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Chacruna Institute

Chacruna promotes reciprocity in the psychedelic community, and supports the protection of sacred plants and cultural traditions. We advance psychedelic justice through curating critical conversations and uplifting the voices of women, queer people, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and the Global South in the field of psychedelic science.

Latest posts by Chacruna Institute (see all)

• Psychedelic Culture 2024 in Preview: Cultivating Change through Decolonial Dialogues - April 11, 2024
• Traditions in Dialogue: Indigenous Wisdom and Psychedelic Research - March 5, 2024
• Towards an ethical consensus for the field of psychedelics: The HOPE Consensus Statement - March 1, 2024

Dear Chacruna community,

In an effort to better measure our impact, we compiled a 2022 report of our milestones and main achievements. We ended 2022 with a considerable team expansion to support and sustain the new scope of our projects and exponential increase of our outreach in the psychedelic landscape and the communities and institutions that rely on our support. We hope you can keep trusting our efforts and supporting our mission and vision for 2023. 

i. Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas (IRI)

Since IRI launched in April of 2021, the program has raised $130,000 to support community-led, grassroots projects designed and implemented by local peoples to address their own self-determined needs. These funds are equally-distributed among all twenty IRI partners, who have full control over the use and management of their resources. Such an approach works towards a process of reciprocity between the psychedelic ecosystem of the Global North and the communities who have historically and ongoingly created the conditions for the current wealth of plant use and knowledge.

• 2022 was marked by several dramatic crashes in the “psychedelic stock market.” Despite these challenges, IRI still raised $35,000. With 7.5% going towards bank transfer fees and other related operating expenses, approximately $1,500 has gone directly to each of our twenty Indigenous and local partners.
• Although corporate contributions dropped, individual donations rose by 95%, including 25+ recurring monthly donors and approximately $20,000 (63.6%) coming from individual supporters.
• Amidst funding setbacks, The IRI Program has been dedicated to public outreach, building relationships, providing on-the-ground support, and producing high-quality video content with our partners.
• You can see more specific statistics, impacts and goals that were met in 2022 due to your support in IRI’s end-of-year report.

ii. Chacruna Chronicles

• Chacruna Chronicles, one of the main content outlets of Chacruna, published 58 high-quality original new articles from experts and researchers across the field,offered for free on our website and distributed widely across our social media and newsletters. In 2022, the main topics explored in these publications were culture, policy, sex & power, queer issues, inclusion & diversity, music, integration, science, spirituality, news and academic research.
• We are proud to announce that our Chacruna Chronicles articles have gathered 240,954 reads from audiences across 200 countries.

iii. Chacruna Book Publications

Mujeres y psicodélicos: Descubriendo las voces invisibles

This collection of short essays examines the place of women in the history of psychedelics. While some of the subjects are clearly pioneers in their own right, the authors in this collection go beyond merely adding women to the past to explore some of the significant ways that women have contributed to psychedelic knowledge. Editors: Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell, Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Clancy Cavnar, Ibrahim Gabriell and Glauber Loures de Assis.

Women & Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices

This is the English version of the book originally published in Spanish; the translation of the book is in progress andis expected to launch in 2023. Editors: Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell, Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Clancy Cavnar, Ibrahim Gabriell and Glauber Loures de Assis.

Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine

This collected volume spans a broad range of perspectives from queer academic researchers, LGBTQIA+ clinicians, Indigenous two-spirit activists, transgender autodidacts, and queer neo-shamans. Each chapter articulates essential insights on cultural heritages, implications for current research and clinical work, and the transformative healing potential of psychedelic medicine and queer identity. Editors: Alex Belser, Clancy Cavnar, Bia Labate.

iv. Chacruna Courses

This year, Chacruna launched a new academic program titled Chacruna Trainings, which offered high-quality virtual courses and workshops exploring critical, contemporary issues in the psychedelics and plant medicine world. Like with our Chronicles and events, our trainings highlighted critical conversations about controversial and marginalized topics in the psychedelic ecosystem, and also promoted diverse voices from women, Indigenous people, people of color and LGBTQIA+ speakers. This year, we held 4 multi-class courses and 1 workshop, with 25 highly-qualified teachers, a total of 145 scholarships awarded by us, and over 100 students enrolled:

a. Diversity, Culture and Social Justice in Psychedelics (Spring Semester)

