Here’s all the back issues of the Unofficial Vital Student ‘Zine

Issue #18

Integration: planning and meaning making with Kyle Buller

Top integration tips from the Vital Psychedelic Training founder and friends.

Into the Unknown?

Your voyager no idea what to expect? Whip up a quick mock ceremony for a taste of the sacred and profane.

Attention Ideology

Someone to listen to our trippy BS is often all we want when we first get back to Earth.

Calling Interdimensional Rescue

Crisis management is the reality of integration therapy. And this is what it looks like.

Wavy Garms

What the modern-day professional psychopomp is wearing this season.

Heoric Doses of Reality

Peak existence is the new peak experience, says 5-MEO DMT expert Dr Malin Vedøy Uthaug.

Kool-Aid Corner #18

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #17

Clinical skills for psyhchedelic therapy with Dr Adele Lafrance

Dr Lafrance gave Vital students a heroic dose of authenticity during her Vital lecture packed with brass tacks advice.

The Feeling Theory

Dr Lafrance mixes up emotion focussed therapy with a ‘theoretically informed’ treatment room style.

This requires interacting with the patient – in stark contrast to the ‘non directive’ approach considered sacrosanct…

Four Times You Probably Should Intervene with the Voyager’s Experience

Frontline clinical psychologist Dr Lafrance answers the big question: if the patient’s tripping balls, when does the therapist definitely need to get involved?

Don’t Go There

Dr Lafrance doesn’t insist that patients ‘surrender to the medicine’ when they’re not up for a challenging experience.

Anger is an NRG

Take a (small) step closer to the dark side for more assertiveness and self-compassion.

Trip for me babe… trip for you?

One week in the jungle and your relationship might never be the same…

Kool-Aid Corner #17

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #16

Substances and mechanisms with Dr Charles Nichols

Dr Charles Nichols has discovered how psychedelics can treat psychosomatic physical conditions like asthma and psoriasis. And he’s pioneering tests for the tricky treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Appliance of Science

Purists sneer at scientific tinkering. But lab studies showed Dr Nichols how psychedelics heal the body. Could he uncover the secret of profundity too?

Neuroplastic Smiles

“Biology drives the effects of psychedelics but therapy shapes them,” says the latest scion in the Nichols psycho-pharmacological dynasty.

Brain architecture and morality

Keep those hearts open to differing emotions triggered by corporate psychedelia. And watch our for N-BOMes.

Wicked Wheeze

A chemical component of mescaline can treat asthma, perhaps many more physical problems. And it’s not even the bit that makes you trip.

Transcendental family systems

Ready for ceremonies with you, mum and dad, the grandparents plus your kids and even the dog?

Kool-Aid Corner #16

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #15

Medical Anthropology and Psychedelics with Dr Luis Eduardo Luna

Dr Luna took yagé for the first time with Terrence McKenna, discovered ayahuasca artist Pablo Amaringo and founded Wasiwaska psychedelic nature reserve.

Vegetable rights and peace

“If psychedelic therapy embraces animism it can do wonderful things” says star anthropologist Dr Luis Eduardo Luna.

The Hybrid Model

Dr Luis Eduardo Luna’s got a plan to mix shamanic ceremony with Western medicine.

Vibing as one

Research claims voyagers prefer guides to trip too… in the shamanic tradition.

Soul reduction

Sacramental plants and fungi are intended to be ingested entirely and not carved into compounds.

Botanic therapy

Wasiwaska is Dr Luis Eduardo Luna’s psychedelic nature reserve. Gardening just got even more quietly inspirational.

Kool-Aid Corner #15

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #14

Trauma, addiction and MDMA therapy with Dr Ben Sessa

Dr Ben Sessa’s book The Psychedelic Renaissance acted as exactly that.

Indistinguishable from magic

Psychedelics are the psychic antibiotic.

Where social services are the new gods

Atheists need answers from their insights too. So do jedis. And children in care.

Issue #13

Ketamine Assisted Therapy with Veronika Gold

Veronika Gold’s written the first Ketamine Assisted Therapy (KAP) program designed around the drug.

On the couch 2.0

Psychedelic snobs sniff at ketamine treatment. But many patients are raving.

Consciousness expansion for the masses

Does anyone really want talk therapy with their K? They do once they see The Death Door…

Psychedelic overground

Rugby lads on ibogaine, reality stars in hyperreality and tarot cards swapped for toys. Turns out the revolution will be fun.

War and peace

K’s used by combat medics but its ‘glutamate surge’ could hold victory for depressed civilians.

As above, so below

A fungus using K to clear parasites could connect the mental and physical elements of many diseases.

Kool-Aid Corner #13

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #12

MDMA Assisted Therapy with Michael and Annie Mithoefer

Gotta love MAPS, whose therapist dyad ‘The Mithoefers’ conceived the almost-FDA-approved MDMA-AT program.

T-bombs away!

MAPS has recruited The Body Keeps the Score author Dr Bessel Van der Kolk.

Homestasis is where the heart is

Seeing your shrink wil never be the same again after MDMA-AT.

Drugs are the Love

MDMA for couples therapy: 4/4 octopuses can’t be wrong.

