Community Guidelines
Disclaimer: These Conduct Guidelines and Community Values are a work in progress. We will continue to develop them with the feedback of BPS members. If you wish to offer suggestions, comments, or constructive feedback, please use the Community Feedback Form.
You can also download a PDF version of these guidelines here.
Mission Statement
The Brooklyn Psychedelic Society’s mission is twofold: (1) to create a framework for community-based healing and transformation that maximizes the safety, accessibility, and effectiveness of psychedelic journeying and (2) to create social experiences that educate and support our community members on their personal growth journeys.
Conduct Guidelines
These are our expectations for any individual engaging with Brooklyn Psychedelic Society events, workshops, and digital forums. These guidelines may be understood as the fundamental intentional practices that inform the culture of our gatherings.
We strive to be a feminist, queer-friendly and BIPOC-friendly organization. We will not tolerate sexism, sexual harassment, homophobia, transphobia, or racism. If you experience any of these things, please reach out to us (see “4. Accountability” for action steps).
1. Take Space, Make Space
Foster the self-awareness that lets everyone at the gathering participate equally, including yourself. When someone is speaking, listen to them, give them space to finish, and speak one at a time. When you are speaking, ask yourself, “Why am I talking?” If you are holding back, ask yourself, “Why aren’t I talking?”
2. Generous Communication
Be open-minded, non-judgemental, and assume good intentions. By honoring perspectives different from our own, we expand our own worldviews and develop empathy, humility, and communitas. Good will facilitates good dialogue. We will not tolerate any hate, prejudice, harassment, or discrimination of any kind within our community. If someone says something that causes hurt or offense, we encourage emotional non-reactivity, charitable assumptions, and a good-faith effort to address the issue with the person. Anybody who continues to exhibit disrespectful behavior will be asked to leave.
3. Active Care
We look out for each other’s well-being at BPS. While we do not know what is best for another person, we can encourage others to practice safe, constructive, and intentional ways of engaging with psychedelics. With that said, we encourage our members to listen to their own instincts and discern wisely. If you are concerned for anybody’s physical, psychological, or spiritual well-being, be compassionate and honest and reach out to the BPS team or a community steward if extra support is needed. (BPS is working on a set of escalation protocols.)
4. Accountability
Creating a safe and healthy community means facing tension, conflict and problematic behavior. This includes holding each other accountable to these guidelines during gatherings. Say something if you experience or witness disrespectful behavior. Do not let problems simmer out of conflict-avoidance. You may reach out to the BPS team (hello@bps.community; patrick@bps.community; colin@bps.community), or, if your concern is with a BPS staff member, you can use the Community Feedback Form which is monitored by an independent council of community stewards.
Community Values
1. Flourishing
We strive to enable individual growth towards holistic, psychospiritual well-being through an ongoing process of healing and growth. In addition to alleviating psychological ailments, transformational experiences can aid in each unique journey towards personal excellence.
2. Pluralism
We believe that the value of psychedelic experiences is enhanced by spiritual exploration, and we honor the individual autonomy of each person in directing their own journey towards growth and transformation. We celebrate the diversity of spiritual and philosophical perspectives that make up our community, and we strive to listen to and learn from one another in a way that respects spiritual boundaries and honors each unique point of view
3. Intentionality
Psychedelics are powerful tools that can aid in both individual and collective journeys towards healing, growth, and transformation. To ensure safe and constructive outcomes, we strive to build a culture where psychedelics are used with awareness, respect, and moderation.
4. Accessibility
We believe that the healing and growth mediated by the psychedelic experience should be accessible to everybody regardless of their identity or socioeconomic status. We prioritize minimizing financial barriers, empowering individuals within the community, and building spaces that are diverse, inclusive, and welcoming.
4. Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to creating a supportive and inclusive community culture. We embrace and encourage our community’s differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make an individual unique.
5. Democracy
We strive to organize for the community, by the community. Democratic governance enables the staff and community members to make decisions about the goods and services being offered through the organization. This empowers individuals and builds a regenerative culture rooted in cooperation and community.