Psychedelics as a Tool for Peacebuilding & Collective Healing, with Sami Awad & Leor Roseman, Ph.D.

Psychedelics Today, episode 512: "RIPPLES of Hope: Psychedelics as a Tool for Peacebuilding and Collective Healing"
In this episode, David interviews Sami Awad: Palestinian peace and nonviolent activist and founder of Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem; and Leor Roseman, Ph.D.: Israeli neuroscientist, researcher, and senior lecturer at the University of Exeter.
They talk about Roseman's 2021 paper, "Relational Processes in Ayahuasca Groups of Palestinians and Israelis," which looked at what happened when people with fiercely different opinions moved beyond fear, anger, and othering, and sat together in a safe container and drank ayahuasca with the purpose of healing collective trauma. When the focus of the participants moved toward understanding each other, Roseman and Awad saw a unity that gave them a lot of hope, leading to the creation of their nonprofit, RIPPLES, which is focused on using psychedelics for peacebuilding - first in the Middle East, and hopefully soon, everywhere. As Awad says, "If it can happen here, it can happen almost anywhere."
They discuss:
-The efficacy of psychedelics as a tool for nonviolent activism, building peace, and recognizing - and healing - collective trauma
-The balance between the idealistic and the practical, or 'the irony of harmony' - if you focus too much on the connectivity of psychedelics, do you actually exclude voices?
-The concept of "my liberation depends on your healing and your liberation depends on mine"
-The challenge in doing something with the hope and enthusiasm that comes after a powerful experience: How do you make sure that wave of hope continues rippling through choppy waters?
For links, head to: psychedelicstoday.com/2024/05...
www.ripplesalliance.com/

[@Luduveco]

Excellent interview, very timely. Tangentially related, the Australian govt has made $3.8m available for MDMA assisted group therapy for 200 survivors of the 2022 Lismore floods who are suffering from PTSD. It is being run through Southern Cross University and is being viewed as a trial for future post disaster treatment for PTSD sufferers around the world. Crimes against humanity and genocide are generally a whole different order of suffering to natural disasters but, you know, it's a start...