The Synthesis Institute | Presents

The Psychedelic Practitioner A Live Series on the Science, Wisdom, and Practice of Psychedelic Care August 20, 2026 | Death as the Teacher

What End-of-Life Psychedelic Care Teaches Every Practitioner REGISTER NOW

Death as the Teacher: What End-of-Life Psychedelic Care Teaches Every Practitioner

Join us LIVE on Friday, December 15th, for an expert-led panel discussion on the use of psychedelics in an end-of-life context, addressing the medical and cultural challenges faced by patients and clinicians today. This discussion also explores how psychedelic experiences encourage us to question our perspectives on life and death.

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Psychedelics have the potential to usher in new paradigms in healthcare.

This expert-led panel conversation aims to highlight how this can be achieved sustainably and responsibly by navigating uncertainty with empathy and ethics at our core.

Death accompanies and shepherds us all through life. Yet, Palliative Care is often still a source of controversy, mired in nuance and complexity. Cultural responses to dying and bereavement vary widely, both at individual and societal levels. This presents practical, ethical, legal, and socio-culturally sensitive challenges when discerning the indications and contraindications of an intervention, the timing of treatment, and how we hold space for a diverse array of perspectives within our shared existential container.

 

As psychedelic substances gain mainstream acceptance, the evidence-based guidelines for professional clinicians are still being defined. Clinicians have a legal responsibility and a Hippocratic moral duty to 'do no harm.' Psychedelics are an emerging industry where long-term and large-scale clinical trials are still relatively sparse, instigating extrapolation and speculation around clinical outcomes - which already hold a unique set of criteria in the Palliative Care context.

 

Patients with a terminal diagnosis are often too physically and psychologically frail to be included in clinical trials, further limiting the scope of insights that may be gained from our traditional approaches to evidence-based research. Equally, the subject prompts us as a collective to holistically reconsider what it might mean to live or die 'well.'

 

Psychedelics can instigate ineffable processes that share many parallels with near-death experiences, prompting us to contemplate how we might prepare for the end of life before a terminal diagnosis. Panelist Dr. Stephanie Van Hope describes this evolution of perspective as a shift from focusing on cure, to comfort, to consciousness; a greater consideration of the uncertainty of our wider context facilitates a deeper appreciation of the historical and modern practices that foster integration. 

 

Join us on Friday, 15th December, at 8 am PT | 11 am ET | 5 pm CET | 4 pm GMT as we delve into an exploration of these profound existential questions, along with the competencies, challenges, pitfalls and ethical considerations tied to their clinical context. 

 

Hosted by Daan Keiman, psychedelic and Buddhist chaplain, educator, and Synthesis Content Advisor, the panel consists of Dr. Stephanie Van Hope, a holistic Nurse practitioner, Anthony Back MD, physician and Author of What Psilocybin Taught Me About Dying, and Lou Lukas MD, graduate of the Synthesis Psychedelic Practitioner Training Program and Associate Professor of Palliative Medicine and Neurological Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 

 

This 90-minute community gathering, including a panel conversation and interactive Q&A, is for anyone that wishes to deepen their inquiry into the topics of life and death. Whether you are a patient that feels called to investigate psychedelic perspectives on palliative care, a clinician interested in the potential applications of the space, or a practitioner navigating the nuances of cultural context. 

 

Please note that while this event aims to share insights from research, case studies, and experiences, it is not designed to offer clinical guidelines or advice.

 

During this complimentary 90-minute discussion, we will be:

  • Sharing front-line experiences of the hospice process and real-life examples from the panelists' clinical practice, as well as discussing how this may differ from available academic data due to the limitations that science and researchers face.
  • Exploring the latest evidence around psychedelic use in retreat and clinical settings, and extrapolating how this might be empathetically and holistically applied to palliative care.
  • Addressing the ethical, legal, and socio-cultural challenges facing patients, clinicians, and researchers, especially in an end-of-life context.
  • Exploring how we might navigate the concept of unity in diversity when it comes to acknowledging the need for a diverse array of existential containers.
  • Discussing how to be individually and collectively open to this deeper level of existential inquiry while further developing our emotional and cultural sensitivity and stability.

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Our Expert Panel:

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Dr. Stephanie van Hope Click on picture to read bio

Dr. Stephanie Van Hope, RN, DNP is a registered nurse, certified nurse coach and doctor of nursing practice. She graduated with a DNP in the specialty of Integrative Health and Healing from the University of Minnesota in 2019. Stephanie has worked as a nurse for the last 12 years in the areas of oncology, hospice, health coaching, and education. In 2011 she served as a study guide for NYU’s Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety project, guiding cancer patients through psychedelic journeys with psilocybin. In 2021 she founded a continuing education course for nurses entitled Nursing & Sacred Medicine: Introduction to Psychedelic Therapy. She is a Reiki practitioner and a student of yoga, meditation, shamanic healing, plant medicine, music and dance, and the sacred traditions of many faiths. She currently resides with her husband and son in an intentional community in the Catskills region of New York

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Anthony Back, MD Click on picture to read bio

Dr. Anthony Back, a Stanford and Harvard Medical School alumnus, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. His research on patient-oncologist communication, funded by the National Cancer Institute, led to the creation of VitalTalk—a 501c3 dedicated to providing communication skills training for healthcare professionals caring for those with serious illnesses. Recognized with the Pathfinder in Palliative Care Award from the American Cancer Society and the inaugural Walther Cancer Foundation Palliative and Supportive Care Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Back turned to psychedelic therapy in 2018. He published the sole first-person account by a physician of a guided psychedelic experience in a medical journal ("What Psilocybin Taught Me About Dying"). Currently, he leads the first clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for healthcare professionals experiencing depression and burnout due to their frontline work during the COVID pandemic, funded by the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation.

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HOST

Daan Keiman

Daan Keiman, psychedelic and Buddhist chaplain, educator, and Synthesis Content Advisor, has supported people preparing for, moving through and integrating psychedelic experiences for over 15 years in a wide variety of settings - ranging from offering psychedelic harm reduction at festivals and leading group ceremonies at The Synthesis Institute, to his private practice as a Buddhist and psychedelic chaplain. He co-founded the Communitas Collective, a not-for-profit psychedelic think-and-practice tank dedicated to developing, refining and disseminating ethical approaches and best practices to delivering psychedelic care.