Hello Breakeros,
We can now officially confirm that our next three-day conference, Breaking Convention 2025, will take place at the University of Exeter, on April 17-19th. Tickets will be on sale shortly, and speakers are already being invited. We anticipate opening the call for papers (and for the many other participatory contributions that make BC such a thriving community) at the end of the summer; plenty of time to think about what you want to bring and share. This, our seventh edition, will be the best one for sure (yet again!).
As anticipated, all of the 400+ in-person tickets for Here & Now in April have now sold. There is a waitlist on the ticket site for any returns, although be aware this is already very long. Do not buy from a stranger offering you a ticket for resale, this will nearly always be a scam! Please note that unfortunately we cannot enter into any individual correspondance regarding requests for in-person tickets; there really are none left, whatever your circumstances.
Really!
Livestreaming tickets are available, which allow you to enjoy full live coverage of the day’s events from the comfort of your own home; maybe get a friend or two to come over and make an occasion of it! You’ll also have a chance to send in questions for the speakers, plus have access to recordings before the talks are made publically available, and some behind the scenes interviews.
We are considering hosting another London event later this year, given the enthusiastic response to this one. Watch the usual places for announcements…
Meanwhile, please find below details of a few in-person events—please note, two have application deadlines in only a couple of days so take a look very soon—a moving radio interview, and a fascinating paper about genetic adaptation to the use of a mescaline-containing cactus in the Andes…
Nikki
nikki@breakingconvention.co.uk
On behalf of the team at Breaking Convention
ICPR
The 6th Edition of Europe's premier academic event dedicated to advancing psychedelic research and therapies is set to take place from June 6 to 8, 2024, at the Philharmonie in the beautiful city of Haarlem. The conference will showcase cutting-edge studies and foster discussions on the therapeutic potential, cultural implications, and philosophical aspects of psychedelics.
Tickets are on sale now! Use code BC100 for a €100 discount!
Open call for Lecturers at OZORA’s Chambok House
DEADLINE: 15th March 2024
“The Chambok House is an open laboratory for the evolution of our minds and souls. It is a safe and sacred space to share our meaningful experiences, ethereal knowledge and practical evidence of mutual interests. Here we want to create new patterns of reality by investigating the endless realms of our multiverse – protected by the spirit of freedom. We invoke the true expression of minds, souls and universal cultures.
This is an open call for proposals of different kinds. We are looking for astonishment, we are curious to learn. If you believe you are a wise lecturer or a unique talented speaker, you are encouraged to send us your application.”
The Psychedelic Universe: Global Perspectives on Higher Consciousness
A two-week University of Amsterdam summer school
DEADLINE: 15th March 2024
“Co-taught by Dr. J. Christian Greer and Dr. Erik Davis, this seminar offers learners from a variety of backgrounds something they cannot find anywhere else: a comprehensive examination from a humanities perspective of psychedelics across time, space, and cultures. The program is designed for advanced Bachelor and Master's students, PhD students and Post-docs, interested self-starters, as well as professionals working as clinicians, therapists, educators and psychedelic guides.”
An introduction video from Christian and Erik can be watched here
For more details https://summerschool.uva.nl/content/summer-courses/the-psychedelic-universe/the-psychedelic-universe.html
BBC Radio 4 - One to One, Psychedelics and Mental Health: A series of interviews
“In recent years there’s been a renaissance of interest in psychedelics in the West, on a scale not seen since the first wave of medical research in the 1950s and 60s. Drugs like DMT, ketamine and psilocybin (that’s the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms), are now being researched as medications to take alongside therapy for the treatment of various mental health problems. Across this series of interviews, Rose Cartwright explores so-called ‘psychedelic assisted psychotherapy’. What is it? Can it help tackle our mental health crisis? And what are the risks?
“Her first guest is clinical psychologist Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College, which is working on medical trials with psilocybin and MDMA for the treatment of depression and complex trauma. What is complex trauma and how might psychedelic drugs help to make sense of it? What can we learn from indigenous healers when trialling these drugs within a western clinical framework? And how could psychedelic-assisted therapy play out within the NHS if these drugs become legalised for medical use?”
And, our gratitude to Giorgio Samorini for bringing our attention to this paper from 2022:
Ortholog genes from cactophilic Drosophila provide insight into human adaptation to hallucinogenic cacti
Padró, J., De Panis, D.N., Luisi, P. et al.
Abstract: Cultural transformations of lifestyles and dietary practices have been key drivers of human evolution. However, while most of the evidence of genomic adaptations is related to the hunter-gatherer transition to agricultural societies, little is known on the influence of other major cultural manifestations. Shamanism is considered the oldest religion that predominated throughout most of human prehistory and still prevails in many indigenous populations. Several lines of evidence from ethno-archeological studies have demonstrated the continuity and importance of psychoactive plants in South American cultures. However, despite the well-known importance of secondary metabolites in human health, little is known about its role in the evolution of ethnic differences. Herein, we identified candidate genes of adaptation to hallucinogenic cactus in Native Andean populations with a long history of shamanic practices. We used genome-wide expression data from the cactophilic fly Drosophila buzzatii exposed to a hallucinogenic columnar cactus, also consumed by humans, to identify ortholog genes exhibiting adaptive footprints of alkaloid tolerance. Genomic analyses in human populations revealed a suite of ortholog genes evolving under recent positive selection in indigenous populations of the Central Andes. Our results provide evidence of selection in genetic variants related to alkaloids toxicity, xenobiotic metabolism, and neuronal plasticity in Aymara and Quechua populations, suggesting a possible process of gene-culture coevolution driven by religious practices.