• Perspective
  • Clinical Psychology
Insights Into the Inaugural Year of APT — a New Training for Becoming a Psychedelic Therapist

MIND Foundation’s Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT) is a 2-year professional development program that teaches the skills needed for psychedelic therapy.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
The Synthetic Toad – How To Investigate 5-MeO-DMT in the Lab

The psychedelic drug 5-MeO-DMT is found naturally in the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad. Promising findings from field and early clinical research suggest that the substance may have therapeutic value as a rapid antidepressant.

  • Essay
  • Consciousness Research
Merging Biology and Psychotherapy Within Psychiatry: An Interview with Collin Reiff, MD

Psychiatry has fluctuated between biology and psychotherapy throughout its history. Where are we now, and what impact might psychedelics have on the field?

  • Essay
  • Clinical Psychology
Same Diagnosis, Different Problem: The Challenge of Heterogeneity in Mental Disorder

No two people have the same experience of depression, anxiety, or any other mental health condition. So why don’t our current diagnostic approaches reflect this?

  • Essay
  • Consciousness Research
Psychedelics and the Social Brain

We spend most, if not all, of our time surrounded by others and embedded in cultural systems. Dr. Katrin Preller uses psychedelics to study mental health and the social brain.

  • Essay
  • Consciousness Research
Did Consciousness Arise to Keep the Body Alive?

Consciousness may have more to do with homeostasis than with intelligence. Where does that leave our understanding of the "self"?

  • Essay
  • Philosophy & Consciousness
Revising the Self: Beyond Metaphysical Beliefs in Mystical-Type Experience

Does mystical-type experience enhance psychedelic therapy by changing metaphysical beliefs, or by changing the narrative self?

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Neurons on Acid

Our first conscious experience develops within another’s body. What does this mean for our current understanding of perception, and how does it shape our relation to the world?

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Does Microdosing LSD Influence Perception of Time?

Could microdosing LSD influence time perception? A new study reveals time dilation even with sub-perceptual doses.

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Music and Psychedelics: A Match Made in Heaven

Our first conscious experience develops within another’s body. What does this mean for our current understanding of perception, and how does it shape our relation to the world?

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Lucia N°03: Psychedelic Experience Induced by Flickering Light

Are psychedelic states possible without drugs? LUCIA N°03's flickering light induces an altered state characterized by calmness, deep relaxation, and unique hallucinations.

  • Interview
  • Consciousness Research
Conscious Breathing and Psychedelics

What brain regions are involved in breathwork, how do you facilitate a breathwork session, and how does breathwork compare to psychedelics?

  • Interview
  • Neuroscience
Psychedelic-Induced Creativity: Fact or Fiction?

Research on psychedelic-induced creativity sheds light on divergent, convergent, deliberate and spontaneous forms of creative thinking.

  • Perspective
  • Psychedelic Therapy
Walking Each Other Home: Reflections of a Psychedelic Therapist

The ACE model as a thematic guide could provide a framework for accommodating patients' individual and specialized needs.

  • Essay
  • Clinical Psychology
Relational Psychotherapy and Psychedelic Treatment

Can psychedelic therapy benefit from the relational turn? James Barnes and Saga Briggs explore how intersubjective experience between therapist and patient could lead to positive outcomes in psychedelic treatment settings.

  • Interview
  • Drug Science
Field Pharmacology and Naturalistic Placebos

What can field pharmacology tell us about the role of ritual, body, and placebo in ayahuasca ceremonies and their long-term effects?

  • News
  • MIND News
5 Years of MIND

The MIND Foundation turns five on November 26, 2021. Join us as we look back on the past five years and European psychedelic research organization.

  • Interview
  • Mental Health
Combining Psychedelics and 12-Step Programs for Substance Use Disorders

What are the synergies and difficulties of integrating psychedelics into 12 step programs for substance use disorders, such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

  • Neuroscience
The REBUS Model

The REBUS model states that psychedelics relax higher-order beliefs, allowing information from lower levels to reorganize the mind.

How predictive coding is changing our understanding of the brain

Predictive coding is as important to neuroscience as evolution is to biology. The brain's predictions influence our perceptions. And this has strong implications for our understanding of psychedelics.

  • Essay
  • Psychedelic Therapy
Psychedelic Research and Placebo Studies

Viewed through the lens of placebo research, “set” and “setting” play crucial roles in the experience of psychedelic trips as well as in the scientific research surrounding them.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
Tolerance to LSD – How the Brain Bolts the Doors of Perception

Is microdosing LSD safe, and does it really have its alleged benefits? Answering this question requires understanding tolerance to LSD.

  • Essay
  • Philosophy & Consciousness
How can Bewusstseinskultur help to deal with the human condition?

