What if healing is not something we “do” to a person but something that unfolds through them? What if it does not belong solely to the mind or the brain, but to the body, to the land, to the web of relationships that make us who we are?

In the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), the idea of Inner Healing Intelligence (IHI) has become something of a quiet guiding star. It points to the intuition that living beings naturally move toward healing when the right conditions are present. But what does that really mean? And how far are we willing to follow that idea?

In this paper, the authors gently widen the lens. Drawing on critical vitalism and Indigenous philosophies from the Americas, they explore IHI not as a mechanism inside the individual, but as a relational capacity — something that emerges through connection with place, with the vital force of life itself, and with the more-than-human world. In this view, healing is not confined to the individual psyche. It is ecological. It is embodied. It is entangled.

The article invites reflection, asking the psychedelic community to take IHI as an ontological and ethical commitment. If healing is relational, what responsibilities follow? If we are not separate from the land, how does that change the way we practice therapy? And what might it mean to situate psychedelic work within a living world rather than a purely clinical setting?

At a time when the field is rapidly professionalizing and medicalizing, this perspective offers both grounding and gentle provocation. It does not reject clinical pathways, but it reminds us that healing may exceed them. It suggests that the “psychedelic renaissance” is not only about new treatments, but about reimagining our place within the fabric of life.

During this evening, we will explore the implications of a more emplaced, embodied, and relational understanding of Inner Healing Intelligence, and what it might look like to let this perspective quietly reshape practice over time.

We warmly invite you to read the article in advance, but if time is tight and you don’t get around to it, just bring your curiosity.

Link to the article: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/aop/article-10.1556-2054.2025.00448/article-10.1556-2054.2025.00448.xml

We look forward to sharing this space with you.