Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social) @NeseLSD Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

@NeseLSD

7,044

Followers

1,818

Following

175

Media

1,962

Statuses

Rhymes w paper mâché. Psychedelic humanities: lit & ethics 🍄 Senior Lecturer @JohnsHopkins University Writing Program 📝 Indigenous/Kurdish 🟥☀🟩 ND (they/she)

Baltimore, MD

https://t.co/ZkR754Vvxr

Joined December 2014

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

Pinned Tweet

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

This new paper, which argues that the AI hype & psychedelics hype are interconnected, is possibly my most ambitious work. It synthesizes all of my previous work, from right-wing psychedelia to psychedelic capitalism & suggestibility in clinical trials: /1

Tweet card media

TESCREAL hallucinations: Psychedelic and AI hype as inequality engines

Abstract Background and Aims While many scholars have called attention to similarities between the earlier SSRI hype and the ongoing hype for psychedelic medications, the rhetoric of psychedelic hype...

70

297

1K

Last Seen Profiles

@danlesac

@TukaLetura

@ChBrunelle

@sayashk

@Phase_R

@DIADetroit

@Sue_chwan

@J_allison7

@SP_ECYP

@mamasquared83

@InstitutoArroyo

@The_MoonCat

@jjuwo0

@Nabela

@BartvanHorck

@rikkumyu

@tanwar_sahab1

@ftx

@DenisonSports

@Ticket_Help2022

@CEmogor

@bravoleroux

@MochiriWorks

@ArtMaranda

@Slap_BattlesRBX

@RRysht88624

@vgreen2024

@Rafael_Parente

@NicholasBasset3

@stw_pdg

@SaintJohnsPRC

@milkteareacts

@viiiictoriiaa

@ItsGresh

@APSportsAgency

@thephilmorris

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

“Allowing people to have [psychedelic] experiences in the woods with their friends, with people who are close to them, to have meaningful, community-building experiences… That is extremely important & should have never been taken away in the first place.”

Tweet card media

Tripping for the Planet: Psychedelics and Climate Activism | Atmos

With more states legalizing psychedelics, activists are interested in exploring their power. Is that a good idea?

7

75

457

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

I love that my 1st paper as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins (after 7 years of postdocs!) got a great reception & so many follows. Moving states might've been smoother if I hadn't spent the summer working on this, but "the (corporadelic) empire has no clothes" felt worth saying.

Tweet media one

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

This new paper, which argues that the AI hype & psychedelics hype are interconnected, is possibly my most ambitious work. It synthesizes all of my previous work, from right-wing psychedelia to psychedelic capitalism & suggestibility in clinical trials: /1

70

297

1K

10

58

251

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Biggest news yet: After 3 postdocs & 9 years on the academic job market, I'm going to be joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University as a Senior Lecturer in the University Writing Program. /1

Tweet media one

34

2

239

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Published today: "Dark Side of the Shroom: Erasing Indigenous and Counterculture Wisdoms with Psychedelic Capitalism, and the Open Source Alternative," which I wrote last year with Richard Doyle (author of "Darwin's Pharmacy") & Trey Conner. A thread 🧵 /1

Tweet card media

Anthropology of Consciousness | AAA Journal | Wiley Online Library

Psychedelic or ecodelic medicines (e.g., psilocybin, ayahuasca, iboga) for the care and treatment of addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, cluster headaches, anxiety, and depression...

anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

9

54

217

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

On the psychedelic guide industrial complex. From what I've seen, most psychedelic harms are interpersonal — exacerbated by power imbalances w/ strangers claiming spiritual authority. Guides can't be described as necessary to harm reduction when they're often the source of harm.

@therealsizlingh

Liz Singh

@therealsizlingh

7 months

I just want to be able to access drugs directly and not to be locked into a system where I need to hang out with anyone I don’t actually want to hang out with in order to use them.

15

9

143

12

33

209

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

🧵 I'm excited to share that after years of research, our qualitative paper on patient experiences & the therapeutic framework behind JHU's original psilocybin for smoking cessation pilot study is published in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. /1

22

57

197

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

The core of my dissertation, which identified a genesis of psychedelic science in Romantic-era nitrous oxide research, eventually won a major article prize in 2020. I just found its 1st rejection from 2015, before the Pollan Effect, when psychedelics were viewed differently. /1

Tweet media one

9

23

191

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I'm going to be on a Dr. Phil episode about psychedelics that will air this Thursday, May 4. It was surreal to think back to my first psychedelic experience and consider the sequence of events that somehow led to me being there...

