Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative (IRI) of the Americas: A Respectful Path Forward for the Psychedelic Movement - What Does it Mean to Embody Reciprocity?

Abstract

As the “psychedelic renaissance” thrives, the psychedelic community finds itself navigating the merging realms of social, ecological, and political currents that can reflect the interconnectedness of the natural world often illuminated by the psychedelic experience. The dizzying momentum of the psychedelic movement’s rapid trajectory towards an unknown future threatens to hurdle straight past such delicate interconnectedness, without a moment to pause and reflect on our position at this intersection of global capitalism, healthcare and criminal justice reform, environmental conservation, and Indigenous rights. A movement comprised of multiple stakeholders—seekers, practitioners, business leaders, investors—that face the difficult task of orienting themselves amidst the competing and conflicting goals of private enterprise and collective liberation and healing for themselves and the planet. In light of these circumstances, it is important to be properly oriented so as to recognize our distinct positions within this broader system. If we can understand the historical and contemporary context of the issues we’re confronted with, then we can begin to ask how to properly honor the relationships among which we are participants. The myriad tensions of this moment emerge from a situation of inequitable imbalance: a political history of ongoing colonization, global wealth disparities, ecological imbalance manifesting a cascade of environmental catastrophes coinciding with a growing climate crisis, a global pandemic (Bloomfield et al., 2020; Lamber, 2020), an economic imbalance driving “diseases of despair” (substance use disorder, depression, suicidality, etc.) and the disempowerment of local communities