• We had a total of 35 students
• Of those students, 26 registered with scholarships
• Highlights of the course:
  • We had an incredibly diverse cohort of students of different ethnicities, locations around the globe, professions, and ages
  • All of the students came from a variety of backgrounds, including therapists, psychologists, academics, artists, and more
  • We awarded CE credits to 2 therapists
  • There were 11 papers and 3 art projects submitted by students at the end of the course
  • One of the papers was published in our Chacruna Chronicles

b. The Science of Psychedelic Healing

• We had a total of 20 students
• Of those students, 8 registered with scholarships
• Highlights of the course:
  • We had an incredibly diverse cohort of students of different ethnicities, locations around the globe, professions, and ages
  • All of the students came from a variety of backgrounds, including therapists, psychologists, academics, artists, and more
  • We awarded CE credits to 1 therapist
  • There were 3 final papers submitted by students at the end of the course

c. Workshop: Reducing the Impact of Bias on Therapy, Education, & Training

• We had a total of 12 students
• Of those students, 4 registered with scholarships
• Highlights of the course:
  • We had an incredibly diverse cohort of students of different ethnicities, locations around the globe, professions, and ages
  • All of the students came from a variety of backgrounds, including therapists, psychologists, academics, artists, and more

d. Roots of Psychedelic Therapy: Shamanism, Ritual and Traditional Uses of Sacred Plants

• We had a total of 31 students
• Of those students, 27 registered with scholarships
• Highlights of the course:
  • We had an incredibly diverse cohort of students of different ethnicities, locations around the globe, professions, and ages
  • All of the students came from a variety of backgrounds, including therapists, psychologists, academics, artists, and more
  • We awarded CE credits to 3 therapists
  • There were 4 papers, one art project, and one miscellaneous project (a podcast) submitted by students at the end of the course

e. Diversity, Culture and Social Justice in Psychedelics (Fall Semester)

• We had a total of 17 students
• Of those students, 14 registered with scholarships
• Highlights of the course:
  • We had an incredibly diverse cohort of students of different ethnicities, locations around the globe, professions, and ages
  • All of the students came from a variety of backgrounds, including therapists, psychologists, academics, artists, and more
  • There were 7 papers and 3 art projects submitted by students at the end of the course

We also created a Frequently Asked Questions page on our site for the courses, and established policies on several topics, including filming, recommended readings, required readings, the syllabus, final papers, etc.

v. Community Forums

• In 2022, we were able to organize and host 35 online community forums with top experts and specialists of the field, covering relevant topics such as diversity, inclusion, sex & gender, culture, identity, social justice, law, policy, Indigenous knowledge, religion, philosophy, intersectionality, environmental justice, and much more.

vi. Tabling at Conferences and Events

This year, Chacruna participated and tabled at conferences around the globe. We were able to table at nine conferences and events:

• DAVOS
• Horizons Portland and Horizons New York
• Miami Wonderland
• All 6 Chacruna In-Person Community Dialogues

Some of our core team members were invited to speak at a number of different events, such as podcasts, forums, panels, conferences, interviews, etc. We had a total of 83 speaking engagements participated in by these core team members:

• Nicholas Spiers participated in 10 speaking engagements
• Joseph Mays participated in 25 speaking engagements
• Glauber Loures de Assis participated in 5 speaking engagements
• Bia Labate participated in 27 speaking engagements
• Ligia Duque Platero participated in 3 speaking engagements
• Ibrah Gabriell participated in 5 speaking engagements
• Clancy Cavnar participated in 8 speaking engagements

vii. Chacruna In-Person Community Dialogues

This year, Chacruna created a new program titled In-Person Community Dialogues which consisted of intermittent panels around the U.S. We were honored to curate and host six of these events:

• Religion and Psychedelics Forum Opening Event – April 21st, 2022 (Bay Area)
  • 700+ global attendees
  • 160+ scholarships granted to low-income and BIPOC attendees
  • 69 speakers and moderators from all over the globe
  • 20 original talks and unique panels
  • 11 community partners supporting the event
  • 26 sponsors

