New Thinking • Apr 9, 2025 Loyd Auerbach, MS, received his masters’ degree in parapsychology from John F. Kennedy University. He is author of Mind Over Matter; ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook; Reincarnation, Channeling, and Possession; Psychic Dreaming; A Paranormal Casebook; and Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate the Paranormal. He is co-author (with Ed May, Joseph McMoneagle, and Victor Rubel) of ESP Wars: East and West. He is the Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Rhine Research Center. In this interview, rebooted from 2019, he suggests that the principles of sports psychology also apply to the cultivation of psychokinesis. He maintains that we ultimately use PK to control our own bodies. The wide-ranging discussion that follows covers spoon-bending, poltergeists, martial arts, magical illusions, seances, as well as apports and disappearances. Considerable emphasis is placed on overcoming the psychological resistance to either witnessing or practicing psychokinesis. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on April 11, 2019)

BY ROB BREZSNY | APRIL 8, 2025

Photo: Sandra Grunewald

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Life is asking you to be a source of generosity and strength for the people and animals in your sphere. I hope you will exude maximum amounts of your natural charisma as you bestow maximum blessings. Soak up the admiration and affection you deserve, too, as you convey admiration and affection to others. Here’s a secret: The more you share your resources, help and intelligence, the more of that good stuff will flow back your way.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Ceramicist Jun Hamada says that trying to force harmony into her art leads to sterile work. “The most beautiful pieces come from the moments I stop trying to make them beautiful,” she notes. “They emerge from embracing the clay’s natural tendencies, even when they seem to fight against my intentions.” I recommend her approach to you in the coming weeks. Your best results may emerge as you allow supposed flaws and glitches to play an unexpected part in the process. Alliances might benefit, even deepen, through honest friction rather than imposed peace. What will happen when you loosen your attachment to enforced harmony and let life’s natural tensions gyrate?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) was a prolific architect who orchestrated many daring designs. Among his most audacious experiments was a project to build a house over a waterfall in Pennsylvania. “It can’t be done!” experts said. But he did it. Before he was ready to accomplish the impossible, though, he had to spend months studying the site’s natural patterns. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because I believe you are ready to consider your own equivalent of constructing a house over a waterfall. Prepare well! Do your homework!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the early phase of his illustrious career as a photographer, Edward Weston (1886–1958) cultivated a soft-focus, romantic style. But he ultimately converted to stark, uncompromising realism. “The camera,” he said, “should be used for recording life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself.” If there is anything about you that prefers warm, fuzzy illusions over objective, detailed truth, I suggest you switch emphasis for a while. If you like, you can return to the soft-focus approach in June. But for now, a gritty, unsentimental attitude will be essential to your well-being.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here’s my mini-manifesto about change, just in time for a phase when change is most necessary and possible for you. 1. Real change is often a slow and subtle process. There may be rare dramatic shifts, but mostly the process is gradual and incremental. 2. Instead of pushing hard for a short time, you’re more likely to change things by persistently pushing with modest strength for a sustained time. 3. Rather than trying to confront and wrestle with a big problem exactly as it is, it’s often more effective to break the seemingly insurmountable challenge into small, manageable pieces that can be solved one at a time through simple efforts.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Textile artist Mei Zhang wondered if the synthetic dyes she used on her fabrics were limited. Might there be a wider variety of colors she could use in her creations? She discovered that her grandmother, using age-old techniques, had produced hues that modern dyes couldn’t replicate. “The most sustainable path forward,” Zhang concluded, “often involves rediscovering what we’ve forgotten rather than inventing something entirely new.” I recommend that counsel to you, Virgo. The solution to a current challenge might come from looking back instead of pushing forward. Consider what old approaches or traditional wisdom you might call on to generate novelty. Weave together fresh applications with timeless principles.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The moon rises about fifty minutes later every day, and always at a slightly different place on the horizon. The amount of light it shows us is also constantly in flux. And yet where and how it will appear tomorrow or ten years from today is completely predictable. Its ever-changing nature follows a rhythmic pattern. I believe the same is true about our emotions and feelings, which in astrology are ruled by the moon. They are forever shifting, and yet if we survey the big picture of how they arise, we will see their overall flow has distinct patterns. Now would be a good time for you to get to know your flow better. See if you can detect recurring motifs. Try to develop more objectivity about how your precious emotions and feelings really work. If you do this correctly, you will deepen and enhance the guiding power of your precious emotions and feelings.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Research reveals that interludes of productive uncertainty may strengthen our brain’s neural pathways—even more so than if we consistently leap to immediate comprehension. The key modifier to this fortifying uncertainty is “productive.” We must be willing to dwell with poise in our puzzlement, even welcome and enjoy the fertile mystery it invokes in us. Neurobiologist Aiden Chen says, “Confusion, when properly supported, isn’t an obstacle to learning but a catalyst for understanding.” These ideas will be good medicine in the coming weeks, dear Scorpio.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Persian American author Haleh Liza Gafori translates the poetry of thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Rumi. One of their joint books is titled “Gold.” She writes, “Rumi’s gold is not the precious metal, but a feeling-state arrived at through the alchemical process of burning through layers of self, greed, pettiness, calculation, doctrine—all of it. The prayer of Sufism is ‘teach me to love more deeply.’ Gold is the deepest love.” That’s the gold I hope you aspire to embody in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. You are in a resplendently golden phase when you have more power than usual to create, find and commune with Rumi’s type of gold.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The coming weeks will be an excellent time to reframe the meaning of “emptiness” in your life. To launch your quest, I will remind you that quiet interludes and gaps in your schedule can be rejuvenating. Sitting still and doing nothing in particular may be a good way to recharge your spiritual batteries. Relieving yourself of the pressure to be endlessly active could be just what you need to open up space for fresh possibilities.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): There was a time, many years ago, when I consulted a divinatory oracle every day of my life. Sometimes it was the Tarot or the I Ching. I threw the Norse runes, did automatic writing, used a pendulum, or tried bibliomancy. Astrology was always in the mix, too, of course. Looking back on those days, I am amused at my obsession with scrying the future and uncovering subconscious currents. But employing these aids had a wonderful result: It helped me develop and fine-tune my intuition and psychic powers—which, after all, are the ultimate divination strategy. I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I believe you now have an enhanced power to cultivate and strengthen your intuition and psychic powers.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The fovea is the part of the eye that enables sharp vision. Humans have just one kind of fovea, which gives them the ability to see clearly straight ahead. Eagles have both a central and peripheral fovea. The latter gives them an amazing visual acuity for things at a distance. This extra asset also attunes them to accurately detect very slow movements. I suspect you will have a metaphorical semblance of the eagle’s perceptual capacity in the coming weeks, Pisces. You will be able to see things you wouldn’t normally see and things that other people can’t see. Take full advantage of this superpower! Find what you didn’t even know you were looking for.

