What happens on Vital Psychedelic Training?

Organised by Psychedelics Today, the course has healing at its core, but covers subjects ranging throughout the sector.

Vital is a brand new course from the current leader in online psychedelic education for health professionals and the producers of the space’s number one podcast, Psychedelics Today. Its cirriculum features ‘training in the elements of psychedelic therapy and integration.’

For the uninitiated, ‘integration’ is the art of weaving an experience into regular life; holitsic philosophy and spirituality to consolidate the positive effects of a trip.

Class begins tomorrow at the time of writing on Bicycle Day, the anniversary of Albert Hoffman’s first intentional LSD trip of 19 April 1943. I’m writing this after the initial welcome Zoom. Turns out there are just under 130 of us students, gathered from the four corners of the globe. Actually, it was by far the most exotic Zoom I’ve been on. There was something of a moment when co-founder Kyle Buller asked us to chat-post where we were calling from, resulting in a a pan-global roll call.

I opted for Vital’s programme because it struck me as intellectually robust, forward-facing and splendid value for money. Five modules cover: heritage, a snapshot of the contemporary sector, the assisted experience process itself, medical specifics, and the aforementioned integration.

The training includes the acumen required to oversee and improve psychedelic sessions. That’s whether the intention is therapeutic, entheogenic spiritual trips, or in performance fields like problem solving.

More basic background – this is known as ‘guiding’. ‘Guides’ don’t necessarily offer qualified psychotherapy in addition, although that’s far from unknown. Usually though specialist collaborators are recruited case by case as requested or required. Plus guides don’t ingest any hallucinogens themselves. They provide a fothold in reality for the ‘voyager’. This area of the course cirriculum draws on knowledge drawn from scientific experiments, diverse international tradition, and subcultures both reverent and recreational.

Vital also provides an overview of the burgeoning industry as a whole. There’s a variety of preset mini-modules in related fields. Sure, Vital’s primarily aimed at doctors, therapists, counsellors and coaches wanting to get completely clued up… and who are in a position to monetise the skills straight away. But it also makes sense for any professionals working in the field or with aspirations thereto. Trainees get over 180 hours of live and assisted study, a private online community, a choice of six international retreats, access to umpteen hours of material, and more.

A stellar line-up of live lecturers ranges from frontiersmen like John Hopkins’ Bill Richards and Rick ‘The Spirit Molecule’ Strassman to contemporary names such as AWAKN’s Ben Sessa, Numinus’ Devon Christie, and Imperial College Centre for Psychedelic Research’s David Luke.

The faculty even includes psychologist Dick ‘Internal Family Systems’ Schwartz. Adele La France, Erika Dyck and Ido Cohen are among the compelling voices I’ve discovered during my initial skim of the faculty.

To cap it all my study group tutor is Johanna Hilla from the Philosophy and Psychedelics Exeter Research Group, based in Britain’s West Country. (Where I grew up. Not exotic). Preorder its forthcoming edited essays now. Johanna wrote her master’s thesis on Carl Jung’s Red Book and lists ‘Western Esotericism’ as an interest in her official bio, which are exceptional characteristics in a teacher if you ask me.

Now I must cram research module one, Psychedelic Therapies: Historical and Current Approaches.

You can go straight through to Vital’s website for direct info on the course, refer to its online resources and not this site for specifics.