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

18

19

178

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

"I'd forgotten that what comes to you when you take a psychedelic is not always a revelation of something new and startling; you're...reminded of simple things you know and forgot you knew...old, basic truths that long ago became clichés, so you stopped paying attention." -PiHKAL

Tweet media one

3

25

170

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

Cult survivors with complex PTSD were entrusted to Vicky Dulai of MAPS. Some of these survivors "never even had a day of therapy" before they were asked to film their ketamine retreat as a fundraising tool, broadcast to thousands of people. The video shows a full panic attack. /1

Tweet media one

15

28

165

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Hamilton Morris is reportedly referring to my research with @brian_pace as "insane" at #MicrodoseMiami while we are banned from the event. We stand by our analysis about the dangers of mixing psychedelics w/ authoritarianism & money at a time when fascism is increasing globally.

@BenjaminRamm

Benjamin Ramm

2 years

Hamilton Morris of COMPASS defends industry patents and mocks "moralising, hand-wringing" articles about the "psychedelic-industrial complex". Criticises @shayla__love , describes @NeseLSD & @brian_pace 's article on 'Right-Wing Psychedelia' as "insane, so absurd". #WonderlandMiami

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

17

11

57

8

27

161

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 month

María Sabina said she stopped eating mushrooms since they became hard on her body before she died of poverty. Some people insist perennial use is great before they spiral into grandiosity or destabilization. They're not always beneficial & some things aren't fixed by taking more.

@FatherMcKennaa

Taylor Sterling (Archaically Revived)

@FatherMcKennaa

1 month

The Alan Watts quote about "hanging up the phone" when you get the psychedelic message is just the ego scared of going back again. There is more than one message. Shamans never stop taking it.

70

15

293

16

22

157

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

The biggest news of my academic career is official! My book — Chemical Poetics: The Literary History of Psychedelic Science — is under contract with Columbia University Press @ColumbiaUP as of today (Indigenous Peoples Day).

Tweet media one

18

18

148

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

To understand the role of psychedelics in this elite project, this paper analyzes a different parallel hype, revealing connections between the psychedelic industry hype & the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), as described by @NaomiAKlein . /4

Tweet card media

AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are | Naomi Klein

Tech CEOs want us to believe that generative AI will benefit humanity. They are kidding themselves

www.theguardian.com

1

45

142

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

These qualities provide insight into the ways that global tech elites are working to instrumentalize psychedelics as one tool in a broader world-building project that justifies increasing material inequality, which contradicts claims for prosocial & pro-environmental outcomes. /3

2

24

134

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

10 months

The psychedelic hype is more dangerous than the drugs. You can be both pro-psychedelics & anti-hype! See my love letter to the psychedelic field from Breaking Convention '23 @breakingcon : Thanks to the Source Research Foundation for supporting my travel!

Tweet card media

Neşe Devenot - You Can Be Both Pro-Psychedelics and Anti-Hype

Please support our work and enable us to continue to share these talks for free by donating at www.paypal.me/breakingconventionukYou Can Be Both Pro-Psychede...

www.youtube.com

3

27

124

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Taken together, TESCREALism amounts to the “court philosophy” of the global oligarch class, serving to justify the acceleration of inequality towards the goal of colonizing far-distant galaxies. In its most dangerous formulation, this end goal can justify nearly any means. /9

1

36

120

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

While many have noted the similarities between the earlier SSRI hype and the ongoing hype for psychedelic medications, the rhetoric of psychedelic hype is tinged with utopian and magico-religious qualities that have no parallel in the discourse surrounding SSRIs. /2

2

17

120

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

In contrast to Indigenous relational ontologies, longtermism is a colonial project premised on human exceptionalism that assumes the right to label some life as disposable, & hence to identify acceptable sacrifices in the context of a more worthy cause. They are incompatible. /13

1

17

116

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Industry leaders are explicitly envisioning psychedelics as a new extractive industry for funneling wealth towards transhumanist evolution, & to medicate the lower classes to discourage rebellion against an exploitative social hierarchy that does not serve their interests. /14

1

25

113

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 years

"by raising an alarm about therapy abuse, I’m not exaggerating the dangers of psychedelics or calling for continued...criminalization: I’m calling for more honesty about the implications of putting psychedelics in the hands of therapists." @Mad_In_America

Tweet card media

Ending The Silence Around Psychedelic Therapy Abuse

All the new hype about miracle psychedelic treatments as the next wave of cures for mental disorders leaves out the risk of therapy abuse.

www.madinamerica.com

14

42

116

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I got 300 new followers on here since #Wonderbanned unfolded last week. The decision by psychedelic conference (trade show) #WonderlandMiami to ban critical academics and journalists ended up shining a spotlight on corporadelia's tactics & priorities.