Inner space of safety

MDMA boasts striking therapeutic properties beyond increased connection.

Let them know it’s Saturnalia time

Heal the world from collective trauma, says Thomas Hubl.

Kool-Aid Corner #12

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #11

Psilocybin for depression with Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner

Fall back for Imperial College London and its historic PsiloDep Two trial, presented by Ashley Murphy-Beiner.

Feed your head

Psilocybin patients “experience everything” in contrast to the emotional anaesthsia of SSRI medication.

Freud is dead

PsiloDep 2 used a new therapeutic model ACE devised by Drs Ros and Richards, with inspo from Stan Grof.

A Love Unconditional

Wanted: open hearts to hold space over personality disorders.

Results Based

Does psilocybin therapy for depression work, or not?

IRL is a bummer

Psychedelic integration doesn’t make for ideal water cooler chat in the office on Monday morning.

Kool-Aid Corner #11

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #10

The Ethics of Caring in Psychedelic Therapy with Kylea Taylor

Grof-trained Kylea Taylor’s 2017 book The Ethics of Caring is considered a definitive text for the therapy sector as a whole. She says inner work and self-compassion are essential tools in the explorer’s kit as we venture into the unknown.

Power to Empower

Inner journeys require deft guidance deployed with subtlety, says Kylea Taylor.

Who’s therapy is it anyway?

Probe your own intentions, for the floor of the abyss is littered with wounded healers.

Nothing beats lived experience

Only by learning on the job can guides figure out how to deliver ethical psychedelic therapy.

Unconditionally loving cuddles: Yes or No?

What if the patient would benefit from a clasp of the shoulder ot supportive hug? Easy tiger…

Impeccable you

Psychedelic therapists need to do good and look good, on CCTV and elsewhere.

Kool-Aid Corner #10

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #9

The Legality of Psychedelic Therapy with Courtney Barnes

Essential intel from the front lines in the war of attrition for medical and legal accessibility.

More mushroom tea, vicar?

Savvy brits are sussed to self-care and change is happening. But the vulnerable are being left behind.

Hymn of the Big Wheel

My hometown has a psychedelic amusement park and high street ketamine clinics. How did that happen?

UK leads new inner space race

But there aren’t nearly enough healers to dish out the medicine from its “world leading” scientists.

The New Bethlehem. Not like the Old Bedlam

Woods near ‘Bedlam’ asylum will house the NHS’ first purpose-built psychedelic ward.

Once and future Albion

Is this actually it? Builded here amongst the mills?

Issue #8

Emerging landscapes with Dr Bennet Zelner

Only psychedelic economics can save us now, says Dr Benjamin Zelner business advisor to Synthesis, MIND and more.

Healing of the Nation

New strategies inspired by nature are already being adopted by business leaders.

Re-Story-Ation

Ancient principles for living encourage a wondrous view of the world. Is this the ‘re-enchantment’ with life we need?

Complex cosmologies, explained

Syrupy new age spirituality cannot hope to illustrate our lived experience. What can?

Village Green Preservation Society

A quiet psychedelic revolution in health care has already happened down West Country way.

Infinite Debt to the Biosphere

“We are in infinite debt to the biosphere, that we cannot possibly hope to repay.” But let’s give it a go.

Kool-Aid Corner #8

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #7

Contemporary Research with Dr Rick Strassman

Who on an otherwise genteel psychedelic training course would casually riff on orgasms, prophets and brainwashed assassins? Dr Rick ‘Spirit Molecule’ Strassman.

Boldly going where no heads have gone before

Strassman and Andrew Gallimore’s seemingly lunatic plans for a ‘DMaTrix’ have become reality. If you can still call it that.

This may hurt a little…

Spare no sacred cows in your own work, is Dr Rick Strassman’s top tip for psychotherapists.

Holy vape pens, Metatron!

Arguing what DMT entities are is moot says Dr Strassman. Besides, they're angels.

The lollipop of optimism

The placebo effect is valid, “scientific, and real”. It could be behind the psychedelic experience.

Peak sexual experience

DMT could be key to women’s earth-shattering cervical ‘full body’ orgasms.

Kool-Aid Corner #7

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #6

Philosophy of Psychedelics with Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes

‘Psychedelic philosophy’ or ‘psy-phi’ aims to legitimise the culture of consciousness expansion. And much more.

Next Up, The Psychedelic Enlightenment

“Social, ethical, legal and metaphysical issues can undergo a transformation akin to psychedelic therapy” says an inspiring new movement, with beards to match.

Become one with your Moomin cup…

Can psychedelic philosophy explain the healing powers of the cosmic whole?

Who knows what lurks in the hearts of men and women?

The shadow, obvs. And it has unfinished business… with you.

More healthy, less normal

The performance enhancing and problem-solving powers of psychedelics are growing in legitimacy and acceptance.

Rising from the Ashes of God

A new mythology is the psychedelic philosophers’ highest ambition.

Kool-Aid Corner #6

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #4

The Early Psychedelic Years with Dr Bill Richards

Dr Bill Richards is a staple of the Postwar-era mystery school researching psychedelics. He’s now at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.