Homework: Which of your previous bests are you primed to surpass? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

“How do we live a life worthy of our breath?” Ocean Vuong (b. 1988) Vietnamese American Writer

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

Rome and Carthage domain changes during the three Punic Wars Animation: Wikimedia

A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg

Carthaginian peace

PRONUNCIATION:

(kar-thuh-JIN-ee-uhn pees) 

MEANING:

noun: Peace or settlement in which very harsh terms are imposed on the defeated side.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Carthage, an ancient city-state, in present-day Tunisia. Earliest documented use: 1940.

Oregon Public Apr 8, 2025 Esgyptian-American artist Amirra Malak mixes ancient khayamiya and modern media to create installations of liminal spaces. Khayamiya is a form of applique design hand sewn onto fabric for Egyptian tents. In Cairo, Malak studied with a master khayamiya maker. Today, she incorporates those teachings into her art from her studio in Hood River, Oregon.

(via Michael Kelly, H.W., and Helen Dower)

“If there is to be any peace, it will come through being, not having.” Henry Miller (1891-1980) American Writer

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

By Jack Lee,Weather Science Data Reporter

April 5, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)

Deb Zeyen walks in a hallway to demonstrate her motor skills during her treatment with UCSF neurologist Simon Little, right, at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences in San Francisco on March 24.Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle

At first, Deb Zeyen, 77, had trouble opening and closing her left hand as she spoke with UCSF neurologist Simon Little on March 24. But as a nurse practitioner tapped on a tablet atop a nearby table, Zeyen’s movements sharpened and sped up. Her voice also grew louder.

The tablet was wirelessly connected to a medical device implanted near Zeyen’s collarbone. Wires from the device, a flat oval that fits in the palm of a hand, extended to her brain, both for monitoring signals and sending electrical pulses. 

This high-tech treatment — known as adaptive deep-brain stimulation — was approved for treating Parkinson’s disease in February by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Zeyen and two others treated at Stanford in late March were among the first in the United States to begin adaptive deep-brain stimulation as part of their regular care for Parkinson’s. Until now, the treatment has been used only in clinical trials. Scientists are continuing to improve the technology which, while not a cure for the disease, can provide dramatic improvements.