6

8

111

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

The "Psychedelic Capitalism" special issue of the journal History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals is live:

Tweet media one

5

28

110

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

@ContraPoints The New Yorker was one of the few places that acknowledged the reactionary strains: "Tár is a regressive film that takes bitter aim at so-called cancel culture... [It] is a useful reminder of the connection between regressive ideas & regressive aesthetics"

Tweet card media

“Tár,” Reviewed: Regressive Ideas to Match Regressive Aesthetics

Starring Cate Blanchett as a conductor accused of misconduct, the film takes bitter aim at so-called cancel culture.

www.newyorker.com

3

0

111

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

TESCREALism is so dangerous because it superficially appears to align w/ genuinely prosocial & pro-environmental orientations towards the future, seeming to echo the widespread Indigenous principles of conservation & mutualism known collectively as the Honorable Harvest. /12

2

22

106

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

We should learn from @rushkoff ’s analysis of how capitalism dashed utopian hopes for the early internet. While the AI & psychedelics industries are still nascent, the same utopian hype is desensitizing people from noticing how elite decisions are optimizing both for profit. /15

1

14

104

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

In convo w/ Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO, psychedelics investor & TESCREAList), Joe Rogan repeats the counterfactual claim that we could stop war by giving everyone MDMA. Sam: "I think if you could get everyone on Earth to…do molly…on the same day, that would be a tremendous thing."

25

17

102

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

If we want AI and psychedelics to be used as forces for healing, connection, and expression, now is the time to name—and resist—the corporate takeover of both industries, because we might not get a second chance. /16

2

26

104

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Rather than addressing the systemic drivers of these interrelated problems, major funders are explicitly building the psychedelics industry to extract wealth for ever-widening inequality, propelled by an elitist worldview that is widely-held in Silicon Valley. /7

1

18

103

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

The intersection of #psychedelic studies with critique is not endangering the field. Good critique is not a threat to research; critique *is* smart, thoughtful research. Analysis that interrogates the status quo advances the field. It deserves to be here as much as the science.✌️

5

19

99

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

This presentation was a life highlight; I'd never before experienced such a warm reception to my critical work from so many people. "Psychedelic Billionaires: Healing in an Age of Inequality" from Harvard Medical School's conference on psychedelic therapy.

Tweet card media

Psychedelic Billionaires: Healing in an Age of Inequality (Harvard...

To follow Neşe's work, subscribe to their free Chemical Poetics substack: https://chemicalpoetics.substack.comThis presentation — originally titled "Psychede...

www.youtube.com

10

25

99

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 month

Informed by new evidence of systematic data fraud at MAPS PBC, we wrote a petition calling for the FDA to schedule an open advisory committee meeting on Lykos’ application for MDMA-assisted therapy that prioritizes contributions from all stakeholders: /1

Tweet card media

Petition for the FDA to Convene an Open Advisory Committee Meeting to Hear Concerns on MDMA-Assis...

We, the undersigned, call for the FDA to schedule an open advisory committee meeting on Lykos’ application for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. It is imperative that this meeting prioritizes contrib...

docs.google.com

16

37

96

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Although industry insiders position psychedelics as solutions for civilizational threats including political polarization, the rise of fascism, environmental degradation & increasing rates of mental illness, all of these problems are associated w/ rising inequality in society. /6

1

15

94

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

The backbone of this worldview is the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies—an acronym coined by the critical AI scholars @xriskology & @timnitGebru to describe an interrelated cluster of belief systems, linking transhumanism to Effective Altruism & longtermism /8

Tweet card media

TESCREALism: The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmares

To understand the divide between AI boosters and doomers, one must unpack their common origins in a bundle of ideologies known as TESCREAL.

www.truthdig.com

1

18

93

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

A reminder that psychedelic (& psychedelic-adjacent) experiences of 'ego dissolution' and interconnection can easily be interpreted as confirmations of hierarchy, as @brian_pace & I discussed here in relation to fascism and authoritarianism:

Tweet card media

Frontiers | Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency

Recent media advocacy for the nascent psychedelic medicine industry has emphasized the potential for psychedelics to improve society, pointing to research st...

