Reflecting on 10 years of BPS
and our community-based future!
Dear BPS Community Members,
Happy Summer! We just got back from Denver and WOOWHEE, what a week it was! I want to give a big shoutout to Danielle and Theon for making the trip to Denver, our tabling, and events run so incredibly well. Danielle and Theon also made more friends at the table than I can count! I also want to thank our volunteers Naomi, Taia, and Jolie for helping us hold down the fort at the conference! Taia also designed our lovely fliers for our Trip Tales Dinner and Rave, thank you Taia! We made some great connections and we were received with so much excitement from the psychedelic community.
New Team Member Announcement
I am also excited to share and announce that we just hired a Director of Operations, Missi Woolridge, MPH who started with us this past Wednesday. Missi brings a wealth of experience to the table and is going to greatly accelerate our work with Trellis and the development of our community. Missi was the Executive Director of Dancesafe for almost 7 years and teaches public health at SUNY Potsdam.
And without further ado, I'd like to share some reflections on where we are with BPS and our future vision.
10 Years of BPS: Looking Back
A few weeks ago, on June 13th, it was our 10 year birthday as a community. 10 years! Back in 2015, a group of approximately 12 people met in Prospect Park to discuss their psychedelic experiences. It was a much different culture then for psychedelics even though it was only a decade ago. The original founder of what was then called "the Psychedelic Society of Brooklyn", Danny Miller, was a lawyer and so therefore especially concerned about people not incriminating themselves. Instead of explicitly sharing that we had experienced a psychedelic, we were encouraged to say that "I had a dream where I took [psychedelic]" or "someone I knew had a [psychedelic] journey and this is what came up for them". And it seemed to make sense to do that. It felt much more like the Wild West back then. Or to be more specific, it felt more like being a part of the initial frontierspeople who were just setting out to new territory.
The Current Landscape
These next few years of the psychedelic field I think will be paramount to shaping up the future of the ecosystem. While I am disappointed that FDA-regulated MDMA Psychedelic-assisted Therapy (PAT) didn't go through, I think it also cleared some space in the field. Like anything else with enormous potential and value, there were many companies and entities in the space who perhaps were more in it for turning a quick profit than those who are committed to integrating these medicines, whether with profit or not, into society for the betterment of our fellow humans. And while the community-based ecosystem's tendency to put community before profit is often bemoaned as idealistic or unsustainable, to me it reflects a more realistic picture of how these medicines will eventually be a part of our society: affordably, safely, and through flourishing communities rather than strictly clinical settings. There's a safeguard in place when community comes first and profits come second. I will always prefer to try to figure out ways to make something financially sustainable instead of figuring out how to make something more authentic and people-centered.
Now, with the field in full swing, our work on Trellis and community-based vision has never been more crucial.
Our Accomplishments Over 10 Years
Over these past 10 years, we have accomplished quite a bit. To name a few achievements:
Have hosted over 50 facilitated, legal group journeys, primarily with breathwork and ketamine (with clinical partners Our House and Innermost).
Have supported numerous affinity groups for subcommunities within our community
Successfully ran two of our own community-based unconference series, Synchronicity, in 2023 (in 11 days!) and in 2024. 2025 will be announced soon : )
Hosted hundreds and hundreds of community-centered events around psychedelic education, support, and connection.
Developed a framework for community-based healing, Trellis, that will be worked on and shared by and with psychedelic communities around the country.
Started a Community Steward council of dedicated BPS community members who are helping ensure the health, safety, and shape the future of our community.
Raised ~$600k over the past 4 years in furtherance of our mission to make community-based healing maximally safe, affordable, and transformational. This is all thanks to donors like Dr. Bronner's, Kindred Trust, and so many generous, gracious individuals who have supported our work.
Our Vision for the Next 1-5 Years
In addition to our accomplishments, there is work to be done for this field and we at BPS have our sleeves rolled up.
Here are a few future projects and visions we have for the next 1 to 5 years:
Enlisting and empowering community leaders, facilitators, therapists, underground organizers, Indigenous elders, and anyone who honestly wants to help us build the community-based ecosystem to co-create Trellis.
Practicing our Trellis framework, in community, here locally in Brooklyn and then helping the largest communities around the country implement it and simultaneously share it with the other societies around the world.
Publishing an open-source Trellis handbook and eventually supporting other communities with funding
Opening a physical location (!) here in Brooklyn (if you have any interest or leads on this, please write me at colin@bps.community!)
Partnering with other community-based orgs in the space to help co-steward a movement around the community-based ecosystem
Greatly enhancing our membership offerings for people interested in psychedelics for creativity, personal growth, and spirituality.
Building out our cohort program for small-group experiences around education, journeying, and transformation
Working locally and in NYS to inspire policy that is favorable to the community-based ecosystem
Other exciting initiatives that will be announced
The Heart of Our Work: Community
We are very proud of what we've achieved and accomplished as well as our future vision and direction. But what gives me more vitality than anything else to keep doing this work is you the community members. I know it might sound like a cliche to say that. But it is so very true. Every Trip Tales I attend, every event or dinner of ours, every picnic, I am always feeling inspired by the level of care, attention, inclusivity, and welcomingness of you, our community members. I have seen so many friendships, relationships, and connections form from the BPS community, many of them which seem like lifelong relationships. I have met people who have told me they met their partner at BPS or a new best friend too many times to count now.
Personal Reflections on Leadership
I also have learned a lot as a leader. I have definitely made my fair share of mistakes and blunders. While I have been organizing BPS for 10 years, it was only 5 years ago that I actually got serious about working with volunteers and only 4 years ago that we got our first big donation.
Community is the Medicine
As our slogan states, "Community is the Medicine". And while our beloved plant and chemical allies are what brings us together, it is without a doubt that it is the community that is the real meaning and purpose behind what we do here at BPS. And not only at BPS but what the other psychedelic societies and adjacent communities do around the country and globe. This is a movement that is "just beginning" like anything else that's truly transformational starts: slowly, on the ground, and through relational trust, navigating difficulties, and patiently growing.
Gratitude and Looking Forward
Thank you to all who helped get us here to a 10 year birthday, including our board members, our donors, our collaborators and partners, and again, you the community members. To another 10 years of patient, heart-centered growth!
In community,
Colin