Breaking Convention: Previewing Europe’s largest psychedelic conference
By Caspar Montgomery
Cast your minds back, if you will, to 2011: the first season of Game of Thrones had just premiered, Tottenham was ablaze with riots, America officially withdrew from Iraq as Donald Trump graced reality TV, and ‘Corona’ evoked only cravings for a cold beer. If you had ever heard the words ‘Default Mode Network’, you probably imagined an up-and-coming indie band; researchers whispering “LSD” at conferences feared for their career prospects, and ‘mental health crisis’ was just becoming a household phrase.
In this context, a conference at the University of Kent went largely unnoticed by the public, but the inaugural Breaking Convention gathering was a seminal event for many in attendance. Connections were formed, knowledge shared, collaborations born, excitement stoked, ‘the others’ found.
Twelve years and five conferences on, psychedelics have well and truly exploded into public consciousness, producing a new sector of interdisciplinary science, a multi-billion dollar industry, political quagmires, victorious grassroots activist movements and murmurings of new paradigms in healthcare. Clinical trials have consistently turned out outstanding results for the treatment of mental health problems, from depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD to eating disorders and end-of-life care.
The exponential growth in research has transformed our collective knowledge of psychedelics, at every level of analysis: chemical, psychological, sociological, ecological. Meanwhile, in a post-Pollan world, everyone and their mum wants to trip. Tech companies have ‘microdose Fridays’, mainstream newspapers won’t stop raving about the magic of mushrooms, and celebrity endorsements for retreats are ten-a-penny. However, we find ourselves at another crossroads, no less consequential than the last. The money invested, the Netflix documentaries, and the slowly-shifting political tides have posed as many challenges as they have removed, and there are big questions about what happens from here.
What are these things we call psychedelics (or entheogens, plant medicines, hallucinogens, and so on)? Are they medicines, sacraments, playthings, microscopes for the mind, messengers of a dying planet? Just one more treatment option to be added to the doctor’s arsenal, or an exceptional entity demanding the restructuring of the biomedical model? What do they do — to our neurones, our bodies, our behaviour, our communities? Are they non-specific amplifiers of the psyche, or portals to a perennial transcendent reality? Catalysts of intrinsically transformative experiences, or ‘psychoplastogens’ that will work just as well without the mind-altering effects?
What is the ‘best’ container for a psychedelic experience: a hospital, a church, a luxury tropical resort, a forest, a dancefloor? Who should have access to psychedelic treatment, and how can it be provided affordably? Can the big bad wolves of the pharmaceutical industry and venture capitalism be kept at bay? How can sexual abuse, unwanted outcomes such as HPPD, and the increasingly toxic aspects of healing culture be mitigated? What responsibilities do we have to communities, cultures and landscapes from which we extract these substances, practices and rituals? Will psychedelics truly shake up the collective snow globe, or be band-aids for individuals in the dying throes of late-stage capitalist societies? Is it pronounced ‘SILL-OH’ or ‘SIGH-LOW-sigh-bin’? And who the f**k thought online ketamine therapy was a good idea?!
Anyone with a vague interest in these kinds of issues would do well to get down to Devon later this month for the 6th edition of Breaking Convention. To call the lineup of world-leading scientists, clinicians, philosophers, wordsmiths, musicians and artists eclectic would be an understatement: I don’t think my quaint childhood hometown of Exeter will know quite what’s hit it when the weird and wonderful three-day event rolls into town.
From Heroic Hearts’ perspective, our emphasis is on treating trauma and pushing for increased access and research into plant medicines, particularly in light of the groundbreaking new ayahuasca study with veterans being launched by our Chief Medical Officer Dr Simon Ruffell and his team in Peru. With this in mind, a few speakers on the lineup caught our attention…
Rick Doblin and Dr Ben Sessa
Two legends of the game, Ben and Rick have been leading the charge for psychedelic research with PTSD for decades with their respective organisations, Awakn and MAPS. It’s largely thanks to MAPS that MDMA-assisted therapy looks set to be approved as a treatment for PTSD in the next year or two in the US — hopefully the UK won’t be too far behind…
Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner
Ashleigh’s talk will be about ayahuasca’s ‘afterglow’ — specifically, improved mindfulness and psychological flexibility — which might explain some of its lasting positive impacts. These findings resonate strongly with the reports of veterans who we have sent to ayahuasca retreats.
Adam Aranovich
An ayahuasca facilitator and researcher, Adam works on the social and political dimensions of health and wellbeing in psychedelic contexts. He is an exceptionally astute critic of both the traditional biomedical model, and the excesses of the reactionary DIY healing culture threatening its dominance.
Amanda Feilding
Amanda has an unbelievable amount of experience in psychedelic policy and research. She founded the Beckley Foundation, a partner organisation of ours which is responsible for much of the research that will feature at the conference.
Darren le Baron
Darren is a one-of-a-kind grassroots researcher and event curator doing amazing work to increase accessibility, engage in the historical background of plant medicines and urge us all to “ensure that all people across the world, from all backgrounds, are represented at the table and consulted about the future applications of these psychedelic experiences.” Amen to that.
We will go to Breaking Convention hoping for inspiration and connection, prepared for the sublime and the ridiculous. We intend to lead, learn, and laugh amongst people with good intentions dedicated to making healthy decisions and enacting positive change. As an organisation, we truly believe that psychedelics have a special potential for personal healing and collective transformation. We’ve seen it happen, and are striving to facilitate more of the same. We also believe that this can only occur within a supportive community, through hard work and difficult processes of change, and that there are an awful lot of creases to be ironed out in the psychedelic ‘space’ and in how we think about healthcare in general. That’s what makes events like this one not only fascinating, inspiring and fun, but critical for shaping the future.
Europe’s largest psychedelic conference Breaking Convention will take place on the 20th-22nd April 2023 at the University of Exeter. Tickets are now available here.
Talks from previous conferences are available for free on their YouTube channel.
Bonus recommendations for your stay in Exeter
Sight-seeing: St Peter’s Cathedral, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, City Walls
Eating: Al Farid, Dinosaur Cafe, Herbies, The Daisy Cafe, The Flat, Jasmine Thai Restaurant
Drinking: The Old Firehouse, The Fat Pig, The Thatched House, Topsham Taproom, The Prospect
Wandering: Gandy Street, Cathedral Green, The Quayside
Trips: Dartmoor (30-60 mins), Jurassic Coast (30-60 mins), North Devon coast (60-90 mins)