ESPD60
Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs
ESPD60 brings together leading voices in ethnopharmacology, consciousness research, indigenous knowledge, and publishing for five days of intimate dialogue and exchange. This working symposium is designed for a small, curated group of researchers, funders, practitioners, and knowledge holders who are ready for deep conversation and collaboration.
Participation is intentionally limited to preserve the quality of dialogue and relationship-building. Under the thoughtful curatorship of Dennis McKenna and the ESPD60 coordination team, the symposium convenes a selective cohort where established experts and emerging investigators meet in the same room.
Speakers and Recordings
ESPD60 presents a carefully selected program of esteemed researchers exploring how psychoactive catalysts intersect with global change. From ethnobotanists to neuroscientists, mycologists to clinical psychologists, each speaker shares their most recent findings in this intimate setting designed for deep dialogue and collaboration.
The program is still a work in progress as we finalize the remaining speakers
speakers & recordings
Previous ESPD55 edition Speakers group – Hosted at St Giles House, UK
Photo by Josh Bloom (2022)
the ESPD
In 1967, a landmark symposium entitled Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs was held in San Francisco, California. It was the first international, interdisciplinary group of specialists – from ethnobotanists to neuroscientists – who gathered in one place to share their findings on the use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies. Follow-up meetings were intended to be held every ten years, but the War on Drugs intervened. The findings of the convention were printed in a book entitled with the same name as the gathering. This book was an inspiration to Dennis to become an ethnopharmacologist. Under his leadership two anniversary conferences were held and it is the McKenna Academy’s vision to host an ESPD conference every five years to stay abreast of the latest research in the field of ethnopharmacology.
ESPD Publications
“The discovery of ESPD’s publication changed my life. For me, at least, that book was influential because it provided a cultural context for psychedelics based on traditions older and richer than anything I had encountered in mass media sources.”
ESPD55 Symposium Volume
The McKenna Academy is again working closely with Synergetic Press to publish the findings of the third edition of ESPD as a stand-alone volume, “ESPD55” in 2023.
ESPD50 Collector’s Box Set
In collaboration with Synergetic Press, the McKenna Academy reprinted the 1967 symposium volume and published the 2017 ESPD conference findings together in a high quality collector’s edition box set that won the esteemed James A. Duke Botanical Literature Award. This popular publication has been reprinted seven times already.
