To learn how these medicines work and their history, begin here.

Books

• Psychedelics by David Nutt (2024): A clear introduction with good explanations of how these medicines act on the brain, from the perspective of pharmacology and brain science.

• LSD Psychotherapy by Stanislav Grof (1980): A foundational clinical text. MAPS hosts a free excerpt.

• GoodMedicineUK: A Collection of Published Research from the Western scientific perspective

• Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind by Mike Jay (2023). A fun history of the scientists, doctors, and writers who tested drugs on themselves in the 1800s, and how their experiments shaped modern ideas about the mind. You can read an excerpt here.

Films

• Fantastic Fungi: A documentary on fungi, including the role of psilocybin mushrooms in healing.

• Trip of Compassion: Follows patients through MDMA-assisted therapy for trauma.

• Dosed: One woman's attempt to end an opioid addiction with psilocybin and iboga.

Books on specific medicines

• Ayahuasca: The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook by Chris Kilham and Singing to the Plants by Stephan Beyer

• Psilocybin: Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World by Paul Stamets and Sacred Mushroom of Visions, edited by Ralph Metzner

• MDMA: Trust Surrender Receive by Anne Other

• LSD: LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann and The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide by James Fadiman

• Cannabis: Cannabis and Spirituality, edited by Stephen Gray

Research centers

• Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research

• Imperial College Centre for Psychedelic Research

• UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

• MAPS

• Usona Institute

Know what you are taking, what it interacts with, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Start here: The TripSit combination chart shows which substances and medications are risky together.

Understand the risks

• UC Berkeley: Understanding Risk: A plain-language overview of psychedelic risks.

• Psychedelic Support substance guides: Medicine-by-medicine safety guides.

• National Harm Reduction Coalition: The principles behind harm reduction.

Test what you have

• DanceSafe: Reagent test kits and fentanyl test strips you can order online.

• DrugsData: Mail in a sample for laboratory analysis.

• NEXT Distro: Harm reduction supplies by mail.

• California fentanyl test strip FAQ: How the strips work and where Californians can get them.

Check doses and interactions

• TripSit factsheets: Dose ranges, onset, and duration by substance.

• Erowid dosing index: Dose information by substance, with experience reports across the rest of Erowid.

• PsychonautWiki substance index: Detailed reference pages on individual substances.

If you are sitting for someone

• Zendo Project sitter manual: How to support someone through a difficult experience. The Zendo Project also offers peer support at festivals and events.

• Tripsitters: Education for journeyers and the people who sit with them, focused on psilocybin.

Know the law

• Good Samaritan laws by state: What protection you have if you call for help during an overdose.

• Drug Policy Alliance resources: Current drug law and policy information.

Go deeper: the research

• Therapeutic use of psilocybin: practical considerations for dosing and administration (MacCallum et al., 2022): Why mushroom potency varies.

• Dosing Psychedelics and MDMA (Liechti and Holze, 2021): Why dosing is individual.

• Psychedelic Drug Checking (Hirschfeld et al., 2025): Why testing matters for classic psychedelics.

Legal options in the United States remain limited and change quickly. These are the official directories, along with the questions to ask before you commit to anything.

Start here: Before You Book: 15 Questions and 5 Red Flags for Psychedelic Retreats from Unlimited Sciences. The questions apply well beyond retreats.

Oregon (psilocybin)

• Oregon Psilocybin Services licensee directory: The state's official list of licensed facilitators and service centers.

• Althea: A searchable list of licensed facilitators and service centers.

Colorado (natural medicine)

• Accessing regulated natural medicine: The state's page, with its healing center directory and facilitator license lookup.

• Integrative Psychiatry Institute directory, Colorado: Psychedelic therapy providers in Colorado.

Ketamine

• How to choose a ketamine clinic: Vetting guidance from the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists and Practitioners. Read this before you search.

• ASKP provider directory: Member clinics and practitioners.

• Polaris Insight Center directory: Practitioners trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

• Ketamine Directory: Clinics listed by state.

Clinical trials

• Blossom: A database of psychedelic research and trials.

• UC Berkeley clinical trials map: Psychedelic trials shown by location.

• ClinicalTrials.gov: The federal registry of studies, with instructions for searching it.

• How to join a psychedelic clinical trial: A walkthrough from Psychedelic Support.

Retreats

• Questions to ask before booking a psilocybin retreat: From Confluence Retreats.

• Nine questions for choosing a psychedelic retreat: From Spirit Pharmacist, with attention to medical and medication screening.

• AyaAdvisors: Participant reviews of ayahuasca retreats.

• Retreat listings: Retreat Guru, BookRetreats, and Third Wave. These are listings, and the vetting is yours to do.

Plant medicine churches

Some churches hold a federal religious exemption for their sacrament, and many do not. Read Are psychedelic churches legal? before you join one.

• Santo Daime

• União do Vegetal (UDV)

• Church of Gaia

• Celestial Heart Church

• Church of Ambrosia

Use these to find someone, check their training, and know what ethical practice looks like. Appendix B of the book has a full list of questions to ask.

Start here: How to vet your psychedelic guide (DoubleBlind).

Questions to ask

• What makes a good psychedelic therapist: Questions to ask (Psychedelic Support).

• How to choose the right psychedelic guide: (Psychedelic Passage).

Directories

Licensed facilitators in Oregon and Colorado are listed under Find legal access.

• Psychedelic Support: Therapists and other licensed providers, searchable by location and specialty.

• Fluence: Graduates of Fluence's psychedelic therapy and integration trainings.

• Psychable: Practitioners, coaches, clinics, and retreat centers.