www.frontiersin.org

3

21

89

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

Between @Truthdig & @nytimes , it's a pretty devastating media day for the psychedelics industry & its standard narratives. We're overdue for attending to the critical counter-narratives & for lifting up all of the critical voices who'd been sidelined for seeing all of this coming

7

23

92

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

The presence of these parallels is understandable given their underlying affinities, like two blooms from one plant: the same Silicon Valley forces are developing both as cultivars in their own image, selecting for desired traits that further the existing socioeconomic order. /5

3

10

88

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

"Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency," my article with @brian_pace , is published open access on Frontiers in Psychology! tl;dr: Experiences of interconnection are compatible w/ hierarchy-based worldviews.

Tweet media one

5

21

88

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I'm interpreting the interest in this tweet as a rejection of Michael Pollan's insistence that people require hierarchical structures and trained medical supervision to safely access psychedelics. Going forward, I don't think younger generations are going to buy into that logic.

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

“Allowing people to have [psychedelic] experiences in the woods with their friends, with people who are close to them, to have meaningful, community-building experiences… That is extremely important & should have never been taken away in the first place.”

7

75

457

11

6

88

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

I've never seen #psilocybin trending before.

Tweet media one

8

7

87

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

I just learned that our 2023 Viewpoint was the most-cited article last year in all of JAMA Psychiatry. As an intervention in the psychedelic research field, it called for studying the harms associated with psychedelic therapy & became a standard reference.

Tweet card media

JAMA Psychiatry—The Year in Review, 2023

JAMA Psychiatry saw a post–COVID-19 pandemic period of steady growth and impact in 2023. Our editorial team worked hard to maintain high standards, stay abreast of developments in the field, and...

jamanetwork.com

7

16

87

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Ironically, two of the people banned from #WonderlandMiami were also featured in Lucid News @lucidnewssite this week as "women...at the forefront of modern psychedelic culture," specifically for advancing critical & underrepresented ideas in the field. @Psymposia @LilyKayRoss

Tweet media one

5

19

83

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 years

Huge news for me & @brian_pace ! Our 12k-word manuscript on "Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency" was officially accepted to Frontiers in Psychology, & features major themes from our research at @psymposia

Tweet media one

6

21

81

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Any genuinely prosocial applications of AI or psychedelics will depend on collective resistance to their conscription by neoliberalism & colonialism, beyond the hubristic fantasies of tech elites. The alternative is complicity in their use as technologies of elite persuasion. /20

5

12

79

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Wednesday nights 7 PM-9 PM EST, I've started teaching the world's first (AFAIK!) university course dedicated to Psychedelic Bioethics at The Ohio State University. 🍄

Tweet media one

9

17

81

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

In parallel to AI, corporations are now building the infrastructure for a global psychedelics industry. We must be vigilant about the possibility that harmful, untested norms and assumptions could get baked in at this early stage. /17

2

13

78

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

In case it's not already clear that many leading figures in the psychedelics field are comfortable associating with an outspoken and relentless transphobe. Net-zero trauma when?

@jordanbpeterson

Dr Jordan B Peterson

@jordanbpeterson

1 year

And it's not a vagina. It's a hole for another man to f**k. And that's that.

2K

1K

19K

21

11

78

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

Driven by these ideologies, leading figures in both the psychedelics and AI industries are justifying the rapid expansion of these fields by claiming to offer solutions to the precise harms that their nascent systems are designed to actively perpetuate. /10

2

20

76

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

With both AI (stochastic parrots) & psychedelics (non-specific amplifiers), echoes and reflections of the status quo of power relations could seem like evidence about the fundamental nature of reality, which would undermine their utility as tools for healing and liberation. /19

1

9

75

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I'm heading to England for Breaking Convention @breakingcon to give 2 talks, thanks to a Source Research Foundation travel grant! #1 : "Psychedelic Identity Shift: Applications of Literary Close Reading for Qualitative Research" #2 : "You Can Be Both Pro-Psychedelics & Anti-Hype"

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

6

3

76

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

These contradictions have flown under the radar. I wrote this paper to emphasize how the rhetorics of healing and intergenerational benefit are obscuring the extent to which different perspectives cannot actually coexist within the “big tent” of the psychedelics industry. /11

1

7

74

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

I chose to go to a neuroethics conference to warn that field about the dangers of psychedelic medicine if controlled by the wrong hands. Once more outsiders find out what's happening w/ the psychedelics industry, it won't matter that critical thinkers are kept out of these events

@HeadTwitchMemes

Head Twitch Memes

@HeadTwitchMemes

2 years

Welcome to Miami (Will Smith, 1997) Unless you're a persona non grata, that is. Mr. Mouse is wondering, which member of the Microdose team made a macro misstep by leaving this "BANNED FROM ALL EVENTS" sheet out for all to see? - Mr. Mouse #WonderlandMiami

Tweet media one

17

13

76

6

17

74

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

If those of us who care about psychedelics don't talk about risks & harms, then we're leaving it to the prohibitionists to bring up these inevitable conversations. That looks incredibly bad, & it will only be used as ammunition against reform. People will get hurt along the way.

