Lived Experience in Psychedelics: Insights Beyond the Breakthroughs

This groundbreaking panel is a first at Psychedelic Science: a self-organized session led by MDMA-assisted therapy trial participants. Offering nuanced, critical, and diverse perspectives, we move beyond hype and fear to explore the real-world complexity of psychedelic treatment.The panel features voices of participants who found benefit, faced challenges, or experienced distress. Together, we offer a rare and necessary window into the lived reality of MDMA-assisted therapy.Often portrayed as revolutionary breakthroughs, psychedelic therapies yield widely varied outcomes. Yet in public and media narratives, patient stories are often reduced to extremes, either celebrated recoveries or amplified harms.This oversimplification overlooks the richness and full spectrum of lived experience. Those who fall between these poles often remain unheard, further distorting our collective understanding.Through powerful stories and thoughtful analysis, this panel offers a fuller picture, including unresolved trauma, difficult outcomes, and systemic failures in preparation and aftercare. We’ll explore commonly overlooked topics such as clinical outcomes versus quality of life, therapy and placebo effects, the mind-body connection, cultural framing, integration gaps, media narratives, and the exclusion of lived experience from shaping research and policy.Our goal is to challenge the “miraculous cure” narrative while honoring both the transformative potential and the real risks. We call for a more grounded and ethical path forward, one that balances hope with accountability, data with wisdom, and clinical science with lived expertise.Join us for a pioneering conversation that re-centers those most directly affected—including voices too often overlooked or misrepresented—to help shape a safer, more effective, and more inclusive future of care.