• Book Launch: Women & Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices [Book in Spanish] – June 14th, 2022 (Mexico City)
  • 100+ in-person attendees
  • 6 panel speakers
  • 2 sponsors

• Standing in Solidarity with Indigenous People in Brazil: Bolsonaro’s Governments attacks on Territorial Rights and the Right to Life – August 4th, 2022 (Bay Area)
  • 34 in-person attendees
  • 2 speakers
  • 1 original Panel
  • 1 sponsor

• The Genie Is Out of the Bottle: Reflections on the Globalization of Ayahuasca – September 8th, 2022 (Los Angeles)
  • 150 in-person attendees
  • 5 scholarships granted to low-income and BIPOC attendees
  • 4 speakers
  • 1 original panel
  • 4 community partners supporting the event
  • 11 sponsors

• Integrating Psychedelics into American Culture and Law: A Post-Prohibition Future – October 6th, 2022 (Denver)
  • 200 in-person attendees
  • 8 scholarships granted to low-income and BIPOC attendees
  • 15 speakers
  • 2 original panels
  • 6 community partners supporting the event
  • 15 sponsors

• Book Launch – Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine – December 8th, 2022 (Los Angeles)
  • 40 in-person attendees
  • 5 speakers
  • 5 original talks
  • 4 community partners supporting the event
  • 2 sponsors

vii. Chacruna Latinoamérica (CLA)

• Chacruna Latinoamérica published 12 articles in Portuguese, these included some of the texts that appeared before on the Spanish book version of Women and Psychedelics. Our most viewed Portuguese articles this year have been:
  • Madrinha Rita: Matriarca brasileira da ayahuasca / Jacqueline Alves Rodrigues and Glauber Loures De Assis (BR) / 1262 views
  • Dar à luz no Santo Daime: resistência psicodélica e solidariedade feminina /  Jacqueline Alves Rodrigues and Glauber Loures De Assis (BR) / 955 views
  • Quantas pessoas consomem ayahuasca no Brasil? / Luis Fernando Tófoli (BR) / 829 views

• One of our associates at Chacruna Latinoamérica, Glauber Loures de Assis, was able to participate in two conferences, one being:
  • “Can we talk about a “psychedelic renaissance”? What are the challenges of the area in Brazil?” – This online conference was organized by APB – Brazilian Psychedelic Association, on July 20, 2022. Glauber appeared in the TV series Sociedade do Cansaço (Burnout Society), from GNT-Globo, as a representative of Chacruna Institute.

• Chacruna Latinoamérica published 54 articles in Spanish, including the whole selection of texts from the book Women and Psychedelics. Our most viewed Spanish articles this year have been:
  • Madrinha Rita. Matriarca brasileira de la ayahuasca / Jacqueline Alves Rodrigues and Glauber Loures De Assis (BR) / 1253 views
  • Seducción sexual en las interacciones entre chamanes y participantes de ayahuasca / Daniela Peluso (UK) / 1142 views
  • ¿Quien está a cargo de la psilocibina? / Alexander Beiner (US) / 1133 views

• Many of our associates from both branches were able to attend and participate in one conference in Spanish, in-person in Mexico City:
  • “Rethinking Alcohol and Drugs: Global Transformations/ Local Practices in History”– Chacruna Institute and Chacruna Latinoamérica were invited to participate at this conference organized by the Alcohol and Drugs History Society at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (June 15-17). This event had talks both in English and Spanish and also had Dr. Bia Labate as one of their main speakers. Other participants from our team were Clancy Cavnar, Joseph Mays, Nicholas Spiers, Glauber Loures de Assis (Associate Director of Chacruna Latinoamérica in Brazil) and Ibrahim Gabriell (Communications Associate of Chacruna Latinoamérica in Mexico)

• We hosted 6 live events in both Portuguese and Spanish on our YouTube channel.

ix. Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants

In 2022, the Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants (CPSP) continued its process of inquiry, consultation and activism. There was a big focus on the initiatives taking place in Oregon and Colorado, and issues around the country concerning religious freedom. Chacruna was able to accomplish:

• 9 Forums including a series titled Patenting the Sacred, and forums discussing conflicts of interest and informed consent in the expanding psychedelic ecosystem.
• 15 Chacruna Chronicles articles published surrounding topics in law and policy
• 17 court case consultations involving arrests, court cases, seizures, and organization structure to enhance health, safety, ethics, and legal defense.
• We continued to support the development of the Sacred Plant Alliance (SPA).
• The Church of the Eagle and the Condor (CEC)
  • CPSP members are representing CEC in their effort to obtain recognition as a legal ayahuasca church.