@JulesEvans11

Jules Evans

1 year

A leading psychedelic lawyer - from the firm who drafted the Oregon 109 law - says we should focus on the positive, on stories of miracle cures. Any mention of harm or risk is fear-mongering. Any accidents were not drug-related.

Tweet media one

14

2

28

8

8

68

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

"a culture clash is now developing between social justice activists who fought for the legalisation of psychedelics and wealthy white men, often new to the drugs, who have the resources to dominate an emerging industry."

Tweet card media

‘This isn’t the 60s again’: psychedelics business takes off amid culture clash

Experts fear if psychedelics fall exclusively into the hands of big pharma the industry will follow the same path as legal marijuana, making the rich richer

www.theguardian.com

5

28

73

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

"Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis" by @JDaviesPhD provides a manual for the current landscape of psychedelic capitalism & its ideology of neoliberal wellness. We hope he considers joining us for @Psychedemia 2022!

Tweet media one

8

21

74

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Essential reading: "While skimping on therapy [with #psychedelic medicine] is the easiest way to cut costs (time with qualified professionals is expensive), the quality of the therapy is not just an important factor—it is the most important factor."

9

14

70

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

If tech elites control the infrastructure for global access to these tools, the encoding of normative ideologies in AI’s datasets & in psychedelics' therapeutic protocols could have far-reaching implications, influencing beliefs & expectations to align w/ their interests. /18

2

6

68

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

A thread summarizing & responding to our ban from the #WonderlandMiami psychedelics conference. We are a group of critical scholars and journalists w/ decades of experience in the field between us. We will continue to investigate the intersection of psychedelics w/ money & power.

@psymposia

Psymposia

2 years

#Wonderbanned : Dr. Joseph Lichter addresses the decision by #WonderlandMiami organizers @MicrodoseHQ to secretly ban academics and journalists with diverging views, saying this “is not a responsible way forward in the psychedelic space.” 1/11

7

36

139

3

17

68

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

I joined the cohort of Affiliated Researchers at Harvard Law @PetrieFlom Center's Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR):

Tweet media one

8

6

69

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 years

"Don’t believe Big Tech when they tell you you need their weightless bean bag chairs and offices filled with shrubbery and medical validation. You deserve to take drugs on the beach with your friends, just like they did."

Tweet card media

Big Tech's Psychedelics Grift

There's no need for expensive clinics with woo accoutrements—real transformation means access for all.

3

21

69

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

My comparative book review of High Weirdness by Erik Davis @erik_davis & High Culture by Christopher Partridge is online! Tl;dr: Since anomalous psychedelic experiences often behave like texts, religious studies should co-develop w/ literary studies.

Tweet media one

3

12

64

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

Ppl are allowed to have personal preferences, but we're under no obligation to believe overnight 'experts' who claim that paying for their services are the only legitimate form of psychedelic access, & that all non-guided forms of community access are fundamentally irresponsible.

5

11

67

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Call for Papers on Psychedelic Capitalism! Edited by @LucRichert , guest edited by @brian_pace & me.🍄 "The aim...is to contribute to critical discussions around relatively underexplored socio-economic, business, and capitalist histories of psychedelics."

Tweet card media

Call for Papers: Psychedelic Capitalism: From Forest Retreat to Fortune 500 and Pharmacies

History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, the official journal of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP), is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue: “Psychedelic…

uwpress.wisc.edu

6

29

62

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

This Vogue article is a telephone game of "psychedelic experts" (read: mostly corporate MDs) parroting talking points overheard from MAPS, Pollan, RCH, etc. Resets, inner healers, root causes—all the old metaphors presented as facts. It's marketing.

Tweet card media

Can Psilocybin Challenge Our Pharmaceutical Dependence?

The collective attitude about psilocybin mushrooms has shifted dramatically. Here’s why the psychedelic substance is becoming a breakthrough treatment for mental health.

