Webinar June 12th 2025 Victoria Litman: The Necessity of Regulating Psychedelic Spiritual Care

Spiritual or religious elements are a relevant part of the effects of psychedelics. Some people have argued that in addition to the more typical mental health professionals, psychedelic care also needs people who focus on the aforementioned elements – what has been called psychedelic chaplains.

One of the people who has been calling for such an approach is lawyer, law professor, and interdisciplinary psychedelic studies scholar Victoria Litman. In a webinar presentation organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research on Tuesday June 12th, she will argue that it is ethically necessary to include spiritual care due to the enhanced suggestibility of individuals under the influence of psychedelics. This suggestibility creates a situation ripe for imposition, whether intentional or accidental, of spiritual or religious ideas, which there have already been allegations of. Her view is that ethical psychedelic facilitation requires accounting for this possibility and actively working to prevent it.

Litman sees psychedelic chaplains as playing an important role in informed consent processes, training medical professionals and holding space for participants during psychedelic experiences and helping them integrate those experiences. She argues that including psychedelic chaplains may enhance therapeutic benefits through supporting continued communal engagement after psychedelic sessions. She also brings up an economic perspective: The high cost of providing medical professionals for long periods of time is one of the biggest financial barriers to expanding access to psychedelic treatments.

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 1,5 hours.

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Victoria Litman M.Div., J.D., LL.M. is a visiting professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, where she teaches Torts, Cannabis Law, and Psychedelics Law. She is also a Fellow in Psychedelic Law and Spirituality at Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersections of tax law, religious freedom, and emerging areas such as cannabis and psychedelics law.

Professor Litman earned an LL.M. in Taxation with Distinction from Georgetown University Law Center during which she was a Graduate Tax Scholar, a JD (cum laude) from New York Law School, a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary (concentration in Religion and Law), and a BA in Religion from the University of Southern California.