Below is a list of the lectures we offer on psychedelics. The lectures can be adapted as desired and combined for professional days or the like. We first present the lectures to healthcare personnel, then also to a wider audience.

1) Professional update for healthcare personnel

Standard induction seminar for healthcare professionals required to be up-to-date in the field, answer knowledge-based when the patient asks, understand the main problems and important clinical processes:

MDMA-assisted therapy: History, rationale, research status and presentation of video-based case material (2-3 hours)

Classic psychedelics: History, rationale, risk, research status and current issues (2-3 hours)

The lectures can be combined within a time frame of at least 4 hours, but are recommended as separate half-day seminars or part of a full academic day, for even more time for depth and dialogue.

2) Deeper, narrower and looser in the neck

In-depth lectures after the introductory seminar, or individual lectures in more informal settings. The lectures provide clinically relevant knowledge, but several also have a more intellectual and entertaining feel. Duration 45-90 minutes.

Psychedelics and Creative Problem Solving:

How and why psychedelics have become Silicon Valley's new brain medicine. From early research via Steve Jobs to Nobel laureates: Can psychedelics-induced temporary increases in neurodiversity have evolutionary significance, and what can we learn from this? From microdoses to macrodoses.

Historical Uses of Psychedelic Plants: Our cultural circle as a historical anomaly?

While cultures around the world from time immemorial, from Mesoamerica to ancient Greece, have found a place for psychedelics, we have banned it all: From sacrament and plant medicine, via the work of the devil, symbol of counterculture, dangerous narcotic, to modern Western medicine. 

Opening the Heart and Expanding Consciousness: What Can We Learn from MDMA and Psychedelics? 

What do we learn about the human mind from witnessing the processes by which closed hearts are opened and narrowed minds are expanded? How can this knowledge inform ordinary clinical practice and how can it help us understand ourselves?

Psychedelics and sustainability: From egoism to “eco-ism"?

Psychedelics are known to restore our connection to nature. The Extinction Rebellion movement sprung from a psychedelic experience and the Netflix documentary series about psychedelics ends pompously with the fact that help to expand our minds can ensure the planet's survival. How naive is it to think that psychedelics can contribute to a greener world?

MDMA-assisted therapy in trauma treatment:

Theory, rationale, methodology, experiences and video material: How does MDMA-assisted therapy relate to existing trauma treatment methods? Can MDMA catalyze the healing processes that are concerned with different treatment traditions?

Lines of development for classic psychedelics in Western psychiatry:

From psychosis-like, to neuroplastic and immunoprotective substances. From Transcendental Climax Experiences to Psycholytic Therapy - Tools for Slow Personality Integration. From a psychodynamic framework of understanding to integration with third wave cognitive behavioral therapies.

The history of psychedelic therapy in Norway and the Nordic countries

From the brothers Schelderup and Gordon Johnson at Modum Bad, to re- and re-traumatization in the LSD basement at Fredriksbergs hospital, Denmark. From treatment optimism to changing political winds and

Here you can read more about how Our lecturers set up lectures.

Psychedelics, consciousness and spirituality: Science meets the sacred

Discussions of non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by psychedelics: From William James and Abraham Maslow, via modern neuroscience to academic-theological discussions and Eastern wisdom traditions. Traditional cultures exalt altered states of consciousness, we see them as intoxications. Theologians are unable to distinguish mystical experiences induced by psychedelics from naturally occurring spiritual revelations. What should we think about these conditions?

Get in touch immediately to get an offer for a lecture on psychedelics or other topics. Please indicate some current times. We also offer a wide range of specialist days, including in the field of trauma and substance abuse treatment.

Also check for updates about spring online course activity here.

We'd love to hear from you. Contact ivar@psykologvirke.no or use the contact form below.