Meditation, Presence and Psychedelics

MEDITATION, PRESENCE AND PSYCHEDELICS

Both meditation and psychedelics have the potential to expand consciousness and promote a broader perspective on reality and spirituality. The explanatory paradigms of Buddhist ontology can aid in understanding, navigating, and integrating altered states of consciousness induced by psychedelic substances. We will use scientific evidence to justify the relevance of employing tools from Buddhist phenomenology, as well as contemplative techniques like samatha meditation, both to stabilize and enhance the effects of psychedelics.

In this module, students will gain a fundamental understanding of mindfulness-based approaches being employed in current psychedelic research, as well as the potential shared mechanisms of healing and growth that we can cultivate as individuals and as a society.

Meditation is a valuable tool for the integration of psychedelic experiences into everyday life. Following a psychedelic experience, meditation can aid in processing the insights and emotions that emerged during the journey, fostering a deeper understanding and practical application in daily life.

OBJECTIVES

By participating in this module, students are expected to.

FACILITATORS

Elias Caprile

Elias has experientially researched psychedelics for many decades. He founded and managed two Spiritual Emergency Shelters (Swayambhunath and Anjuna Beach). He received all the Dzogchen transmissions and practiced that teaching in successive three-month retreats in the Himalayas. Later, he deepened his study of philosophy at two universities and produced a philosophical and psychological system based on Buddhism and Dzogchen, with an ecological orientation and an egalitarian tendency in social, economic and political matters – all expressed in many books, academic articles and book chapters. In Mérida, Venezuela, he helped found the Coordinadora Ecológica “Arturo Eichler” and actively participated in political ecology activities. He taught at the Universidad de Los Andes (Department of Philosophy, Chair of Oriental Studies, Africa and Asia Research Center) until his retirement, and has lectured extensively at multiple universities in Europe, America and Asia. He currently teaches Dzogchen in multiple countries, both within and outside the International Dzogche Community. He is a board member of the International Transpersonal Association and the Iberoamerican Transpersonal Association, as well as various academic journals in several countries. His work has been discussed in philosophy books in France, Spain, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.

Galia Tanay

Dr. in psychology Galia Tanay is a student of various ancestral paths and a teacher on the path of freedom. Galia spent many years in the deep practice of traditional Buddhism and has been teaching intensive meditation retreats for the past decade. Galia is a certified yoga teacher who teaches yoga therapy and emphasizes the body in all mindfulness practices. For the past 14 years Galia had been working intensively with psychedelics, mainly ayahuasca and psilocybe mushrooms, deepening and learning personally, while accompanying others on these journeys. She has a PhD in psychology and for many years has worked with suffering individuals, as well as taught and trained therapists in academic and non-academic programs. Galia is a vocal artist and writer who believes that freedom is an art form and creativity is necessary to come home to our being.

Oscar Soto

Óscar Soto Angona is a psychiatrist, researcher, and therapist. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Valladolid and specialized in Psychiatry at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, where he has also conducted research and clinical work in the Resistant Depression Program. He is a doctoral candidate at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a particular interest in the phenomenology of altered states of consciousness induced by psychedelics and their therapeutic potential. He has served as a sub-investigator or therapist in various clinical trials involving psychedelics, including esketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, and 5-MeO-DMT. He is the president and founder of the Spanish Society of Psychedelic Medicine.