Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics

Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
Thu., Apr. 23, 2026, 3 – 5 p.m.



This group meets, Thursdays, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 4/2, 4/16, 4/30
Registration is required. 
Please register to attend each session.

The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection through and beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Engaging themes such as war, AI, madness, clowning, childbirth, and death, we interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic” within the field of psychedelic humanities. Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, Indigenous, and decolonial perspectives, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration, critical questioning, and integration of our own experiences and communities. This reading group brings together students, staff, faculty, and members of the broader community to learn with and from each other.

Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her research explores the spiritual technologies that awaken and sustain ecological belonging and reparative action, specifically for diasporic Jewish and Euro-descendant peoples. Working with Jay Michaelson, JD, PhD, Lila helped produce the 2025 Psychedelics in Monotheistic Traditions Symposium at Harvard Law School. Lila is a Salata Institute Climate Leader, Radcliffe Institute Grantee, and Aleph Fellow at The Shalom Center. 

PAULA ORTIZ is a third-year Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School. Her research explores the intersections of expanded states of consciousness, the sonic imagination, and relational ontologies. She previously worked as a Ketamine Integration Chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. Paula has a background in filmmaking and social and environmental impact. She was a Watson Foundation Fellow and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Philosophy from Hamilton College. 

EMILY MARIE LIPPOLD CHENEY I have identified as a sacred medicine practitioner for two decades, though I am increasingly questioning the assumptions that framing carries. More directly, I bring both personal and professional experience in working with a variety of substances (e.g., psychedelics) and practices (e.g., erotic play) as pathways for engaging the unseen and the unmeasurable. I am currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, seeking to bring the expertise and knowledge I have cultivated into conversation with practitioners and scholars across disciplines and traditions.
My current and forthcoming research projects include an investigation of psychedelic sex workers in the Bay Area, supported by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, as well as an exploration of the intersections of eroticism, psychedelics, and mothering. Most importantly, I am the mother of a brilliant and delightful almost-three-year-old.
 

Programming Series: Psychedelics and Ethics, Psychedelics and the Future of Religion, Spirituality and Psychedelics, Transcendence and Transformation
Gazette Classification: Mental Health / Wellness, Religion, Social Sciences, Special Events
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, [email protected]