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

My unofficial Vital Study Zine #1 with observations from Vital Psychedelic Training and recent happenings in the space


Humphry Osmond attends a peyote ceremony in 1956

‘The first lady of LSD history’ lectured on the progressive, pioneering research of Humphry Osmond – inventor of the word ‘psychedelic’ – and Abram Hoffer in remote Saskatchewan from 1951.

Osmond, a British expat, was observing Native American peyote ceremonies by 1956. A year later he coined the term ‘psychedelic’ in his correspondence with Aldous Huxley. Hoffer trailblazed nutritional approaches like fasting and vitamin treatments.

I studied history at university (specialising in Renaissance Florence and the Medici, cheers) so Vital’s inaugural week lay seductively inside my comfort zone. I seized the opportunity to go down a historical rabbit hole… and this zine is longer than future weekly updates will be. Stay locked for bonus history posts out of all the feverishly downloaded PDFs.

Dr Dyck recently published graphic novel Wonder Drug: LSD in the Land of Living Skies, Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD on the Canadian Prairies and  Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond. The latter she painstakingly assembled from private collections and museums alongside a team of volunteers. She’s identified the first woman to take LSD, Albert Hoffman’s assistant Susi Ramstein Weber – who also served as spontaneous sitter on Albert’s first two trips.

Dr Dyck is a key contributor to The Chacruna Institute of Psychedelic Plant Medicines, an organisation founded by Brazilian anthropologist Dr. Bia Labate ‘promoting a bridge between “traditional ceremonial use” and clinical and therapeutic settings.’

You can watch her regular lecture on Psychedelic History in Canada on YouTube, plus I thoroughly recommend What about Mrs Psychedelic? And a bunch more I put on this YouTube resource channel.

These five items I pulled from the week’s research are themed along Vital’s natural element-themed structure. Air – ‘Approach’ – provides an overview of psychedelic use, Fire concerns therapeutic applications, Water covers ‘space holding’ – the art of keeping it together, Earth is where you’ll find medical matters, and Ether discusses integration, the process of bringing psychedelic power into regular life. Click straight through to your pet subject below or just go back a page.

Approach: Are 21st Century ‘corporadelics’ doing enough for spirit, set, setting… and society?

Therapy: Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W saw 12-step in a psychedelic vision and cured his depression with LSD

Space: Women Invented chill-out DJing

Medical: Public opinion counted a lot back then in things like pharmaceutical intervention. It still does

Integral: Original architect tripper ‘Kiyo’ Azumi was a core member of the Weyburn team and tripped with the nurses

Kool-Aid Corner: To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life

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