Expanding Academic Consciousness: More Universities Step Into Psychedelic Research

As interest in psychedelic medicine grows across the U.S. and Canada, more academic institutions are venturing into research areas spanning the sciences and the humanities.

Since 2018, nine new programs and centers, characterized by innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaborations with other institutions and organizations, are attracting increasing numbers of hopeful students, faculty, and volunteers for studies. While the majority focus on the science of psychedelics, each center is distinguished by unique research interests. A handful approach psychedelics using other frameworks, including religious studies, theology, and journalism.   

A vein of optimism runs through all programs. Psychedelics have ushered in breakthroughs that continue to reshape how we think about mental health, consciousness, and culture, and all of the researchers and scholars interviewed expressed excitement for the future of these plants and compounds. 

Decriminalization, and even legalization, of several of these substances at the federal level is widely anticipated, with MDMA’s full legalization expected by the end of 2023. As scientific journals publish more data showing the promise of psychedelics for mental illness, and as American culture has shifted towards acceptance of these substances, university leadership, once hesitant to broach the subject, have given their blessings to new initiatives to prepare their students and residents to meet increasing demand.

While attitudes continue to shift in support of psychedelics, securing long-term funding and working through the approval process for studies has been a consistent challenge for most programs, which all currently rely on philanthropic gifts and, in the case of centers engaged in scientific research, face regulatory hurdles. Most academic institutions see these challenges as temporary, and have their sights fixed on a future when psychedelic studies departments show up in many more course catalogs.

Read the full article online via the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies) Bulletin here.