Faculty of Humanities
University of Amsterdam

The Psychedelic Universe: Global Perspectives on Higher Consciousness – Summer School 16-28 June 2024

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Today’s ‘Psychedelic Renaissance’ is haunted by the spectre of religion. On the research front, clinicians, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists are now staking claims within territories previously reserved for religious experts or anthropologists, like the origins of otherworldly visions or the nature of “mystical” experience. Yet, the emerging field of psychedelic science has neglected the deep historical interconnections between psychedelics, culture, and religion across time and space, from pre-history to the present day.

This course, with instructors Dr. J. Christian Greer and Erik Davis, PhD< provides an in-depth exploration of psychedelic consciousness across space, time, and culture. In this two-week summer course, the imbrication of psychedelic drugs and human culture will be analyzed. The course starts by exploring the use of psychoactive substances in the mystery cults of the ancient world, moving across indigenous societies and the major world religions into the postwar hippie culture and the later boom in ayahuasca tourism, finally culminating in today’s “Psychedelic Renaissance”. Join the international community next summer!

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