This Week in Psychedelics 🫠

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the ketamine of newsletters. Every line you consume makes you more euphoric. 🫠

This issue has it all — science, policy, controversy, and 👋 DRAMA 👋. But before we go there, Cyclists, we have an exciting announcement…

Today, we’re rolling out our brand new Referral Program! Mmhmm, we’re rewarding YOU for spreading the word about Tricycle Day.

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1. US Congress reps relaunched a caucus on psychedelic medicine

This week, two members of the House officially relaunched a congressional fan club working group on psychedelics.

Reps Lou Correa, a Democrat from California, and Jack Bergman, a Republican from Michigan, are reaching across the aisle for the second year in a row to co-lead the coalition, which exists to do 2 things.

• Keep the rest of Congress up to speed on the latest info and evidence

• Support increased funding for R&D of psychedelic medicine

This year, the federal lawmakers decided their posse needed a rebrand. So what was once the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Clinical Treatments (PACT) Caucus is now the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus.

Interestingly, they stuck with the word “Caucus” even though it makes everyone immediately think of old white people. Oh, just us?

Anyway, we stan anyone pushing federal psychedelic policy forward. Most of the action so far has happened at the state level, which can only move the needle so far.

Speaking of states, this week psychedelic legislation stalled in Utah (🥲) but advanced in New Mexico and Hawaii (😊).

2. Cybin dropped promising data for its two lead psychedelic drugs in pipeline

Canadian pharma company, Cybin, came out with updates on its two biggest bets in psychedelic therapeutics. So far, both are looking like winners.

Let’s roll the stats.

CYB003 🍄

• A deuterated psilocybin analog

• Experimental oral treatment for Major Depressive Disorder 😢

• Currently in Phase 2a trial

• Interim results showed “meaningful and robust psychedelic effects” with participants “confirming a complete mystical experience was achieved” ✨

CYB004 👽

• A deuterated N,N-DMT molecule

• Experimental intravenous (IV) treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder 😰

• Currently in Phase 1 trial

• Clever trial design will allow Cybin to test CYB004 in healthy volunteers sooner than planned 🏎️💨

Cybin gets to claim IP over these proprietary compounds because they are “deuterated,” which is a fancy way of saying one of the hydrogen atoms has an extra neutron in it.

According to CEO Doug Drysdale, the advantages of deuteration are more convenient dosing and faster-acting treatments, which could improve patient outcomes.

Results for both trials are expected Q3 2023. If things go Cybin’s way, they could be looking at convenient and fast profits, too.

3. Most psychedelic therapists are tripping

A recent survey of psychedelic-assisted therapists found that 88% had tried at least one psychedelic in their lifetime.

Seems obvious, right? You might be surprised.

Believe it or not, there’s been some controversy around whether it’s necessary — or even appropriate — for therapists offering psychedelics to have tripped themselves.

Although limited by a small sample size, the new study confirms that the use of psychedelics by psychedelic therapists is very common, for everything from spiritual growth to plain ol’ curiosity.

Of the 32 survey responders, 3 said they’d tripped over 50 times! Damn, doc.

The jury’s still out, though, on whether having personal experience makes you a more reliable or competent psychedelic therapist.

4. A prominent psilocybin training provider went belly up

Grab your popcorn because this story has more drama than an episode of Perfect Match.

Less than a year ago, Synthesis Institute was poised to lead the future of psychedelic-assisted therapy in Oregon. Today, they’re bankrupt and all operations are shuttered. Here’s how it went down.

• 2018 — Myles Katz co-founds the Synthesis Institute to offer legal psilocybin retreats in the Netherlands.

• June 2020 — Katz’s spidey senses are tingling. He moves to Oregon because it seems like the tides are shifting and new opportunities in the US could be around the corner.

• November 2020 — Oregon voters approve Measure 109, which creates a state-regulated program for licensed psilocybin therapy. Boom.

• June 2021 — Katz goes all in. Synthesis purchases Buckhorn Springs, a 124-acre resort outside Ashland, OR, for $3.6 million as the site for its trainings.