“It literally gave me a life back,” Zeyen said.

Experts estimate about 1 million Americans have Parkinson’s disease, a disorder characterized by uncontrolled movements as a result of abnormal brain activity. Those with Parkinson’s experience the loss of certain neurons, which results in irregular electrical signals in the brain.

“It’s like you’re in a protest march, but everybody’s shouting the same thing over and over again and you can’t hear yourself,” said Helen Bronte-Stewart, a Stanford neurologist who headed the global adaptive deep-brain stimulation clinical trial that led to FDA approval.

Deep-brain stimulation disrupts this jamming pattern. Earlier versions of treatment provided a continuous signal to the brain, but the newer adaptive method is personalized to a patient’s needs. The ends of the wires implanted in the brain serve two roles, both delivering electrical impulses into brain tissue and also reading in brain activity, so stimulation can be modulated as needed.

Providing too much stimulation can cause fidgeting and involuntary movements, said Leo Almeida, a neurologist at the University of Minnesota and division chief of the movement disorders group. Conversely, not providing enough stimulation can cause symptoms of Parkinson’s to reappear.

“We are just getting to the point where deep-brain stimulation is a brain ‘pacemaker,’” Bronte-Stewart said, referring to the medical device used to regulate irregular heartbeats.

While the adaptive treatment is promising, it carries risks. The surgery required for deep-brain stimulation therapy can cause bleeding within the brain, for example. And there can be side effects before experts make adjustments, like tingling sensations.

Adaptive deep-brain stimulation currently requires specialized staff to set up and fine-tune, added Carina Oehrn, a UC Davis assistant professor of neurological surgery, who was previously at UCSF. 

The adaptive treatment may not be more effective for all people with Parkinson’s disease, but it could optimize symptom management for some, said Almeida, who was an investigator in the global adaptive deep-brain stimulation trial when he was at the University of Florida: “It’s always a good thing to have a new tool to offer patients.” 

The stimulation device was produced by Medtronic, a global medical device company. The system marks the company’s first foray into brain-computer interfaces. But the approach of reading signals and adapting therapy could have broader uses, like pain management. 

“We’re just getting started,” said Medtronic chief technology and innovation officer Ken Washington.

For Keith Krehbiel, 70, adaptive deep-brain stimulation has meant he’s been able to take less medicine. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1997, when he was 42 years old. What started as pain in his hand ultimately progressed to his entire arm shaking. 

The medicines for managing these symptoms had nasty side effects for Krehbiel, like mental fog and extreme nausea. Krehbiel had to take even more medications to deal with those complications.

After starting treatment with deep-brain stimulation, Krehbiel halved his daily dosage of medications; switching to the adaptive version of the treatment allowed him to halve that dosage again. “I just wake up every morning feeling better,” Krehbiel said.

Deep-brain stimulation also greatly improved the symptoms that John Lipp, 59, faced due to Parkinson’s disease. Lipp’s most pronounced symptom was painful muscle cramping. 

But with the treatment, that discomfort “disappeared almost instantaneously,” he said. “The stiffness kind of melted away.” 

Lipp has been able to resume running and even completed the New York City Marathon last year, something he never would have thought possible before the treatment. He is training for the race this year too.

On March 21, Lipp alternated between sitting patiently and taking laps around a small room as Stanford neurologist Gaurav Chattree tweaked settings on a touchscreen.

“He was getting some involuntary movements since the last time I saw him. And that’s a sign of disease progression,” Chattree explained. “So what I was trying to do was adjust the adaptive settings so that he’s getting enough stimulation.”

It’s similar to what Little, of UCSF, was doing with Zeyen, altering thresholds and inputs to find the right combination to manage her symptoms. Researchers are working to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to find the best settings more quickly, Little said.

Scientists are exploring if adaptive deep-brain stimulation could treat other symptoms of Parkinson’s, beyond those related to movement. Individuals with the disease often experience problems with sleep and mood. 

“Parkinson’s disease is complicated,” said UCSF neurologist Jill Ostrem, who is also medical director of UCSF’s Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Center. “It’s not one symptom. It’s a combination of many symptoms.” 

Researchers are also working to address a technical challenge of the treatment. While the device both delivers electrical impulses and reads brain activity, trying to accomplish both tasks in the same brain region can create issues.

