RECAP + VIDEO - Psychedelics for Climate Action at The Thought Experience / by Marissa Feinberg

Thank you to everyone who came out for "The Intersection of Environmental, Social + Psychedelic Consciousness for Climate Action"! Feel free to read the recap, learn about our climate action steps, and tune into the video for the conversation.

Please contact us if you have ideas or would like to get involved in our next events or working groups at this intersection—we are looking to engage stakeholders with whom this subject matter resonates, from potential groups and organizations to speakers and more.

Could a shift in consciousness bring the change our world needs? At this intersection, will we discover a new pathway for our future?

We gathered at “Thought Experience,” an interactive conscious art exhibit by Roger Wu, made possible by ChaShaMa, for an event hosted and moderated by Marissa Feinberg, Triple Bottom Why. Approximately 100 people attended, and we heard from speakers at this intersection:

After the invite was released, two speakers were able to join spontaneously: Daniel Pinchbeck, a controversial author about whose presence we received feedback, and Dr. Nathan Dufour, an ecology and mental health poet, producer, and professor. Onsite, we offered whiteboards, collected ideas, and presented a “climate action step” pad to catalyze the collaboration among participants in this container—read about outcomes.

Here are quotes from each speaker—to dive deeper into this conversation, read the full recap below and watch the video:

Speaker Quotes

“What inspired me to put ‘Thought Experience’ together? The best way to affect change is with empathy which psychedelics can inspire, and the next best way is through art.  Part of Thought Experience was to get people to think differently, but if we can get someone to react emotionally, it's exponentially more powerful than any rational reasoning.”
- Roger Wu

“People like psychedelics to experience the wonder and awe we had as children—my exhibit is about lion extinction, showing a children’s room 50 years in the future. This work was inspired by my writing for People Magazine when I went to South Africa to learn about the lion farming industry. Habitat loss is real—one such species only lives on 25% of its original habitat. We naturally feel wonder and awe when we're kids, and just learning about the world is wonderful. Part of my project is reconnecting us to how nature and animals inspire us.”
- Saryn Chorney

“The myth that we are disconnected from each other and the earth is reflected and perpetuated by all of our major institutions – laws, norms, the corporate form – and these institutions, in turn, enable the extractive processes that are destroying our environment.”

“I believe psychedelics have the potential to help catalyze the emergence of a regenerative economic pattern.” Dr. Zelner shared an anecdotal research example of how participation in a psilocybin leadership retreat led a business leader to transition from traditional business practices to a more purpose-driven approach for his mental health startup."
- Dr. Bennet Zelner

“When you experience a psychedelic, you get a beginner's mindset. You can see the same streets you've seen every day but discover, ‘There are tulips here!’ When you are in a job for a long time and doing the same thing repeatedly, you stop thinking about other ways that something could be." 

“Psychedelics allow for divergent thinking—contemplating multiple things at once. And imagine if you can give an adult in a professional role, in a big organization, a chance to have a beginner's mind, look at the situations they're in, and think of the creative ways to make change.”
- Dr. Julia Mirer

“I know our trajectory has been boosted by cannabis, and maybe not in micro. [At Green Map] It's helped me manage local and global projects, see beyond the borders and work from a solutions perspective. It helps me appreciate, amplify and learn from the diversity of solutions and reflect on how maps and processes are imbued by local flavor and craft, how to apply systems thinking to manage the flow of outcomes, ideas, and opportunities.”
- Wendy Brawer

“We’re in an ecological emergency but we don’t live as though we're facing a major shift. The scientific evidence suggests we are heading for deep transformations in the next decades. At this point, we need clear-eyed compassion for everybody. We all created this situation together.

“As an approach, we might create self-organizing, scalable templates for local communities to participate in projects like local food sovereignty, alternative energy. Even basic things we could be doing now, we don’t do. This includes rooftop gardens and insulating old buildings so they don't waste heat. Our current economic system doesn’t support these initiatives, as they lack a short-term profit motive.”
- Daniel Pinchbeck

“In my psychedelic experiences, I have become awakened to what's actually there: matter. Madonna was not incorrect about this; it's a material world—we are made of matter, and our matter is a material collaboration. We're made of organisms collaborating to make us even matter at its inorganic level, so-called, is collaborating to create us." 

“Ever heard of deep ecology? It's about the interrelation of all beings, organic and inorganic, and that's a psychedelic space to operate. Psychedelia is literally clear-mindedness. So, if we combine that with deep ecology, it's clear-mindedness about our material world. When you awaken to that, you realize how much your matter matters; maybe there, we take the step to find the solutions.” 
- Dr. Nathan Dufour

Climate Action Steps & Suggestions

Onsite at the event, we had engagement tools like a climate action step notepad, ideation whiteboard, and suggestion box for anyone preferring to share privately, which included:

  • See if “The Lion King” on Broadway could start a donation process to help save the lions — reach out to them!

  • Require more buildings and businesses to have some type of foliage on their rooftops, or use white or silver paint to reduce heat

  • Climate & mindfulness (vipassana; insight meditation)

  • Abolish & compost the US military & industrial complex

  • Local organizing & mutual aid

  • Teaching how to integrate the interconnectedness we feel from psychedelics into daily living and relationships

  • Reducing judgment & inhibition

If you are interested in participating in or leading any of the above climate action steps, please get in touch. As it develops, we want this group to continue with its events and speaker series and rotate climate action working groups and activities where we collaborate to make an impact. Please don't hesitate to reach out with feedback, ideas, and other ways of getting involved! 

Thank you,
Marissa

PS - We appreciate communities spreading the word about this event! Thank you to NY Climate Tech, BASIC NY, Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, Sarah Rose Siskind, Orbit and Psychedelic Access Fund. 
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Marissa Feinberg
Founder, Chief Storyteller
Triple Bottom Why
LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram