regulators and insurers will take seriously.

Sen. Gallego was direct about the obligation:

“Too many veterans are suffering without effective treatment options. If emerging therapies like psychedelics show promise, we have a responsibility to study them and ensure veterans have access to the best possible care.”

Melissa Lavasani, founder and CEO of the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, said in a statement:

“The VA is the right proving ground because the need is already concentrated there. Veterans experience some of the highest rates of PTSD, depression, and suicide in the country, and the VA is the largest integrated healthcare system we have. That combination makes it uniquely positioned to rigorously study and responsibly deliver new treatments.”

Amy Rising, a veteran advocate, framed the underlying obligation:

“Veterans should never feel like the country they served has run out of options for their healing. We owe it to them to pursue every responsible, evidence-based pathway that could improve treatment for PTSD, depression, and other serious health conditions. This legislation helps ensure that promising new therapies are studied rigorously so that veterans and their doctors have better options in the future.”

If these therapies are going to meet federal standards, it will happen here.

What the Bill Does — and Doesn’t Do

S.4031 does not authorize patient access or resolve regulatory barriers. Psychedelics remain outside standard care.

What it does is give the VA the authority to run structured programs capable of answering whether these treatments work at scale.

“What the Centers of Excellence bill does is give the VA the authority and infrastructure to do this the right way,” Lavasani said.

The problem has never been lack of interest or early evidence. It is the absence of large, consistent datasets from real patients in clinical settings. This bill is designed to produce them.

“Passage unlocks the ability to move from small, scattered studies to a coordinated federal effort focused on evidence, safety, and real-world outcomes for veterans. In other words, it creates a credible pathway for determining whether psychedelic-assisted treatments should become part of mainstream care,” she added.

Legitimacy Before Access

Passage would not expand access in the short term. It would generate the kind of evidence federal regulators require before changing standards of care — standardized protocols, reproducible results, long-term outcome data — produced inside an institution that already delivers care at scale.

The field has spent a decade pushing for faster access; this bill reflects a different reality, that without system-level evidence, access does not scale.

Psychedelics Today has consistently argued for access across multiple channels, from clinical settings to decriminalized and traditional use. Federal pathways operate differently. Within that constraint, this bill reflects a credible approach: build the evidence base here, while broader access continues to evolve elsewhere.

Bipartisan, and Targeted

The Senate bill follows the House companion measure, H.R. 2623, introduced by Reps. Lou Correa and Jack Bergman, co-chairs of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus.

Veterans’ care provides a narrow path forward. It keeps the focus on clinical outcomes and avoids the broader cultural debates that tend to stall policy.

What It Leaves Open

The bill does not address drug scheduling or DEA oversight, workforce development outside federal institutions, reimbursement models, or access beyond the VA. Authorization allows the infrastructure to be built. Funding and implementation determine whether it functions.

What Comes Next

S.4031 was referred to the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on March 9, 2026. No hearing or markup has been scheduled. Its path forward depends on the committee moving it alongside H.R. 2623 in the House.

Where This Leaves the Field

S.4031 is a decision to build a federal testing ground — a move from observing the field to running studies inside an institution the government already operates.

The question is no longer whether these therapies show promise.

It is whether they hold up under the scrutiny federal adoption requires.

EDITORS NOTE – March 25, 2026

Although S.4031 was introduced on March 9, 2026, the full legislative text was not immediately accessible through Congress.gov at the time of initial review. The introduced text has since been published and confirms key provisions, including the requirement to establish at least one VA centers and authorized funding of $30 million annually.

In 2025, the psychedelic landscape is rich with possibility, and yet often fragmented. Psychedelic gatherings can feel like isolated islands, each with its own language, lineage, and loyalties. While there is beauty in these distinct communities, there is also a risk of remaining in silos, missing the deeper potential of psychedelics as a force for collective connection.

The world around us is marked by displacement, migration, and widening social fractures. Many carry the grief of war, environmental loss, and uncertain futures. These realities do not dissolve when we step into ceremonial space; they live in the bodies, stories, and ancestral threads of those who gather.