3

9

62

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Hi friends, I could use some help getting the word out about this conference! The Psychedemia #psychedelics conference will be coming back after 10 years this August—if we can sell 100 tickets by May 11 at the early bird rate!

3

36

63

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I asked ChatGPT: "Why is the psychedelics field so resistant to critique?" tldr: People view criticism as an attack on deeply-held beliefs, or as a threat to the push for destigmatization. But constructive criticism is necessary for the advancement of science & patient safety.

Tweet media one

6

8

65

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

"I am a philosopher who has taken an interest, of late, in psychedelic experimentation, and I find that my experiments have significantly widened the range of accounts of the nature of reality that I am disposed to take seriously."

Tweet card media

This Is a Philosopher on Drugs

I was at the lowest point in my life. I needed a mind-altering jolt. In the end, everything—even the meaning of “everything”—changed.

6

13

66

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 months

A "Critical Psychedelic Studies" symposium at @PetrieFlom 's "Bill of Health" is the 1st major psychedelic humanities project to launch at Harvard University since it received a $16 million grant. I describe the field's "critical turn" in this introduction.

Introductory Editorial — Critical Psychedelic Studies: Correcting the Hype - Bill of Health

As we move past a phase of “partial eclipse” by psychedelic hype, this critical field is finally well-situated to explore the full spectrum of psychedelic effects.

blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu

8

26

62

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

In my field, it's common to hear that we just need to get ayahuasca to Putin & Trump, or MDMA to Israelis & Palestinians, to put an end to genocides & wars. This logic creates a sense of urgency to scale the psychedelics industry as fast as possible, but it's not a real solution.

Tweet media one

11

8

59

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

🙃

Tweet media one

11

1

63

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Bia Labate's silence around the Wonderland ban list tracks w/ her past behavior, if not her words. She admitted to seeking to limit my professional opportunities & sought to erase my & others' contributions to the field, after we spoke about her behavior.

@SashaSisko

Sasha Sisko 🏳️‍⚧️

1 year

@NeseLSD @PSYC_Spot @Chacruna_Inst @MicrodoseHQ @LabateBia Posted without comment. Bia Labate, Ph.D.: "How can I better serve this cause? What can I do to help empower marginalized people and people that are excluded? What are the voices that are being left out? How can I put my power & privilege in service for those [people]?" 🤔

1

0

2

2

16

58

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Psymposia wrote an open letter in response to John Oliver's @LastWeekTonight episode on Psychedelic Assisted Therapy: "We know they knew about these issues, because we told them."

Tweet card media

An open letter in response to John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight episode on Psychedelic Assisted...

Last Week Tonight joined a long and growing list of media outlets that have added fuel to the hype of psychedelic medicalization. By omitting the potential risks and actual harms associated with...

www.psymposia.com

4

19

58

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

6 months

"Billionaires appear to understand…civilians as impediments to…progress, necessary victims of the externalities of their companies’ growth, sad artefacts of the civilisation they will leave behind in their inexorable colonisation of the next dimension."

Tweet card media

‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros

Challenging each other to cage fights, building apocalypse bunkers – the behaviour of today’s mega-moguls is becoming increasingly outlandish and imperial

www.theguardian.com

4

23

61

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

@hilaryagro After I wrote essays on "Coming Out of the Psychedelic Closet," I realized that a lot of what I was saying about being a "psychedelic person" was actually bound up with neurodivergence. Psychedelics addressed my debilitating OCD & social anxiety, which I later connected to ND.

4

2

62

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

When Jordan Peterson talks about a psychedelic future of religion, we should be clear-eyed about who and what that entails. #RightWingPsychedelia

Tweet card media

New Jordan Peterson Series, ‘Exodus,’ Premieres On DailyWire+

www.dailywire.com

6

11

55

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

"Now, MAPS’s founder calls for military recruits to be dosed [with MDMA] upon enlistment.... [Rick] Doblin then suggested dosing new recruits with MDMA could help create more efficient soldiers."

Tweet card media

MAPS Founder Rick Doblin Wants To Dose Soldiers With Ecstasy

The pioneer of MDMA therapy advocates for dosing soldiers upon enlistment.

www.truthdig.com

25

15

61

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

Mad in America covered our "Beyond the Psychedelic Hype" paper: "neoliberalism individualizes mental distress in a way that cannot meaningfully address the social determinants of mental health: inequality, ecological collapse, and exploitation." @JDaviesPhD @brian_pace

@Mad_In_America

Mad In America

@Mad_In_America

7 months

The intertwining of the #psychedelics movement with #neoliberalism may undermine its potential as a #mentalhealth solution. Research from @JDaviesPhD #psychiatry #psychology

1

3

21

2

20

58

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

In light of recent (non-) revelations about Ben Sessa, I'm re-sharing this thread of quotes by @willhall about the widespread issue of psychedelic therapy abuse.

