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.
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.
Monday, February 27th, 2023 from 12:00-1:30pm PST
Register for this event here.
The use of ayahuasca, an indigenous brew from the Amazonian basin with psychedelic properties, has...
What is the connection between ayahuasca and epigenetics? In this study, the researchers explored whether ayahuasca could be used as a treatment for developmental trauma.
Dr. Anya Ermakova explains the usages of different vines for the preparation of ayahuasca and gives examples of consequences that have resulted from ayahuasca tourism. People are most familiar with scarcity of plant resources, but there have also been other consequences such as jaguar poaching. Are all the consequences of Ayahuasca tourism negative, or can there be positive aspects to it? Read more in this essay.
Thursday, September 8th, 2022 from 6:00pm-10:30pm PST
Atlas Room1100 N. WesternLos Angeles, CA
*Paid underground parking garage located at 1110 N. Western Ave
Register here.
Tickets: $25*
Scholarships Available. Apply...
The mystical experience is likely one of the therapeutic mechanisms for psychedelics, including ayahuasca, to have therapeutic potential for drug addiction. This article explores the findings of a study in which there was a connection between ayahuasca use and smoking cessation.
In this interview, Ibrahim Gabriell speaks with Dr. Anja Loizaga-Velder, one of the main experts in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca in Mexico. They discuss Loizaga-Velder's pathway into her profession, the challenges she has met along the way, and what western medicine can learn from traditional Indigenous knowledge.
This brief and powerful history of Indigenous practices with ayahuasca before its globalization emphasizes the loss that has (and continues) to occur within these Indigenous communities. It also remarks on the importance of honoring and including Indigenous voices in the conversations being had as ayahuasca and other plant medicines gain popularity within the Western scientific sphere.
This article provides an update on two separate cases in U.S. federal court involving the religious use of ayahuasca—one in Florida brought by Soul Quest and one in Arizona brought by the Arizona Yagé Assembly. Both organizations are suing the DEA to vindicate their religious rights. Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants reflects on the status of both cases in facing these blatant injustices and how they might impact other organizations using ayahuasca as a sacrament.