Mike Jay

In the modern west, the dazzling visions generated by mescaline laid the foundations for psychedelic art. In non-western cultures, the mescaline-containing cacti have generated their own distinctive visual traditions.

Using rarely seen images, Mike Jay surveys the long history of mescaline-related art: from the Huichol of tribal Mexico to the Native American Church, from surrealism and the avant-garde to the emergence of modern psychedelic tropes in the 1950s. In the process he considers what we mean by psychedelic art, and how it relates to the experience that underlies it.

Alison Pouliot

In recent decades, mycologists and mycophiles have worked to dispel the myths and misunderstandings that have historically maligned fungi. Many of those arose before we understood their ways. Yet misinformation around mushrooms persists, fuelled at times by a fetish for sensationalism and misguided perceptions of risk.

Ethnomycological knowledge has filtered down through generations of cultures around the world, across the millennia. A wide spectrum of species used as food and medicine, in rituals and more reflects the rich and contextualised understanding arising from direct observation and deep hanging out with fungi.

Graham St John

Terence McKenna was the 20th century’s psychedelic renaissance man. In this talk, we’ll squeeze into the back seat of McKenna’s 1997 tour of Australia. For a brief moment in Feb/Mar of that year, McKenna served as alien frontman for the Aussie experimental music underground. In our journey, we’ll explore the visitor’s enigmatic stature as a cult figure, novelty theorist, and psychedelic prophet with an untiring vision: that the clock is running down on history.

Mike Jay

Mescaline was the original psychedelic: the term was coined by Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond after Huxley's first trip in 1953. But it had already played many roles throughout history and around the globe. Since the 1890s its hallucinogenic properties had been described in detail by western scientists, artists and philosophers; and the cacti from which it was derived, peyote and huachuma (San Pedro), had been used in indigenous American cultures for millennia.

Mike Jay surveys mescaline's epic journey, and its impact across modernity from psychology to art, medicine to counterculture.

Clark Scott Taylor

An autobiographical tale narrated by a close witness to a curious life, this is meant to be a guided journey through my experience of the early days of psychedelic culture in the United States. 
I feel drawn to share. Some of these tales cannot be had again by anyone. Some are evidence of Dr Lilly’s “Earth Coincidence Control Office” hard at work.



I set out as a young fella to explore the range of possibilities of my mind, and to find others who were doing the same. It was a time of discovery. Boundaries unseen were discovered, crashed into, dissolved, and passed through… those left behind often had no idea where I went, or what life I had found on the other side. It was a liminal time, a time between realities in which there was loss and gain and change. I embraced it all.


Harry Pack

In this talk, artist Harry Pack explores how creative expression can be a powerful tool for integrating altered states, supporting mental health, and deepening self-understanding. Drawing from his own journey, he shares how art has helped him make sense of visionary experiences and emotional healing.

He will introduce The Purple UFO, a collaborative platform that uses art as a bridge between inner transformation and community connection—bringing people together through shared creativity, nature-inspired practice, and open conversation around consciousness and integration.

Alex K. Gearin

Across the globe, psychedelic medicine is provided through a striking diversity of practitioners and settings. This includes psychedelic therapists, assistants, curanderos, maestros, chaplains, facilitators, coaches, guides, companions, neo-shamans, and others. While psychedelic substances travel easily enough today, the ways of guiding them vary considerably.

Petra Skeffington and Dr Stephen Bright

This presentation will explore what we have learned through the lived experiences of individuals undergoing Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy about the suitability of these treatments in a range of different clinical and non-clinical settings. Our aim is not to advocate for one approach over the other, but to clarify the different roles that these therapies can play in healing, depending on the individual and their circumstances.

Caine Barlow

The past decade has seen a significant turnaround in our understanding of the genus Psilocybe in Australia, with passionate citizen scientists contributing to a deepening understanding of ecology and distribution of many species.

This talk examines both well known species of Psilocybe, reviewing what we know, and discussing new species being found which have contributed to a dynamic picture of species over space and time.

Martin Williams

Psilocybin is a Schedule 1 Prohibited Substance in most parts of the world, but various jurisdictions are enabling access to psilocybin by one (or both) of two pathways: decriminalisation and legalisation. This talk will provide an overview of the current legal status and models of access to psilocybin in various countries, and the way forward in medical and non-clinical contexts.

Kayla Greenstien

Current psychedelic training and practice in Australia are shaped by transpersonal and spiritual frameworks that carry long-standing ethical concerns. This talk takes a critical feminist approach to understanding how these frameworks became uncritically embedded in clinical practice, and why this is a problem.

Samuel Douglas

What happens after the dream dies? After it’s co-opted, diluted, and sold back to us in government-approved doses for those who can afford it, while those who can’t risk their freedom for a glimpse of transcendence? This talk is for those sitting with the weight of these questions.

Nen

This talk will look at some of the lesser-known but fairly common medicinal and psychoactive compounds in Acacia sensu lato (worldwide) which have important applications, barely yet explored by the scientific world. Also, we will look at the profound cultural/spiritual significance of these trees, which sets them apart from other kinds of healing or sacred plants.

Caine Barlow and Dr Simon Beck

Caine Barlow and Dr Simon Beck ran a citizen-science survey aiming to provide the first systematic description of the “wood-lover paralysis” phenomenon and try to identify any clear factors that might predict or explain the seemingly random nature of its occurrence. Join them to learn about the findings, their thoughts on several theories about the phenomenon, their experience of trying to undertake the research, observations on the spread of (mis)information and their harm reduction advice.

Mohammad Reza Mirzadeh

Psilocin, psilocybin and the associated tryptamines are psychoactive alkaloids which are naturally synthesised by Psilocybe (Fr.) P.Kumm. fungi, commonly referred to as magic mushrooms. These psychoactive fungi were and may still be used in traditional healing rituals, particularly by certain ethnic groups for mental healing, influencing modern psychedelic studies. Since these substances are intermittently determined in analytical laboratories, validated methods for fast, accurate and reliable analysis are in demand.

Nick Sun

Many Indigenous ways of knowing are based in whole-body perception, while the modern West is primarily a mind-centred culture. The consequences of living in a mind-centred culture are evident in the many crises we are going through at the moment, as the product of the mind as a primary navigation tool is to separate and divide you from both a holistic sense of beingness within the world and the present moment. This fundamental disconnection is what lies at the root of the environmental crisis, the mental health crisis and many of the other situations we currently find ourselves in.

Snu Voogelbreinder

The region known today as the Middle East has a rich history, birthing streams of culture, religion and civilization that have helped form the modern world, and psychoactive plants have played a large role in the background.

Discussions around the use of psychoactive plants in the region are usually historical and focused mainly on their relation to Judaeo-Christian scriptures and traditions. In this presentation we will go further and explore other uses of plants and fungi amongst the diverse cultures of the region, both historic and contemporary.

Vanessa Kelly

In the deep Gabonese Jungle, on the central west coast of Africa, exists a trib of people known as Missoko Bwiti.  They are most well known for their use of the Iboga root bark for healing, ceremony and Shamanistic practices.