• October 2022 — Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the first students enroll in Synthesis’s psilocybin practitioner training.

• “Early 2023” — Synthesis “reache[s] the end of its financial runway,” according to an email from CEO Rachel Aidan.

• Feb 27, 2023 — Synthesis files for bankruptcy.

• March 1, 2023 — An acquisition deal with an undisclosed buyer falls through. The same day, Synthesis notifies all active students that the jig is up via email.

• March 2, 2023 — Synthesis employees are notified that the company is shutting down.

I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that people who worked for Synthesis found out after the students, or that they all got broken up with over email. Yikes.

Students in Synthesis’s first cohort have already paid upwards of $9k, and the organization is under no obligation to refund fees for instruction already received.

Supposedly a company called Retreat Guru has committed to “find a way to ensure the Psychedelic Practitioner Training Program continues.” In the meantime, true believers are hoping this collapse doesn’t send a shockwave through the already delicate emerging psychedelics industry.

5. Mail-order ketamine clinics will live to see another day

A few weeks ago, we covered the end of the Public Health Emergency declaration and why it had ketamine telehealth clinics biting their nails.

Basically, ever since COVID, health care providers have had a pass on in-person requirements to prescribe controlled drugs. That exemption sprung up a whole industry of direct-to-consumer ketamine providers. But with the public health emergency officially coming to a close, where does that leave all these companies?

Well, the DEA just weighed in. Under new proposed permanent rules:

• New patients would need to see a doc in person to get prescribed ketamine

• Old patients with an established telehealth relationship would be exempt from the in-person requirement

• No patient would would be able to refill more than a 30-day supply without an in-person visit

To the telehealth ketamine clinics, just remember: what doesn’t put you in a k-hole makes you stronger.

• Ketamine is a fast-acting treatment for depression (if you have the money) [LA Times]

• Celebrities Are Speaking Out on Psychedelics [Psychology Today]

• Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Coming Soon To An HR Department Near You [Forbes]

• Falling for Psychedelics [Stanford Magazine]

• Prince Harry Explains Why Psychedelics Are A 'Fundamental' Part Of His Life [Huffington Post]

Ryze Mushroom Coffee — We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Psilocybe ain’t the only magic mushroom in town. This adaptogenic coffee substitute contains California-grown Lion's Mane, Reishi, Shiitake, Turkey Tail, King Trumpet, and Cordyceps to boost your mental and physical wellbeing.

Every subscription comes with a free gratitude and mindfulness app, so you can journal about how thankful you are not to have been zombified by the cordyceps… yet. Get 15% off with code CYCLE15.

Mastering Mindfulness: A Meditation Masterclass — Psychedelics and meditation go together like peanut butter and jelly. Actually, a better analogy is pineapple on pizza. Some people will scoff at the combo, but they’re just missing out.

Whether you’re a seasoned meditator or those virgin cheeks have yet to graze a cushion, this compilation episode of the Rich Roll podcast has all the insight and practical guidance you need to turn your focus inward.

Midnight Gospel — This mind-bending animated series about a dimension-hopping podcaster reached cult-classic status after its release in April 2020. Makes sense… existential questions were probably on a lot of people’s minds circa early COVID. Well, the show still slaps, even if we never got a Season 2.

What led you to participate in your first ayahuasca ceremony?

I was 4 years into my startup, I had just gotten out of a 3-year relationship, and it had become clear to me that what I was doing wasn’t working. To be more specific, I was trying incessantly to control my life in order to be happy.

The end of that relationship was tumultuous enough that it put me over the edge and made me open to trying something society had deemed a “drug.” I was curious about Ayahuasca in particular because many entrepreneurs and other successful people had told me that it had left a lasting change on the way they viewed the world.

The notion of permanently shifting my perspective was really interesting to me because I was able to relate it back to growth.

After your second ayahuasca experience, you went through a “spiritual emergency.” What did that look and feel like? Is that something people curious about psychedelics should be prepared for?

During that second experience, my whole body went into involuntary tremors for 6 hours straight. I could feel the energy moving all around my body, but my mind was blank. It felt like I had lost 10 pounds.