Psychedelics, at their best, offer a lens to see our shared humanity more clearly. They can dissolve the separations between us, reminding us of the deep interdependence that sustains life. In this way, they become not only tools for personal healing, but for building bridges: across cultures, histories, and the lines that, though often unseen, are reinforced by systems that shape how lives are valued and how communities are divided.

To honour this potential, we must also acknowledge the roots of these practices. Many psychedelic traditions arise from Indigenous communities whose relationships with these medicines are embedded in land, language, and ceremony. Reciprocity is a living relationship; it takes form in practical commitments, such as supporting the cultural and ecological well-being of the communities that have carried these medicines forward, sourcing materials in ways that sustain rather than deplete, and ensuring that the benefits of this work extend beyond those who can most easily access it. Connection grows when we create spaces where differences are not erased but respected, and where participants can meet each other’s stories with presence and care.

“I feel like it’s a very interesting time in life, you know, the world to do this kind of work, and seeing so much violence so many wars, and the really terrible things that humans are doing to one another, and then being here and seeing the potential of how much tenderness and care and love and healing people can allow and bring one another, I think it’s a privilege and an honour to be able to witness people coming together in order to find the best way to heal, to grow.” – Amit Zilberberg, Facilitator and mentor at Kiyumi

A regenerative psychedelic culture calls for practices that heal not only individuals, but also the relationships between communities and between humanity and the living world. This is the work of understanding that personal healing is inseparable from the freedom and well-being of all; it invites us to envision a future where the psychedelic renaissance is not a passing trend, but part of a deeper cultural shift towards care, justice, accountability, and sustainability.

As a queer-led organisation, Kiyumi invites facilitators, therapists, community organisers, and those seeking to deepen their practice or begin their path to develop their craft with a strong foundation in somatic practice, cultural awareness, and ethical spaceholding. Our Integrative Psychedelic Practitioner Training emerges from these values – it is a seven-month journey, paired with a six-day in-person training retreat in the Netherlands, designed to prepare practitioners to meet the complexity of our times with grounded skill and presence.

Applications are open for our October 2025 cohort

While waves of change diffused across psychedelic science and research policy in Texas, bills such as Senate Bill (SB) 3 made cannabis research and medical cannabis access infinitely more difficult when it had already been a slog. I don’t know when cannabis was exiled from its psychedelic family, but a plant with a wider net of healing potential that goes beyond mental health (NASEM 2017)– which is extraordinarily valuable, don’t get me wrong– was orphaned by a group which includes chemically synthesized and intense substances such as the dissociative anesthetic, ketamine. A substance which I would not have selected as my champion for psychedelic-assisted therapy. I’m not bitter, I’m just frustrated. 

Each individual psychedelic needs high-quality, double-blinded, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which establish therapeutic efficacy for one specific chemical compound for a handful of mental health conditions. After high-quality RCTs are conducted, it will not be an uphill battle to institute each one as an adequate form of treatment. Psychedelic policy which dedicates the required resources to conduct high-quality psychedelic research has been passed in the state of Texas once (HB 1802) and will be passed again (HB 3717; HB 4014).

Equally adequate cannabis research will require a significantly more vast and nuanced approach compared to any other psychoactive substance due to its complexity as a plant. High-quality cannabis science and research which could establish cannabis as an adequate treatment for an abundance of issues would require a myriad of insights and individually dedicated research projects– which I will detail later on. There are so many pathways and rabbit holes in cannabis research, even building the foundation for such research projects will demand a long and gradual effort. Ultimately, the sort of funding which will go into ibogaine research through HB 3717, 50 million US dollars, would be vivifying to the study of cannabis science and it would be priceless to patients who utilize hemp-derived and medical cannabis. 

Implications of Psychedelic Policy in Texas

One research project can cost from one hundred thousand to tens of millions of US dollars. While the mechanism of action for ibogaine could be researched further, the therapeutic compound itself is generally static. In turn, ibogaine will be more quickly and efficiently researched than a complex plant such as cannabis. Ibogaine and other psychedelics are different from cannabis. Psychedelics are more easily pharmaceuticalized than cannabis and its multitude of therapeutic components and formulations. Nonetheless, government agencies, national organizations, universities, non-profits, and other stakeholders may be interested in sponsoring or even matching such research funding, as $50,000,000 can be spent rather quickly and these industries are going to be worth a whole lot more than that. 

