Opening Plenary of Psychedelic Science 2025 Reflects on Challenges

The 2025 Psychedelic Science conference kicked off on Wednesday, June 18 with a plenary talk at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), PS25 takes place June 16-20 and features more than 500 speakers. Since its inception in 2010, the Psychedelic Science conference series has sought to support the sharing of knowledge and community building in the psychedelic ecosystem. 

According to organizers, the event offers a Global Healing Forum that features scientists, therapists, artists and indigenous leaders from around the world. The panels are intended to support cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue that connect traditional Indigenous wisdom with contemporary practice. 

The Plenary began with a land acknowledgement and prayers from Rick Williams (Ogala Lakota/Cheyenne) founder and executive director of the People of the Sacred Land, a Colorado nonprofit. Williams welcomed participants to the homeland of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations and reminded participants to treat medicine plants and Indigenous healing traditions with respect. 

One of several Indigenous leaders to speak at the Plenary, Williams implored those present to “Listen, can you hear it? Listen. The spirits are watching. Open your minds to a different way of seeing things around you.”

“The plants, the medicines you are going to be talking about have spirits. Just like you and I have a spirit,” said Williams. “All of your actions with these medicines must be done with ceremonies and prayers. And asking the spirit of that plant to help you. Without it there could be trouble. Do not abuse these gifts from the creator, they must be respected in every way.”

After this admonition, the chair of the MAPS board Vicky Dulai invited those present at the Plenary to take a moment to feel the significance of the gathering. She said the conference reflected not only scientific progress but a cultural shift towards healing, justice, and integration. According to Dulai, the theme of the event, integration, isn’t just the stage after the journey, but an essential part of bringing insights home and “staying in right relationship to ourselves, with each other and the medicines.” 

Dulai added that the MAPS partners, Indigenous allies, harm reduction leaders and other community members are the foundation of the psychedelic movement. “We begin this week with hearts open, minds alert and a collective commitment to walk this path with integrity,” said Dulai.  

Acknowledging Challenges

Interim MAPS co-executive directors Ismail Lourido Ali and Betty Aldworth acknowledged that since the last Psychedelic Science gathering in 2023, the psychedelic ecosystem has encountered challenging changes. Aldworth and Ali characterized the present historical moment as a time of collective crisis marked by fear, distrust, political polarization and an epidemic of loneliness that leads to destabilization and creates conditions that escalate ecological, social and geopolitical crises. MAPS has also navigated its own turbulence during this time. 

The largest setback faced by MAPS since the last Psychedelic Science conference is last year’s unexpected FDA rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. “We have made extraordinary progress, but if you have been paying attention to the last couple of years, we are not done yet, we might not even be close. It might be a really long game,” said Ali. 

Aldworth said that MAPS had also accomplished major initiatives since the last gathering in Denver including delivering psychedelic harm reduction training to first responders across Denver. She noted that MAPS also brought psychedelic education around the world from Bosnia and Ukraine to Australia and beyond. According to Aldworth, MAPS is planning next year to have projects on every continent and work with therapists from more than 30 countries. She said that MAPS also helped bring groundbreaking legislation reforming laws around psychedelics to states across the nation. 

“But at what cost? We haven’t always done it right. Who have we upset?,” asked Ali. “Who should we apologize to? How did we leave people hanginging? And what could we have done better. We haven’t always done it right. We have benefitted from a committed community and we have fallen short too.” 

Going Forward

Despite the blow of the FDA decision, MAPS leadership appears focused on a more egalitarian approach to collective activism. According to Aldworth, “This conference is about recommitting to you all. To come back down to earth, put our fingers into the soil, to nurture the neglected roots of our movement. We want to say that we are back at eye level with you and we are ready to lock arms.” 

Paul Ryder, founder of the Congregation for Sacred Practices, said he welcomed the shift in focus that MAPS has embraced after a protest on behalf of Indigenous perspectives at Psychedelic Sciences 2023. “It’s wonderful to see that the leaders in this movement can listen and that the storming of the stage at the last conference really provided a transformation in the thinking and tone for this conference and brought it more into a movement and community focus,” said Ryder. 

MAPS President and founder Rick Doblin took the stage last at the Plenary noting his disappointment with the FDA decision and also the defeat of the Question 4 initiative in Massachusetts. “If your deepest dreams are something that you can accomplish in your own lifetime, they’re too small,”  said Doblin.  

Doblin also paid tribute to the pioneering psilocybin research of the late Roland Griffiths. Together with others, Griffiths laid the groundwork for a key study that was the focus of the 2023 Psychedelic Science conference – a recently published investigation into the effects of psilocybin on religious leaders. 

Doblin also honored the recent passing of Amanda Feilding, the founder of the Beckley Foundation and a pioneer in neuroscience and clinical research into the effects of psychoactive substances on the brain and cognition. Doblin honored Feilding as a true scientist who accepted data that contradicted her initial theories that LSD would increase cerebral blood flow and changed her views to reflect the latest research. . 

While acknowledging the passing of Feilding and Griffiths,  Doblin appeared to take a long view on the sweep of scientific research. He noted that one one of the advantages of having a multigenerational perspective is that when there are setbacks, take them in stride. “So you can really roll with the punches, learn the lesson and continue to move forward,” said Doblin who said that while he was wearing all white in 2023, this time he has added black and blue to his outfit. 

“We are battered and bruised but yet we are still standing,” said Doblin who says that despite the setbacks, the number of current psychedelic research studies is larger than in the 1960’s. The “psychedelic renaissance,” said Doblin, “is alive and well.”

Featured image: Rick Doblin during the PS2025 opening ceremony showcasing Lucid News digital art by Nicki Adams. Photo by Ali McGhee.