Our Biggest Takeaways from Psychedelic Science 2025

In 2023, Denver made waves when it hosted Psychedelic Science, the world’s largest gathering of researchers, policymakers, therapists, and practitioners at the forefront of mainstreaming mind-altering compounds. Roughly 12,000 attendees (including Aaron Rodgers) flooded the Colorado Convention Center for what 5280 called “a coming out party for the psychedelic movement writ large.”

After taking a year off, Psychedelic Science returned to the Mile High City this month, from June 16 to June 20, as a more sober affair. Although the conference still drew star-studded speakers including famous psychedelic researcher Paul Stamets (of Fantastic Fungi fame), Colorado Governor Jared Polis, and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, they spoke to 4,000 fewer attendees than in 2023, according to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), who organizes the event.

The forum proved no less illuminating, though, with hundreds of workshops and panel discussions on topics ranging from the highly scientific (“Changes in Brain Glucose Metabolism after DMT and Harmine Administration: A Human [¹⁸F]FDG-PET Study”) to the more cultural (examinations of microdosing and raves).

Below, we’ve rounded up five key takeaways from Psychedelic Science 2025, from Polis pardoning state convictions to the growing trend of ibogaine treatments.

1. The psychedelic field is facing challenging setbacks.

If 2023 was a full-on trip, then this year’s iteration was more of a microdose. In fact, MAPS founder Rick Doblin acknowledged as much in his opening remarks. While he kicked off 2023’s conference in a head-to-toe white suit, he opted for a bit of symbolic black and blue this year. “We’re battered and bruised, and yet we’re still standing,” he said.

Doblin was referring to a few setbacks that both MAPS and the greater psychedelic movement have faced since the last conference took place. The most disappointing, according to Doblin, came in 2024 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected a MAPS-sponsored application to legalize MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treating PTSD. It was a stunning rebuff from regulators considering the FDA had designated the treatment a “breakthrough therapy” in 2017. Three months after the FDA’s decision, Massachusetts voters rejected a state ballot measure to legalize naturally occurring psychedelics for therapeutic purposes. Meanwhile, multiple psychedelic startups have gone bankrupt or struggled to attract investment.

Given the challenges facing the psychedelic field, this year’s conference theme—“The Integration”—focused on merging science, policy change, spirituality, and research to propel the industry over the obstacles it faces. “We’ll see how much we have to celebrate and be grateful for at our next conference,” Doblin said.

2. Whimsy wasn’t lost.

Even if this year’s conference felt somewhat deflated (and tickets cost a minimum of $919), there was plenty of personality on display from attendees. Hats of every shape and size bobbed throughout the convention halls—more than a few fashioned like Amanita muscaria mushrooms. In an area dubbed “Deep Space,” things got whimsically weird with face painting, psychedelic art galleries, and a booth where the soap company Dr. Bronner’s set up a build-your-own costume station complete with electric sewing machines.

Outside the conference, there were numerous after-parties around town, including a Meow Wolf takeover with electronic music DJs and an 80-foot-tall geodesic dome set up on the Auraria campus, where the nonprofit Portal was treating guests to projected videos and ambient music performances.

3. Polis pardoned state psilocybin convictions.

Throughout the conference, speakers repeatedly praised Colorado for becoming the only state so far to both decriminalize the use of natural psychedelics and forge a legal pathway for Coloradans to access psychedelic-assisted therapy.

“We’re proud, with our regulatory system, that we can be at the forefront of research and policy for natural medicine,” Governor Polis said during the conference. “We want to do this in a way where the story out of Colorado is one that fundamentally encourages other states to move forward.”

Read more: Big Questions Surround the Rollout of Psychedelics in Colorado

Polis then announced the pardon of all state-level convictions of people 21-and-older who had been charged for the personal use or possession of psilocybin or psilocin (the psychoactive compounds in magic mushrooms). The move mirrored Polis’ 2020 and 2021 pardons of more than 3,000 individuals convicted for cannabis possession or use, sharing the rationale that Coloradans shouldn’t carry criminal records for acts that are no longer considered state crimes.

The Psychedelic Science crowd celebrated the announcement with thunderous applause, but Polis didn’t mention how many people he’d just pardoned. That number turned out to be four individuals. The Governor’s office noted that most psilocybin convictions are at the municipal level, so it’s up to Colorado’s 64 counties to decide whether they want to follow the state’s lead.

4. Psychedelic leaders disagree on how the drugs should be facilitated.

MAPS is a proponent of using psychedelics to address mental health conditions in tandem with talk therapy. Although there is scientific evidence to support this claim, combining psychedelics with psychotherapy in drug trials can make it more difficult to earn FDA approval since the agency doesn’t regulate talk therapy. MAPS’ rejected MDMA application included trials where the drug was combined with guided psychotherapy sessions.

Perhaps because of these complications, some well-funded pharmaceutical companies who presented at Psychedelic Science 2025—including Cybin and Compass Pathways—are pursuing legal approval for synthetic psychedelics without requiring their products to be combined with psychotherapy.

Doblin isn’t keen on the idea. “I do have a concern that psychedelic pharma companies are now moving mostly to separate the drug from the therapy,” he said during his opening remarks. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that the conference exhibition hall was primarily filled with booths advertising therapeutic services, retreat centers with guided facilitation, and resources for psychotherapists who are interested in working with psychedelics.

MAPS appeared to be sending a message: Don’t take the therapy out of psychedelic healing. Which way the movement goes from here remains to be seen.

5. Colorado could fast-track ibogaine treatments.

Colorado’s regulated program that allows state-licensed facilitators to offer legal psychedelic-assisted therapy with psilocybin mushrooms is just getting off the ground. The state has currently licensed about 100 individual therapists, two macrodose healing centers, six microdose centers, two mushroom growers, and one testing center, the governor said.

Read more: I Tried Magic Mushrooms for My Mental Health. Here’s What Happened.

But Polis reported that Colorado is already setting its sights on a far more powerful psychedelic that voters approved in Proposition 122: ibogaine.

Ibogaine is the psychoactive compound found in the iboga plant, which hails from Central Africa and has been used in spiritual sacraments there for centuries. Whereas a fully-dosed psilocybin journey may span up to six hours, an ibogaine journey might last 24 hours.

Recently, researchers have been looking into promising mental health treatments using ibogaine, including for various addictions such as opioids. This month, the state of Texas approved $50 million to study ibogaine as a treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD, depression, or addiction—something Rick Perry championed at Psychedelic Science 2025.

But if the frequent mentions of Colorado during panel discussions on ibogaine are any indication, the Centennial State could actually be the first to see its widespread application and use in the United States, acting as a test case for wider adoption of the potent psychedelic. For better or worse, the Centennial State has become a proving ground, and this was yet another reminder that Colorado and Denver remain at the center of this fast-developing field.