Which states of consciousness are valuable? How can we identify and cultivate them? These questions are the cornerstone of a Bewusstseinskultur, or culture of consciousness.

  • Psychology
Social Interoception

Social interoception examines how social emotions arise from observing one's own bodily states. And it may help determine our mental health.

Entropy as More than Chaos in the Brain

Psychedelics induce a temporary and extreme increase in brain entropy, which might help people break the rigid thought patterns found in certain disorders.

  • Essay
  • Clinical Psychology
How and why could MDMA-assisted psychotherapy treat PTSD?

Does MDMA support known trauma recovery mechanisms or does MDMA tap into recovery processes characteristic for this treatment type?

Transformative Psychotherapy

Transformative psychotherapy with psychedelics may allow patients to improve and maintain their mental health.

Ketamine – New Hope for Depression

Combining medication and therapy, ketamine treatment could be a breakthrough for depressed patients.

  • Implementation & Society
Schedule 1 Drugs or Breakthrough Therapies?

Attending to language in psychedelic research papers offers insight into how different authors view these substances.

BEYOND EXPERIENCE – A Multimodal Workshop for Focused Psychedelic Integration

People seeking integration of psychedelic experiences will benefit greatly from a workshop with trained facilitators. With Beyond Experience, the MIND Foundation offers exactly that.

  • Essay
  • Arts & Social
Are you experienced? The Appearance, Disappearance and Reappearance of “Psychedelic Art”

Psychedelic Art, once a new hope for the art world, vanished from the mainstream after the 1970s, just like other aspects of Psychedelia.

Are you experienced? The Appearance, Disappearance and Reappearance of “Psychedelic Art”

  • Perspective
  • Ecology & Environment
Can psychedelics really change the world? Toward psychedelic technologies

Psychedelics have strongly culturally-bound effects and ethically using psychedelics in the future requires the exploration of „psychedelic technologies“.

  • News
  • MIND News
Philosophy’s Contribution to Psychedelic Research and Therapy at INSIGHT

The MIND Foundation explains the role that philosophy and philosophers take at the INSIGHT psychedelic conference.

  • Interview
  • Implementation & Society
Humility, Curiosity, and Responsibility: Willy Schweitzer, a Committed European

The conversation sheds some biographical light on the European by conviction, born in 1943 – and on his motives for supporting MIND's work. It took place with Henrik Jungaberle on June 25, 2021, in Frankfurt.

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Calm Waters and High Seas: The Synergy of Meditation and Psychedelics

Can psychedelics and meditation work together? This post discusses the potential of psychedelics and meditation to mutually support greater awareness and well-being, drawing on traditional wisdom and recent empirical findings.

  • News
  • MIND News
Being One and Being Different: Diversity at the INSIGHT conference

In this post, the MIND Foundation expands on the meaning of diversity as it relates to the INSIGHT psychedelic conference.

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Leave the Trips Alone! A Neuroscience Case For Experience

Is the trip needed for the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs? Vlad Nicolescu, M.Sc., presents a neuroscience argument against ignoring experience.

  • News
  • MIND News
Inside the MIND Foundation: The Values Driving the INSIGHT Conference Series

The MIND Foundation and the INSIGHT conference series are driven by organizational values. Find out about our values in this post.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
The Future of Psychedelics in Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment

Will the latest psychedelics research usher in a more hopeful era for patients with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's?

  • News
  • MIND News
INSIGHT Conference 2021: Bringing Clarity and Depth together

INSIGHT 2021 is the international conference of the MIND Foundation. We discuss clinical, basic science, ethical, and implementation issues around psychedelic substances and consciousness.

  • Interview
  • Drug Science
Neurobiology of Antidepressant Drugs

Research suggests that many classical and novel antidepressants may share a common neurobiological mechanism.

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Colors Affect Our Subjective Wellbeing and Sense of Time

The Ganzfeld effect with colors induces an altered state of consciousness - and different colors affect our emotions and sense of time.

  • Perspective
  • Consciousness Research
Dissolving Ego Dissolution

The public often runs off with a compelling story before the scientific results are in. This is equally true for the ego narrative as it is for the DMN narrative.

  • Essay
  • Implementation & Society
Psychedelics: Politically Pluripotent

Can psychedelics change political beliefs? Although often associated with the left, the relationship between psychedelics and politics is not that simple.

  • Interview
  • Drug Science
Predicting the Temporal Dynamics of the Psychedelic Experience

The notion that the psychedelic experience consists of three phases, namely come-up, peak, and come-down, is now backed by neuroscience. And PET scans can predict the unfolding of these phases.

  • Perspective
  • Clinical Psychology
Ketamine in Contextual Trauma Therapy: The Paradox of Dissociation in (Complex) PTSD

Ketamine-induced dissociation in the context of psychotherapy may have a therapeutic effect for (complex) PTSD by creating experiential distance through dissociation.