“The signals that you’re recording are about a million times smaller than the brain stimulation that you’re giving just next door,” Little explained. “You’re trying to listen to a whisper. At the same time, it’s like a cannon is going off.”

For now, the Medtronic device monitors just one brain region that’s known to be connected to Parkinson’s symptoms. Scientists are exploring if other parts of the brain could play a role in Parkinson’s, Ostrem said. Considering additional signals from different areas could make adaptive deep-brain stimulation an even more promising treatment for patients.

“I think it’s the future,” said Oehrn, of UC Davis.

Reach Jack Lee: jack.lee@sfchronicle.com

April 5, 2025

Jack Lee

WEATHER SCIENCE DATA REPORTER

Jack Lee joined The San Francisco Chronicle’s Weather Science team in 2022 as a data reporter.He has written for a variety of science journalism outlets, covering everything from COVID-19 to songbirds to extreme weather events. Most recently, he has been writing about cancer prevention and early detection for the National Cancer Institute.Before coming to science writing and journalism, Lee earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Princeton University and then worked as a data engineer for several years in the Bay Area. He obtained a master’s in science communication from UC Santa Cruz in 2020.

By Nanette Asimov,Higher Education Reporter

April 6, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)

Erica London, a licensed marriage and family therapist, does Holotropic Breathwork aimed to simulate the altered consciousness of psychedelics, in a demonstration for other students in a certificate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in February. The college will offer the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in psychedelic studies this fall.Camille Cohen/For the S.F. Chronicle

The 1960s counterculture is synonymous with San Francisco, a city where hippies roamed the Haight, tripped on acid and fled the law.

And so it is fitting that San Francisco will again run counter to the mainstream this fall when a local university unveils the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in psychedelic studies.

“Wow!” said guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton, a counterculture icon who played at Woodstock in 1969 with Country Joe and the Fish and still does gigs in the city. “It’s amazing, quite frankly, that you could actually get a degree in psychedelics.”

Unlike those experimental days of yesteryear, when the Tibetan Book of the Dead was the closest thing to an academic textbook for hippies seeking enlightenment through the wonders of mescaline, LSD, peyote and magic mushrooms, a team of Ph.D.s is poised to help undergraduates “explore the foundations and developments in the field of psychedelic medicines, all while holding to the highest possible standards of ethics and safety.”

That’s from the brochure for the online bachelor of science degree that will debut Aug. 28 at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a well-regarded private, nonprofit university at 1453 Mission St. in San Francisco that opened in 1968. 

Then there’s the list of frequently asked questions, with an answer to the most frequent one of all: “Please note that at no time does the program promote or require the use of psychedelic drugs in any manner, in accordance with the CIIS Student Handbook as well as state and federal law.”

That disclaimer mystified Melton, who said: “You’re not allowed to take any? How is anybody gonna get the degree then?”

Thanks for asking, Mr. Melton. Here’s how it works:

Three semesters online

The California Institute of Integral Studies offers no general education classes, such as English 101 or freshman biology. So undergraduates need to complete at least 60 credits elsewhere before transferring into CIIS’ new psychedelic studies program, which takes three semesters and costs $30,000 before financial aid.

“We’ll actively discourage them from doing psychedelics while in the program,” said professor Nick Walker, who will teach “Psychology and Psychedelics” this fall.

The goal is to prepare students for careers or graduate study in psychedelic-assisted therapy, a field that hovers, fittingly, just outside the legal doors of perception. Federal law bans the substances unless they’ve been approved for study in a clinical trial. But mental-health advocates, including some veterans groups, have pushed for decriminalization. 

Currently, psilocybin mushrooms have been legalized only in Oregon and Colorado, where a Buddhist university, Naropa, offers a minor in psychedelics.  In 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would have legalized psychedelics.

Of the 15 students admitted so far into CIIS’ online  psychedelics major, 10 responded to questions from the Chronicle. Three live in the Bay Area, and two in Southern California. The others are in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Canada’s Yukon Territory. They range in age from 25 to 48 and include a laid-off tech worker, two firefighters, an electrician, a lineman, a cannabis entrepreneur and a handful of people in health-related fields. One has a bachelor’s degree. Another has an MBA but no bachelor’s.

None is pursuing the degree for recreational purposes. Instead, they represent a new generation of users who understand psychedelics to be less “drug” than “medicine.”

Some of the admitted students report having post-traumatic stress disorder from jobs in the military or as first responders. One is a cancer survivor. Most said they have been helped emotionally by psychedelics and want to study research-based methods of helping others.

