The Artists' Way Part II: Watering The Desert of Consciousness

The Mystical Experience and the Double-Headed Research Programme from Amanda Feilding's Beckley Foundation

Jul 26, 2023

“What has basically been at the center of all religious and spiritual practices is the Mystical Experience, and I think it’s rather a beautiful revenge that after decades of science killing off spirituality, we find that at the core of the healing process of psychologically based illnesses like depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and existential suffering is the Mystical Experience.
—Amanda Feilding

This is Part II of a series on the work of Amanda Feilding and the Beckley Foundation. If you missed Part I, you can find it here.

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The Beckley Foundation is a UK-registered charity (No. SC033546) and an ECOSOC-accredited NGO.

The Artists’ Way Part II: Watering The Desert of Consciousness

In our last dispatch, we noted that 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of The Beckley Foundation, the not-for-profit UN-accredited NGO started by Amanda Feilding to re-open the doors to the field of psychedelic science and overturn decades of unscientific and politically motivated global drug policies.

We highlighted several seminal accomplishments that have paved the way for this expanding field, including the first brain imaging studies of psilocybin and LSD and the groundbreaking trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, which provided the foundation for current trials that could herald the FDA approval and availability of psilocybin in medical settings.

This effort, along with others, has laid the groundwork for the ‘Psychedelic Renaissance’ broadly and the next phase of the Beckley Project, which we’ll discuss in Part II and Part III:

Facilitating a deeper understanding of the Mystical Experience and
Developing the necessary access, support, and infrastructure for modern people to partake in transformative experiences as old as humanity itself.

During our time in Denver for MAPS’ Psychedelic Science 2023 conference, Amanda told me that she believes her best work is ahead of her and that the program she described to Joe Rogan and discussed during her presentations at the conference includes her most exciting projects to date.

Moreover, with the ever-growing public interest in psychedelics over the last few years, Amanda has started to look beyond research into expanding the possibilities for safe and legal access.

So, in this dispatch, we’ll explore how a new research program from Beckley Foundation will investigate:

The real-time imaging of the brain under the influence of LSD amidst the mystical experience, using state-of-the-art brain imaging technology
The effect of LSD on the aging brain and its capacity to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Then, in Part III, we’ll explore the “Ecosystem” approach spearheaded by Amanda and the Beckley family of organizations to foster more advanced research and facilitate safe, legal, and supported access for those who want them, including:

Beckley PsyTech’s work to make several psychedelic compounds legally available through the drug approval process and eventual FDA approval
Beckley Waves work as a venture studio to build the necessary infrastructure for the safe, supported, and legal psychedelic experience.

Together, these projects aim to return the ineffable mystical experience to its rightful place as a sacred, inalienable right for humans to embark on if they so choose.

But first up, an interesting observation about the relationship between societal transformations and the rise of mystical experiences.

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Social Turmoil & the Mystical Experience

"Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us." —Meister Eckhart

The 14th century in Europe was a time of incredible turmoil with simultaneous social, economic, political, and religious upheaval.

The period included the Black Plague, which killed at least 75 million people and led to substantial economic hardship and social unrest.

Then came the Peasants’ Revolt in England, an uprising that resulted from labor shortages, wage stagnation, and increased taxation necessary to fund the country’s ongoing Hundred Years War between England and France.

And finally, it was a time of increasing disillusionment with and distrust of the Roman Catholic Church, the authoritative institution of the time.

But like so many other times of social and economic upheaval, such periods also breed novelty and innovation.

Interestingly, such tumultuous periods throughout history have given rise to an increase in mystical interpretations of religious doctrine and the torchbearers of such interpretations—the so-called mystics.

During such turmoil, the dominant religious doctrines and beliefs are challenged, leading individuals to question, reinterpret, or seek deeper meanings and truths than those handed down by institutionalized religious establishments.

This leads to the rise of mystical traditions, as individuals seek a direct experience of God or spiritual enlightenment.

This relationship between periods of social, religious, or political turmoil and the emergence or increased visibility of mystical movements certainly wasn’t exclusive to 14th-century Europe, but it was a particularly fertile period for Christian Mysticism as famous mystics such as Julian of Norwich, Meister Echkart, Catherine of Sienna, and the Unknown Author of the famous treatise on Christian Mysticism, The Cloud of Unknowing, emerged.

Pivotal States: Mental and Societal

A plague, a war, revolt, and institutional mistrust—sound familiar?

It may not be 14th-Century Europe, but I don’t think it’s hard to argue we are living through our own epoch of economic, political, and technological transformation.

