Consider the Conditions: Growing a Psychedelic Ecosystem

States of consciousness are dimensional, and as professionals, we’re learning to integrate personal journeys into everyday life, including the workplace. Navigating the challenges of our times requires self awareness and collective capacities to evolve our social fabric, to better cope with existentialism and an inherently interconnected world. As technology allows for advances in society, cultivating inner and collective aptitudes also allows for growth in social consciousness. Just as digital technologies are widening our scope of possibilities, so too can social technologies that widen our ways of being and belonging.

We have an opportunity to practice these ways as the industry matures. There are somatic, behavioral, and even ancestrally informed manners of working that lead to more meaningful and fulfilling workplace cultures. In creating a safe and responsible professional psychedelic space it is essential to explicitly define cultural values and grow abilities to align behaviors with values. Collaboration, conversation, and listening sessions with diverse stakeholders, including Indigenous groups and cultural stewards, are key catalysts to shaping a values-driven industry. Ethical Principles of Traditional Indigenous Medicine to guide western psychedelic research and practice outlines how institutions that research, practice and capitalize on psychedelic work have a responsibility to acknowledge and include Indigenous support in governance actions and behaviors. Despite economic profits expected to grow to $6.85 billion by 2027, there is little evidence of any health or economic return to Indigenous communities. However, leverage points for change are within the power of entrepreneurs and leaders of emerging psychedelic companies. Values-aligned structures of ownership and governance, and models of mutual benefit can become operating standards, along with the explicit acknowledgment of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These arrangements will require deep dialogue, and a willingness to embrace diverse ways of being for a new kind of business culture that operates with kinship and integrity.

To design companies that prioritize care, it is important to understand the structural and cultural positions that drive systemic change in terms of ownership, decision-making, company culture, and team dynamics. As we look ahead to 2023, our ecosystem should focus on investing in social infrastructure and systems of support to reduce harm and ensure availability, affordability, and viability for all stakeholders, especially prioritizing support for practitioners. It is essential to center this work on meaningful connections within ourselves and within communities to create a safe environment that opens ourselves to the awe, joy, and beauty this world provides.