The Reworlding Fellowship is an eight-month immersive experience for political leaders, activists, community organizers, journalists, and social change practitioners. The focus is on merging a structural-historical analysis of power, exploring post-capitalist possibilities and integrating these with lessons from plant teachers and the more-than-human realms. The aim is to become more contextually-relevant to the living world in these times of meta-crisis.
Rewild, Reconnect, Reworld - Psychedelics, values, social change and conscious leadership in the Anthropocene.
The Fellowship is a partnership between Tierra Valiente: Center for Applied Cultural Transition, PsyVal, and the Imperial College Center for Psychedelic Research.
The Fellowship program explores a rich syllabus and curriculum rooted in a de-schooling pedagogy. The set, setting, curation and integration of the arc of the eight-month collective journey focus on values and systems change including a curated reading and watching list, monthly plenaries, smaller cohort sessions, 1:1 and group dialogues around the issues.
Our shared inquiry focuses on three primary themes: ‘polis’ (political economy); ‘Eros’ (relationship with self, others, the world); and ‘Gnosis’ (direct experience to the divine or wisdom). As such, major themes throughout the fellowship will include include:
An analysis of the historical evolution of power and privilege (e.g. the enclosure movement, the invention of race, etc.)
An introduction into systems thinking and structural power analysis (including the role of capital)
Decolonisation and deprogramming our minds from the brainprint of current extractive values, frames and narratives
An immersion into values-based research and the practice of how values change over time
The need for and possibilities of reworlding to re-connect with the living world
An exploration of new/ancient/emerging approaches to leadership, especially in times of crisis
An exploration of existing and emerging alternative socio-economic systems (i.e post capitalist possibilities)
An exploration of other ways of being and knowing (e.g. ontological inquiries around Indigenous cosmologies, animism and panpsychism)
Who is this Fellowship for?
As Imperial College’s Sam Gandy writes in 'From Egioism to Ecoism', while individual perspectives and actions hold value, “particular responsibility to ensure ecological justice must fall on those who wield the greatest power, namely policy makers and other individuals and organisations who possess significant influence”. The focus of the Reworlding Fellowship is on political leaders, activists, journalists, community organizers, social change practitioners and others who are open to expand their work on systemic change through psychedelic journeying.
Participants will be selected to join a cohort of 15-20 fellow travelers from various backgrounds who have a yearning and ability to be part of a deeper global systems change. We will engage in a collective sense-making process, individual contemplation/embodiment work, and smaller working group time.
Participants will have a strong desire to work with psychedelics not to ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, but quite the contrary, to ‘wake up, grow up and show up’. They will have a deep sense of a need for a birthing of new systems and have the potential to play a role in such shifts.
Why the “Psychedelic Renaissance” is just Colonialism by Another Name
by Reworlding Fellowship Co-Facilitor Alnoor Ladha
What makes this unique?
We believe there are a number of things which make the Reworlding Fellowship a unique invitation:
Focus on systemic change - We will going much beyond ‘what can this medicine do for me?’ to ‘what, through this medicine, can I do for the world?’.
Focus on values change - We will combine the theory and practice of values and behavior change with psychedelics.
Active curation - We will create a focused container seeking to direct outcomes towards reworlding and re-orientating towards symbiosis with the living world.
Open-source protocols - We open-source our protocol which can be shared more widely in order to help evolve the psychedelic and conscious leadership worlds.
Led by activists and medicine keepers - The two primary co-facilitators will be Alnoor Ladha (activist, political strategist, and Sufi lineage holder) and Jennifer Andrulli (Indigenous medicine carrier) as well as a host of other co-guides including Jules Peck (social change practitioner).
Focus on research and evidence - We will be joined by leading psychedelic researchers from Imperial College who will structure evidence and research to help support the efficacy of psychedelics for social change.
Arc of the experience
The Fellowship is a eight month program including three months of online foundation setting, a two-week collective ‘rewild, reconnect and reworld’ immersion in the rainforest of Costa Rica, and three months of online integration.
November 2022 to January 2023: Online application is open
February 2023: Online interviews
March: Final selection of participants and interviewing for research assessments baseline.
March/April: First online curriculum session on values, shared language and visions for post capitalist futures; first working group calls (three smaller groups of seven); participant offline reading and exploration of the issues.
May: Second curriculum session on the role of psychedelics for social change; second working group call; participant offline reading and exploration of the issues.
June: Third curriculum session deepening on specific readings and preparation for immersion; third working group call; participant offline reading and exploration of the issues and clarification on personal and group intentions and expectations for the immersion. Remotely facilitated dieta to prepare for the immersion.
June/July Immersion: (June 26 to July 9 / landing June 25 and departing July 10) for the gathering at Tierra Valiente, Costa Rica.