• Measure 109
  • On December 27, Oregon adopted final rules concerning its psilocybin services program. In early 2022, attorney and council member Jon Dennis presented a proposed community-use framework to the Licensing and Equity Subcommittees of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board (OPAB). The framework would have created a pathway to affordable access by offering communities the flexibility to provide safety and support services that are proportional to the particular safety and support needs of a particular community.

• Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board
  • Dr. Bia Labate served on the Research committee.

• Proposition 122
  • Sean McAllister, Chair of the Board of Directors of Chacruna and CPSP member, was a key figure in the drafting and passage of Colorado’s Proposition 122. He helped improve the measure by including several social justice provisions geared toward ensuring equity and access for BIPOC communities. Sean will also be working on implementation of the law in Colorado with these same concerns in mind.

• SB519
  • Sean McAllister and Ismail Ali participated in the discussions around this bill in California.

x. Racial Equity and Access (REA) Committee

• We added Dr. Sonya Faber and Dr. Joseph McCowan as members of the REA committee.
• We added new people to People of Color Making a Difference in Psychedelic Healing:
  • Courtney Watson
  • Marlena Robbins
  • Ifetayo Harvey
  • Victor Alfonso Cabral

• Various members of this committee joined us as professors in our courses this year, including Dr. NiCole T. Buchanan, Dr. Sonya Faber, Dr. Monica T. Williams, Dr. Darron T. Smith, and Dr. Joseph McCowan.

xi. Ayahuasca Community Committee

• We published 17 articles relating to ayahuasca in different aspects, such as law and policy, culture, conferences/events, science, research, and much more.
• We added 2 new members to the committee, being Dr. Bruno Ramos Gomes and Dr. Henrique Fernandes Antunes.
• There were 2 journals published on the topic of epistemic injustices which included authors from this committee:
  • Access and benefit-sharing legislation: An ethnobiological approach to overcoming epistemic injustices through intercultural dialogue
  • On epistemic injustices, biomedical research with Indigenous people, and the legal regulation of ayahuasca in Brazil: The production of new injustices?

• We hosted 8 live forums, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, on Crowdcast and YouTube, relating to ayahuasca in different aspects.
• We created a very important Call for Public Support Against the Demonization of Ayahuasca Practices in Spain, which was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. It was also published in Folha de S.Paulo, a very big newspaper based in Brazil.
• We continued to work on our Ayahuasca Community Guidelines for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse – the results of which have since been published in 2023.

xii. Chacruna Media

• Launched 4 press releases.
• We have created 56 newsletters for an audience of 23,600+ contacts, 21,774 of which are subscribers.
• We had a total of 57 event sponsorships.
• We have built and maintained community partnerships with 78 organizations, non-profits, foundations, businesses, and institutions.
• Uploaded 69 videos on our YouTube page, including the entirety of Sacred Plants of the Americas II and other Chacruna-exclusive panels.
• In the past year, we have grown our social media presence to 42,900+ Instagram followers (9.5% increase), 6,120+ Youtube subscribers (20.1% increase), 50,000+ Facebook followers, 46,000+ Facebook likes, 11,400+ Twitter followers (18.1% increase), and 23,600+ newsletter contacts – 15,000+ Chacruna, 8,000+ Chacruna Latinoamérica, and 540 Patreon donors (2.5% increase).
• We had 15 media appearances, including in publications from DoubleBlind, Dr. Bronners, The Harvard Crimson, and many more.

xiii. Fiscal Sponsorships

• Chacruna Institute was the Fiscal Sponsor for the Sequoia Center, which makes psychedelic-assisted therapy accessible in Oregon.

