Sacred plant medicine and spirituality. Psychedelic drugs, politics and pain reduction. Psychedelics in psychotherapy. These are three of the five very serious courses offered by Psychedelic Studies at the University of Ottawa, the first in the country. This microprogram aims to prepare students for that very near future where these drugs would be common to treat addiction, anxiety, obsessive disorders or depression. And would also be used for assisted dying.
On January 14, Health Canada authorized doctors to request access to psychedelic drugs. The use of psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and MDMA (ecstasy) is now legal as emergency treatment for patients who have not responded to traditional approaches. This openness is seen by many as a step towards the legalization of some of these drugs for therapeutic use, confirmed by more and more studies.
Predictable news in the eyes of Anne Vallely, co-founder with Monica Williams of Psychedelic Studies. At the University of Ottawa, these studies bring together psychology, religion, anthropology and neuroscience. The religious studies teacher and anthropologist by training, who is interested in altered states of consciousness and mysticism, believes that it is this intertwining of disciplines that allowed the creation of the program.
“In my department, I could not have established this program of psychedelic and spiritual studies; these words are taboo in religious studies,” said Ms.me Vallely, as if this vocabulary implied that pink elephants were studied there.
until mastery
Spirituality, university taboo? “Yes, believes the professor. It is the collaboration with the Department of Psychology, which brings its “scientific credit”, which makes them accepted. We are going to study the archetypes in psychology, shamanism, we are going to compare different mysticisms… Some are allergic to these words. »
With students, this new program is on the contrary too popular, she continues, and particularly welcomes psychologists and social workers. An upcoming master’s program, housed in the Department of Psychology, will accommodate more students.
Lucia in the sky with diamonds
How to create a program on psychedelics in a university? With her very gentle voice and smile, Anne Vallely explains: “I spent most of her career studying Jainism, this minority tradition in India, which has six million followers, and which, like Buddhism , emphasizes meditation and non-violence towards living beings. »
For Jains, “the dying process can be a time of understanding, awakening, fulfillment,awakening : when the body weakens, the eternal soul — “Jiva” — can become stronger. For them, death can be a strong spiritual experience, leading to liberation or a good rebirth. They believe in reincarnation. It can be a moment of joy for the dying person, and for those around them. »
“In our society, it’s completely different,” continues the trained anthropologist. Here, we have the phobia of getting old, the phobia of death. It has a huge impact on how we die. This view contributes to the existential anxiety that most of us take for granted as just “normal,” and ultimately not in all cultures.
Anne Vallely knew this Western fear of death. But the contrast with the Jain rites struck her more intensely when, ten years ago, she accompanied her father to palliative care without notice. ” My God ! Depression and anxiety were completely normalized there! Everyone was affected by it, because here we are only our bodies and, when our bodies break, everything is over. There is so much additional suffering caused by the fact that our society denies the spiritual dimension of death,” she said.
“But death remains shrouded in mystery, and we still know very little about consciousness. Recognizing the mystery is a great help for the dying. And psychedelics allow that. That’s why I got interested in it. »
Ingest mysticism
“There is fascinating research from Johns Hopkins University and New York University where stage 4 (advanced) cancer patients, who suffered from a lot of anxiety, were given a high dose of psilocybin. The results have been exceptional: these substances have the capacity to offer these people an experience of transcendence. »
A significant majority of patients in the Johns Hopkins study saw marked improvement in their anxieties for up to six months after taking a single dose of magic mushrooms. The subjects “reported experiences, under psychedelics, of the death of their ego, explains Mme Vallely, which is surely terrifying. They saw themselves crushed, destroyed, but still present. Many completely lost their fear of death during this experience.”
Another aspect that fascinates the professor of religious studies is that, in these studies, “even the patients who declared themselves atheists use sacred language to talk about their experience under psychedelic drugs. Some will even say that they have had the experience of God. »
“That’s when the subject began to interest me deeply,” continues the researcher. In our society we will not start going to church, we will not turn to the religious, we are too secular, too secular a society. Perhaps psychedelics are something we could explore to make our relationship to death more serene. »