SPEAKERS
Eduardo Schenberg
Instituto Plantando Consciencia
Antes o cérebro não existia (Once, the brain did not exist)
Abstract
In this presentation I will show an ongoing partnership with the Huni Kui people from northwestern Amazon Forest in Brazil which aims to do the firs-ever cooperation between biomedical scientists and a cultura which traditionally uses Nixi pae (ayahuasca). I will briefly present an overview of two years of a partnership which brought western European scientists to their first ayahuasca experience and indigenous leaders for a snowy trip to Prague. I will critically examine the assumptions which underlie modern ayahuasca research with a focus on epistemic injustices and how science has been overlooking indigenous knowledge and epistemology itself. I will share important considerations and reflections for the future of ayahuasca research and use in a time where the amazon is severely threatened by ecocidal policies, a negative process in which biomedical research can play an important role.
Biography
After more than ten years treading a solid academic trajectory in the interface between psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry, I started developing initiatives to provide new psychiatric treatments. During my undergrad, Masters and PhD studies and post-doctoral research, I specialized in psychoactive substances, studying their most varied effects – harmful as well as therapeutic – focusing on psychedelics (ayahuasca, LSD, ibogaine, MDMA and psilocybin, among others). I led and participated in groundbreaking research revealing the neural basis of psychedelic’s effects in the human brain, helping to elucidate their effects in consciousness and also their promising therapeutic potentials. I have professional experiences with the first, second and third sectors (government, business and non-profits). I work to bring radical and disruptive innovations in psychiatry, developing safer and better treatments than currently available, focusing on severe cases of drug addiction, depression and trauma, among others. I also study the many facets of the amazonian medicine ayahuasca, bridging science and traditional knowledge and practices.
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