Ibogaine and other psychedelic substances are imbued with significantly more stigma due to their duration of effects, routes of administration, intensity, severe risks of drug-drug combinations, and their synthesization– in some cases. Ketamine, while existing as a dissociative anesthetic rather than a traditional entheogen or psychedelic, is fully covered by one US health insurer, Enthea. As a Texan, it is quite surprising to see such substances endowed with resources and support through state legislation. 

HB 3717 (89) and SB 2308 (89) will create a $50 million research grant for ibogaine therapy trials. This amount of funding will cover an adequate number of research projects to establish ibogaine as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Becoming a legitimate treatment entails many upgrades to ibogaine’s status as a medicine, such as insurance coverage, protecting the uninsured, training physicians, establishing clinical standards, securing Texan corporate interests through patents, medical research, product development, product manufacturing, and product distribution. These bills are not the first of their kind, but they are unique in that they establish a publicly available grant application. However, an institutional review board (IRB) will be chosen as an overseer to this research, to:

“verify the drug development trial research activity for scientific validation and authentication under the requirements of the United States Food and Drug Administration.”

At the last legislative session (87), HB 1802 was passed, which establishes PTSD and depression as potentially being remedied by, broadly, “psychedelic therapies… the use of MDMA, psilocybin, or ketamine to treat mental health or other medical conditions.” This session, HB 4014 (89) is likely to pass, and this bill reifies the goals of HB 1802 while extending the deadline for the review of its implementation. The research through 1802 and 4014 will be conducted by the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT). It will be interesting to see if the chosen IRB for HB 3717’s ibogaine research grant will be through the same university systems or a separate one. It would also be interesting to see if cannabis could classify as a ‘psychedelic therapy’ under an amended or future version of the aforementioned house bills. Regardless, these bills spark hope for psychedelic science advocates across the nation, as their passage destigmatizes, affirms, and will ultimately benefit, patients, the psychedelic medicine industry, and the developing academic field of psychedelic science. 

In addition to the previous factors, bills such as HB 3717 line the pockets of entities and organizations that partner with and sponsor such research. For instance, the research projects funded by HB 1802 are supported by local organizations such as Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) as well as federal agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). None of this is wrong, in fact, this is absolutely wonderful. The only thing wrong about this situation is the fact that medical cannabis science isn’t getting the same kind of attention from Texas lawmakers, universities, local organizations, federal agencies, and perhaps, even Texan substance users. 

The Potential Power of Texans 

Increasing access to medical cannabis requires much more work to be done, considering the plethora of potential conditions it can treat as well as the vast multitude of formulation and administration types. Ibogaine is quite the novel medicine as well, with local interests having the capacity to become national leaders. With cannabis, Texas is totally behind on the industry side. However, Texans can rise to the top in terms of cannabis research and science.

There are so many priorities for medical cannabis science and research, priorities which may be recursive (Hartounian et al. 2021; Sera and Hempel-Sanderoff 2024). Such priorities could only be acted upon with support from Texan entities and stakeholders. With $50 million in research funding, Texan entities could:

Broaden the Study of Cannabis Science and Therapeutics

– Establish a nuanced understanding of endocannabinoid receptors, the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is a part of the larger endocannabinoidome (eCBome), as well as the behavior of endocannabinoids such as anandamide and 2-AG

– Investigate the role of a cannabinoid compound, dose, form of administration, exposure, and duration of use in both short- and long-term effects

– Investigate the potential to target the ECS for specific effects such as pain-relief, anxiety-relief, increasing appetite, increasing focus, increasing drowsiness, homeostatic regulation, inflammation-relief and beyond

– Investigate variables within each cannabis formulation, each studied separately, as well as in combination with one another individually, and as broad-, full-, and total- spectrum formulations

– Investigate the pharmacology, the pharmacodynamics and the pharmacokinetics, of cannabinoids beyond THC, CBD, and CBG, across various demographic and medical populations

– Optimize formulations of cannabinoid, terpenoid, and flavonoid delivery to achieve consistent exposure at sites of action (receptors)

