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(de) Criticism and future of the psychedelic movement  – Henrik Jungaberle

Criticism and future of the psychedelic movement. Self-awareness, therapy, research, art and public space

There is still – or again – the “psychedelic movement”. Where does she want to go, how could she develop in the coming decades? Does it have the potential to organize itself and even contribute to the solution of current humanity problems, as many of its protagonists claim? If so, how much mainstream wants and can this movement be?
Unlike in the 1960s, it sees itself only in part as a cultural-revolutionary reform movement. Rather, it has become pluralistic, spanning much of western society, part of global society, and incorporating contradictory tendencies. In addition to a differentiated party and festival culture, it consists of opposing psychotherapeutic currents that also inspire self-treatment and psychonauts around the world; there is a small but globally networked science scene; a wide-ranging life-help and ideological literature that also fuels esoteric, mystical, queer and philosophical spiritualities; besides, in the last twenty years there are increasing neo-religious tendencies using traditional forms of community building and identity politics (the church, the guru, the healer, the shamanism concept); diverse art forms are inspired by the psychedelic experience or tradition – with still strong influence of the aesthetics of the 1960s. And there are, of course, conspiracy theorists, escapists and ecologists, not infrequently but also (pre- or post) psychotic individuals who influence the development of the psychedelic cause. Which thing actually?

In this lecture, I am concerned with (1) identifying key issues of the psychedelic movement since the 1960s and revealing internal contradictions that discourage their further development, (2) developing a not always quite serious typology of psychedelic personality, diversity to better understand the ways of thinking and approaches in the psychedelic field, (3) to make some suggestions on how to develop the psychedelic movement in Germany and around the world.

The author does not believe in “entheoscience”, but believes that the sciences are pluralistic and diverse enough to describe, evaluate and criticize the fascinating subjective and social phenomena surrounding the use of psychedelics (κριτική [τέχνη] ( It just needs more humor, methodology and money – oh so: and sobriety.

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