Registration is now open and the preliminary program is available! Details below.
Conference Dates: October 2–4, 2025
Location: Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Conference Theme: Challenging Psychedelics
Research on psychedelic substances is rapidly growing across different academic disciplines. However, psychedelic science faces several challenges that call for multidisciplinary approaches. For example, clinical trials have been criticized for methodological and ethical problems; the mystical aspects of psychedelic experiences have sparked controversy; Western researchers have been accused of colonizing indigenous knowledge of psychedelic substances; and psychedelic researchers’ personal interest in psychedelic substances has raised questions about the objectivity of their research. Problems like these are the special theme of this year’s Psykedeelit 2025 conference: Challenging Psychedelics. The conference brings together researchers from various fields to face the challenges head on and improve the rigor of the research.
Keynote Speakers
- Michiel van Elk, Associate Professor at the unit of Cognitive Psychology of Leiden University, Netherlands, will be addressing methodological questions in psychedelic research.
- Christine Hauskeller, Professor in Philosophy at Exeter University, UK, will address issues of decolonization in psychedelic science.
- Daniel Villiger, Research Fellow at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, UK, will discuss (bio)ethical issues in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Submitting Poster Presentations
Submissions for oral presentations are now closed. Decisions on acceptance have been announced.
Submissions for late-breaking poster presentations are still welcome. Please send them by email to psyty@psyty.fi.
The submission should include your name and affiliation and the title (not included in the word count), together an abstract of maximum 300 words with the following sections (if possible): 1) Background, 2) Methodology, 3) Results, and 4) Conclusions. All posters are to be presented in person at the conference site. The conference language is English. The abstracts will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary scientific committee.
Submissions on all aspects of psychedelic research from any field of science are welcome. However, we especially welcome submissions on the special theme of this year’s conference, Challenging Psychedelics, discussing problems, offering alternative perspectives, or challenging established notions in psychedelic research related to, e.g., methodology, philosophy, or ethics.
Registration and fees
Registration for the conference is now open! Space is limited, and the previous conference in 2023 sold out well in advance, so make sure to register early to secure your place!
Registration fees are very modest at 65 € for regular participants and 40 € for students and participants of lower means, with a further 10 € discount for members of the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research. The fee includes access to all sessions of the conference on all days, but does not include meals.
Program
The preliminary program of the conference has now been released! Please note that changes are possible.
The scientific program runs 15:30-18:30 on Thursday, 9:30-17:30 on Friday and 10:00-17:15 on Saturday. The program includes 36 oral presentations, three keynote talks, a poster presentation session, and a panel discussion.
There will be an informal get-together on Thursday evening, a Conference Dinner on Friday evening and a Conference Afterparty on Saturday. Other activities and trips may be organized.Details on the social program will be available here soon.
Venue
The conference will take place in the Arken building of Åbo Akademi University.
The building is located by the Aura River in the centre of Turku at Tehtaankatu 2 / Fabriksgatan 2, within walking distance from the bus and railway stations. Turku is 1 h 45 min away by train from Helsinki and Tampere, and also accessible directly by ferry/cruise ship or airplane from Stockholm, Sweden and by airplane from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hotels and B&Bs close to the conference venue include (in descending order of prices) Scandic Hamburger Börs, Centro Hotel, Sokos Hotel Wiklund, Omena-Hotelli Kauppiaskatu, Scandic Julia, Hotelli Helmi, Holiday Club Turun Caribia, and Bed and Breakfast Tuure. Some quirkier choices are prison hotel Hotel Kakola, ship hostel S/S Bore, or The Bridgettine Convent and Guest House.
Organizers and Contact
The conference is organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research together with an organizing committee of researchers from different Finnish universities and the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology of Åbo Akademi. Funding is also provided by Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi.
Any questions about the conference may be sent to psyty@psyty.fi. You are also welcome to join our email list (available in Finnish or English) and follow us on our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, X) to get more information about the upcoming conference and other relevant news.
See you in Turku in October!