Promote and Facilitate Harm Reduction

– Establish standards and regulations for testing, cultivation, manufacturing quality, efficacy, and the safety of cannabis products before their release

– Identify potential harms in the context of long-term cannabis use

– Investigate drug-drug interactions

– Compare harms related to the use of cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids for medical purposes 

– Establish population research methods to track self-prescribed cannabis use

– Understand how individual factors (demographic, psychological, genetic, comorbidity, polypharmacy) affect all of the aforementioned variables

– Investigate the consequences of advertising to children and adolescents and ban such behaviors

– Investigate the consequences of driving under the influence of cannabinoids

– Optimize toxicity and efficacy monitoring plans for physicians 

Constitute Cannabis Education, Science, and Research

– Create a repository for clinician case study submissions which not only inform medical cannabis treatment plans, but inform the dynamics of physician-client relationships for future clinical research

– Establish education programs for vulnerable and at-risk patient populations

– Establish education programs for future researchers, future members of industry, and future academics

– Establish education programs for healthcare providers and physicians 

– Improve the quality and transparency of study design, conduct, analysis and reporting of such studies

– Create systematic reviews which should provide sufficient detail to be of moderate or high confidence according to academic authorities

– Create properly randomized and double-blinded trials in populations with a defined condition

– Investigate ways of incentivizing the cannabis industry and other stakeholders to fund high-quality cannabis research

– Investigate ways of mitigating and preventing conflicts of interest in such research

Like psychedelic science, cannabis science must assume the form of its own multifaceted academic field. Medical psychedelic science and therapeutics (MPST) and medical cannabis science and therapeutics (MCST) should have their own departments within Texas universities wherein grants like the one created through HB 3717 would fund the origins of an academic field as well as multidisciplinary research which collaborates with local-, state-, and federal-level agencies, authorities, and organizations. 

Concluding Remarks

May what has been done for ibogaine, for ketamine, for psilocybin, and for MDMA, be done for cannabis. However, cannabis science is a marathon, not a race. While the hemp-derived industry has its flaws, and I understand the sentiment behind regulating it, SB 3 ultimately harms such progress for cannabis. The acceptance of Californian medical cannabis in 1996, Coloradoan recreational cannabis in 2014, and hemp-derived cannabinoids in 2018 all facilitated in paving the path for progress and innovation in psychedelic science. I would argue that it is time for cannabis to catch up with its therapeutic contemporaries. It is time for cannabis treatment to embody meaningful, evidence-based, and patient-centered care.

Because I know that people deserve the right to choose and have access to effective medicine, I stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow advocates, stakeholders, and patients every chance that I get. Do you? Texans aren’t doing enough. Texan companies, Texan legislators, Texan agencies, Texan groups, Texan organizations, Texans universities, and Texans in general, are still not showing up in the numbers required to convince our legislators to treat cannabis and medical cannabis science as the legitimate domain we know that it is– the domain we know it can become. Please find and join your local advocacy organizations and fight for something; it doesn’t have to be cannabis. If we had the support required, I believe that we could have stopped SB 3, passed and expanded HB 46, or even added ‘cannabis’ to a bill such as HB 4014. 

If you care, prove it. 

Resources

Haroutounian, Simon, Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Joletta Belton, Fiona M. Blyth, Louisa Degenhardt, Marta Di Forti, Christopher Eccleston, et al. 2021. “International Association for the Study of Pain Presidential Task Force on Cannabis and Cannabinoid Analgesia: Research Agenda on the Use of Cannabinoids, Cannabis, and Cannabis-Based Medicines for Pain Management.” Pain 162 (July):S117. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002266. 

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Health and Medicine Division. 2017. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research. Edited by Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and Committee on the Health Effects of Marijuana. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425768/.

Psychedelics Today. Gorsline, Jack. “The PSA Advocacy Spotlight Initiative: What’s Next for Psychedelics in Texas?” Streamed May 22, 2025 by Psychedelics Today. 1 hour, 26 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpLufWC21Zc 

Sera, Leah, and Carrie Hempel-Sanderoff. 2024. “Cannabis Science and Therapeutics: An Overview for Clinicians.” The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcph.2400. 

