The PSYCHED conference is bringing the global psychedelic community together to break down stigmas, share ideas, and take psychedelic education to the next level.
The PSYCHED 2021, an Exploration of the Psychedelics Ecosystem, is a free, virtual, 10-day, community event running July 6 through July 15 on Social Club TV. The conference features back-to-back lectures, long-form documentaries, and expert panels with more than 100 different speakers including Field Trip co-founder Ronan Levy; “The Father of Microdosing” Dr. James Fadiman; TV personality Jason Silva; enthopharmacologist and research pharmacognosist Dr. Dennis McKenna; and Cosmic Engagement Officer of Dr. Bronner’s brand, David Bronner; to name a few.
Topics touch on every part of the psychedelic ecosystem, and include everything from conscious capitalism, deep diving into microdosing, the mainstreaming of psychedelics, equitable investing in the space, and cooking with psilocybin. The event will be hosted and moderated by representatives from ICEERS, Lucid News, Heroic Hearts Project, Doubleblind, Tabula Rasa Ventures, and others.
Marik Hazan, founder of psychedelic-focused venture capital firm Tabula Rasa Ventures and one of Psychedelicinvest.com’s top 100 most influential people in psychedelics in 2021, envisioned creating a conference that would bring together the global psychedelic community.
“There were so many different voices and so many different perspectives and opinions [in the psychedelic space]. Especially when you have a lot of capital flowing in, things start to get pretty drama-fied,” Hazan tells Psychedelic Spotlight. “I think that the real desire for a conference like this was to try and depolarize, try to build a table where everyone could sit and have conversations knowing that folks will not always agree but knowing that their voices can still be heard. And we can come to better conclusions and solutions together by being able to uncover each other’s blind spots in one way or another.”
In 2020, Hazan teamed up with project management consultant Maya Albert to create an annual psychedelic conference. The first one, held last June, was “scrappy” in Albert’s opinion but still had more than 110 speakers all hosted on a Zoom webinar, “which was an incredible feat to get that many people across the world to show up when they’re actually supposed to,” she tells Psychedelic Spotlight.
“We’ve grown the conference incredibly this year compared to last year,” she says. Hazan’s connections in the psychedelic arena helped bolster the list of speakers. Albert’s handy work in the background helped get the event off the ground. Logistical kinks were worked out for the 2021 event, thanks in part to partnerships with Social Club TV and PSYCHED Studio.
Key tenets of the conference have always been access and availability. The event is free to anyone in the psychedelic community who wants to learn more about psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and more. Hazan and Albert have been footing the bill because the mission is close to their hearts. This year, they have help from sponsors enabling them to increase the production value.
“Not only do we want [the conference] to be educational, but anyone in the world can have access to this at no cost,” Albert says.
To register for PSYCHED 2021, go to register.psyched.co.
