Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Ethnography of a French hospital team who, pre-trial, undertook supervised self-experience with high-dose psilocybin truffles and trip-sitting in the Netherlands. Examines training, safety, tacit knowledge, and care for potentially extraordinary, boundary-testing experiences.

Paper long abstract

This paper reports an ethnography of a French hospital care team preparing for a forthcoming psilocybin clinical trial. Prior to any patient dosing, the clinicians organised an extra-clinical training in the Netherlands—where psilocybin truffles are legally available—combining supervised self-experience with a high dose of psilocybin and trip-sitting, with strictly pedagogical aims. By July 2026, fieldwork will be complete and will include participant observation of the training protocol, ethnographic interviews, and document analysis.

The study traces how personal exposure to psilocybin’s effects is translated into transmissible clinical know-how: preparing set/setting; recognising and accompanying affective transitions; calibrating presence and reassurance; managing music and unforeseen stimuli; arranging follow-up and psychological safety. It also examines how narratives, checklists, and guidance documents mediate the conversion of first-person insights into standardised recommendations that may inform other hospital teams.

Empirically, the case illuminates emerging practices at the interface of institutional medicine and informal, cross-border learning. Conceptually, it addresses the panel’s concerns by showing how psychedelics can reconfigure boundaries between the secular and the exceptional—between regulated therapy and encounters that participants may characterise as extraordinary or noetic, potentially challenging ordinary rationality. The paper interrogates shifting epistemic authority—who counts as “expert” when experiential knowledge becomes part of clinical competence—and surfaces tacit ways of knowing that exceed conventional biomedical frames. Finally, it reflects on ethics and governance: what responsibilities are enacted when clinicians become psychonauts for training purposes?

By following “psychedelics in action,” the paper documents a pivotal moment in the professionalisation of psychedelic care in Europe.