Psychedelics Offer Healing and Ecological Remembrance for Marginalized Individuals Failed by U.S. Health Care

Abstract

This study explores how individuals from ethnoracially marginalized backgrounds engage with psychedelic substances for psychological healing, cultural reconnection, and resistance to structural neglect in mainstream health care systems. Based on 23 in-depth interviews and participant-observation within a psychedelic preparation and integration training program, the research documents how participants turn to psychedelics—including psilocybin, cannabis, and ayahuasca—in response to trauma, systemic disconnection, and a lack of meaningful care. Most participants rejected the popular framing of a “Psychedelic Renaissance,” instead describing their experiences as acts of remembering, ancestral reconnection, and spiritual practice. Psychedelic use was often interpreted as a form of self-determined healing and ecological belonging, emerging in contrast to what participants characterized as alienating, commodified, or inadequate health care structures. Participants reported that plant medicines provided emotional insight, helped resolve intergenerational wounds, and fostered a deeper sense of connection to themselves and the living world. The study applies the framework of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), integrating Indigenous and Western epistemologies to interpret these experiences within broader ecopsychological and decolonial contexts. While critical of medical gatekeeping and the commercialization of sacred plants, participants expressed strong support for accessible and community-based psychedelic practices rooted in respect, reciprocity, and sovereignty. These findings suggest that psychedelic use, in both formal and informal settings, functions not only as a therapeutic tool but also as a response to systems of structural and symbolic violence. The research contributes to ecopsychology by illuminating how plant medicines can support holistic healing, cultural memory, and ecological awareness among communities often excluded from dominant paradigms of mental health.