Bill Richards is a clinical psychologist who has been involved in psychedelic research since 1963.

 

After the decades-long research shutdown, Bill helped to reinitiate it and spark the worldwide renewal as a founding member of the Johns Hopkins psychedelic research team, which just received $17 million to expand their efforts into the largest Center for Psychedelic Research in the world.

Bill's psychotherapy research has included entheogens in the treatment of alcoholism, severe neuroses, narcotic addiction, and the psychological distress associated with terminal cancer, as well as their use in the training of religious and mental-health professionals.

 

Bill is the author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences.

 

Bill sits down in conversation with Mike Margolies, Founder of Psychedelic Seminars. Mike is a community builder who has sparked and mentored Psychedelic Society groups around the world from Baltimore to San Francisco to Portugal. Mike is also Co-Founder of CryptoPsychedelic and former Co-Director of Psymposia.

 

We talk about the parallel arcs of Bill's career and the movement, mystical experiences, what makes a good psychedelic therapist, and the concerns related to for-profit psychedelic business.

 

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Sponsored by A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin, available to watch for free

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Mentioned in this interview: Via Quartz: "A millionaire couple is threatening to create a magic mushroom monopoly"