A Rational Psychedelic Ceremony

Stoic philosophy, body-mind practice, and scientific awe and wonder.

No substances. Breath, attention, and reason.

An evening for people whose relationship to meaning requires reason.

Many psychedelic healing spaces invoke faith or specific metaphysical claims. Some folks are left out. This evening is built for them. No metaphysical claims, no appeal to faith, no borrowed mysticism. We are evolved animals, and attention can be trained.

Three things brought together

Stoic philosophy. The Stoics called it prosoché — a relentless vigilance toward thought and emotion. From it they built the discipline of assent: slow down, watch, withhold judgment, question, and only then act. It is a practice for keeping the surge of feeling from overriding reason, and they worked it out two thousand years before anyone had language for the brain.

Body-mind practice. Vigilance can't be only cognitive. Emotion lives in the body, so awareness has to go there too. We use asana, pranayama, and meditation across three arcs — a chakra scan and breath awareness to prepare attention; self-referential somatic work and mudras for the watching and questioning; robust pranayama landing in shavasana for what can be accepted. Sound and scent are used as stimuli throughout, with a soundscape that begins cluttered and resolves toward simplicity and harmony.

Awe and wonder. Inspired by science and the natural world. Aspects with profound healing power that can be cultivated through practice and philosophy.

What you take home

Every participant receives the guide book made for this evening — reasons to practice, the arcs themselves, and a set of metaphors for what you are protecting and what cannot be touched. It is built to be used again, alone or by groups running their own ceremonies.

What you are joining

The Psychedelic Yoga Research Collective is a small nonprofit building something that does not yet exist: psychedelic yoga as a real body of practice, developed in rooms like this one and written down so other people can use it. There is no established curriculum to draw on. Every workshop we run makes original material, and the people in the room make it with us.

So this is less a class to attend than a practice being built, and a community forming around the building of it. What happens on October 11 goes into what comes next — including the guide book, which will keep travelling after the evening ends.

If that is your thing, there is more of it. Come to one and you will hear about the rest.

The research

At the close you'll write a sentence you'd want said back to you in two weeks. We'll email it to you then. Taking part is optional, separate from your ticket, and you can decline any part of it without explanation.

A note on fit

The breath practice includes retention. If you are pregnant, live with a cardiovascular condition or epilepsy, or have a history of fainting, please check with your own clinician first — and never practice breath retention in or near water. You can sit out any portion at any point.

This is a yoga and philosophy practice, not therapy or medical treatment, and you take part at your own risk. No substances are involved and we ask that you don't take anything beforehand.

Practical

Sunday, October 11, 2026, 6:30–8:30 PM.

35 Meadow Street, Unit 303, Brooklyn, NY 11206 — the Matka studio on Meadow Street. ⚠️ Matka has more than one space in this neighbourhood, including one at 55 Meadow Street. Please come to 35 Meadow.

Please bring a yoga mat — there are only ten on site. Wear something you can move and sit on the floor in.

Questions: henrykandel@gmail.com

Presented by the Psychedelic Yoga Research Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in collaboration with the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, with Pedro Carta, philosopher.