An evolving science  

Their responses circle back to the origins of “psychedelic,” coined in 1957 by British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond, who thought hallucinogens could help people with mental illness. He had already treated nearly 2,000 alcoholics in Canada with LSD and found that more than 40% remained sober after a year.

To fathom hell or soar angelic / Just take a pinch of psychedelic.

That’s how Osmond introduced the word 68 years ago to the New York Academy of Sciences, combining the Greek words “psyche,” meaning mind, and “deloun,” meaning show.

But by 1970, the U.S. government had outlawed LSD, with other bans on hallucinogens to follow.

Today, scientific thinking is catching up with Osmond, who died in 2004. In California alone, psychedelic research is happening at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCSF, UCLA and UC San Diego.

“There are billions of dollars invested in ventures hoping to get in on the ground floor for psychedelics, in medicine and business,” said Bay Area author Don Lattin, who has written two books on the history of psychedelics and believes the time is right for an undergraduate degree in the field.

Not everyone agrees.

“The idea of a bachelor’s degree in psychedelic studies seems premature to me, given that the science and scholarship on the topic are still very much in development,” said David Yaden, a researcher at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.

Irena Smith, a former college adviser who has worked in Stanford admissions, imagines that majoring in psychedelics “would be extraordinarily unpopular. I can see parents balking — ‘I’m going to put my hard-earned money in this?’ I think people may see this as profoundly impractical.

“That said, I don’t know anything about it.”

UCSF neurology professor Jennifer Mitchell knows a lot about psychedelics and welcomes the new degree, especially because CIIS is behind it.

“They have a very solid track record,” Mitchell said. “Academically, they are quite rigorous.”

With roots in the human-potential movement, the university offers master’s and doctoral programs ranging from “philosophy-cosmology and consciousness” to human sexuality, as well as professional certificates and online undergraduate studies. CIIS is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission, the same agency that oversees Stanford and the University of California.

‘The field is going to explode’

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration balked at approving MDMA — widely known as ecstasy which would have become the first psychedelic federally approved for medical treatment. The closely watched decision involved a clinical trial led by Mitchell in which 70% of participants with post-traumatic stress disorder kicked the PTSD diagnosis after taking the drug. Of those taking a placebo, 40% had the same outcome.

Yet the FDA did not slam the door. It asked for more data.

“The field is going to explode,” Walker said. “We believe that psychedelic-assisted therapy — done well and ethically — can be extremely beneficial.”

Today’s researchers say there is growing evidence that psychedelics can help people not only with PTSD, but also depression, addiction and anxiety.

“We don’t want people to dive in recklessly — a wild cowboy thing,” Walker said. “We’re definitely on the side of doing it carefully. Understanding the science. The risks. The ethics.”

Brock Blomberg, president of CIIS, said the new degree is intended to educate students “so when the regulations change, they’re prepared to follow things with all the appropriate guidelines.”

A decade ago, CIIS opened its Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, where graduate students learn to aid psychedelic-assisted therapy using Holotropic Breathwork, a trademarked technique that replicates feelings induced by psilocybin, or hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. The school has certified more than 1,000 people. 

The new bachelor’s degree aims to enroll 50 students a year, with 25 in its first cohort.

Next fall’s courses will be “Psychology and Psychedelics,” “Neuroscience of Psychedelics,”  “Language of Psychology” and “Global, Indigenous Knowledges, and Ecopsychedelics.” Spring instruction will focus on research, ethics and legal considerations, as well as  “psychopharmacology,” or how drugs affect the mind and behavior. In their final term, students will complete a senior project — perhaps interviewing people about their psychedelic  experiences — and will study advocacy and “expanding consciousness.”

A student’s perspective

“I’m excited about it!” said Michael Bochey, 31, who plans to enroll in the online program while continuing as a fire inspector in Los Angeles.

Two years ago, Bochey wasn’t excited about anything.

“I had a good relationship. A nice home. Everything was objectively pretty good. But I couldn’t  figure out why I didn’t feel joy and excitement the way I did before,” he said. “Traditional talk therapy didn’t help, though I think it was a good start.”

Bochey credits psychedelics with helping him understand and address the emotional problem he was experiencing. 

As a firefighter and paramedic for most of the last 12 years, terror and trauma were part of his job. Each day, Bochey expected to encounter dead or wounded people. Like the three who burned to death, leaving a teenager who “had to wake up in the hospital to find he didn’t have a family,” Bochey said. Or the eight hit in a deadly shooting at a crowded park, and the nine riddled with bullets at a house party. There was a hostage situation where the SWAT team saved the victim — and another where it didn’t.

