Journal of Psychedelic Studies
May 28, 2026
Pedro Favarón, Keith Williams, Andrée-anne Bédard
Abstract The visionary beverage known as ayawaska ( yage, oni , caapi , camaranti , etc.) among the Indigenous Nations of the Amazon has, over the past century, generated increasing academic interest and popular fascination, leading to a boom in psychedelic tourism and “neo-shamanism”. This article attempts to account for the uses of ayawaska within the contemporary cultural context of the...
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
July 28, 2025
Keith Williams, Andrée-anne Bédard, Laura Pustarfi
1 citation
Inner healing intelligence (IHI) is a foundational orienting concept in the psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) field that refers to the innate tendency of living beings to move towards healing. In this paper, we introduce an expanded articulation of IHI, drawing largely on vitalism and Indigenous philosophy from the Americas. We conceptualize IHI as the innate capacity of an individual to move...
Nature Medicine
June 3, 2025
Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, Kyle T. Greenway, Leor Roseman et al.
26 citations
Psychedelic substances exhibit complex interactions with the 'set and setting' of use, that is, the mental state of the user and the environment in which a psychedelic experience takes place. Despite these contextual variables' known importance, psychedelic research has lacked methodological rigor in reporting extra-pharmacological factors. This study aimed to generate consensus-based...
interconnections journal of posthumanism
December 9, 2024
Keith Williams, Michelle Braunstein
This interdisciplinary research paper recombines Indigenous knowledges, postcolonial and new materialist theory, as well as fictional vignettes and drawings, to critically examine the biological synthesis of psilocybin through yeast. Against the backdrop of the “psychedelic renaissance” and consensus in the synthetic biology industry that generally, edited genes are “beyond containment”, the...
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
October 1, 2023
Keith Williams, Suzanne Brant
7 citations
Abstract Indigenous people have been stewards of sacred plant medicines for millennia. Many of these sacred medicines—such as tobacco, cedar, sage, sweetgrass, and more recently the ayahuasca admixture and psilocybin-containing fungi—have been commercialized via their entry into the global capitalist economy. In this article, we offer readers an introduction to Indigenous gift logic as an...
Anthropology of Consciousness
July 30, 2022
Keith Williams, Osiris Sinuhé González Romero, Michelle Braunstein et al.
68 citations
Abstract The Western world is experiencing a resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, most of which are derived from plants or fungi with a history of Indigenous ceremonial use. Recent research has revealed that psychedelic compounds have the potential to address treatment‐resistant depression and anxiety, as well as post‐traumatic stress disorder and addictions....