Mortal Curiosity
2022 End-Of Life
Virtual Conference Series
Psychedelics and End-of-Life Care November 17, 2022 | 6-7:30pm (MST)
Psychedelics such as psilocybin have been shown to improve emotional wellbeing and help people change perspectives on challenging life realities. This session will explore the possible benefits that psychedelics can offer people nearing end-of-life to treat anxiety and other psychological symptoms. Mariavittoria Mangini will discuss the way psychedelics may be useful in existential distress at the end of life by changing obsessive, intrusive fear of death to a more nuanced consideration of what death means and represents. She will also share past and current research, and consider questions such as:
- How are we facing death and illness in the age of COVID? What is the current state of death in the culture at large?
- How will an individual experience of facing death be shifted when psychedelic therapy becomes widely available?
- How would a society that embraces psychedelic experiences approach death and dying?
Katja Allen will join the conversation to share her research in a field outside of end-of-life care entitled, “Psilocybin for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” This study seeks to improve the ability to treat and better the lives of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by exploring the benefits of psilocybin, a mind-altering drug that changes activity in brain areas believed to be involved in OCD.
Please join us for this enlightening conversation that will examine the research and potential benefits of psychedelics.
Presented by MariaVittorria Mangini, PhD, FNP and Katja Allen.
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Katja Allen
Katja Allen obtained an advanced degree in Psychology at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany, and is currently finishing her Ph.D. thesis on the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder with psilocybin. Katja has worked in different research areas, such as emotion processing, pain, palliative care, and rehabilitation for over a decade, and joined the research team at the University of Arizona in 2018 when she moved to the United States. Katja is a Co-PI of the study and has been involved for 4 years in different roles in the study: she is the project manager, part of the EEG team, and has been a sitter for more than 110 study sessions.
Intrigued by the potential of this investigational medicine, Katja has written a book chapter on the treatment of OCD with psilocybin and was involved in the early work of the Ethics Committee of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association.
Mariavittoria Mangini, PhD, FNP
Mariavittoria Mangini, PhD, FNP has written extensively on the impact of psychedelic experiences in shaping the lives of her contemporaries and has worked closely with many of the most distinguished investigators in this field. She is one of the founders of the Women’s Visionary Council, a nonprofit organization that supports investigations into non-ordinary forms of consciousness and organizes gatherings of researchers, healers, artists, and activists whose work explores these states. She is Professor Emerita in the School of Science, Allied Health, and Nursing at Holy Names University and a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. For the last 50 years, she has been a part of the Hog Farm, a well-known communal family based in Berkeley and in Laytonville, California.