Texas Congress. House. HB 1802. 87th Cong. 2023. capitol.texas.gov/Search/DocViewer.aspx?DocId=87RHB018025B&AllWords=&AnyWords=&ExactWords=&CustomWords=1802&DocType=B 

Texas Congress. House. HB 3717. 89th Cong. 2025. https://capitol.texas.gov/Search/DocViewer.aspx?DocId=89RHB037172B&AllWords=&AnyWords=&ExactWords=&CustomWords=3717&DocType=B
 
Texas Congress. House. HB 4014. 89th Cong. 2025. http://capitol.texas.gov/Search/DocViewer.aspx?DocId=89RHB040142A&AllWords=&AnyWords=&ExactWords=&CustomWords=4014&DocType=A

As the holiday season rolls around, the timeless tradition of giving takes on new meaning within the psychedelic community. Whether you’re searching for something thoughtful, practical, or just downright fun, this guide celebrates how we can honor our friends, loved ones, and even ourselves. From functional mushroom supplements and visionary art to curated retreats and educational tools, we’ve curated a list of gifts that align with the values and spirit of psychedelia. Dive in and discover something meaningful for this season of connection and gratitude.

-Joe Moore – CEO – Psychedelics Today

Some links below are affiliate links that help support our work at Psychedelics Today.

​Threyda​

I recently visited with some of the team at Threyda in Denver and was very impressed with the gallery. They were showing art from ​mearone​ as a pre-party for the multi-night Tipper run. The art was jaw-dropping. I also picked up a button-down shirt I wore on stage at reMind and for the WHOLE following weekend. It was crazy comfy and had beautiful art . You or your friends may love one. Check out these two limited runs they made in partnership with Alex and Allyson Grey.

​Allyson Grey​

​Alex Grey​

​Mycroboost​

These folks make excellent functional mushroom ​soft gels​, ​gummies​ and ​coffee​. I got to meet the team two years ago and ate a ton of their gummies at Cannadelic. Check them out! I’m still happy with them and have eaten a ton this month.

​Art of Ecstacy​

This book is gorgeous. I met the author at Wonderland a few years back, and Rupert has since appeared on the show. You can ​listen here​. Rupert is an OG in the English rave scene, and his book features impressive, highly detailed photography of ecstasy from the past and amazing stories from the glory days of British ravers.

​Allies​

These folks came into my life in a few ways. Most recently, I was able to spend a good 3-4 hours with the primary formulator for Allies. He has a fantastic Chinese medicine background, as well as acupuncture. We talked all about the use cases for these supplements. I think they are likely excellent aids for psychedelic journeys, and perhaps if you have too much coffee or need to wind down for a bit. Check them out. If you are a facilitator, I suggest you learn more about these supplements to help your clients land more easily after their sessions. These guys are part of our psychedelic community and are very worth supporting. They’ll be on the show soon to talk about botanical support for psychedelic sessions.

​Learn more about Allies here​.

​Unlock Your Leadership Potential with Vital​

What if your next breakthrough wasn’t just a goal but a new way of seeing the world? Vital empowers leaders to shape the future of human potential through expanded consciousness and psychedelic wisdom. This isn’t just personal growth—it’s a transformative journey into creativity, bold decision-making, and purposeful impact. Whether you’re pioneering in mental health, designing innovative solutions, or leading for planetary regeneration, Vital equips you with the tools to create a legacy of meaningful change.

Don’t just adapt—lead the way. ​Join Vital today​ and be at the forefront of the next great human evolution.

​FIVE​

If you are interested in 5-meo-DMT, as many of us are, you should check out the training that the FIVE team put together. These folks have been at it and operating legally in Mexico for many years. Learn from the experts on this particular and unique psychedelic substance. I’ve watched them closely, and I love how they operate and their great ethics. This is such a strange and fantastic substance that it deserves unique and specific training.

There is no better place to learn more about five than ​here​.

​MAGI supplements​

A lot of psychedelic folks are interested in lucid dreaming. It can be difficult, but it is a lot easier with supplements. Check out their ​Mang Lucid Dream Supplement​ here. ​Ancestral Magi​ have been researching ancient Persian psychoactive plant usage and making interesting products based on their findings. I’ve known the team for a few years and respect their efforts and ability to stay close to their roots. Shauheen joined me for a podcast recently that will be released any day now, and ​here is a podcast​ from 2023 with the co-founders Shauheen and Jonathan. I think their products are, at the very least, worth understanding so you can understand where they may fit into your practices both personally and professionally.

