Psychedelic-Climate Week launched in Manhattan on September 17. Timed to run alongside the annual Climate Week NYC, with most events taking place from September 19-29, it’s a presentation of lectures and discussions exploring the intersections of psychedelics and climate action. Activists, artists, researchers and other experts are participating.
The urgent need for climate action is indisputable, when 2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 may be even worse. The rapid growth of the climate justice movement reflects this.
Meanwhile, the psychedelic movement has had significant successes in recent years, as dozens of cities nationwide have decriminalized possession, while two states have legalized psychedelics for limited adult use.
But in what ways do the aims of these two movements overlap? And what might they learn from each other?
To find out more, I spoke with two prominent speakers at Psychedelic-Climate Week. Bennet Zelner, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Business, whose research has focused on intersections of regenerative economics, leadership and psychedelics. Aaron Genuth is the founder of the Jewish psychedelic nonprofit Darkhei Rephua, and a cofounder of Decriminalize Nature NYC. Our interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Alexander Lekhtman: What is it about psychedelic advocacy that suggests synergy with the climate movement?
Aaron Genuth: The first that comes to mind where there is a natural alignment is in the psychedelic experience. During the experience I had when I was young and in the aftermath, I developed a connection to life, nature, and fellow living beings. That’s not universal to the psychedelic experience but it’s familiar and resonant to many people.
There is an organic connection that addresses what I think is lacking from some elements of advocacy and activism. Albert Hoffman, who created LSD, said one of the primary things we must address is a spiritual crisis of disconnection from each other, systems of power, from our selves. Psychedelics can help facilitate or encourage those experiences; that level of connection to where we need to get active on an environmental front is necessary.
On a policy level, people are realizing that despite the science, research, and justice principles pointing in the same direction for psychedelic and environmental [issues], we’re seeing the parties and people in positions of power to make drastic change refusing to act. There needs to be a way for people to get more involved and have a chance to positively impact what many see as inevitable environmental collapse.
“Decrim Nature’s method of establishing clear and simple policy priorities and bringing that to cities and towns is a great model for addressing environmental and climate policy.”
AL: How might some of your specific work with Decriminalize Nature translate to the climate movement?
Aaron Genuth: What I found inspiring about Decriminalize Nature is it’s very grassroots and decentralized, while maintaining core policy principles that have in a very short time allowed for more access to psychedelics, and a conversation about ways to address them that don’t involve criminalization.
Decrim Nature took a very direct path of creating a resolution that addresses exactly the group’s priority, and establishing it in such a way that people could launch groups with little-to-no money. Concerned citizens with positive experiences with psychedelics have a resolution that’s ready to be presented and voted on, [which] they can bring to any municipality and have the support of people around the country.
Decrim Nature’s method of establishing clear and simple policy priorities and bringing that to local cities and towns is a great model for addressing environmental and climate policy. If local towns would address the more harmful effects of the environmental crisis—which can include plastic production and waste, composting, forever chemicals—there will be a template that encourages people to get involved in politics.
AL: How much opportunity do you see for both movements to initiate profound changes at the federal level?
AG: I’m not the most optimistic about working on the federal level—I and many others thought it would always be a matter of time before cannabis policy changed federally, and then watched as that didn’t happen.
The path to creating change means building strong grassroots, as there’s more nodes of different groups working on the same issues or in parallel, and there’s an organic intersection. There’s now more cities that have decriminalized psychedelics and there’s groups working towards state-level change. That’s building, and we can hopefully take things from that level to a critical mass.
“If you accept that a shift in consciousness might help us, the question becomes how? There’s not one answer, but psychedelics are one route.”
AL: Can you tell us how you frame the goals of bringing together psychedelic and climate advocates?
Bennet Zelner: There is widespread recognition we are in a climate crisis. The talk of how to address it focuses on changing policy and business practices. That work is valuable, and at the same time I don’t think it will move the needle. Changing policies and practices are patches that don’t address the core problem. The core is the extractive pattern of our economic system. It’s a system that focuses on extracting all resources from bottom to top at the expense of overall wellbeing. We’re seeing the symptoms of that not just in the climate crisis but in economic inequality, the breakdown of social systems and political upheaval.
The foundational cultural myth that enables this is disconnection—the myth that we are disconnected from each other, and from nature, and this disconnects us from ourselves. If we want to address climate change and these intertwined crises, we have to address the underlying belief system.
If you accept that a shift in consciousness might help us, the question becomes how? There’s not one answer, but psychedelics are one route to helping people shift consciousness. If you look at clinical research on the use of psilocybin to treat depression, one of the primary channels in which psilocybin leads to reduction in clinical symptoms and improvements in wellbeing is by helping people reconnect themselves to others and the wider world. We have this evidence that psychedelics are capable of helping people reconnect. If more people embody this connected way of being, this is one route to addressing the climate crisis.
AL: How would positive individual outcomes of this kind translate to organizing and action?
BZ: It seems daunting if we think we have to get 100 percent of society to change the way they orient to the world; that’s a huge task. But if you look at models of social network dynamics, you don’t need to reach 100 percent for an idea to spread. If a new idea reaches about 20-25 percent of the population, there is a tipping point and it spreads exponentially. In terms of social change, the target is more 20-25 percent.
“I’m working on a study that examines whether and how psychedelics can lead to perspective shifts in organizational decision-makers.”
AL: You’re describing psychedelics as a means of getting people to think more communally, in terms of what would most benefit the whole world. How realistic is that?
BZ: Psychedelics are a “non-specific amplifier.” The classic example is narcissim. There are documented cases of narcissists taking psychedelics and doubling down. Psychedelics are not a panacea, [that we should] give to everyone and they will magically become peaceful and inclusive and loving. But psychedelics when given in the right set and setting, and there is some screening, have the potential for a lot of people to result in this kind of change.
I’m working on a study, called the Connected Leadership Program, that examines whether and how psychedelics can lead to perspective shifts in organizational decision-makers. We have cohorts of up to 14 people over four months. There is a psychedelic retreat and group experience with two psilocybin ceremonies, but surrounded by several months of coaching. It’s an example of creating a container that helps participants feel safe. The coaching style uses several techniques to help people enter deeply expanded states and connect with their core selves. By the time they reach the psychedelic retreat, they have expanded their capacity to access their inner resources.
Photograph of 2014 climate march in New York byy guano via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0