Author name: OPEN Foundation

This presentation will examine the legal aspects of the use of ayahuasca. No plants or other natural materials containing psychoactive substances like DMT or psilocybin are controlled under the UN 1971 Convention. The same goes for preparations made of these plants like, for example, ayahuasca. The member states of the Convention however do have the right to adopt more strict measures of control, and this has happened in several cases. This presentation will give a general overview of the current status of the use of ayahuasca in various Western countries.

The Dutch Supreme Court chose a far more restrictive drug policy than the Convention ever required. Recently arrests took place of leaders of the British Santo Daime churches because of importing their sacrament ayahuasca from Brazil. So far only the Santo Daime churches and the União do Vegetal have been able to successfully fight the diverse criminal accusations, by relying on their fundamental right to freely manifest their religion. The Amsterdam district court in 2001 was the first one that recognized the fundamental right of the Santo Daime churches to use their holy sacrament ayahuasca during their rituals. It considered the prosecution of the churches for possession or delivery of this ayahuasca in violation of the principle of freedom to express someone’s belief which right is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the year 2010 hopeful prospects are attached to psychotherapy with hallucinogens. Attempts are made to bring this kind of therapy out of the confines of illegal subcultures and into legalized medical settings. Discussions and arguments center around medical benefits and are wrapped in the vocabulary of present-day medical and biological sciences. However, medical settings are not ‘neutral’ structures, but are determined by the social and cultural development of medicine and health care and by the load of the past. Advocates and opponents of hallucinogenic therapy alike should be aware of these determinations and take them into account.

Hallucinogenic therapy has been practised by doctors from the very first beginning of psychiatry itself, in the early 19th century. It was central to a now controversial tradition of psycho-pharmacological research and therapy that was qualitative in nature and accorded an important place to self-experiences of medical practitioner and patient alike. The problems that face acceptance of hallucinogenic therapy today are both social and political in a wider sense (the load of the revolt of the sixties), as related to the politics of medicine and health care.

In 2007, as part of the MA Cultural Anthropology, I have done research amongst the members of the Santo Daime church in Florianópolis (Brazil) and in The Hague. In their ceremonies they use ayahuasca, sometimes combined with cannabis. Although I had never used psychedelics myself, I could strongly identify with the way of life and philosophy of these people. Therefore, I was very curious about them and wanted to find out how the ritual use of ayahuasca influenced them. After many in-depth interviews, I can conclude that the ceremonies can provide the way to awareness, self-knowledge and healing for those who are looking for it. I have also discovered that not enough is known about the healing properties of powerful plants, causing problems and lack of understanding to rise. To break with the prejudices regarding this theme and to restored the bridge between science and religion, more scientific research is needed. For that reason, among others, I have published my MA thesis as a book in-house.

Human psychopharmacology–the experimental administration of mind-altering drugs to human subjects–is an essential tool for characterizing the relationship between brain structure, neurochemistry, and symptomatology. This talk will summarize the last twenty years of completed, ongoing, and planned research at Yale on the drugs ketamine, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol, salvinorin A, dimethytryptamine (DMT), and psilocybin, discussing their use not only as a tool for better understanding human consciousness but also as therapy for specific diseases.

About Andrew Sewell

After graduating with a BA in Physics from Cornell University, Dr. Sewell decided to pursue his interest in entheogens by obtaining an MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1998 then completing a combined residency in Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine in 2004, where he served as Chief Resident in Neuropsychiatry. Following this, he attended a substance abuse research fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he served as Managing Editor of the McLean Annals of Behavioral Neurology. He also published the first paper ever on the response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD, presenting the data both at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting and the International LSD Symposium in Basel in 2006. He followed this with a discussion of the effect of LSA-containing seeds on cluster headache at the 2008 World Psychedelic Forum. For the last three years he has worked at Yale University in the Schizophrenia Research Group under Dr. Cyril D’Souza, studying the effects of psychotropic agents such as THC, amphetamine, iomazenil, and salvinorin A in human subjects. His research interests include the pathophysiology and treatment of cluster headache, mechanisms and characterization of psychosis (both induced and in schizophrenia), and therapeutic applications of entheogens. Dr. Sewell is board-certified in both neurology and psychiatry, serves on the Erowid Expert Network and the Scientific Program Committee of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. He has published widely on cluster headache and the relationship between cannabis and psychosis.

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Human psychopharmacology–the experimental administration of mind-altering drugs to human subjects–is an essential tool for characterizing the relationship between brain structure, neurochemistry, and symptomatology. This talk will summarize the last twenty years of completed, ongoing, and planned research at Yale on the drugs ketamine, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol, salvinorin A, dimethytryptamine (DMT), and psilocybin, discussing their use not only as a tool for better understanding human consciousness but also as therapy for specific diseases.

About Andrew Sewell

After graduating with a BA in Physics from Cornell University, Dr. Sewell decided to pursue his interest in entheogens by obtaining an MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1998 then completing a combined residency in Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine in 2004, where he served as Chief Resident in Neuropsychiatry. Following this, he attended a substance abuse research fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he served as Managing Editor of the McLean Annals of Behavioral Neurology. He also published the first paper ever on the response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD, presenting the data both at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting and the International LSD Symposium in Basel in 2006. He followed this with a discussion of the effect of LSA-containing seeds on cluster headache at the 2008 World Psychedelic Forum. For the last three years he has worked at Yale University in the Schizophrenia Research Group under Dr. Cyril D’Souza, studying the effects of psychotropic agents such as THC, amphetamine, iomazenil, and salvinorin A in human subjects. His research interests include the pathophysiology and treatment of cluster headache, mechanisms and characterization of psychosis (both induced and in schizophrenia), and therapeutic applications of entheogens. Dr. Sewell is board-certified in both neurology and psychiatry, serves on the Erowid Expert Network and the Scientific Program Committee of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. He has published widely on cluster headache and the relationship between cannabis and psychosis.

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In 2009 we traveled to the Peruvian Jungle to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies with renowned Shipibo shaman Don Guillermo Arévalo. Our research goal was to investigate the neural correlates of the psycho-therapeutic and spiritual development during the shamanic ‘journey’. In addition we further developed the researcher/co-researcher protocol which we believe is of paramount importance in the scientific investigation of these extraordinary and personal phenomena where we are still in the stage of discovery. We were joined by a film crew who, in addition to our own audiovisual, psycho-physiological and EEG recordings filmed the intense ceremonies as parts their “The Science of the Soul”. In my talk I will show parts of this (award winning) documentary as well as elaborate on the setup, our preliminary results as well as our future plans.