​Learn more here.​

​Kama Flight​

Think acro-yoga and Thai yoga massage meets contact improv. I found this great quote on ​bluesky​ the other day:

It’s funny. It makes me think about all this discussion around ​critical period​ re-opening (child-like learning windows) and how play helps us create similar learning windows. I’ve also read similar statements in the work of Kottler and Wheal.

What if there was a novel, healthy, fun, and social way to learn new skills with friends or partners through movement practice?

You may love this, and I’m excited to try it. Putting play into practice seems like it for me.

Get 15% off their upcoming retreat in Tulum, happening Jan 30 – Feb 2 with code KamaFlightPT!
Can’t make it out to Mexico? Try Kama At Home, free, for 7 days! Grab your promo here.

​SNOGO​

I love these. This Boulder-based company makes very high-end, discreet, beautiful straws. This is important for two reasons. People often tend to share tools like this, which can be a vector for infection—think harm reduction and coming out of a weekend without COVID or a cold. It’s always a plus. They also feel cool to wear as a necklace and work incredibly well.

​Coupon code to save 15% – PsyToday15​

​KIYUMI​ Integrative Psilocybin Retreats

Maybe your loved ones are interested in a psilocybin retreat. It doesn’t get much better than Kiyumi. We’ve used them for a few of our retreats in the Netherlands and loved their work.

Here are their upcoming dates in 2025.

* March 18 – 23 * -* April 20 – 25 * – * May 12 – 17 *

​Learn more here.​

​IPCI – Support Indigenous Preservation Through Gifting​

As you browse this guide for the perfect gift, consider giving back to the roots of psychedelic traditions by donating to the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative (IPCI). IPCI is dedicated to protecting and preserving the sacred peyote plant and supporting Indigenous communities who have stewarded these practices for generations. Your donation helps safeguard vital ecosystems, uphold cultural heritage, and ensure these sacred medicines remain accessible to those who honor their spiritual significance. This holiday season amplifies the spirit of giving by contributing to a cause that nurtures the Earth and its wisdom keepers. ​Learn more and donate today.​

The holiday season is a time to celebrate connection, gratitude, and generosity. As you explore the unique gifts in this guide, remember that giving is not just about material items—it’s about sharing values, supporting meaningful causes, and fostering a brighter future. Whether gifting art, supplements, or experiences or donating to impactful organizations like the IPCI, your choices can ripple far beyond the moment. Thank you for joining us in celebrating the psychedelic community’s creativity, resilience, and vision. Let’s honor the traditions, innovations, and connections that make this space vibrant—wishing you safety, joy, love, and abundance this season!

The psychedelic world is evolving quickly, attracting individuals from healthcare, therapy, wellness, and beyond. In an era marked by global mental health crises, psychedelics are evolving from their experimental and ceremonial roots into a respected field, offering diverse entry points and opportunities. Despite recent challenges like regulatory barriers and public misconceptions, the field continues to mature, driven by passion, growing public interest, and a call for modernization of regulations and better standards of care.

We created the Psychedelics at Work Report: Mapping the Path of the Field to offer a realistic and predictive view of the field and where it’s heading, as told by 751 people actively working in it or preparing to get involved. Written in collaboration with experts across 13 diverse work areas, it’s a snapshot that reveals key insights into the workforce shaping the future of psychedelics. **Download your copy below**

Why We Created Psychedelics At Work

• To map the current landscape of the psychedelic field – including the underground – and provide an in-depth look at who is contributing to its growth and evolution.
• To guide current and aspiring professionals with actionable insights into career opportunities, pathways, and necessary skills within psychedelics.
• To highlight both the challenges and opportunities the field faces, helping readers make informed decisions.
• To advocate for broader inclusion and diversity in the field, spotlighting areas for improvement.
• To empower our community with a realistic and predictive understanding of where the psychedelic field is headed, based on the voices of those actively involved.

