First Half of 2017
We’re almost halfway through the year and are happy to report on a number of successful events and initiatives for the first half of 2017!
APS Launch at Rainbow Serpent Festival 2017
We have put on events around LSD, psilocybin and psilocybe mushrooms, the psychedelic experience more broadly and the emerging resurgence of psychedelic scientific inquiry.
Some of our achievements so far:
- We launched at Rainbow Serpent Festival 2017, with talks on cognitive liberty, psychedelic harm reduction, a special presentation from Psychedelic Research In Science and Medicine (PRISM) and a ‘coming out of the psychedelic closet’ discussion.
- We held a special event with Artist/Musician Michael Garfield in Fitzroy.
- We heard a take on the 8-circuit model of consciousness from local enthusiast Rob Wookie, while running our first ever book and clothing market stall. Kalacoma impressed our ears with their sonic magic and tales of psychedelic inspiration for their music, while Sugar Sandwich took us back to a retro psychedelic-infused sound.
- We celebrated Bicycle Day 2017 with talks from psychedelic battler and mystic Greg Kasarik and then delved into the abyss of quantum computing and the psychedelic experience, followed by a snapshot history of LSD. The evening finished with a screening of The Sunshine Makers movie.
- We went up to the hills, speaking about a wide variety of mushrooms (including, but not limited to psilocybes) in Belgrave, then enjoyed music from the Preston Skate Massive.
- We had our biggest event yet at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health at Melbourne University, where four speakers who all attended the Psychedelic Science conference in Oakland California shared things they learned while over there.
- We have our very own psychedelic bookstore, which we bought from the Pixie Collective before it shut its doors.
- We have made two submissions to government inquiries.
- We have an active online presence through this website, our Facebook page and Twitter.
Michael Garfield entertains us in Fitzroy
In the background, we have been putting together a manifesto and working toward legitimising our organisation and creating the backbone needed to spread chapters across Australia.
You can join the following Facebook groups and connect with other locals and help create meetings, events and more.
If you believe there is a taste for a psychedelic event in your capital city or regional centre, get in touch with us.
Preston Skate Massive playing on stage at Sooki Lounge in Belgrave for our mushroom event
Our aims are:
- Advocate: For the interests of the psychedelic community.
- Represent: Provide an informed and balanced public voice for the psychedelic community in political and social forums.
- Engage: Facilitate the creation and delivery of resources to strengthen community education, cohesion and direction with a focus on reducing harms and maximising benefits.
- Educate: Help to educate the community on evidence-informed effects and best-practice. Seeking to reduce the stigma associated with drugs in the wider community, using an evidence-based approach.
- Network: Provide a hub from which related groups can meet and coordinate, creating greater cohesion and power from which social change can arise.
PRISM’s Dr. Martin Williams, Dr Stephen Bright and Dr. Monica Barratt at Rainbow Serpent Festival
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
There are a number of ways you can help us to change the conversation around psychedelics, create a legitimacy for psychedelic discourse and reduce stigma. Ultimately, we’d like to see an end to the prohibition of psychedelics and the beginning of a new, mature understanding of where psychedelics fit in society.
- If you haven’t already, make sure you are signed up to our newsletter.
- Come along to our events, get to know the people there, find the others.
- If you have more time you can give and/or particular skills to offer (design, social media, website, event organising, finance, copywriting etc.), send us an email.
Celebrating Bicycle Day in the cozy Hope Street Warehouse in Brunswick
The second half of 2017 will see us moving toward an official structure for the organisation and the formation of groups to help organise events, workshops, meetup groups and to help us with our website, social media, newsletter and the editing of audio, video and pictures from events.
Funds raised through our bookstore and events will go toward some operating costs, but we aim to put back into the community as much as possible.
In the future we would like to offer scholarships for people to attend psychedelic conferences and help pay for academics to come here and talk to us about their work. We also hope we can build our bookstore into something that may be able to publish its own magazine or journal or help fund other similar publications, highlighting Australian psychedelic research and culture. Many of these ideas are still up in the air as we dream big and start mapping our path.
Hundreds turn out to hear about psychedelic science at the Florey Institute, Melb. Uni
We have BIG plans and we want YOU involved.
Whether it’s just by signing up to our newsletter and following us on social media, or by getting more involved. Every bit matters!