The Wisdom of the Human mind

Psychedelic treatment at John Hopkins’ and MAPS prompts our inner self to do the healing – in a radical change to exisiting therapies.

Healing with Laughter

It’s okay to get the giggles says John Hopkins’ Centre for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research professor Dr Bill Richards.

Cosmic Midwifery

Psychedelic therapy uses the guide approach, “creating a container” to encourage the voyager’s “own choreography of the experience” says Dr Richards.

Guess who’s back?

Everything you need to now about this season’s essential LSD revivial trend.

The Wrong Mysteries

What is a mystery school? Are we in one? Should we be? And what are we doing there?

Kool-Aid Corner #4

Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #5

Transpersonal psychology with Dr David Luke: Vital Student Zine #5

Dr David Luke is the real ‘new psychonaut’ pushing the boundaries of research here in London.

Transpersonal psychology is back and this time it’s real

Science meets the super-normal in Stanislav Grof’s school of mental health study developed around psychedelic therapy.

Mysteries of the psychedelic divine feminine

To Maria Papaspyrou the psychdelic feminine represents self-expression, spontaneity, intuition, inclination towards change, mindfulness, connection, and acceptance.

Strength of street knowledge

“What can the medical sector learn from the underground?’ Eveything,” says Dr David Luke.

DMT vs Death

Is DMT hyperspace the afterlife and do we become an ‘entity’ when we die?

Alchemy for the People

The psychedelic revolution is already happening.

Kool aid corner #5

Your five-corner round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #3

Shamanism, Philosophy, and Ancient Greece with Dr Lenny Gibson

Dreamshadow founder Dr Lenny Gibson’s winsome and poingnant presentation took in the ancient gods, Jesus, The Matter with Things author Iain McGhilchrist plus the Baka tribes… whose singing is “So beautiful the self melts away.”

Move any mountain with neo-shamanism

LSD is a promethean invention that has democratised the sacrament, and given humankind the ability to heal itself says Dr Lenny Gibson.

‘Celebrating the mysteries’ is the new euphemism of choice

The inner healer remains the preserve of the elite but its gatekeepers look ever more ridiculous.

Can you hold your own?

In psychedelic therapy as any other, you have to take some responsibility for your own mental health.

The Microdose Age

LSD’s flexibility and potential has been underestimated say thought leaders Beckley Psytech.

Learning to fly

Is there more to integration than walking in the woods while listening to John Hopkins?

Issue #2

Exploring Indigenous Traditions and Wisdom with Dr Joe Tafur

In Vital’s second lecture Dr Joe Tafur blew minds with a clinical overview of shamanic plant medicine healing. It included his staggering current research into conditions possibly related to epigentics that range from PTSD to cancer.

Saving lost souls for three million years. And now with MDMA

Could the love drug offer salvation to the lost?

Psychedelic therapy is an art first and a science second

You can train as a shaman with Dr Joe! But there’s a catch. You actually have to go and do it.

“It’s living in the jungle for four months, eating right,” says Tafur, “You can’t read it and write it.”

Songs in the key of life: energy and entropy

Mystic heaing is far from an established profession in the West. And cultural appropriation casts a deep shadow.

Spiritual healing could help cure epigenetic disease and transform treatment

“Ultimately we’re reopening metaphysics. The research is in review now and we’re looking forward to hsaring it with the world,” says Dr Tafur.

The Eagle and the Condor

This two thousand year-old propehcy that could be said to predict the colonisation of the Americas, the resulting cultural holocaust, and a re-emergence of mystical healing techniques.

Kool-Aid Corner

The reborn round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.

Issue #1

Why the Psychedelic Past is Important for the Future with Dr Erika Dyck

In Vital’s debut lecture ‘the first lady of LSD history’ presented an intriguing analysis casting new light on thorny modern-day issues, ranging from affordability and addiction orthodoxy to… chill out DJing.

This post contains an overview and more about Dr Dyck’s work which history buffs will fall upon.

Are ‘corporadelics’ doing enough for set, setting… and society?

Aesthetics pioneered by 50s researchers are sorely lacking down at your local ketamine clinic.

Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W’s LSD use inspired 12-Step and cured his depression

LSD treatment is most effective against the demon drink, says a 2020 report. AA founder Bill ‘W’ was ahead of the curve back in the Fifties.

Women invented chill out DJing

After Abram Hoffer’s wife Rose soothed a tripping patient by changing a jarring record to an elegant Bach number, she was thenceforth delegated I/C the tunes.

Thus began a legacy stretching from Rose to music therapy pioneers Hermione Browne and Helen Bonny… to 2022’s DJ Bus Replacement Service, obviously. That’s actually Delia Derbyshire in the picture.

Public opinion had a huge effect on research back then. It still does.

Social disapproval – not legislation – wiped out LSD testing in the 20th Century.

Architecture is the trippiest job

Osmond’s innovations included art therapy, autonomy for nurses, field trips, family visits and Kiyoshi ‘Kiyo’ Azumi’s revolutionary hospitals.

Kool-Aid Corner #1

The inaugural round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.