The Raison Lab is dedicated to exploring how consciousness and neuroplasticity can inform our understanding of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. Through our research, we hope to illuminate pathways toward the development of effective mental health therapies to promote the healing, health, and thriving of individuals and the communities to which they belong.

Welcome to the Raison Lab

Psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin—when administered in conjunction with therapeutic support—have be shown to induce substantial changes in consciousness and enduring positive shifts in emotional and psychological wellbeing, leading to the relief of suffering and increases in mindfulness, openness to experience, and a greater sense of connection with self, others, and the world.

Research participants who appear to benefit the most from psilocybin often report experiencing profound alterations in subjective experience (such as changes in sensory perception, cognition, and emotion) to which they ascribe significant personal meaning, suggesting that conscious awareness and memory recall of the psychedelic experience may play a significant role in mediating its therapeutic effects. Concurrently, psilocybin has been shown to rapidly stimulate pharmacodynamic action on the central nervous system that is associated with producing antidepressant effects, such as processes resulting in the induction of dendritic growth.

To what degree are psilocybin’s long-term therapeutic benefits influenced by consciousness (such as through the capacity for experiential awareness and memory recall) and to what degree are they are influenced by its pharmacodynamic effects?

Through multidisciplinary collaboration among experts within the fields of psychiatry, psychedelic therapeutics, neuroscience, and sleep and consciousness science, the Raison Lab seeks to explore the interplay between consciousness and the underlying pharmacodynamic mechanisms by which psilocybin mediates enhanced wellbeing through 1) administering psilocybin under conditions of diminished consciousness and memory extinguishment, as well as 2) administering psilocybin under conditions where neural plasticity and the capacity for memory recall of the psychedelic experience is enhanced.