Ripples is creating and researching collective psychedelic practices which explore the potential of psychedelics for peacebuilding, sacred activism, collective liberation and healing collective traumas. It is currently focused on Middle East based conflicts but aims to create an approach applicable to different situations.
BRIEF
HISTORY
Ripples is the continuation of seven years of research and practice: Our pilot project, launched as a research study at Imperial College London, revealed the potential of transformative practices for societal healing. Working with a cohort of Palestinian and Israeli researchers, peacemakers, and artists, we led several successful sessions for deep personal & collective healing and visionary future building.
WHAT
Ripples seeks to energise peace and liberation movements and communities. It does so by 1) creating shared psychedelic programs with collective intentions grounded in political realities, 2) researching such programs through academic collaborations, 3) training facilitators, educating the public, and creating guidelines for the use of psychedelics for peacebuilding, 4) supporting the creation of a larger ecosystem which can help individuals and communities to integrate their processes, maintain communities, and ripple their insights through art and creation.
HOW
Collective Intention — Participatory Rituals — Healing Collective Trauma — Experimental Ethos — Political Grounding — Working with Narratives — Prophetic Visioning — Sacred Activism — Dialogue — Personal is Political — Insights-to-Action — Chaos-to-Magic — Emergence — Embedded in Culture — Ecology of Care— Part of Network — Imagination — Love
WHAT NOT
We are not THE Solution. We try to do what we can with the states of mind that inspire us.
AYWA:
PSYCHEDELIC
PEACE PROGRAM
Sami Awad & Leor Roseman, Psychedelic Science 2023, Denver, 23rd of June 202
From personal to collective: ayahuasca as a peace-making tool among Palestinians and Israeli
In the spring of 2022, three groups of Palestinians and Israelis were invited to participate in an ayahuasca peacebuilding program. The invitation was to explore the ceremonial and healing space of ayahuasca through a collective intention: to ground the transformative spiritual practice in the political reality of conflict and oppression; to heal collective trauma and liberate from rigid narratives and ethos; to invite revelations and transform them into actions of co-resistance; to create a community of solidarity and care; and to celebrate life and good music together.
In this joint presentation, Sami Awad, a Palestinian peace activist and one of the leading facilitators (together with Armelle Lehman and Indios Brasil), presents the program – tailored for this intention - and discusses the processes the groups went through. Leor Roseman, an Israeli psychedelic researcher from the University of Exeter (previously from Imperial College London), presents quantitative, qualitative, and phenomenological research findings from the program. The presentation reveals how psychedelics can be used intentionally for socio-political endeavours beyond personal healing.
Research
The qualitative & ethnographic research presented below is on the underground ayahuasca scene in the Holy Land, where Israelis and Palestinians drank ayahuasca together without a direct intention of peacebuilding. This initial inquiry has set some of the ideas, practices, and research questions we put forward in our intentional creation of psychedelic peacebuilding practices.
From a phenomenological perspective, participants experienced both intense moments of group unity and identity dissolution, as well as awe-inspiring moments of interfaith and intercultural connection and recognition through music and prayers. Many participants also had powerful insights and visions about the conflict and collective trauma, which motivated them to work towards conflict resolution.
It is important to note that in times, we noticed that too much of a focus on oneness and harmony can serve the status quo, excluding Palestinian conflictual voices and history. Yet, some revelatory events can momentarily challenge the status quo; hence, they are revolutionary in potentia. In fidelity to such revelatory events, a political awakening can motivate the subject to change the reality around them based on their new perception.
Roseman, L., Ron, Y., Saca, A., Ginsberg, N., Luan, L., Karkabi, N., Doblin, R. and Carhart-Harris, R., 2021. Relational processes in ayahuasca groups of Palestinians and Israelis. Frontiers in pharmacology
Roseman, L. and Karkabi, N., 2021. On revelations and revolutions: drinking Ayahuasca among Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Frontiers in Psychology
Roseman, Leor. Oneness, Liberation, and Revolutionary Revelations: Observational Research on Ayahuasca Rituals of Israelis and Palestinians. MAPS Bulletin 2022: Vol 32
ART
Collective Liberation Ritual
Ripples aspires to create art projects based on shared processes, which will inspire others to seek peace and collective liberation. An exemplary project is Ripples Collective, created for Medicine Festival 2024, and performed in London, Davos, Denver, and Oxford. The collective comprises Palestinian and Israeli activists and artists who journeyed together in our project and now seek to ripple out their process.
The Collective Liberation Ritual is partly a performance and partly a process, held by musicians, facilitators, educators, and peace activists. The performance includes storytelling, facilitated processes, theatre, dance, and music – and carries the audience through grief into solidarity and empowerment. It is a journey from separation to connection, feeling the collective pains to allow them to reveal a shared vision. Sitting in Circle, alchemising, with song, word, and movement, an alternative reality - nearly lost - for the land we come from and all its people.
See the Financial Times piece about our performance
Let’s work together.
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