Rosalind (Ros) Stone is a media strategist with 8+ years´ specialised experience in communications regarding psychedelic research and policy reform. Transfixed by the intertwining of policy, stigma and public perception, she co-hosts the language-focussed discussion series The Semantrix Sessions. She is currently Press Officer for Breaking Convention, and coordinates outreach for the Bassé Root church and Onaya’s new Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
Chris Timmermann obtained his PhD in 2020, at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. He is currently a research fellow in the same university, where he leads the DMT Research Group, studying the mechanisms of action of the potent psychedelics N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. His empirical and theoretical work employs an interdisciplinary approach to the neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and ethics of psychedelics, their relationship to consciousness and applications in mental health. The aim of his work is to explore altered states, such as psychedelics and meditation, to understand their contribution to the study of human consciousness and their impact on mental health. His work has been published in high-regarded scientific journals and covered by mass media outlets (BBC, CBC, Wired, The Times, New Scientist).
Benjamin Mudge is the founder of Bipolar Disorder CIC: a not-for-profit community interest company doing advocacy, education, mentoring and research work for people with bipolar disorder. He has nearly finished a PhD in Psychiatry at Flinders University, researching the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca ceremonies for people with bipolar disorder. He taught himself the science of bipolar disorder to cope with his own personal experience of it, while he was a psychiatric patient and working at neuroscience laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline. After psychiatrists prescribed him a series of 17 different pharmaceuticals (all of which had adverse effects), he walked away from pharmaceutical psychiatry and searched for his own medical solution to living with manic depression that is compatible with creativity, spirituality and exuberance. He has been managing his bipolar condition with ayahuasca for 18 years, without any need for pharmaceutical medication. His vision is to make sacred ayahuasca ceremonies available to bipolar people as an alternative treatment to pharmaceutical drugs and has a developed a unique recipe of ayahuasca and a special ceremony protocol that optimizes safety and efficacy for bipolar people. Mudge has a background of activism in peace, anti-apartheid and feminist movements and led the mission to the Parliament of the World’s Religions that succeeded in receiving the Parliament’s recognition of ayahuasca ceremonies as legitimate religious practices. His spirit is expressed via two music projects: Santa Estrela and Mudge FM.
Rosalind completed her BA in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, followed by her MRes in Developmental Neuroscience at UCL/Yale. She is currently completing her PhD in Mental Health Science at UCL, where her research focusses on investigating the neural and subjective effects of various psychedelic substances (5-MeO-DMT, psilocybin), in both research and retreat settings. She has a particular interest in psychedelic preparedness and the crossover between psychedelic science and contemplative practice
Dr Martha Newson is a cognitive anthropologist and Future Leaders Fellowship known for her work on group bonding, social identity, and the psychology of rituals. She has a particular focus on how these dynamics relate to extreme behaviours, such as those observed in football fan communities, prisons and rave culture, as well as in therapeutic and ritual contexts involving psychedelics. Martha is Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Greenwich, and Leader of the Changing Lives Lab Group at the University of Oxford.
Dr David Luke is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich. His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, such as Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, conducting DMT field experiments or observing apparent weather control with Mexican shamans he manages a small ancient woodland and is a cofounder and trustee of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. He lives life on the edge, of Sussex, England.
Tehseen Noorani studies the co-evolving epistemics, therapeutics & economics of extreme experiences. He is an interdisciplinary social scientist based in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, where he co-leads the project, Community Strategising about Psychedelic Therapy in Aotearoa. Tehseen also convenes the Reimagining Psychedelic Trials working group.