Sample Insights

• A Maturing Sector: Over 50% of respondents joined the field in the past five years, signalling rapid growth and professionalization.
• Emphasis on Education: 80% of respondents have completed formal psychedelic-specific training, reinforcing the value of dedicated learning for career advancement.
• Diverse Pathways: 56% entered the field by starting their own practices or businesses, illustrating the field’s embrace of entrepreneurial and non-traditional backgrounds.
• A Response to Urgency: 69% of respondents view traditional mental health systems as limited, emphasizing the need for innovative approaches and solutions that psychedelics may offer.
• Call for Greater Inclusivity: 59% of respondents feel the industry needs to be more inclusive, highlighting a need to broaden diversity and equity efforts.

Who Is This Report For?

This report is ideal for those already engaged in psychedelics, media covering the field, healthcare professionals exploring new therapeutic tools, wellness practitioners considering integrating psychedelics in practice, and individuals intrigued by a career shift into this dynamic world. It provides valuable insights for anyone interested in understanding the landscape of the psychedelic workforce and its future potential.

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In the current psychedelic resurgence, traditional medical paradigms are being called into question, and many are asking whether the profit-driven medicine model is really the best way to help people heal.

Forward-thinking, conscious psychedelic leaders and organizations are answering, and introducing new models of doing business. Moving beyond worthwhile concerns of sustainability, regenerative business goes a step further, shifting the focus from simply reducing negative effects to creating business models that actively replenish and regenerate.

This holistic, systems-based approach seems to be a natural fit for the field of psychedelics, a sector already deeply connected with more integrated views of the world.

This article explores the principles of regenerative business, its application in psychedelics, and the frameworks guiding those hoping to make a truly sustainable impact.

What is Regenerative Business?

Regenerative business models go beyond traditional efforts at sustainability. Instead of just mitigating negative impacts business can have on people and the planet, regenerative models aim to restore and enhance the systems and communities they interact with. 

Regenerative economics involves resource circulation that restores and strengthens economic, social, and natural systems. Imagine natural ecosystems, like forests or mycelium networks, that thrive through nutrient and information exchange. They share and re-circulate resources, creating dynamically positive feedback loops that allow all parties to excel. 

This type of collaborative system of doing business stands in stark contrast to an extractive model, which extracts resources, often at the expense of overall the well-being of the community or environment. Extractive economic models have led to an unsustainable disequilibrium, the results of which can be found in rising financial inequality, climate change, and ecosystem degradation. Personal well-being also suffers, with increased rates of mental health issues correlating with these economic and systemic imbalances.

Regenerative patterns aim to offer an antidote by promoting balance. In a regenerative economic system, interconnected webs of people and organizations support local feedback loops and other important exchanges like community capital circulation. This approach is being embraced in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and energy, where supply chain practices play a crucial role in environmental stewardship and sustainability.

“Regenerative economics is about creating businesses that are foundationally centered on systems that restore, renew, and revitalize the people and the environment. Every aspect of the business from production and operations through company culture, monetization, and community engagement will have thoughtful holistic strategies that rejuvenate rather than deplete,” explains AnnaRae Grabstein, business strategist in emerging spaces. “This means not just minimizing harm but actively contributing to the betterment of all stakeholders. It’s about long-term thinking and innovative approaches that challenge the status quo.”

Regenerative Business and Psychedelics

A regenerative approach is particularly relevant to psychedelics and the future of psychedelic therapy and support. The traditional pharmaceutical approach to mental health, which focuses on biological symptoms with little regard for psychosocial factors, has not adequately addressed the mental health crisis. This model is also often based on a “chronic” treatment system where patients might be expected to take daily medication for longer terms or for the rest of their lives. Yet despite high sales of antidepressants and other SSRIs, rates of mental health problems have only increased.

“Using regenerative philosophy in the creation of psychedelic medicine businesses presents an opportunity to think beyond profit creation and integrate a strategy for generating positive impact,” says Grabstein, who will teach Growing Your Psychedelic Leadership and Business in the upcoming Vital 12-month program. “While businesses need to make money to exist and thrive, regenerative business principles unlock the potential to drive revenue through impactful and ethical practices. By prioritizing sustainability, social equity, and holistic well-being, regenerative business models can be a part of building a psychedelic wellness industry that benefits not only the bottom line but also the communities, ecosystems, and individuals it serves.”