• Third Wave: Therapists and coaches.

• End of Life Psychedelic Care: Practitioners who work with people facing serious illness or the end of life.

Check training and credentials

• Psychedelic Association education resources: A list of training programs, useful for checking where a guide says they trained.

What ethical practice looks like

• Code of Ethics for Spiritual Guides: From the Council on Spiritual Practices.

• MAPS Code of Ethics: Published in the Spring 2019 MAPS Bulletin.

• Towards Ethical Psychedelics: Chacruna's ethics statement.

• North Star Ethics Pledge: A pledge for people and organizations in the field.

• More codes: Psychedelic Sitters School and Psychedelic Guide Network.

Go deeper: power, consent, and the guide relationship

• The Ethics of Caring by Kylea Taylor (1995): The core text on ethics in work with non-ordinary states.

• Kylea Taylor in the MAPS Newsletter and Developing ethical guidelines in psychedelic psychotherapy: Two shorter pieces from MAPS.

• Essentials of Informed Consent to Psychedelic Medicine (Marks et al., 2024)

• Transformative experience and informed consent to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (Jacobs, 2023)

• The ethical use of therapeutic touch in psychedelic-assisted therapy (McHerron et al., 2025)

• Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration (Gorman et al., 2021)

• Therapeutic Alliance and Rapport Modulate Responses to Psilocybin Assisted Therapy for Depression (Murphy et al., 2022)

Integration is how an experience becomes part of your life, and it’s easier with layers of support

Start here: The Psychedelic Support community finder lists integration circles and peer groups, online and in person.

Find a circle or local community

• Global Psychedelic Society locator: Psychedelic societies and meetups around the world.

• Polaris Insight Center integration circles: Integration circles hosted by a ketamine therapy and training center.

Find integration support

Integration therapists are listed under Find and vet a guide or therapist.

• Being True to You: Integration and recovery coaching.

• Psychedelic integration guide: An overview from Psychedelics.com, with a section on what to ask an integration provider.

Start your own circle

• Guide to community psychedelic integration circles (Psychedelic Support).

• Creating community psychedelic integration circles (Psychedelics Courses).

• Integration circles: From the Integral Guide to Well-Being.

Listen

• The Psychedelic Integration Podcast

• Integrating Psychedelics

• Getting Out Of The Way with Daniel Reznik

• The Psychedelic Integration Compass with Clara Parati

• Psychedelic integration deep dive with Marc Aixalà: A single episode from Laura Dawn's podcast.

Online forums

Quality varies widely on open forums. Read them for other people's experiences, not for medical advice.

• Bluelight

• Erowid

• Reddit: r/PsychedelicTherapy and r/Psychonaut

If something felt wrong in a session, or a guide crossed a line, you have options. Support for yourself comes first. Reporting can wait until you are ready, and always your choice.

Start here: RAINN offers free, confidential support for survivors of sexual assault at any hour, by phone or online chat.

Support for you

• VictimConnect: Confidential help and referrals for victims of any crime.

• National Sexual Violence Resource Center: Information and help finding local services.

• Survivors Chat: An online peer support community run by survivors of abuse.

• Psychedelic Support provider network: Therapists who understand psychedelic work, for talking it through with someone outside the guide relationship.

Reporting and accountability

If your practitioner is a licensed physician, psychologist, therapist, or counselor, you can file a complaint with their state licensing board. Many psychedelic guides are not licensed, and no board oversees them.

• File a complaint against a licensed practitioner in California through the Department of Consumer Affairs Online Service.

• You can find more direct links and information about filing complaints against licensed practitioners in California through the Trauma Informed California website.

• If you are outside of California, the Federation of State Medical Boards keeps a directory of every state medical board. Most entries include a direct “File a Complaint” link.

  • The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards keeps a directory of psychology licensing boards for every state and most Canadian provinces.

• Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse: From the Chacruna Institute. Written for ayahuasca settings, and useful well beyond them.

The ethics codes listed under ‘Find and Vet a Guide or Therapist’ can help you name what happened.

Psychedelics are not a fit for everyone, or for every season of life. The following approaches can stand on their own and also support your preparation and integration.

Breathwork

• Holotropic Breathwork certified facilitators: The official list from Grof Transpersonal Training.

• International Breathwork Foundation: A map of member practitioners across breathwork styles.

• Alchemy of Breath: Facilitators trained in this school's approach.

Trauma therapies

• EMDR International Association: Find an EMDR therapist.

• Somatic Experiencing International: Find a Somatic Experiencing practitioner.

Meditation retreats

• Spirit Rock: Insight meditation center in Northern California.

• Insight Meditation Society: Insight meditation retreats in Massachusetts.

• Art of Living Retreat Center: Retreats in North Carolina.

• Dharmakaya Center for Wellbeing: Retreats in New York.

• American Meditation Society: Meditation instruction and retreats.

Neurofeedback

• International Society for Neuroregulation and Research: Find a provider.

• Foundation for Neurofeedback and Applied Neuroscience: Find a provider.

Recovery from addiction

• Psychedelics in Recovery: A twelve-step fellowship for people who include psychedelics in their recovery.

• SMART Recovery: Science-based, secular mutual support meetings.

• Recovery Dharma: Peer-led meetings grounded in Buddhist practice.

• Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist-oriented path to recovery.

If you want to help shape where this field goes, these organizations are doing the policy and advocacy work. Each one has a page for getting involved.

Advocacy and policy

• Drug Policy Alliance

• MAPS

• Students for Sensible Drug Policy

• Psychedelic Medicine Coalition

• ICEERS

Take part in research

Clinical trial listings are up under ‘Find Legal Access.’