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.