The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) will explore psychedelics as tools for understanding the brain and mind, enhancing well-being, and deepening spirituality

In collaboration with faculty from UCSF and the Graduate Theological Union, UC Berkeley researchers are using an interdisciplinary approach that combines basic science, training, and public education to investigate the short- and long-term effects of psychedelics on perception, cognition, and emotion in healthy volunteers, to help train practitioners to safely facilitate psychedelic experiences in therapeutic and research settings, and to advance public understanding of psychedelic science, policy, and business. The BCSP is administratively housed in UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and is directed by Michael Silver. The BCSP’s Executive Committee consists of Michael Silver, Dacher Keltner, Michael Pollan, Tina Trujillo, Andrea Gomez, and David Presti.