August: First integration group and 1:1 calls; first working groups call
September: Second integration call; second working groups call
October: Third integration call; third working groups call
Immersion (@ Tierra Valiente)
Tierra Valiente, the center for applied cultural transition, is the space for the immersion part of the program. It is an 80-acre commons nestled between Volcano Arenal and the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, a 50,000 acre wildlife preserve. Here is a proposed arc of the journey (open to emergence):
Day 1: Landing, grounding and research assessments
Day 2-5: Purification and prayer-field (focus on detoxification and pre-diets)
Day 5-8: Root and remember (with psilocybin microdosing and one day flood-dose ceremony)
Days 8-12: Decolonizing and deconditioning (with two facilitated Ayahuasca ceremonies with a Shipibo elder)
Day 13: Initiation and Integration (with facilitated Wachuma ceremony) and research assessments
Day 14: Closing circle and integration
Day 15: Departure day
Each few days we will focus on a different theme to collectively move through a process to rewild, reconnect and reworld. Through a daily rhythm and ceremonies (including meditation, music, song, movement, breathwork, etc.) we will attune to the wisdom of the living world, plant teachers and inner guidance.
What outcomes participants can expect from the fellowship
Some outcomes of the fellowship which participants might experience include:
Better orientation to our current meta-crisis and a clearer understanding and articulation of the values and visions for post-capitalist futures.
Long-term values shifts towards the kinds of intrinsic and self-transcendent values which can support enhanced engagement with and focus on systems change and increased levels of wellbeing which come from such a values shift.
A shift in identity, political orientation, liberation from the burden of political identities and potentially changed worldviews .
More ethical and empathetic decision making and social functioning.
A stronger sense of personal mission or purpose and greater agency for supporting systems changes to our current systems.
Being part of a growing community of practitioners at the cutting edge of politics and spirituality.
Expanding our ability to hold grief and gratitude simultaneously, and other aspects of non-dualistic thought in the midst of the meta-crisis.
Deepening our capacity to listen and attune to the living world and understanding and reverence for Nature’s intelligence and design.
Connecting to the wisdom and healing properties of plants and psychedelic medicines as allies and teachers of systems change.
Reconnection with ancestors, their wisdom and ancestral healing.
Developing a strong praxis around decolonization work in body, mind and soul.
An opportunity to contribute to the science of psychedelics and to the growing understanding of the role of values changes in personal and collective transformation.
CONTRIBUTION
The Reworlding Fellowship financial contribution operates on a sliding scale. The cost range is from USD $6K to $14K for the eight months. This includes online facilitation, full costs for the immersion including accommodations, meals, activities, facilitator fees, and medicine.
Flights are not included and each is person is responsible for getting to and from Tierra Valiente for the immersion.
Your contribution will be determined by your annual income, your organizational budget (if applicable) and your general economic circumstance. If you are selected for the fellowship, the fee will be decided in dialogue with transparency among you and the facilitation team.
There will be up to four partial scholarships available. For those who receive scholarship, the cost will be $4K for the eight month fellowship ($2K lower than the hard costs). There could be additional scholarship funding depending on what other participants contribute beyond their costs. The focus for these scholarships is on people who are not rewarded by the capitalist system and/or come from marginalized communities.
There will be a bias towards those working in social movements and other struggles who are based in the global South. If you require additional support beyond the partial scholarship, please let us know.
Please note, that flights are not included and each person is responsible for getting to and from Tierra Valiente for the immersion although we can help with travel arrangements in Costa Rica.
WORDS OF SUPPORT FROM THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
Rick Doblin, pioneering Founder of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) -
"The work that this Fellowship program is doing is exactly what inspired me at age 18 to devote my life to legitimizing psychedelics.”
Amanda Fielding, Founder, Beckley Foundation, International Drug Policy Consortium and the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy -
"Our planet is in desperate need of a seismic shift away from the cultural perceptions of the dominant animal, homo sapiens. Retreats and programmes such as those proposed by this Fellowship program may indeed help shift people towards embracing this more quickly.”
Justin Rosenstein, early founder of this work and founder of Asana and One Project -
"Psychedelics have been used for thousands of years to heal the trauma that hinders our seeing and acting clearly, catalyze spiritual and mystical insights of unity, and to cultivate inner clarity and virtue. Science has also demonstrated these effects. Healing and evolving our shared consciousness and culture are essential, especially at a moment in history when our choices matter so much. This Fellowship program is developing to make this healing accessible could not come at a more critical time."
Dr. Leor Roseman, Imperial College Psychedelic Research Group -
"While the mainstreaming of psychedelics is focused on 'inner work', novel initiatives are needed to broaden the scope of psychedelic transformation from personal to social. This Fellowship program is taking this step forward by attempting to bridge the gap between personal-growth and systemic change. I believe that the insights gained from this program will advance psychedelic mainstreaming beyond therapy and hopefully will inspire others to do the same."