Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research Launches Online Course 

The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (CPCR) on Monday launched “Psychedelic Science and Medicine” on Coursera. The free online course is taught by David Yaden, Albert Garcia-Romeu, Frederick Barrett, and Sandeep Nayak, who are faculty members of the CPCR.    

“We want to make sure that we’re getting the research out to the public in a more direct way, and we thought that Coursera would be a good opportunity to do that. We get a lot of people who are interested in learning more about psychedelics, who want to go beyond the popular reporting, but maybe don’t have the background to read academic papers.” — Yaden in a press release 

The course focuses on history, context, and definitions of psychedelics; clinical trials and major findings; neuroscience and mechanisms; and ethics, society and the future of the compounds. 

“We are the most comprehensive and productive psychedelic research center in the world,” Frederick Barrett, director of the CPCR, said in a statement, “and as such, our faculty are uniquely qualified to provide broad, evidence-based and objective education on the science behind psychedelics and their potential therapeutic applications.” 

The modules are taught via video, and each includes a quiz and short writing assignment at the end. The entire course takes about 10 hours. 

“As scientists who happen to study psychedelics, we’re not for or against psychedelics,” Yaden, who is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “Our job is to produce knowledge and provide evidence-based information about psychedelics. We aim to be a kind of public utility of information about this topic.”