Dear friends of MINDS,
As the seasons change and (in the northern half of our planet) the leaves begin their colorful descent, we at MINDS wanted to take a moment to share some exciting updates and recent activities with you. It’s been a busy summer and fall, filled with groundbreaking research, international outreach, and community building. So grab a warm beverage, settle in, and catch up on the latest happenings at MINDS. 🍵
But before we get too far, we’d like to acknowledge the incredible outpouring of emails and messages we’ve received from the emerging community interested in psychedelics for innovation. While our lean team can’t respond to every message individually, please know that we read each one and appreciate your support and enthusiasm.
Meeting of MINDS workshop group portrait at Broughton Hall, Yorkshire, August 2024.
MINDS Across The Pond
In August, we hosted two successful events in the UK: a meet-and-greet dinner in London and an invitational workshop at Broughton Sanctuary. We engaged in stimulating discussions with researchers, scholars, and innovators, gaining valuable insights to guide a possible international expansion in 2025.
A key takeaway from these and other meetings is the need for MINDS to expand our initial focus beyond psychedelics to include a broader range of modalities that can promote novel discoveries and unlock human potential. While psychedelics will always remain a core interest in our research programs, we increasingly recognize the importance of insight-catalyzing modalities such as meditation, breathwork, and other mind-body practices in facilitating creativity and problem-solving. Fueling innovative breakthroughs also requires good training and mentorship within a field, and well-attuned “zeitgeist” (the spirit of the times). This broadening of our perspective will guide MINDS’ future research and create research products and protocols which are more widely applicable to society.
In The News: Exploring Psychedelics, Creativity, and Consciousness
Several publications have recently highlighted MINDS’ mission to explore the connection between psychedelics and creativity, including a podcast and feature in Psychedelics Today and an epic autobiographical Substack article by MINDS co-founder, Dr. Bruce Damer.
- Psychedelics Today feature: Our work was featured in Psychedelics Today, highlighting the potential of psychedelics to inspire creative breakthroughs and solve complex problems. The article emphasizes the importance of responsible use, integration, and the need for continued research to fully understand the potential benefits and risks.
- Psychedelics Today podcast: In this podcast episode, host Joe Moore interviews MINDS co-founder Dr. Bruce Damer about the potential for psychedelics to enhance creativity and problem-solving. They discuss the challenges of hyper-specialization and the need for frameworks and protocols to measure and optimize the effects of psychedelics on creativity. Bruce also shares his personal experiences with psychedelics, including his time with “endo-tripping” (journeying “on the ‘natch”) and a profound ayahuasca experience that led to his theory on the origin of life.
- Dr. Bruce’s Substack: Our co-founder, Dr. Bruce Damer shared his personal journey from a fortuitous meeting and collaboration with Terence McKenna a quarter century ago. He also hinted at a book he is now developing that will explore the history and practice of altered states in the service of creative problem-solving.
