From Egoism to Ecoism: Psychedelics and Nature Connectedness

There appears to be a growing disconnection between humans and their natural environments which has been linked to poor mental health and ecological destruction. Research shows that psychedelic usage is associated with enduring increases in nature relatedness, or connectedness, post experience. How does this occur, and what are the potential implications of this at a time of growing mental health and ecological crises? Nature relatedness can be considered a measure of one's self identification with nature, and it is associated with a broad range of measures linked to psychological well-being, while also being a strong psychological predictor of pro-environmental behaviour. What overlap is there between how psychedelics and contact with nature can affect our mental state? And how can we maximise this synergy between nature and psychedelics to improve mental health? Presenting fresh findings resulting from collaborative work with Imperial College’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, including the first scientific evidence of a prospective role of psychedelics increasing nature relatedness in a healthy population in an enduring way.