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 years

"by raising an alarm about therapy abuse, I’m not exaggerating the dangers of psychedelics or calling for continued...criminalization: I’m calling for more honesty about the implications of putting psychedelics in the hands of therapists." @Mad_In_America

14

42

116

2

16

59

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

@DaniScotchIrish @IwriteOK That fits with a pattern of abusers hurting themselves in their attempt to harm a victim, and then becoming enraged at the victim for "causing" that injury, which leads to an escalation of the abuse.

1

0

60

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Our new Viewpoint paper was released today in JAMA Psychiatry, titled "Studying Harms Is Key to Improving Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy—Participants Call for Changes to Research Landscape." It was an honor to work alongside two former clinical trial participants!

3

15

56

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

TREAT is a CA ballot initiative to lead the corporate psychedelics industry w/ public funds, run by a transhumanist (per @JulesEvans11 ). Sam Harris' wife describes it in grandiose terms as "likely the most important opportunity for humanity to come along in my lifetime" #TESCREAL

Tweet media one

@annakaharris

Annaka Harris

7 months

This is likely the most important opportunity for humanity to come along in my lifetime. Thank you @TREATCalifornia , @RCarhartHarris , and @MakingSenseHQ !!

23

43

341

15

13

55

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

In this first 15 mins of his conversation w/ Jordan Peterson, psychedelic researcher Robin Carhart-Harris implicitly lends credence to JP's ideas about the natural patriarchal order of society, if you connect the dots between what JP says here & elsewhere.

Tweet card media

Consciousness, Chaos, and Order | Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris | EP 314

Dr Jordan B Peterson and Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris delve into the world of psychedelic research, their utility in therapy, and the impact they can have on neu...

www.youtube.com

5

9

51

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

15 days

I was reminded of how many people in the psychedelic field's "growing minority" (borrowing words from @msmacb ) traversed the MAPS-supporter-to-concerned-FDA-petitioner pipeline, as years of experience revealed multiple red flags:

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

@SashaSisko This is me volunteering for MAPS in 2011. I learned a lot in the following decade.

Tweet media one

2

0

13

7

6

53

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Question for #PsychedelicTwitter : Does anyone know of any sources where Rick Doblin of MAPS elaborates on what he means by "mass mental health" or "net-zero trauma"? He uses these slogans a lot, but no one seems to ask what he means or what that looks like in practical terms.

16

5

49

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

3 years

Published today! "Psychedelic medicalization, public discourse, and the morality of ego dissolution" A critical look at #psychedelic medicalization and "ego dissolution" from the vantage of neoliberal capitalism.

Tweet card media

Psychedelic medicalization, public discourse, and the morality of ego dissolution - Alex K Gearin,...

Emerging from a diverse and long history of shamanic and religious cultural practices, psychedelic substances are increasingly being foregrounded as medicines b...

journals.sagepub.com

3

11

50

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Philly's Theorizing Psychedelics group, which began in 2010, was one of the first Psychedelic Societies (globally!) to form during the 21st-century psychedelic resurgence. This picture was from our meeting 10 years ago, on January 27, 2013. #FindTheOthers

Tweet media one

3

2

50

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

6 months

This is a really dark & important account of what can go wrong when a psychedelic cult markets retreats under the pretense of healing. From @JulesEvans11 :

Tweet card media

Sowilo: what happens when a psychedelic retreat turns into a cult

The only centre to be booted off Retreat Guru

www.ecstaticintegration.org

5

8

47

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 months

I wrote about the clear contrast on SXSW's psychedelic track between the dominant narratives of psychedelic medicalization & the more exciting & nuanced perspectives that medicalization discourse seeks to obscure. "Counter-Narratives for the Psychedelic Status Quo" - link in bio.

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

4

21

51

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

6 months

Alan Piper laid the groundwork for our research on right-wing psychedelia & corporadelics. This talk is definitely worth checking out.

