Women & Psychedelics: A Panel Discussion
Moderated by Noelle Armstrong (Synergetic Press)
With Erika Dyck , Mikaela de la Myco, Maria Mangini, and Belinda Eriacho
City Lights, Chacruna, and Synergetic Press celebrate the publication of
“Women and Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices”
Edited by Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell, Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Ph.D., Clancy Cavnar, Psy.D., Ibrahim Gabriell, and Glauber Loures de Assis, Ph.D.
Foreword by Kathleen Harrison
Published by Synergetic Press
In the ever-expanding conversations around psychedelic medicines and their multitudinous histories, women’s voices and stories have been excluded and even suppressed. What profound contributions are living outside of this patriarchal lens? How do we understand the role of women in psychedelic history and the emergent present?
Join historian and co-editor of Women and Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices, Erika Dyck in conversation with Belinda Eriacho, Mikaela de la Myco, and Maria Mangini in highlighting some of the seminal women who have shaped, and continue to shape, the psychedelic landscape. This intimate, intergenerational conversation will explore the roles women have played in care work, from ritual rites of passage in the transpersonal domains of birth and death to the vital role that elders play in the psychedelic community. We will also examine how traditional gender norms have shaped the way psychedelics are perceived and utilized, using intersectional frameworks to explore how we can collectively create a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
About the speakers
Erika Dyck is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the author or editor of several books and articles on the history of psychedelics, including: Psychedelic Psychiatry (2008); Psychedelic Prophets (2018), A Culture’s Catalyst (2016) Wonder Drug (2021), Acid Room (2022); Expanding Mindscapes (2023) and Psychedelics: A Visual Odyssey (2024). Erika was the co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Health History (2015-2023) and is currently the President of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society. She is also a co-editor of the recently published, Women and Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices (2024).
Mikaela de la Myco comes from a blended ancestry. Her ancestors come from southern italy, the caribbean and mexico and she uplifts their perspectives in the space of entheogens.In her everyday life, Mikaela serves as a mother, an educator, a folk herbalist, a community organizer and entheogen facilitator in occupied Kumeyaay & Luiseno territory, also known as San Diego, CA. She cares for all people with ancestral healing ways and holds special focus in serving small-businesses, cooperatives, non-monogamous people, psychedelic families, femmes and people seeking full-spectrum herbal womb care. She has collaborated as an educator and activist with hundreds of companies and organizations within the sacred earth medicine space and is well known as a maternal caretaker in the community. Her platforms, Mama de la Myco and the mushWOMB generate educational content that weaves the tapestry of medicine woman, psychedelic mother and sacred hoe. In all her creations, Mikaela de la Myco has made the commitment to rematriate entheogens by advocating for ethics and womb to tomb psychedelic literacy. Her most recent movement, Mothers of the Mushroom is an open source research and resources project meant to further permission the world into remembering that psychedelics are for families.
Maria Mangini, PhD, FNP, completed her doctorate in Community Health Nursing at University of California, San Francisco, where her research on drugs and drug policy explored the impact of historic LSD use in the lives of middle-aged adults. She was the director of the MSN/FNP program at Holy Names University in Oakland for 20 years. For 25 years, she was in family practice with Frank Lucido MD, and theirs was one of the first to add medical cannabis to the family practice armamentarium. She is co-founder of the Women’s Visionary Council, which supports the work of women scholars, artists, healers and visionaries through a series of conferences, workshops and grants. Her interests currently center on the study of death and dying.
Belinda Eriacho is of Dine’ (Navajo) and A:shiwi (Pueblo of Zuni) descent. Her maternal clan is One-Who-Walks-Around and she was born for the Zuni Pueblo people. Belinda was born and raised on the Navajo reservation, located in Arizona, United States of America. She is the wisdom carrier, healer, and founder of Kaalogii LLC, focused on cultural and traditional teaching, inner healing, and an international speaker on various topics impacting Native American communities in the United States. Belinda holds degrees in Health Sciences, Technology, and Public Health. In addition, Belinda has participated in the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, MDMA People of Color, and Eye Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy Training Programs. Belinda is also a Founder and Board member of the Church of the Eagle and the Condor, a Program Advisor for Naropa University, and a Native American Traditional Advisor for SoundMind. She is the author recent articles that are available on charuna.net: “Considerations for Psychedelic Therapist when working with Native American People and Communities”, “Guidelines for Inclusion of Indigenous People into Psychedelic Science Conferences” and “This is not Native American History, this is US History with Belinda Eriacho”. In addition, a contributing author to the recently published Psychedelic Justice: Toward a Diverse and Equitable Psychedelic Culture (Synergetic Press, 2021).
Noelle Armstrong is a queer poet, editor, and teacher in California. She is the Managing Editor of Synergetic Press and the Poetry Editor at DoubleBlind Magazine. She believes in care as a form of creativity and creativity as a form of care.
Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines is a registered California 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN 84-3076078). They are a community-oriented organization run by a small staff of experts and enthusiastic volunteers who work to bring education and cultural understanding about psychedelics to the public. Founded by Brazilian anthropologist Dr. Bia Labate and American psychologist Dr. Clancy Cavnar, the Chacruna Institute produces high-quality research on plant medicines and psychedelics, and helps propagate academic knowledge in more accessible formats. Chacruna promotes a bridge between the world of plant medicines and the emergent field of psychedelic science, between “traditional ceremonial use” and clinical and therapeutic settings, bringing the knowledge and perspectives of the social sciences to health care professionals and practitioners of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Visit Chacruna’s website to learn more: https://chacruna.net/
Synergetic Press has for almost 40 years, published books with unique and paradigm-shifting ideas in subjects such as ecology, sustainability, cultural studies, social justice, consciousness, and psychedelics that inspire both individual and social change. Visit them at : https://synergeticpress.com/
Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation