The overarching theme of Psykedeelit 2027 – The 4th Finnish Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelics is Integrating Psychedelics.
The conference welcomes submissions related to psychedelic substances or other psychedelic phenomena from all fields of science. However, we particularly invite submissions relating to the broad theme of integration.
The call for papers is now open until March 31, 2027. Submit your abstract for an oral presentation or poster here.
You will receive notification of the acceptance or otherwise of your submission by the end of April, 2027. Please note that all presentations are to be delivered in person in Tampere, Finland, on September 30 – October 2, 2027.
Conference Theme: Integrating Psychedelics
In the context of psychedelics, integration can mean many things at many levels, and we hope to explore as many of them as we can.
First, many argue that psychedelic experiences require conscious, perhaps guided, integration in the days and weeks following ingestion to make sense of the experience and translate it into lasting change. Integration activities vary widely both in clinical trials and real-life contexts of psychedelics use. What is the evidence base for best practices and potential pitfalls of different approaches to integration? Who is qualified to offer integration? What does integration mean in ritual or community contexts?
Second, how do individuals integrate insights, perspectives, and new information from psychedelic experiences into their identities, relationships, beliefs, and worldviews? Are true lasting changes common? When are such changes adaptive and welcome, when are they problematic? What happens when experiences are too disruptive, ill-fitting, strange, or even destabilizing to be integrated? Does “successful integration” sometimes mean making a radical experience socially acceptable and non-threatening?
Third, the first classic psychedelics may be approved as medicines within the next year. Several countries already allow prescription of psychedelics under compassionate care programs. Can psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapies really be integrated into existing systems of (psychiatric) healthcare? How, where, and to what extent? Is something lost in the process? Will the integration of psychedelics change psychiatry?
Fourth, as more people are using psychedelics, how are they integrating and being integrated into our societies and cultures, including wellness industries, capital markets, and social life? What risks, tensions, possibilities, and benefits does the mainstreaming of psychedelics introduce? Who benefits? What is lost?
Fifth, is genuine integration across different fields of science and/or epistemologies possible? Can neuroscientific, psychological, philosophical, and anthropological inquiries into psychedelics come together to provide a coherent picture? Do psychedelic experiences relay information of real value for understanding consciousness, the brain, or the nature of reality? Is it possible, or even right, to integrate indigenous or traditional knowledge relating to psychedelics into academic research or clinical work? Or is integration just another word for smoothing over genuine tensions? Is polite co-existence the best we can hope for?
Across disciplines, scales, levels of explanation, what does it mean to put the pieces together? Are we integrating psychedelics? And to what extent is it possible?