Russell Hausfeld is a reporter, illustrator and video editor for Psymposia, and the former curator of Truthdig’s investigative series The Ecstasy of Agony on the military and the psychedelic industry. He holds a BA in Journalism and Religious Studies from the University of Cincinnati; his reporting has been cited in Vice, The Nation, Frontiers in Psychology, Cover Story: Power Trip, the Daily Beast, and Harm Reduction Journal.
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The Castalia Foundation — originally founded in part by Timothy Leary — “resurfaced” in 2020 with anti-mask content, praise for Donald Trump, and paranoid discussion around the sexual abuse of children.
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Jake Angeli’s tattoos provide a lens into how fascists and white supremacists have appropriated aspects of Pagan/Heathen culture and spirituality.
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Christopher Valore discusses his love of virtual reality; the early days of his company, Club Transcendia; and development of his first official release, “Conductor.”
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Thea Riofrancos is a political scientist whose research has focused on political conflict related to extraction, energy, and infrastructure in a rapidly warming and politically unstable world. She also serves on the steering committee for Democratic Socialists of America for a Green New Deal.
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This list is by no means exhaustive, but it spotlights a number of psychedelic pharmaceutical companies and executives with ties to extractive industry.
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Extractive industry is highly speculative by nature and firms are risk tolerant—they either “strike gold” or they don’t. When their gambles fail, psychedelic startups can take over their corporate shells to quickly go public with minimal regulatory scrutiny.
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A mining firm’s conflict with Argentinian communities illustrates extractive industry’s practices and values, and raises questions about how these corporate approaches will translate into the psychedelic pharmaceutical industry.
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Canadian mining and exploration company AIS has had a number of executives move on to found psychedelic pharmaceutical businesses. Why? Because psychedelics are where the money’s at.
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Through EmpathBio, ATAI Life Sciences says it will develop “safer” MDMA derivatives for patients with PTSD and calls the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies’ (MAPS) approach “MDMA 1.0.” MAPS’ executive director, Rick Doblin, says that if that’s the case, ATAI is “MDMA 0.5.”
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Since COMPASS Pathways filed for a controversial psilocybin patent in 2018, Usona Institute has consistently placed its research findings in the public domain.
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MAPS claims the most sustainable way to produce commercial MDMA is through the use of petrochemical feedstocks.
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LSD chemist and longtime drug war prisoner, William Leonard Pickard, was officially released from prison on July 27, 2020. Pickard had been locked down since 2000 and was slated to serve two life sentences without the possibility of parole.