  • Perspective
  • Biological Sciences
How to Change Your Mind — with Exercise

The runner's high, being "in the zone", the flow of dancing: learn how exercise can bring your mind to altered states of consciousness in sports.

  • Perspective
  • Philosophy & Consciousness
Understanding the Bodily Roots of Conscious Experience

Our first conscious experience develops within another’s body. What does this mean for our current understanding of perception, and how does it shape our relation to the world?

  • Essay
  • Biological Sciences
Not in Your Third Eye – What Does DMT Do in the Brain?

Does DMT occur endogenously in the mammalian brain? Experiments in rats say yes. What do these experiments tell us about DMT in humans?

  • Interview
  • Neuroscience
Beyond the Therapeutic Alliance: How MDMA and Classic Psychedelics Modify Social Learning

Gül Dölen on how MDMA re-opens social critical periods and its therapeutic value in the context of social brain diseases.

  • Interview
  • Drug Science
Magic Yeasts and How to Make Them Produce Psilocybin

Biotech startup Octarine developed a method to produce psilocybin using brewer’s yeast. This method allows them to produce novel analogues of psilocybin.

  • Essay
  • Implementation & Society
Psilocybin Chronicles

Psilocybin-containing mushrooms are revolutionizing psychiatric research. But for how long have humans been using psychoactive mushrooms?

  • Essay
  • Psychedelic Therapy
A Match Made in the Mind: Combining mindfulness practice and psychedelic therapy

How can patients sustain their well-being after psychedelic therapy? Mindfulness meditation may complement psychedelics perfectly.

  • Perspective
  • Technology
Would you talk to a machine therapist?

Could machines ever provide mental healthcare? Would you talk to a machine therapist about your emotions, your conflicts, your desires?

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
Microdosing Psychedelics: Biohack or Placebo?

Enthusiasts claim that microdosing psychedelics improves mood and cognition. But what about the science - is it only a placebo effect?

  • News
  • Neuroscience
Reading Lists

Interested in psychedelic research, but not sure where to start? The Reading Lists are a curated series of research papers introducing specific topics in a nutshell.

  • Perspective
  • Technology
Big Data in Psychiatry — Brave New World?

“Big Data” can supposedly improve not only early detection of mental disorders, but also therapy. But does anyone really believe that? And more importantly, do we want that?

  • Essay
  • Mental Health
Trauma of Mystical Experience

Mystical experiences are an important aspect of psychedelic therapy. And these experiences have surprising commonalities with trauma.

  • News
  • Implementation & Society
The Berlin Registry

The Berlin Registry is an interactive and regularly updated overview of organizations involved in the psychedelic industry.

  • Essay
  • Psychedelic Integration
Insights in Psychedelic Therapy

Meaningful insights from psychedelic therapy don't always improve mental health on their own. Can insights be transformed into lasting change?

  • Perspective
  • Technology
Does Your Phone Know You Better Than your Therapist?

Can the complexities of human behavior, and even more so of psychiatric disorders, be represented by traces we leave on our smartphones?

  • Essay
  • Psychedelic Therapy
(Re)connection: A Basic Principle of Action Behind Psychedelics?

Psychedelics have the ability to connect neurons and brain regions that rarely communicate. They connect people with each other. And they may even be able to connect us more meaningfully with our environment.

  • Perspective
  • Arts & Social
EDGE – Art and Neuroscience

Art, too, is research: artists are investigating similar questions to scientists and are trying to understand themselves and the world around them. Art asks questions.

  • News
  • Biological Sciences
Hot Topics in Psychedelic Research

What's new in psychedelic research? Psychedelics seem to have an unusually broad range of uses. Scientists want to know just how broad it really is.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
Psychedelic-Antidepressant Interactions

Can psychedelics be safely taken with antidepressants? Research suggests caution when mixing psychedelics and SSRIs.

  • Interview
  • Psychedelic Therapy
Psilocybin and Emotional Reconnection

How does psilocybin therapy affect emotions? It may allow patients to reconnect with themselves.

  • Perspective
  • Implementation & Society
Cultural Context and the Psychedelic Experience

In the psychedelic experience, set and setting encompasses not only someone's physical environment and emotional state, but also the surrounding culture.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
A History of Ecstasy Science

The history of "ecstasy" may come as a surprise - not everyone would suspect that science has long considered MDMA for use in therapy.

  • Essay
  • Drug Science
A Lid for Every Pot: Crystal Structure of LSD-Bound Serotonin Receptor

Why do LSD's effects last so long? A new study has the answer, and it lies in the structure of LSD's binding to serotonin receptors.