Psychedelics and Meditation with Marco Schlosser

A talk given on the 20th April 2022 with Aventures in Awareness and Psychedelic Society.

Marco touches on new modes of practice that are emerging in contemporary dharma circles, including ways of looking that seek to expand the phenomenological playground of meditation and stretch our conceptions of what-practice-is.

After these historical and theoretical excursions, Marco will briefly review existing research on the use of psychedelics in meditation training and will then present data from the largest study to date investigating experienced meditators’ relationship with psychedelics. More than 1,000 experienced meditators reported on how their psychedelic use (including microdosing) has affected their meditation practice and vice versa.

We also collected information about meditators’ most meaningful and most difficult meditation and psychedelic experiences, personality traits, and perceived changes in well-being and personal ethics. To conclude, I will propose questions and directions that could contribute to the maturation of this budding research field.

Marco is a researcher at University College London, Division of Psychiatry. As part of the European Medit-Ageing Research Group, he investigates the impact of meditation training on mental health and well-being in the ageing population. He is also leading the IMPRINT project, which aims to deepen and refine the relationship between meditation and psychedelic research.

​Marco received his BSc in Psychology from the University of Groningen, his MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences from University College London, and research training at McGill University. He has been awarded a fellowship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) and is currently completing a PhD in psychology at the University of Geneva.

Marco has spent one year on silent meditation retreats.