Tweet card media

Psychedelics, Transgression, and the Capitalist Takeover, with Alan Piper

Historian Alan Piper discusses whether psychedelics, once commodified, will lose their ‘subversive mojo’.

www.eventbrite.com

@Tzanjo

Alan Piper

6 months

Founders of psychedelic startups and developers of psychedelic assisted therapies want nothing to do with decriminalisation and be sceptical of the use of psychedelics outside a clinic. They even want to take the trip out of tripping and develop non-hallucinogenic psychedelics.

Tweet media one

16

7

52

5

13

49

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

8 months

For my previous work on psychedelic capitalism, see this 🧵on "Dark Side of the Shroom: Erasing Indigenous and Counterculture Wisdoms with Psychedelic Capitalism, and the Open Source Alternative":

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Published today: "Dark Side of the Shroom: Erasing Indigenous and Counterculture Wisdoms with Psychedelic Capitalism, and the Open Source Alternative," which I wrote last year with Richard Doyle (author of "Darwin's Pharmacy") & Trey Conner. A thread 🧵 /1

9

54

217

1

6

46

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

After UC News ran a few features about my work, I got a flood of messages from students at UCincinnati who're interested in psychedelic research, so I connected them to each other. They just told me their psychedelic student club is now recognized and funded by the university. 🥹

6

4

47

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

The very DMT-looking illustration is by Jim Stoten, presumably of Peter Mark Roget from the Romantic nitrous circle, for a 2022 article titled "Did inhaling nitrous oxide - and glimpsing madness - inspire Roget's Thesaurus?" (The answer is likely yes.)🎈📕

Tweet card media

Did inhaling nitrous oxide — and glimpsing madness — inspire Roget’s Thesaurus?

Peter Mark Roget knew that if we’re to understand the world around us, we need to be able to name it

1

9

47

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

A new piece written w/ former clinical trial participants & ethicists! We urge a precautionary approach to touch in #psychedelic -assisted therapy, given the need to develop best practices that prevent harm in treatments targeted for vulnerable populations.

A Precautionary Approach to Touch in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy - Bill of Health

A spate of recent exposés have detailed the proliferation of abuse in psychedelic therapy, underscoring the urgent need for ethical guidance.

blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu

1

12

45

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

7 months

"A B.C. psychiatrist has permanently relinquished her medical licence in response to a complaint about her treatment of a PTSD patient…in a [MAPS] clinical trial for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy" that involved "conflict of interest and boundary violations"

Tweet card media

B.C. psychiatrist resigns licence after patient complains of abuse during psychedelic therapy study...

A B.C. psychiatrist has permanently relinquished her medical licence in response to a complaint about her treatment of a PTSD patient taking part in a clinical trial for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy,...

8

13

42

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

I found my (nervous!) introduction to the psychedelics field in 2010, at a Horizons Q&A: "I'm a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and I study culture and psychedelics from a philosophical perspective…" I asked for book recommendations for a new university group.

6

3

46

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

This is a wild article. Lots of counterculture bashing, with Rick Doblin maligning Timothy Leary for "saying ‘question authority, think for yourself'." And yet it ends with an enthused undergrad freshman (& vet) "organiz[ing] a DMT ceremony off-campus."

Tweet card media

At Harvard, Psychedelic Drugs' Tentative Renaissance | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

At Harvard, Psychedelic Drugs' Tentative Renaissance | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

www.thecrimson.com

4

7

44

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Essential reading from @RussellHausfeld on MAPS's history of instrumentalizing veterans to advance its mission of "mass mental health" through psychedelics: "Veterans who trusted MAPS with their trauma have made allegations of manipulation and deceit."

Tweet card media

Part II: Who’s Researching the Researchers? - Truthdig

An investigation into the lived experiences of veterans recruited for drug research and the allegations of manipulation on the part of MAPS.

www.truthdig.com

3

17

44

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

n.b. psychedelic studies: "unequal social conditions produce an unequal circulation of ideas, enabling some intellectual positions to assume preeminence…not because of their truth value, but because of their…compatibility w/ ascendant structures of the dominant economic system"

3

6

43

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

1 year

Continuing connections of Jordan Peterson with psychedelic researchers. #RightWingPsychedelia

Tweet media one

@NeseLSD

Neşe Devenot, PhD 🍉 (@NeseLSD.bsky.social)

2 years

Jordan Peterson reiterates a profound interest in psychedelic medicine in this new interview. It ends w/ a segment discussing "flattening the [energy] landscape," alluding to @singletonion 's recent paper, & JP asks to be connected to Robin Carhart-Harris.

4

3

19

3

5

42