Advancing psychedelic discovery for the public good.
Featured
Learn about the latest research, announcements, and initiatives at BCSP.
Season Two of the Altered States Podcast
Listen to the second season of Altered States, a podcast exploring psychedelics as the center of global conversation about mental health, mysticism, and even how we experience life and death.
UC Berkeley’s Historic Research into Visual Perception and the Brain
A UC Berkeley study is breaking new ground with a pioneering study that could change our understanding of visual perception, brain function, and the effects of psychedelics on the mind.
Psychedelics 101
New to psychedelics?
Have a look at one of our many primers.
What Are Psychedelics?
Our primer on classic and non-classic psychedelic substances, including psilocybin, LSD, ketamine, and more.
What Are the Risks? Ask Experts.
How should you choose a psychedelic therapist? What do “set and setting” mean? How should a trip sitter prepare for the experience? Experts answer these questions and more.
Microdosing—Does It Work?
Interest in psychedelics is growing fast, but legal use—either through a clinical trial or psychedelic therapy—can be complicated.
Psychedelics and Spirituality
People have used psychedelics to commune with the divine and create bonds among the living and the dead, the spiritual and the natural worlds for centuries and possibly millennia.
About BCSP
BCSP is an academic center focused on psychedelic research, training, and public education. Explore our areas of focus.
Psychedelic Research
We bring together researchers from across disciplines, including neuroscience, molecular biology, psychology, chemistry, and genetics, and experts in public policy, law, health economics, and religion.
Journalism and Public Education
BCSP’s public education program produces evidence-based, objective journalism, conversations, and courses about psychedelics.
News
Keep current on the latest news about our public education, training and research programs, plus the latest news from the field of psychedelics.
Listen to the BCSP on KQED Forum
Tune in with as Michael Silver, director of the BCSP, Marlena Robbins, the program coordinator for the Indigenous Student Research Fellowship, and Berra Yazar-Klosinski, former chief scientific officer at Lykos Therapeutics, discuss what RFK Jr.’s support for psychedelic therapy means for its future.
Gül Dölen in The New York Times
Gül Dölen, professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, spoke about her theory that psychedelics might open a window of enhanced motor learning after a stroke.
SF Chronicle on new moms and psychedelics
Elena Kadvany writes about Reunion Neuroscience’s clinical trials providing psychedelic treatment for postpartum depression. Michael Silver, director of the BCSP, is quoted in the article. Rather than symptom management, he said, psychedelics might offer “something more like permanent or at least long-lasting, durable changes that are more like healing.”
Subscribe to news from BCSP
Learn more about our public education, training and research programs, plus events and other opportunities to engage with the Center.
Subscribe to The Microdose
The Microdose delivers twice-weekly newsletters, featuring Q&As with newsmakers and the latest developments in the field of psychedelics, covering everything from scientific research and policy to business and culture.
Tools and Resources
Tools and resources to help you navigate the psychedelic renaissance.
Patent Tracker
BCSP has created a patent tracker that uses publicly available data gathered by Psychedelic Alpha, an independent community working in the psychedelic space.
Resources Database
We’ve combed through scientific papers, books, websites, popular articles and more to amass some of the top resources about therapy, neuroscience, risk reduction, microdosing, spirituality, and individual substances like psilocybin and MDMA.
Clinical Trials Map
Figuring out how to participate in psychedelic-assisted therapy as either a therapist or a patient can be complicated. BCSP’s clinical trials map, featuring data from ClinicalTrials.gov, provides a way to navigate past, ongoing and future trials.
UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey
The inaugural survey found that more than six in ten (61%) American registered voters support legalizing regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics, including 35% who report “strong” support.