What really put it into the “spiritual emergency” category, though, came weeks later. The involuntary shaking started to happen to me every time I quieted my mind. It would happen 10 to 15 times a day. Other things started happening, too. I would wake up and hear voices or see psychedelic visions when I closed my eyes. I was worried I had developed epilepsy or screwed myself up in some other way. It was all very confusing.

Then, I got a 36-hour brain study done, and the doctors told me everything looked normal and nothing was wrong with me. That set me on a path of exploration to figure out what was really going on with me.

If you’re considering psychedelics, you should be aware that you might see some physical changes. Shifts can happen. I’ve come to see these shifts as amazing gifts in my life, but at the time I just didn’t have the teachers or information around me to make sense of them.

You’ve written about your transition from a type-A success and productivity junkie to someone becoming no one. What does it mean to be nobody?

Before, I had a self-conception around being this person, Scott, who did all these things, needed to be important, and cared a lot about what other people thought of him. I thought of myself as a body and thoughts interacting as a discrete being inside of reality.

To become a nobody means your identification shifts to the awareness of this experience. That awareness is timeless, beyond Scott, beyond any of the labels we’ve taken on for ourselves. And with that shift in identification comes a lot less attachment to things that used to bother you — things like what people think of you or the need to be recognized as important or successful.

That doesn’t mean those things never come up. When those old patterns do get activated, you might fall back into feeling hurt or upset. But each time you return to your awareness, you move closer to sustaining that new identity, which fees safe, blissful, connected, and unified.

Can you offer some practical tips for incorporating surrender into a modern life?

There are really 3 levels of surrender. The first is surrendering to the events of life. Shit happens, and when things don’t go the way you want, it can be very triggering. So the first phase is learning to be okay, notice, and allow when things in the outside world don’t go your way. This is work. It’s a practice. But it gets easier when you recognize that you can’t see the totality of why things are happening at any given moment. Many things you might initially perceive as happening to you are actually happening for you, but you just can’t see it.

The second phase comes once you move toward witnessing consciousness and start identifying as the watcher of the thoughts and the body. That’s when you start to notice all of these thoughts and emotions that you don't like. Then the surrender practice becomes to learn how to accept and allow those feelings with equal reverence as you would the actions of the world.

The third phase of surrender is about surrendering the personal will to the divine will. At a certain point in your evolution, you will begin to experience guidance that comes through as a whisper in the stillness. Some people call this Source, your true Self, or your higher Self. Often that guidance won’t seem logical. It will be at odds with what the egoic personal will wants.

The final stage of surrendering is to recognize the divine guidance as a higher intelligence and prioritize allegiance to it over your personal will, which only seeks to accumulate, protect, and overtake. I think it’s important to understand where you are in these stages, so that you can begin a daily practice with intention.

In your view, what role do psychedelics play in spiritual development?

A lot of people do psychedelics and they have these tremendous experiences. They're like, “Wow, this is amazing! I felt love, and I had all these revelations, and I saw myself!”… and then they kind of go back to normal life, and their old patterns and ways of being settle in.

In my opinion, the primary purpose of psychedelics is to provide a temporary leap in consciousness into what your experience could be, so that you can be inspired to get back to that place and motivated to do what’s necessary to stabilize that state. Frankly, that usually looks like a daily spiritual practice and an eventual prioritization of your inner growth over anything in the outer world.

The second benefit that psychedelics can provide is that they act as a nonspecific amplifier of things in your consciousness. Psychedelics can help you examine old traumas and limiting beliefs so that they can be transmuted, moving you closer to your highest expression.

Personally, I prefer not to rely on psychedelics as the mechanism for my evolution. When I’m supposed to experience them, they flow into my life. I don’t think they are the way. I think they’re a tool along the way, and not an everyday tool. It really comes back to developing that devotion and practice, which is in every moment of your life.

Want more from Scott? Subscribe to his newsletter Consciousness ∞ The Doorway to Human Evolution, or follow him on Twitter.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.