🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that sees God (/source/consciousness/life) in everything. Even a little ol’ email like this. 👉👈

Here’s what we got this week.

• The controversial study on psilocybin and religion 💒

• atai and Beckley Psytech plan to merge 🤝

• WVU student solves Hofmann’s LSD mystery 🫆

• Win a pair of tickets to Poranguí 🪇

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Life finds a way: After psychedelics, people sense that their life has more meaning.
Good to know: Researchers confirmed it’s safe to administer a six-hour DMT infusion.
K-ching: Expanded access to ketamine could lead to $828 million of annual savings to society.
Clusterbusters: 9 out of 9 patients with chronic cluster headaches, who failed on conventional treatments, responded to psilocybin, LSD, or ketamine.
Not that it’s a competition: Psilocybin produced stronger mystical experiences and changes in personality, mindfulness, and connectedness than MDMA in a healthy population.

🏛️ Policy

It’s go time: Colorado’s psychedelics program is now fully launched for operations.
Homeward bound: A federal court ruled that a case against Oregon, demanding at-home psilocybin service accommodations for disabled people, may proceed.
Play by your own rules: Oregon Psilocybin Services is taking applications to serve on its Rules Advisory Committee.
Intention setting: New Mexico is preparing for the 2027 rollout of medical psilocybin.
Czech mate: The Czech Republic is on track to become the third country in the world to allow medical access to psilocybin.

📈 Business

Lessons learned: Psychedelic drug developers are adapting their trial designs based on the Lykos stumble.
Schmooze-ready: Compass Pathways named a former Senator as its first in-house lobbyist.
New medicine: Lophora dosed the first healthy volunteers in a Phase 1 trial of its novel psychedelic compound.
Move it or lose it: Rose Hill Life Sciences is commercializing John Hopkins’ IP related to helping patients restore motor function with psychedelic therapy.
Zucked: Meta has been cracking down on psychedelic Instagram and Facebook accounts. Plant Media Project is collecting info from affected groups to organize a response.

🫠 Just for fun

Third eye open: Psychedelics reveal hidden aspects of reality that sit outside our normal range of perception.
Not the best example: The Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers is apparently turning people onto psychedelic retreats.
Back to square one: Two leading theories on the nature of consciousness went head to head, and (unsurprisingly) it’s a still the greatest mystery ever.
That’s a relief: Two hikers reported a death on the trail. It turned out they were just tripping.
Meme of the week: This could be us but you won’t try psychedelics with me…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Sacred science

Got a complicated relationship with religion? Join the club.

Other members include Kanye West, people who only pray during flight turbulence, and (now) the psychedelic research community.

After years of delays, we finally got the results from Johns Hopkins' infamous psilocybin study on religious leaders. From a data perspective, the research doesn’t disappoint.

But unfortunately, the divine revelations came with a side of federal violations that would make even a televangelist blush. We’ll get to that.

First, let’s break down the findings. The study, led by the late Roland Griffiths, gave psilocybin to 29 religious leaders from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Here's what happened when they met the mushroom.

• 🏆 Journey of a lifetime: 96% rated their psilocybin experience among the top five most spiritually significant of their life.

• 🗣️ Pulpit power: 79% said it made them more effective religious leaders.

• 💗 Interfaith respect: 71% reported increased appreciation for other religious traditions.

• 🤌 Run it back: 88% wanted to take psilocybin again under legal circumstances.

The effects were durable, too. At 16-month follow-up, the clergy still reported a positive impact on prayer, spiritual awareness, and job performance. Several even called it "the single most profound experience" of their life.

Now here's where things get unholy. Earlier this year, Johns Hopkins confirmed that the study violated federal human subjects protections in multiple ways, including undisclosed conflicts of interest, unapproved team members, and hidden funding sources. The violations were so bad that they had to be reported to the FDA.

We don't doubt these leaders had genuinely life-changing experiences. Not in the slightest. But if researchers want to prove that psychedelic trips are the “common core” of all religions…

They might consider swapping a few God-fearing team members for IRB-fearing ones. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

When two become one

Looks like atai Life Sciences and Beckley Psytech are about to experience some corporate non-duality. The two psychedelic biotechs just announced plans to merge into a single entity called "atai Beckley." But the $390 million all-stock deal only goes through if Beckley's intranasal 5-MeO-DMT is successful in its Phase 2b trial. Is this the M&A equivalent of ego death and integration?

Insiders have been whispering about a full buyout like this ever since atai dropped $50 million for a chunk of Beckley last year. For atai, the merger means consolidating its position in what could be a commercially viable psychedelic asset. (The fast-acting nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression wouldn’t require hours of therapy.) And Beckley gets the resources of a NASDAQ-listed company to bring the synthetic toad medicine to market.

The timing feels bittersweet, though. Not even two weeks ago, Lady Amanda Feilding, the psychedelic research pioneer who co-founded Beckley with her son, passed away. With Phase 2b results expected any month now, we'll find out soon enough if these companies can walk the walk of unity consciousness and honor her legacy under the new name.

All-natural LSD

Some of the biggest scientific discoveries in history have happened by accident. Penicillin came from moldy bread; X-rays were discovered while studying cathode rays; shoot, even Viagra was originally a heart medication. Now add this to the list: a West Virginia University student just solved an 80-year-old psychedelic mystery while studying plant roots.

Corinne Hazel, a junior studying environmental microbiology, discovered the elusive fungus that Albert Hofmann (the LSD chemist of Bicycle Day fame) had been hunting for since the 1930s. Hofmann suspected this fungus existed because morning glories contain ergot alkaloids like the ones he used to create LSD. But nobody could find it… until now. Hazel spotted some "fuzz" in discarded seed coats, cultured it, and boom. Genome sequencing confirmed it was a completely new species, which she’s named Periglandula clandestina.

To be clear, the fungus doesn’t produce LSD, per se. But it is a biological factory of psychedelic, LSD-like alkaloids, which could be used to derive all sorts of new treatments for depression, migraines, Parkinson’s, and more. To the synthetic drug skeptics, we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether this qualifies LSD as natural. “Fuzz medicine” has a nice ring to it, no?

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🎟️ Giveaway: Win a free pair of tickets to Tandava’s kickoff party for Psychedelic Science 2025 with musical performances from Poranguí and Savej.

• 🌌 Free Summit: The Expanded States of Consciousness Mega-Summit is a free, 10-day online event featuring 90 experts, including Paul Stamets, Wim Hof, Stan and Brigitte Grof, and many more.

• 🪖 Webinar: Althea and Heroic Hearts Project are co-hosting a free 2-hour training for psychedelic facilitators on how to work with veterans.

• 🥀 Apothecary: Anima Mundi has one of the most robust assortments of herbal medicines and spiritual tools we’ve found. We’re fond of their lucid dreaming collection.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.