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Spiritual Healing and the Psychedelic Renaissance

Recorded on November 6, 2026

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The growing field of psychedelic medicine is bringing renewed attention to mystical experience and its potential relationship to health, well-being, and consciousness. IONS scientist Arnaud Delorme, PhD, speaks with integrative physician Joe Tafur, MD, drawing on Dr. Tafur’s work in psychedelic-assisted therapy, his apprenticeship in South American curanderismo, and his book, Medicine Song: Spiritual Healing and the Psychedelic Renaissance.

Together, they explore Dr. Tafur’s perspective on personal healing and expanded consciousness, including ancestral views of healing as a state of receptivity. They also consider how changes in perception and neural networks targeted by psychedelic medicines relate to these transformative experiences.

Drawing on the Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor—the re-harmonizing of science and spirit, mind and heart—they examine the role of sacred ceremony, spiritual healing, and multigenerational traditions in the evolving landscape of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

PRESENTERS

Arnaud Delorme, PhD has been studying human consciousness for the last 20 years. He is a CNRS Research Director in Toulouse, France, and a senior Research Scientist at the University of California, San Diego. He is a long-time Zen meditator, and recipient of several research prizes. He is the author of some 160+ peer-reviewed publications, and is best known for his work on the neural correlate of mind wandering and for developing the EEG software that is now the most-used in EEG research worldwide. He is the author of Why Our Minds Wander: Understand the Science and Learn to Focus Your Thoughts.

Joe Tafur, M.D. is a Colombian-American integrative family physician. He additionally spent years working and living in the Peruvian Amazon at the traditional healing center Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, training there as an Ayahuasquero. In his book The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine, through a series of stories, Dr. Tafur shares his unique experience and integrative medical theories. With his spiritual community in Phoenix, Dr. Tafur co-founded the Church of the Eagle and the Condor (CEC). Dr. Tafur is also a co-founder of the nonprofit Modern Spirit, among their projects are the Modern Spirit Epigenetics Project, an analysis of the epigenetic impact of MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, and the educational program for healthcare providers called “Sacred Ceremony and Psychedelic Therapy.” In 2025, Dr. Tafur released his new book Medicine Song: Spiritual Healing and the Psychedelic Renaissance. He is currently helping to launch a new integrative clinic in Phoenix and the developing Psychedelic Research and Education Network at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.

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