The overwhelming pain that ambushed him “has been described as death by 1,000 cuts,” Bochey said. “It’s day after day.”

It was ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant, that helped Bochey confront long-suppressed emotions, “re-live” them and learn to feel them in real time, he said. He has taken the substance under the guidance of a group that leads spiritual ceremonies he said were protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

“The way I live my life now, I actually experience it. I’m more present,” said Bochey, who cited research showing that first-responders have higher rates of suicide than the general public. 

While Bochey and many others praise their psychedelic experiences, the substances can sometimes be dangerous and lead to the infamous “bad trip.”

Psychedelics “can really change the way you see the world,” said Lattin, the author. Taking them “can also be a dangerous experience if you’re depressed or bipolar,” he added, noting that mental illness can place people at higher risk for a bad trip.

Sometimes, ingesting psychedelics can simply make you sick. In January, the U.S. Embassy in Peru issued a warning about taking ayahuasca because it can cause “negative health effects,” from nausea to death.

Moving toward the mainstream

Such risks are why Bochey and others say they want to pursue the new bachelor’s degree. 

“If psychedelics can save lives — and I truly believe they can — then I want to help legitimize and integrate them into the spaces where they are most needed,” said Bochey, who is making a documentary about firefighters using psychedelics to heal from trauma. 

Flat emotions also plagued Cassie Hope of San Francisco. She attributed the problem to the antidepressants she took for postpartum depression six years ago, and she quit them. Her depression returned, and in 2023 she turned to psychedelics. 

Microdosing psilocybin helped somewhat, she said. But it was mebufotenin — “bufo,” a hallucinogen found in certain plants and in the glands of the Sonoran desert toad — that made all the difference. She took it during a retreat in Mexico.

“It was incredibly powerful for me,” said Hope, 43. “It gave me a whole new perspective.”

But no sooner had she emerged from the depression than she was diagnosed with cancer and told she carried mutations placing her at risk for more. Surgery triggered early menopause. Hope returned to her tech job at Salesforce, only to be laid off in November. Her misfortune persisted when she fell, injuring her sternum, then got pneumonia.

“I was just pissed. I didn’t ask for this,” she said.

In January, Hope took ayahuasca in ceremonies where the facilitator sang to each participant and tailored the songs to each person’s needs.

“I felt like he was vacuuming my soul,” she said. Psychedelics “give you so much perspective on life and the finite amount of time we have on this planet. And healing. Emotionally, physically. Healing from life.”

For Hope, the bachelor’s in psychedelic studies is the first step in becoming a facilitator herself. She sees a master’s in counseling and a certificate in psychedelic-assisted therapy in her future. 

“That will enable me to do things 100% above board,” she said. “Completely legally.”

Correction: This story has been updated to note the trademark for Holotropic Breathwork. 

Reach Nanette Asimov: nasimov@sfchronicle.com; Threads: @NanetteAsimov

April 6, 2025

Nanette Asimov

HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER

Nanette covers California’s public universities – the University of California and California State University – as well as community colleges and private universities. She’s written about sexual misconduct at UC and Stanford, the precarious state of accreditation at City College of San Francisco, and what happens when the UC Berkeley student government discovers a gay rights opponent in its midst. She has exposed a private art college where students rack up massive levels of debt (one student’s topped $400k), and covered audits peering into UC finances, education lawsuits and countless student protests.

But writing about higher education also means getting a look at the brainy creations of students and faculty: Robotic suits that help paralyzed people walk. Online collections of folk songs going back hundreds of years. And innovations touching on everything from virtual reality to baseball.

Nanette is also covering the COVID-19 pandemic and served as health editor during the first six months of the crisis, which quickly ended her brief tenure as interim investigations editor.

Previously, Nanette covered K-12 education. Her stories led to changes in charter school laws, prompted a ban on Scientology in California public schools, and exposed cheating and censorship in testing.

A past president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter, Nanette has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. in sociology from Queens College. She speaks English and Spanish.

Link to original article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/california-institute-integral-studies-psychedelic-20238857.php

Commander Emma Crowley, played by Barbara Eve Harris. (photo from ChicagoPD.fandom.com)

Commaneder Crowley: “Female victim. Young, black, pretty, not that that matters.”

Sergeant Voight: “Everything matters.”

–Chicago P.D., Season 4

Detective Hank Voight played by Jason Beghe (photo from nbc.com)