November Newsletter
Project Updates
Monthly Newsletters
We are delighted to be sending the first of our ongoing monthly newsletters. Here, we will share highlights from this month’s psychedelic news and science with our like-minded followers, as well as updates on the project, a dedication to one of our project contributors, and exciting upcoming events.
Blog Posts
We are also thrilled to announce we will now be releasing blog content, covering a wide variety of topics, all relating to the psychedelic movement. Click to read our first blog piece.
Find us on Twitter
We have recently moved onto Twitter. To keep your feed updated with Tweets relevant to psychedelic research, culture and science find us at @PsycRenaissance.
November News and Science
Coming closer to ending the war on drugs in the United States
New state laws: On the 4th November, a nationwide push to relax the drug wars in the US ended in success. Oregon became the first official US state to decriminalise small possession amounts of illegal drugs including heroin, cocaine and psychedelics, in a similar model to the decriminalisation laws in Portugal. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota passed legislation of recreational cannabis, joining the eleven other US states where recreational cannabis is already legal.
The voting majority indicates public desire to re-address the outdated drug laws and with these new laws in place, we hope to see a decrease in crime related to the illicit cannabis market and less people discriminated against for drug use.
New presidency: The results from the November 3rd election ended in Joe Biden being voted as the 46th president of the US. Unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden has reported a much more relaxed and open stance to the war on drugs. Biden has openly supported decriminalising cannabis at a federal level, admitted “anti-drug policies have harmed black-communities and it has been a mistake to support them”, and believes drug-users should receive treatment and be supported instead of being punished.
The role of mystical experience and entity encounters in the psychedelic therapy
This research article, published November 11th, investigates scientific experiments looking at mystical experiences and entity encounters in psychedelic therapy. Experimental data suggests if patients have mystical experiences, including the experience of unity and transcending time and space, they will likely have a better outcome in psychedelic therapy. Could psychedelic reports of meeting alien-like entities also promote healing? Entity encounters indicate a lost touch with reality which can be fearful and have detrimental consequences for some. But perhaps in a psychedelic therapy context, these non-worldly mystical beings may promote healing.
Machine Elf by Luke Brown: an art depiction of an entity encountered whilst on the psychedelic drug, DMT
Rapid and sustained effects from psilocybin in major depressive disorder
Twenty-four patients suffering from major depression took part in a recent study by Johns Hopkins University. After one week the patients' depression scores had dropped by 71% and the decrease in depression was maintained after one-month following the treatment. These results show psilocybin-therapy is an effective treatment with more rapid and prolonged effects than current psychiatric drugs. We hope to keep finding promising data like this, with the long-term hope that current psychiatric methods are re-evaluated and people suffering from depression can have open access to more effective treatments like psilocybin therapy.
Drug use during COVID-19
With a second national lockdown in place as of November the 5th, how is the pandemic affecting drug use? This article gives us an insight into what we know so far and what we're yet to know, with the help of online survey participants. To read or take part in a survey visit this page.
Results from the Global Drug Survey Report 2020: Change in frequency of use of various drugs since before COVID-19
Our Contributors and Partners
Dr Ben Sessa
We have followed the work of Dr Ben Sessa for three years. He is a crucial figure in our documentary and a pioneering advocate for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Dr Sessa is a qualified psychiatrist. He worked as a consultant for eight years, gaining interest in the ties between trauma in children, adult mental disorders and substance abuse. With a passion in psychedelics, he has research ties at Imperial College London University and Bristol University, where he conducted the world’s first clinical study using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat alcohol addiction. He is also the founder of the biannual Breaking Convention, one of the world's largest psychedelic conferences. He has widely published work in the academic and scientific press as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
Founder of Awakn Life Sciences, Dr Sessa is in the process of opening the UK’s first fully legal and licensed clinic for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. With predictions to expand into MDMA and psilocybin use, the new clinic will be a new hub for psychedelic therapy and psychedelic research. Read more more in our blog article here.
A still from our documentary of Dr Sessa in his home