A regenerative approach to psychedelics aims to create well-being by treating mind, body, and spirit holistically. Psychedelic experiences foster connection, helping individuals reconnect with themselves, their communities, and the natural world. This is achieved through group therapy, communal activities, and integration practices that leverage the openness fostered by psychedelics.

Bennet Zelner is a researcher and advisor on regenerative economics, psychedelics, and leadership. He’s working on the Pollination Approach, a regenerative economic model to deliver and research the effects of psychedelic-assisted and consciousness-expanding experiences on decision-making by organizational leaders. He’ll also be co-leading the specialization course on Regenerative Business as part of Vital’s upcoming comprehensive education program for psychedelic professionals.

“Much of the mental distress that psychedelics may alleviate traces to the extractive pattern of our existing economic system – a pattern in which resources are extracted to benefit a single group – at the expense of overall well-being. It would be counterproductive to deliver psychedelic experiences using practices that embody the same extractive patterning making people unwell in the first place. A regenerative approach to delivering such experiences flips the pharmaceutical-centered approach on its head: rather than focusing on symptom management in an unwell patient, it aims to create well-being.”

Implementing Regenerative Practices in Psychedelics

Trying to operate in this more traditionally capitalist world can make transitioning to a regenerative business model seem daunting. But with the right frameworks and a commitment to systemic change, psychedelic companies can successfully move their work in a more regenerative direction.

• Articulate Your Vision for Systemic Change: Clearly understand and communicate your purpose, impact, and influence. Define how you can reshape economies and contribute positively to the environment and society.
• Map Systems and Identify Leverage Points: Analyze your internal systems, operations, value chain, and the broader market. Identify areas where you can strategically allocate resources to restore social and natural systems.
• Set a Regenerative Strategy: Define how you will deliver value through regenerative outcomes. Identify key areas of impact and plan how to deliver the greatest stakeholder value.
• Review Business Models: Assess your products and services. Explore how you can deliver value through regenerative practices, such as shifting models that focus on stakeholder value rather than profit or quantity of goods sold.
• Define and Deliver Value: Recognize that regenerative approaches can drive financial value creation. Develop more holistic methods to understand value creation across your entire enterprise ecosystem (rather than a narrow view of short-term profit seeking).

Remaining in outdated models in an industry like psychedelics carries risks. For the psychedelic medicine space, which is closely tied to natural resources and community well-being, these risks are particularly significant. Inadequate adoption of regenerative principles can harm ecosystems, undermine the social fabric of communities, and damage the industry or company’s reputation, ultimately affecting long-term viability and growth.

While it may be tempting, and sometimes necessary, to focus on the immediate bottom line, a broader view of success can help long term viability.

• Foster a Regenerative Culture: Cultivate a culture that prioritizes regeneration through action-oriented leadership and stakeholder engagement. This involves educating employees, partners, and consumers about the benefits of regenerative practices.
• Pilot Projects: Start with pilot projects to test regenerative models. This approach allows companies to manage risks and evaluate opportunities before scaling up.
• Collaborate and Share Knowledge: Engage in peer-to-peer and community mentorship to share insights, challenges, and successes. Collaboration can accelerate the adoption of regenerative practices across the industry.

Grabstein believes that implementing these models is a natural fit for psychedelics.

“The healing potential of psychedelics aligns naturally with the principles of regeneration – restoring mental, emotional and physical health to people, environments and communities. By integrating regenerative practices (like regenerative agriculture, circular economy principles and social equity), the companies and organizations who employ these methodologies can work towards the sustainable cultivation of natural psychedelic sources, ethical treatment of indigenous knowledge holders, and equitable access to therapies. This holistic approach can help build a resilient and responsible psychedelic medicine industry.”

The integration of regenerative business principles in the psychedelic industry offers a potentially transformative path forward. By adopting holistic, systems-based approaches, psychedelic companies can ensure sustainable sourcing, promote social equity, and build resilient economies. This commitment to regenerative practices has the potential to not only enhance therapeutic outcomes but also contribute to broader environmental and social well-being, paving the way for a truly sustainable future in psychedelics.