Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines is a registered California 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN 84-3076078). We are a community-oriented organization run by a small staff of experts and enthusiastic volunteers who work to bring education and cultural understanding about psychedelic plant medicines to a wider audience. We promote a bridge between the ceremonial use of sacred plants and psychedelic science and envisage a world where plant medicines and other psychedelics are preserved, protected, and valued as part of our cultural identity and integrated into our social, legal, and health care systems.
Help us to achieve our mission! From our beginnings in 2017, we have stood apart from other psychedelic education and advocacy organizations by pioneering initiatives that support and provide a platform for diverse voices, including women, queer people, people of color, Indigenous people, and the Global South. In efforts to address the lack of diverse representation in the expanding psychedelic landscape, we centered our mission around the empowerment of marginalized voices to foster cultural and political reflections on topics like race, gender, and sexuality in psychedelic science. We believe now more than ever, given the current social and political climate, our work is critical to the future of psychedelic healing for humanity.
Please become a member so that you are able to help Chacruna, yourself, and the world. Support of any amount helps this cause and allows us to provide psychedelic education to anyone who wants to access it.
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Holistic psychiatrist Stephanie Michael Stewart shares her views on the opportunities afforded by psychedelics in the treatment of trauma and in women's health. She also explains how the psychedelic community can continue to improve their inclusion of BIPOC and queer groups and individuals.
Amber Senter is the cofounder and executive director of Supernova Women. She is working to lower barriers of entry for Black and brown people in the cannabis industry, as well as help give opportunities to folks in underserved communities in the industry. As a member of Oregon's psilocybin regulatory agency advisory board, she is working to fight overregulation in the drug industry.
Four leaders in the psychedelic community who work in collaboration with Indigenous partners provide advice on how to work in solidarity with Indigenous groups. They challenge the romanticization of the concept of the "global psychedelic community and urge individuals to avoid developing relationships based on tokenization and non-reciprocity.
NiCole Buchanan, a clinical psychologist and professor at Michigan State University, spoke to Ali McGhee about the need for equity models in psychedelic healing spaces. Buchanan, whose area of clinical expertise is dealing with complex trauma, asserts that people of color have a legitimate wariness of the medical system due to the systemic injustices that they have experienced. In order to bring these people into psychedelic spaces responsibly, a more equitable process for clinical research that also honors legacy and lineage practitioners must be put into place.
Sonya Faber, member of Chacruna's Board of Directors, sits down with Ali McGhee to discuss her experiences as a Black woman in pharmaceutical and psychedelic spaces. Faber touches on topics ranging from the whiteness of the psychology profession to the roll of power in policies related to psychedelics.
Chacruna launched the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas (IRI) in April 2021 as a community-directed biocultural conservation program. Read ahead to find out what the initiative accomplished in 2022, including fundraising, community partnerships, and community advisorships.
Transgender and gender non-conforming people have long been marginalized within the medical system, and the psychedelic renaissance is no exception. In order to ensure that these individuals have access to psychedelic therapy, steps need to be taken to improve gender-affirming care in psychedelic spaces. This booklet from SoundMind offers a guide for offering trans-affirming care for medical professionals and healers.
The Fourth Indigenous Ayahuasca Conference met in September 2022 in Brazil. At the conference, Indigenous members crafted a letter outlining their opinions and desires concerning Indigenous nations, as well as ayahuasca use and management.
Wesley Bellanca reflects on his great aunt and uncle who supported the Black Panthers and exposed the CIA in the 60s. He interviews their daughter and he explores the overlap between the psychedelic revolution and political movement of the 60s. In doing so, he gains a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement.
In this beautifully articulated personal essay, Joseph McCowan reflects on his ancestral roots as a Black person in the United States and the historical relationship with the land, sacred plants, and the psychedelic renaissance. He describes a future of liberation and breaking of the oppressive chains that have confined Black people for centuries.