PSYCHEDELICS, ART, CREATIVITY AND ART THERAPY RESOURCES
Our mission is to make the benefits of art, creativity, and the Art Therapy process safely and easily accessible to psychonauts, facilitators, researchers, academic institutions, organizations, and anyone exploring the world of psychedelics and non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC).
We are passionate about providing resources and supporting research, community-based collaboration, career development, and personal inquiry around the growing understanding of this unique intersection.
Welcome to an evolving portal of resources designed for you and anyone that might be interested in the crossover of
Psychedelics, Art, Art Therapy, Creativity, and Non-Ordinary States Consciousness.
Here you’ll find resources that can help you explore this area further.
A list of Art Therapists/Expressive Therapists doing this work
Video and audio recordings of people speaking to this topic
Communities where you connect with others with these interests
Psychedelic training programs
Psychedelic organizations and psychedelic news sources
Art Therapy organizations
Museums and venues that feature psychedelic/visionary art
List of Visionary Artists
Reference list of relevant articles in the crossover of psychedelics, art, creativity, and art therapy
If there is anything you think we should add, please reach out to info@psychedelicarttherapynetwork.org
Why Art and Psychedelics?
If you are arriving at this page, you probably have some interest in the way that psychedelics, art, creativity, and/or art therapy have been or can be related. Art and Psychedelics have been interwoven throughout the ages. In fact, it is through art that wee know about our history with these magical substances. This is likely because of the powerful visual nature of the psychedelic experience and the spectacular imagery that Visionary Artists have brought to the world. The arc of art’s relationship is rich and worthy of a deep dive. This website is devoted to sharing resources with you that can start you on that journey.
Psychedelics Redux
As you may know, psychedelics are experiencing a resurgence of clinical research and a gradual softening of stigma after 50 years of prohibition. That stranglehold, imposed by the politically and socially corrupt War on Drugs, has finally begun to loosen. Now many of these medicines are thankfully being decriminalized and even legalized. What appears to be emerging through the growing body of research is their ability to improve wellbeing and treat challenging problems like PTSD, anxiety, addictions, trauma, treatment resistant depression and end-of-life distress.
You can imagine the profound impact this could have for people who are struggling with conditions that have left them feeling helpless, hopeless, and trapped in their despair.
The benefits of psychedelics seem to reside in their capacity to promote neuroplasticity, dampen fear responses, loosen preconceived beliefs, dissolve the ego and the sense of being separate from others and the environment, increase feelings of unity, and access mystical, transpersonal states. Perhaps most importantly, they take us out of our ordinary existence and into something bigger.
Art therapy is really well matched for this work because, like psychedelics, artmaking taps into parts of the mind and consciousness not easily accessible during ordinary waking states and circumvents our verbal and cognitive defenses. Art helps us “capture the download” by externalizing the experience into concrete form so we can then engage with a tangible artifact of our consciousness. Art also helps to ground it and gives us ways to engage more meaningfully with extraordinary experiences that can be so difficult to verbally articulate. Psychedelics take us to the deepest reaches of consciousness and art brings that back for us to see. It makes effable the ineffable!
Caveats
Before you proceed, we put forth what we consider to be very important caveats:
We are not advocating the use of drugs.
We are also not shaming the use of drugs.
People use psychedelic for many reasons, not all of them clinical (e.g. self-exploration, bonding with others, enhancing creativity, learning more about consciousness, etc.)
Psychedelics are not the panacea for all woes in this world, either personal or collective.
Tread very lightly. Psychedelics journeys can be very challenging–physically, emotionally, psychologically, psychically, and interpersonally.
Proper support is critical, especially with preparation, set & setting, and establishing safety.
Help with integration has been proven to make a big difference both in managing difficult experiences and maximizing benefits from the journey.
Psychedelics have social, political, and cultural complexities that makes access to them more difficult for some than others and that have consequences that are not always beneficial, especially for indigenous groups from which many of the medicines and the practices that surround them originate.
Psychedelics can trigger traumatic memories and responses, therefore people facilitating this work should receive training in working with trauma.
Bringing art into psychedelic work is a natural match but art, just like psychedelics, can open us up and so we suggest that people get training in how to introduce art into psychedelic work safely and ethically. Click here for a list of practitioners doing this work.
We are still learning about psychedelics and so we must proceed with caution–they hold great promise but there is still much to learn.
In the United States most psychedelic substances are still classified as controlled substances under federal law, except where specifically authorized through FDA-approved clinical trials, state-licensed therapeutic programs, or other legally sanctioned research or medical frameworks.
About us
We are passionate about providing resources and supporting research, community-based collaboration, career development, and personal inquiry around the growing understanding of this unique intersection.
Contact us
If you have any questions, need further information, or wish to connect with our team, please feel free to reach out. We are here to support your journey with psychedelic art therapy, creativity, and related resources. Contact us via email, phone, or through our website, and we will respond promptly to assist you. Your inquiries and feedback are important to us.