xiv. Organizational achievements

We ended 2022 with:

• 505 patrons
• 9 board members
• 5 core employees
• We created a Speaker’s Bureau consisting of 51 speaking proposals from different people within our network.
• We completely refined our Media and Donor Rolodex.
• We worked on partnerships and collaborations with many universities throughout the year, including Harvard, Naropa, University of Saskatchewan, U of Ottawa, Kent University, Stanford, and we are currently starting a partnership with UCSF.
• We created and organized various job descriptions and published them on our site.
• We launched a new membership program called the Chacruna Alliance and also launched a new Discord server for all of our members to connect.
• We created and hosted two recurring circles for our members:
  • Chacruna’s Queer Integration Circle
  • Chacruna’s Psychedelic Mindfulness Sangha

• We supported the maintenance of 2 google listservs.
• We created a calendar to keep track of all our upcoming Chacruna events, including community forums, in person events, circles, speaking engagements, etc.
• We had the honor of adding 6 new members to our team:
  • Dr. Bruno Ramos Gomes – joined as a member of Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee
  • Dr. Henrique Fernandes Antunes – joined as a member of Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee
  • Justin Natoli – joined as a member of Chacruna’s Women, Gender Diversity, and Sexual Minorities Working Group
  • Jon Dennis – joined as a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants
  • Dr. Jordan Sloshower – joined as a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants
  • Sean Carr – joined Chacruna’s Board of Directors as the Treasurer
  • Azadeh Momenghalibaf – was hired as a consultant focused on Organizational Development and Fundraising. She helped us significantly on the regenerative growth of the organization, as well as refined the bookkeeping and adjusted our program

• We had the honor of hiring 3 new contractors:
  • Lorien Chavez – hired as the Communications Officer
  • Dr. Lígia Duque Platero – hired as the Education Program Associate
  • Hena Malik – hired as the Social Media Coordinator

xv. Career Training and Development

• Scholarships to Chacruna team members for various academic institutions and events.
• Internal series of ‘inspirational talks’ to the Chacruna team from successful leaders in the space to strengthen relationships and help in Chacruna’s own development.
• Psychedelic reading lab to discuss Chacruna’s published texts in an effort to provide space for discourse and deeper understanding of the topics we focus on at Chacruna.
• We have obtained speaking opportunities for many of our team members in events around the globe, so that they can grow and become better speakers on their own and educate folks on Chacruna and topics of psychedelic justice.
• We helped our team members in Mexico and Brazil to get visas to travel to the U.S. for team building and participating in events.

xvi. Chacruna Merchandise

• In 2022, Chacruna launched a new Plant and Fungi Teachers t-shirt with the help of our incredible volunteer designers
• We created high quality banners, fliers, stickers, QR codes, and many other materials to help educate the public on our work and provide resources to support when tabling at conferences and events.

None of this would have been possible without your support and all the people who believe in our mission and help in a myriad of different ways. In the past three years, we have matured as an organization, growing out from a collective of mostly volunteers to a consolidated core of a tight-knit team of employees who keep the organization running for our members and our larger community.

If you believe in our mission, feel inspired by the impact we’ve had so far, and want to support the strong expansion we are planning for 2022, please consider becoming a member of the Chacruna Alliance on Patreon from as little as $5 per month, and get access to our community and its exclusive and unique benefits.

If you are already a Chacruna patron, and you have the economic means, please consider switching to an upper membership tier. If you can’t, it would mean a lot for us if you talked to a friend or family member about becoming a member of the Chacruna Alliance! We grow mostly with word of mouth, expanding our community of like-minded individuals, just like mycelium grows!

We are thankful beyond words, committed entirely to this mission, and thrilled that you are sharing the journey with us.

Beatriz Labate, Ph.D

Execturive Director

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Psychonautic Judaism: The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Future of Judaism

Chacruna Institute - May 25, 2021

Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 from 12-1:30pm PST REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT HERE There is growing enthusiasm in Jewish communities about possible ancient use and modern applications of plant medicine in Jewish spiritual development.  Psychedelic Judaism introduce new potential modes of  healing...

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