Australian Psychedelic History Project

We’re Interested in the History, Not Identifying People

The aim of this project is to preserve stories that help us better understand Australia’s early psychedelic history. We are interested in the experiences, events and history, not in identifying individuals.

When sharing a story, we encourage contributors to use first names only, or pseudonyms where preferred. There is no need to provide full names or identifying details for a story to be historically valuable.

Our Current Focus: Up to the End of 1979

The current phase of the project is seeking experiences, memories and historical material relating to Australian psychedelic history up to and including 31 December 1979.

This period captures the formative decades of Australia’s early psychedelic history, from the first wave of institutional psychedelic use, research and therapy in the late 1950s, through the counterculture and social changes of the 1960s and 1970s.

During these decades, psychedelics moved through very different parts of Australian society, from hospitals and consulting rooms to artists, musicians, festivals, alternative communities, spiritual seekers and everyday people.

We are interested in all sides of this history, and everything in between.

This might include psychedelic therapy and research; doctors, psychiatrists, hospitals and patients; early LSD and psilocybin use; psychedelic mushrooms and ethnobotanical plants; artists, musicians and writers; communes and alternative communities; festivals and gatherings; spiritual exploration; underground networks; activism; or personal experiences of living through this remarkable period.

We are also interested in what happened afterwards. Did these experiences influence someone’s art, creativity, spirituality, relationships, activism, work or way of seeing the world?

An experience may have occurred before the end of 1979, but its influence may have lasted a lifetime. That continuing story is part of the history too.

Some Of The Questions We Hope to Better Understand

There are still many gaps in our understanding of Australia’s early psychedelic history. By bringing together personal testimony, memories and archival material, we hope to better understand questions such as:

• When and how were psychedelics used within Australian hospitals, psychiatric institutions and other medical settings? Were they used in psychedelic-assisted therapy, experimental research, psychiatric treatment or other contexts?

• When did Australian communities begin foraging for psychedelic mushrooms, and how was knowledge about identifying and using them shared?

• When did LSD first become available outside medical and research settings, and how did it begin circulating through Australian cities and communities?

• When and where did psychoactive cacti begin to be grown, exchanged or used within Australian communities?

• When did psychedelic experiences become part of social, artistic, spiritual and alternative communities?

• How did people first encounter psychedelics, and how did knowledge about them move between friends, communities and generations?

• How did these experiences affect people’s lives, positively, negatively or somewhere in between?

• What influence did psychedelics have on Australian art, music, spirituality, politics, environmentalism, alternative communities and the broader counterculture?

Official records can only tell us part of this story. A seemingly small memory, such as where someone first encountered LSD, who taught them to identify a mushroom, a cactus growing in someone’s garden, a particular gathering, artist, doctor or community, can provide an important historical clue.

By bringing these memories together, we hope to build a richer picture of when, where and how psychedelic ideas, substances, experiences and communities emerged across Australia.

Whose Stories Are We Looking For?

Above all, we want to hear first-hand accounts from people who were there.

Your story does not need to involve a famous person or major historical event. A seemingly small memory, a person, place, conversation, experience or forgotten detail, may provide an important piece of a much larger historical picture.

Your memories don’t need to be perfect either. You may not remember an exact date or someone’s full name. Tell us what you remember and, where you are uncertain, simply tell us that too.

We also recognise that important histories survive through families and personal archives. If your story concerns a parent, grandparent, relative or someone you knew, and you have direct knowledge of how psychedelics affected their life or those around them, we would also like to hear from you.

You may also hold part of this history without having a story to record yourself. Photographs, letters, diaries, artworks, medical records, flyers, publications and other surviving documents can all help preserve the historical record.

First Nations Histories

We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have their own histories, cultural knowledge and relationships with Country, plants, medicines, ceremony and altered states of consciousness that long predate the period covered by this project.

We welcome appropriate First Nations oral histories and historical material that intersect with the history we are researching, including experiences and encounters up to the end of 1979.

We also recognise that some knowledge is culturally restricted or is not appropriate for a public or research archive. Such histories must be approached with respect for cultural authority, community wishes and appropriate protocols concerning how knowledge may be recorded, preserved, accessed or shared.What Makes a Story Australian?

What Makes a Story Australian?

Our primary focus is on people who were living, working or participating in psychedelic research, therapy, culture or communities in Australia.

However, Australian psychedelic history did not always happen within Australia’s borders.

We also welcome accounts involving Australians overseas where there is a meaningful connection to Australian history. This could include soldiers, nurses, doctors, researchers and other professionals, or encounters with people, institutions and events that later influenced psychedelic research, ideas or culture in Australia.

The important question is not simply where the event happened, but how it connects to the Australian story.

Every Experience Matters

Psychedelic experiences can be positive, negative, challenging, and sometimes a mixture of all three. We are interested in the full history.

For many people, these experiences were positive, memorable and deeply meaningful. Some became important moments in their lives, shaping their creativity, relationships, spirituality, worldview or the paths they later followed.

Early psychedelic-assisted therapy and research also has a more complex history. LSD and psilocybin-assisted therapy took place in a number of Australian hospitals, including Newhaven Private Hospital, Epworth Hospital and Mayday Hills in Victoria, and Callan Park Hospital in New South Wales. These are just some of the institutions involved in this early chapter.

Medical practices and standards of informed consent were very different from today. Some patients were not fully informed about what they were being given or that their treatment was experimental, and psychedelic drugs were sometimes used alongside other medications.

As historians, we want to understand these experiences in their full context: what happened, how people felt about it at the time, and how they feel about it looking back.

Whether your experience was positive, difficult, harmful, transformative or somewhere in between, your story is an important part of the history and we would like to hear it.

Building the Historical Record

Through oral histories, archival research and historical documentation, we hope to better understand how psychedelics intersected with medicine, science, culture, creativity and people’s lives in Australia.

Stories and materials will be preserved for historical research and may help inform future articles, publications, educational projects and other historical work, always in accordance with the permissions contributors give us.

We recognise that these histories can contain sensitive personal information. Contributors can choose how they are identified and how their recordings and materials may be used. Names, locations and other identifying details may be changed or withheld where appropriate to protect the privacy of contributors and other people mentioned in their accounts.

Most importantly, we want to preserve these memories before they disappear.

Help Us Find These Stories

You might be reading this and already know someone whose story would be perfect for this project. Perhaps it is a family member, old friend, former colleague, artist, researcher, doctor, patient, musician or simply someone who was there.

Please share this project with them and encourage them to tell their story.

You don’t need to have a story yourself to contribute. Helping this project reach someone who does can help us find and preserve histories that might otherwise disappear.

Every memory can add something to the historical record. If you were there, knew someone who was, or hold a piece of Australian psychedelic history connected to the end of 1979 or earlier, we would love to hear your story.

Have a question about the project or sharing your story? We’d be happy to hear from you at info@entheogenesis.org.

Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Photograph by Harry Watson Smith. Creative Commons.