The Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project tries to make psychedelic culture and industry safer, by highlighting and filling research gaps in the field's knowledge about psychedelic harms (especially extended post-psychedelic difficulties) and what helps people avoid or reduce these harms. 

Check out our 2024 Outcomes Report here. 

Our strategy to make psychedelic culture and industry safer is threefold: Learn, Support, Communicate. 

- Learn more about the risks and harms of psychedelic drugs, and what helps people avoid them or reduce them, through peer-reviewed academic research.

 Here is our article 'Extended Difficulties after Psychedelic Experiences', published in PLOS One. 

You can see a short animated video of our findings here

Here is our paper on what helps people cope with extended post-psychedelic difficulties (lead author: Dr Oliver Robinson) 

Here is our paper on existential confusion and ontological shock after psychedelic experiences (lead author: Eirini Argyri)

Here is our first paper, on short-term integration challenges after a psilocybin retreat (lead author: Anna Lutkajtis)

- Support those who experience psychedelic harrms

We run a monthly integration and support group online for people experiencing post-psychedelic difficulties. We also connect people together with others experiencing particular kinds of post-psychedelic harm so they can talk to each other and compare notes about what helps. We connect people who contact us to reliable therapists. And we present our research on what helps people who experience post-psychedelic difficulties on psychedelic therapy training courses, to improve the quality of post-psychedelic support people receive. 

- Communicate the risks and benefits of psychedelics better 

We encourage a more balanced media portrayal of psychedelics, that accurately describes the risks and benefits. We regularly present our research in the media and also have our own Substack with 11,000 subscribers. 

Who we are 

Our team has an unrivalled track record of research on spiritual emergencies, difficult meditative experiences and psychedelic integration. Here's some of our research publication highlights: 

Jules Evans, director of Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project

Evans, Jules (2017), The Art of Losing Control, Canongate Books

Evans, Jules and Read, Tim (Eds). (2020). Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency .  Aeon Books 

Evans, Jules (2012). Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations. Penguin Random House

 Lutkajtis, A., & Evans, J. (2023). Psychedelic integration challenges: Participant experiences after a psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 6(3), 211-221. doi: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2022.00232 

Evans et al (2023). Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: a mixed methods survey. Plos ONE

Dr Oliver Robinson, associate professor, Greenwich University 

Robinson et al (2024). Coming Back Together: a qualitative survey study of coping methods followed extended post-psychedelic difficulties (preprint available here)

Michael, Pascal; Luke, David; Robinson, Oliver (2021), An encounter with the other: a thematic and content analysis of DMT experiences from a naturalistic field study. Frontiers in Psychology, 12: 720717 . pp. 1-20 1664-1078 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720717). 

Robinson, Oliver (2018). Paths Between Head and Heart: Exploring the Harmonies of Science and Spirituality. O Books. 

Dr David Luke, associate professor, Greenwich University

Irvine, Alexander and Luke, David (2022), Apophenia, absorption and anxiety: evidence for individual differences in positive and negative experiences of Hallucinogen Persisting Perceptual Disorder. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 6 (2) . pp. 1-16 ISSN: 2559-9283 (Print), 2559-9283 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2022.00195). 

Luke, David (2019), Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience., Aeon Books

Eirini Argyri, PhD candidate, Exeter University

Argyri et al (2024). Navigating groundlessness: existential confusion and ontological shock following psychedelic experiences. Pre-print available here. 

Dr Katrina Michelle 

Michelle, Katrina. (2017). Exploring Resistance to Spiritual Emergence: A Heuristic Inquiry. PhD submitted to Sofia University. 

Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner, PhD candidate, Imperial College

Carhart-Harris et al (2021). Trial of Psilocybin versus Escitalopram for depression. New England Journal of Medicine.  384:1402-1411, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2032994 

Murphy et al (2022), Therapeutic alliance and rapport modulate responses to psilocybin-assisted therapy for depression.  Frontiers in Pharmacology, 12:788155 DOI:10.3389/fphar.2021.788155 

Anna Lutkajtis, PhD candidate, University of Sydney

Lutkajtis, Anna. (2020).  The Dark Side of Dharma: Meditation, Madness and Other Maladies on the Contemplative Path. Aeon Books. 

Lutkajtis, Anna. (2021). Entity encounters and the therapeutic effect of the psychedelic mystical experience, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 4(3), 171-178. Retrieved Aug 31, 2022, from https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/4/3/article-p171.xml 

Lutkajtis, A., & Evans, J. (2023). Psychedelic integration challenges: Participant experiences after a psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 6(3), 211-221. doi: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2022.00232 

In addition, our supervisory team includes psychologists and psychotherapists with field-leading experience in psychedelic therapy and spiritual emergencies, including Robin Carthart-Harris, Daniel Ingram, Nir Tadmor and Julieta Galante.