Psychedelics are steadily moving from the fringes of counterculture to the heart of mainstream society, driven by a growing body of research and shifting public perception. Once relegated to underground movements, substances like psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA are now being explored for their potential in treating mental health conditions such as depression, PTSD, and anxiety. High-profile studies at institutions like Johns Hopkins and Stanford have highlighted their therapeutic benefits, while cities like Denver and Oakland have decriminalized their use. In addition, psychedelic retreats, wellness practices, and even art and tech industries are embracing these substances as tools for creativity, self-discovery, and healing. As psychedelics shed their stigma, they are catalyzing a broader conversation about mental health, spirituality, and the boundaries of human consciousness.
This panel will feature Diana Negrin, Lecturer of Geography at UC Berkeley; David Presti, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley; Charles Hirschkind, Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley; and Graham Pechenik, a patent attorney and founder of Calyx Law. Poulomi Saha, Associate Professor of English and Co-director of the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, will moderate.
Matrix On Point is a discussion series promoting focused, cross-disciplinary conversations on today’s most pressing issues. Offering opportunities for scholarly exchange and interaction, each Matrix On Point features the perspectives of leading scholars and specialists from different disciplines, followed by an open conversation. These thought-provoking events are free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry, the Center for Research on Social Change, the UC Berkeley Department of English, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.
Panelists
Charles Hirschkind is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests concern religious practice, media technologies, and emergent forms of political community in the Middle East and Europe. His publications include books, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics (Columbia 2006), Powers of the Secular Modern: Talal Asad and his Interlocutors (co-edited with David Scott, Stanford 2005), and The Feeling of History: Islam, Romanticism, and Andalusia (Chicago, 2020).
Diana Negrin is a Lecturer in Geography at UC Berkeley whose research focuses on identity, space and social movements in Latin America and the United States. Since 2003, Professor Negrin has conducted ethnographic and archival research in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Her new book, Racial Alterity, Wixarika Youth Activism, and the Right to the Mexican City, sheds light on the racialized history, urban transformation, and contemporary Indigenous activism of a region of Mexico that has remained at the margins of scholarship. Professor Negrin’s current project seeks to document the impact of global entheogen commodification on sacred Indigenous lands caused by the agro-industrial expansion and peyote tourism, focusing on the preservation of Indigenous rights and the defense of ancestral lands against extractive practices.
Graham Pechenik a patent attorney and founder of Calyx Law, a legal practice focused on cannabis and psychedelics. Pechenik contributes to Psychedelic Alpha as editor-at-large, where he writes about psychedelics IP, provides data for patent trackers, and helps maintain a psychedelics legalization and decriminalization tracker. Graham is also a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants.
David Presti is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. His areas of interest and expertise include human neurobiology and neurochemistry, the effects of drugs on the brain and the mind, the clinical treatment of addiction, the evolving conversation between cognitive science and Buddhist philosophy, and the scientific study of mind and consciousness. Professor Presti is the author of Foundational Concepts in Neuroscience: A Brain-Mind Odyssey (Norton, 2016), Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal (Columbia, 2018), and the public-education course Psychedelics and the Mind (edX, 2023).
Poulomi Saha (moderator) is an Associate Professor of English and Co-director of the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley. Professor Saha works at the intersections of American studies, psychoanalytic critique, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial studies. They are interested in questions of racialization, regulation of gender and sexuality, and politics of resistance. As a Flourish Fellow at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, Professor Saha explores the intersections of mysticism, psychedelics, and critical theory from spiritual, psychoanalytic, and sociological perspectives. Their project aims to rejuvenate the emancipatory potential of critical theory through the lens of psychedelic experiences.