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Psychedelic Ceremony Study

Psychedelic Research Group, Imperial College London

Welcome to the Psychedelic Ceremony Study - a scientific research project on the psychological effects of guided psychedelic and plant medicine use

Are you planning to participate in a ceremony involving the use of a plant medicine (for example within an Ayahuasca retreat) or another form of guided psychedelic experience? Then please sign up for our study by entering the start date of your retreat below.

The psychedelic ceremony survey is a project being run by the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London, led by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris. Its aim is to collect data on the psychological effects of guided psychedelic and plant medicine use, ranging from healing ceremonies with ayahuasca to supervised Ibogaine treatment. We aim to use online and paper questionnaires to collect data about 2 weeks before, within 3 hours before, 1 day after, 2 weeks after, 4 weeks after, and 6, as well as 12 months after a retreat or ceremony with psychedelics or plant medicines.

The data we collect from this study will help to advance the scientific understanding of psychoactive plant medicines and how the diverse elements in ceremonial and other guided use of these compounds may facilitate psychological change. The project has the potential to help develop future controlled studies on psychedelics, including clinical trials. We greatly appreciate the time you dedicate to this project. The data you provide is very valuable to us. No personally identifying information will be collected and we will not collect your IP address. 

All questionnaires will be available online. However, for the case that you will not have internet access directly before and on the day after the ceremony / psychedelic experience, we encourage you to print out paper versions of the questionnaires. In case you are going to participate in multiple experiences over the course of a retreat, you should print these questionnaires multiple times (once per planned experience). We will then ask you to enter your answers online whenever you are able to or upload a scan or photo of the completed questionnaires.

To take part, you must be at least 18 years old, have a sufficiently good understanding of the English language, and plan to participate in a psychedelic ceremony or retreat (i.e. involving the use of ayahuasca, mescaline, ibogaine or another psychedelic) anytime within the next two months. You must also be willing to provide us with a correct email address and be willing to receive a small number of email reminders, to remind you to complete the relevant questionnaires at the appropriate times. If you decide to take part you should indicate your agreement by checking the boxes below.

We will ask you to complete questionnaires on at least 8 separate occasions. These are as follows:

Time point 1: Anytime within 2 weeks prior to the planned ceremony / retreat

If you plan to participate in a psychedelic ceremony within the next two weeks, then this time point may be today. In this case please use the alternative last-minute sign-up page. It is important that you plan to participate in a guided psychedelic experience within two weeks of completing the first questionnaire. It is also very important for us that you complete the subsequent questionnaires at the other time-points (see below).

If after completing this questionnaire, you later decide to change your plans and either delay or cancel your planned ceremony participation, this is fine. Completing this questionnaire does not oblige you to further engage in a psychedelic experience. It will take approximately 40 minutes to complete the questionnaire for time-point 1. If you are unable to complete the questionnaire in one run, you can save your progress and complete it at a later time.

Time point 2: Minutes to hours before the psychedelic session / ceremony

The questionnaire at time-point 2 should be completed within the last 3 hours preceding the session / ceremony (and ideally just before you ingest the relevant psychedelic). It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. In case you are planning to participate in a retreat involving multiple sessions / ceremonies, we would like you to fill in a version of this questionnaire before each session. This questionnaire will be available online, but for the case that you will not have internet access right before the session / ceremony, we encourage you to print out this questionnaire yourself ahead of travelling (once per session that you are going to participate in over the course of the retreat). We will then ask you to enter your answers online whenever you are able to or upload a scan or photo of the completed questionnaire.

Time point 3: On the day after your psychedelic session / ceremony experience

The questionnaire at time-point 3 should be completed on the day after the session / ceremony experience. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. In case you are planning to participate in a retreat involving multiple sessions / ceremonies, we would like you to fill in a version of this questionnaire after each session. This questionnaire will be available online, but for the case that you will not have internet access on the day after the session / ceremony, we encourage you to print out this questionnaire yourself ahead of travelling (once per session that you are going to participate in over the course of the retreat).

Time point 4: On the day after leaving the ceremony / retreat location

The questionnaire at time point 4 should be completed on the day after leaving the ceremony / retreat location. It will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. This questionnaire will be available online, but for the case that you will not be able to access the internet on that day, we encourage you to print out this questionnaire yourself ahead of travelling.

Time point 5: Two weeks after your psychedelic session / ceremony experience

The questionnaire at time point 5 should be completed 2 weeks after your participation in a psychedelic session / ceremony, or the last session of the retreat. It will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. If you are not able to complete the questionnaire in one run, you can save your progress and complete it at another moment. Please try not to let 7 days pass before completing the questionnaire.

Time point 6: Four weeks after your psychedelic session / ceremony experience

The questionnaire at time point 6 should be completed 4 weeks after your participation in a psychedelic session / ceremony, or the last session of the retreat. It will take approximately 40 minutes to complete. If you are not able to complete the questionnaire in one run, you can save your progress and complete it at another moment. Please try not to let 7 days pass before completing the questionnaire.

Time points 7, 8: Six and 12 months after your experience

We would ideally like to assess how you are doing six and 12 months after your experience , but we acknowledge that you might wish to withdraw from receiving email reminders about this follow-up. You are free to withdraw from the email reminders at any point. We are very grateful for your support of our research.

Anonymity

All obtained data is anonymous, no data will be shared that will identify individuals or their responses. You can withdraw from this project at any time by clicking “unsubscribe me from this mailing list” in the e-mails you receive from us, and you may also request that your data will be discarded at any point by contacting the study administrator Hannes Kettner (hannes@ceremonystudy.com).

Click here for a video description of the study.