As noted above, despite the pain, such periods of turmoil can breed new possibilities, ideas, and ways of doing things. In other words, they are pivotal periods in which society goes in looking one way and comes out looking quite different.

Interestingly, this phenomenon of pivotal states applies to the human psyche as well as societies.

In 2020, Robin Carhart-Harris and Ari Brouwer published a paper in the Journal of Psychopharmacology titled Pivotal Mental States. They write (emphasis added):

“In the same way that traumatic experiences can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or post-traumatic growth, we hypothesize that intense periods of psychological crisis can serve to kindle conditions for major, potentially lasting, psychological change, pivotable either towards illness or wellness.”

In other words, challenging, stressful, and potentially dangerous experiences are capable of catalyzing both illness and flourishing.

For many of us operating in the psychedelic space, we believe, to one degree or another, that the Mystical Experience, catalyzed by psychedelic compounds, can play a positive role in this transformational phase change.

However, in order to fully harness the potential benefits of psychedelic and mystical experiences, it is essential that we deepen our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these experiences through modern scientific methods, including the study of phenomenological and subjective accounts, and finally, provide safe containers for individuals to explore them.

The Beckley Foundation’s Double-Headed Research Programme

When we think of clinical research with psychedelics, it is primarily concerned with their potential as treatments for various mental health concerns.

However—and this is where the prohibition on psychedelic research for the last 50 years has been so damning—along with these studies, we need to understand the (broadly defined) mechanisms behind these effects.

A somewhat mysterious phenomenon that keeps turning up in psychedelic research trials is the report of a “Mystical Experience” by study participants.

Furthermore, this experience is frequently rated as one of the most significant and meaningful of their life.

Even more intriguing—and hopeful-–is that having such an experience is closely correlated to persisting positive effects.

So, what exactly is a mystical experience?

In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James outlined four main characteristics of mystical experiences:

Ineffability: They are experiences that are hard to express in words and often described as beyond the capacity of human language to adequately capture.
Noetic quality: They are insightful. Despite being subjective, mystical experiences carry a sense of truth or knowledge about the universe or existence that is usually not accessible through ordinary means.
Transiency: They are temporary. While the mystical experience may only last a short time, its impact can last a lifetime.
Passivity: Often, individuals who have a mystical experience feel as though it has happened to them rather than something they instigated. Even when the occasion is sought, there’s often a feeling of being “taken over” by it.

A more esoteric account was offered by the above-mentioned 14th-century Christian Mystic Meister Eckhart when he said:

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

Unfortunately, such subjective experiences have been overlooked, if not outrightly disdained in modern scientific circles–despite their persistence through human history.

But what if such a transformational experience can be understood with the tools of modern scientific inquiry?

If so, can we optimize the conditions to facilitate such experiences and their enduring effects?

It just so happens that brain imaging technology has come a long way since the days of Meister Eckhart, Catherine of Sienna, and The Cloud of Unknowing, so it only makes sense that we explore what is going on in the brain and nervous system and compare it to the lived experience during such transformative states.

This is a primary aim of the Beckley Foundation’s Double-Headed Research Programme—using the latest advancements in brain imaging technology, including the TESLA 7 fMRI.

The goal is to capture unique snapshots of each participant’s unique pattern of brain activity during the Mystical Experience.

This is the objective of Part I of the Double-Headed Programme: multimodal, real-time imaging of the brain under the influence of psychedelics amidst the mystical experience.

Part II of the programme will explore the effects of LSD on longevity and the aging brain.

As we covered recently, there is a curious connection between psychedelics and the mechanisms of aging and longevity, with a potential salutogenic effect of psychedelics on aging.

Importantly, some of the most devastating conditions for which modern medicine has yet to find solutions are often the result of aging—chief among them Alzheimer’s disease.

The goal is to evaluate the potential benefits of microdoses of LSD for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, as early preclinical work has identified it as a potential target of psychedelics.

The hope in spearheading this line of research is that it could lead to the development of new treatment options and palliative care strategies for neurodegenerative diseases and improve the quality of life both for those with dementia and for their caregivers.

The rationale and goal of these projects come back to the belief that fostering access to these compounds in a safe, legal setting with guidance and support for facilitating mystical experiences is one of the highest-leverage actions that can nudge the current pivotal societal state in the right direction.

Looking Ahead to Part III

In the final installment of this series on the legacy and future of Amanda Feilding, The Beckley Foundation, we’ll look at the family of organizations in the Beckley Ecosystem—of which this newsletter is a part—and the goal of creating safe, supported and legal access to psychedelics and transformational experiences.

See you then!