The Beckley Sessions

Mendel Kaelen

Mendel will present his research into the profound capacity of psychedelics and music to alter consciousness. He will tell the story of how both have been used by humans for thousands of years across cultures, and how an increasing number of modern clinical trials are assessing the therapeutic potential of psychedelics with promising results. Mendel will present recent findings from the study of how psychedelics and music work together in the brain to change subjective experience; share insights from the study of patient-experiences with music during psychedelic therapy; and will discuss the implications and prospects of using music in psychedelic therapy.

About Mendel Kaelen:

Mendel Kaelen holds a master’s in neuroscience from the University of Groningen and is now a PhD candidate at Imperial College London. His research interest lies in studying the role of music in psychedelic therapy from a neuroscience perspective. For his work he uses neuroimaging data from healthy volunteers administered with LSD as well as from an ongoing clinical trial with psilocybin to treat major depression. He is research fellow of the Beckley Foundation, and board member of the OPEN Foundation.