While COMPASS has issued a response defending the validity of its patents, one of the co-inventors says the patent examiner’s opinion is probably “a valid one.”

The Third Wave copied information from Psychedelic.Support and MAPS Integration List without permission to use for its own directory.

In response to Psymposia's reporting on outgoing MAPS Canada Executive Director Mark Haden's resignation following a year full of controversies, Haden published a statement entitled “Clarifying Misinformation” that was full of misinformation and factual inaccuracies. In the following article, we set the record straight.

News that COMPASS Pathways is attempting to patent psychedelic therapy room specifications and therapist behaviors started an online firestorm about the company’s “monopolistic and shady behaviors,” but so far the debates have missed the biggest threats lurking in COMPASS’s international patent applications.

Through candid interviews with modern psychedelic researchers, Danielle Giffort’s "Acid Revival" presents a profession obsessed with how it is perceived by mainstream audiences and desperate not to repeat the “mistakes” of the 1960s.

During a Psymposia investigation into the alarming 5-MeO-DMT practices of Dr. Martin Ball, Mark Haden announced his resignation from MAPS Canada.

On January 6th, 2021 at least two psychedelic heads stormed the United States Capitol. Strange as it may seem, those adhering to right-wing politics haven’t just established a beachhead in the psychedelic renaissance—they’re maneuvering to own it.

The Castalia Foundation — originally founded in part by Timothy Leary — "resurfaced" in 2020 with anti-mask content, praise for Donald Trump, and paranoid discussion around the sexual abuse of children. 

Jake Angeli's tattoos provide a lens into how fascists and white supremacists have appropriated aspects of Pagan/Heathen culture and spirituality.

Capitol insurrectionist Jake Angeli is a self-appointed psychedelic guru who has opined about the urgent need for psychedelic shamanism to heal the world’s biggest problems.

The Psymposia staff reflects on some of the books that kept us company throughout 2020, which we'd like to recommend to our readers for 2021. The list includes works of intersectional analysis, psychedelic history, surveillance capitalism, and more. We hope you appreciate these insights as much as we do.

Weeoo weeoo livestream alert for Thursday, December 17th at 8PM ET!!. Last time we popped bottles and jammed in the comments - come hang out with us again for some reflections on 2020.

Christopher Valore discusses his love of virtual reality; the early days of his company, Club Transcendia; and development of his first official release, “Conductor.”

Thea Riofrancos is a political scientist whose research has focused on political conflict related to extraction, energy, and infrastructure in a rapidly warming and politically unstable world. She also serves on the steering committee for Democratic Socialists of America for a Green New Deal.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it spotlights a number of psychedelic pharmaceutical companies and executives with ties to extractive industry.

Extractive industry is highly speculative by nature and firms are risk tolerant—they either “strike gold” or they don’t. When their gambles fail, psychedelic startups can take over their corporate shells to quickly go public with minimal regulatory scrutiny.

A mining firm’s conflict with Argentinian communities illustrates extractive industry’s practices and values, and raises questions about how these corporate approaches will translate into the psychedelic pharmaceutical industry.

Canadian mining and exploration company AIS has had a number of executives move on to found psychedelic pharmaceutical businesses. Why? Because psychedelics are where the money’s at.

The following is an open letter by two former co-leads of the MAPS Canada Diversity Committee. It was written in response to a variety of racist and prejudicial behaviours they experienced from MAPS Canada leadership and the organization at large during their eight-month tenure as unpaid volunteers, including obstruction—by leadership—of their efforts to address long-entrenched discriminatory practices in the psychedelic research domain and to implement initiatives to combat race-based health disparities.

When the media republishes statements from psychedelic pharmaceutical startups and their executives with little-to-no vetting, it functions as a corporate megaphone and damages the field of psychedelic science.