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.
Psychedelics have encompassed a colorful history of the enchanted, wayward, and weird; its history also includes concrete ways queer folk have fundamentally shaped the substance, style, and spirituality of the psychedelic movement. At the same time, some queer people have been harmed by psychedelic culture’s heteronormative assumptions. As the psychedelic renaissance reaches a pivotal moment […]
Join our discussion on the growing intersection of Judaism and Psychedelics, and its role in the renewal of Judaism through altered states of consciousness. We’ll explore how psychedelics are changing Jewish culture and how Judaism itself is becoming an expression of and a container for psychedelic experiences. We’ll also discuss the role of Judaism as […]
Join us for an insightful conversation with award-winning artist and filmmaker Maxi Cohen as she unveils the profound impact ayahuasca has had on her creative journey. Hear firsthand how this sacred medicine has transformed her life and fueled her passion for storytelling through the medium of film. Explore the inspiration behind her captivating films about […]
Are you involved with a Church that uses psychedelic sacrament? Do you want to learn how to protect your sacrament? Or are you just generally curious about the laws surrounding the religious use of psychedelic plant medicines? Come join us, get informed, and put to rest some of the myths that circulate around the Religious […]
Tuesday, September 17th from 9am to 12:00pm PDT $10 This workshop will focus on the history and teachings of the Huni Kuin people, which will be explored through dialogues with Huni Kuin as well as a film screening of Eskawata Kayawai. Topics to be explored include: ethnocide, reciprocity, right relationship, Indigenous traditions, values, thinking and […]
September 18th, 2024 from 12:00-1:30pm PDT $10 Moderated by Joseph Mays, Dominique Morisano, Margaret Robinson, and Christine McCleave Explore the pioneering work of how the Urban Indigenous Collective is reshaping mental healthcare within New York City’s urban Indigenous community amidst the burgeoning psychedelic renaissance. Gain insights into the multitude of Indigenous identities across the United […]
Professional spiritual health practitioners hold expertise in psychology, spirituality, religion, metaphysics, theology, existential care, and meaning-making. They represent diverse religious, spiritual and humanist traditions. Ecologically-based spiritual care affirms a view of spirituality that includes reciprocity, planetary healing, adaptation to climate change, indigenous reciprocity, and ecological grief. An ecologically-integrated approach to psychedelic therapies includes: Support for […]
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 from 12:00-1:30pm PST. $10 How did a well-known ayahuasca church, Soul Quest, unravel, and what does it say about the state of the psychedelic movement today? We will discuss the rise and fall of this church, what the DEA review process revealed, the dramatic recent developments, and how the events surrounding […]
Wednesday, November 6th, 2024 from 12:00-1:30pm PDT With Joanna Kempner, Tehseen Noorani, and Nicolas Langlitz. This upcoming forum will examine the compelling case of the Clusterbusters, a group of ordinary individuals debilitated by excruciating cluster headaches who developed their own treatment using home-grown psilocybin mushrooms. The forum will explore how such mutual-aid networks address the […]
Wednesday, November 27th, 2024 from 12:00-1:30pm PST In our next Community Forum we are diving into the entangled topics of art, literature, Amazonian shamanism, and Indigenous knowledge, cosmologies, and traditions. Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino will lay out his unique trajectory as an anthropologist and writer, his research with Marubo Indigenous people from the Amazon, and […]
