Lately, psychedelics have gained traction in the mainstream media. With decriminalization laws, new documentaries, and the electronic music scene, psychedelics have gained popularity as a medium of transcendence and healing. How can psychedelics be effectively utilized as medicine? How can we integrate such an elusive experience into Western Healthcare? How do psychedelics help us integrate ideas of mind, body and spirit? Join us as we strive to answer these questions.

Lucia is a medical anthropologist interested in substance use and addiction, harm reduction, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Lucia Marie Terpak earned her B.A. in Religious Studies with a minor in Psychology from Wake Forest University in 2015. As an undergraduate, Lucia rediscovered her love for understanding and expanding her consciousness, and in the fall of 2012, Lucia spent a semester studying Buddhism and practicing daily meditation in a Burmese Buddhist monastery in Bodh Gaya, India. In 2018, Lucia received a Source Award from Source Research Foundation to support her research on ibogaine and addiction at a detoxification clinic in Mexico. Lucia successfully defended her master’s thesis and graduated with an M.A. in medical anthropology from The University of Colorado Denver in December 2019. Lucia presented research at the 2017 Society for Applied Anthropology annual meetings on explanatory models and barriers to care experienced by low-income Type II diabetes patients. She also presented her research on ibogaine and addiction at the 2020 Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research.

Focus Spiritual Virtues: Awareness, Curiosity, InterconnectednessIn my conversation with Lucia, we brought awareness to the growing field of psychedelic medicine. With this awareness, we opened the door for curiosity into how psychedelics can serve as vehicles for healing for those with unprocessed trauma, addiction, or mental illness. With understanding the potential benefits of this unique type of medicine, an internalization of the interconnectedness of your mental, emotional, and physical pain ensues.

Resources:

Lucia’s Research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMPiR53QOqg&t=695s

Intro to Psychedelics: https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/

Healing Trauma: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748

Addiction: https://www.amazon.com/Realm-Hungry-Ghosts-Encounters-Addiction/dp/155643880X