Q&A with Sam Gandy
Sam Gandy is a lifelong nature lover with a BSc in physical geography, an MRes in entomology, and a PhD in ecological science. He is an experienced researcher focused on applied ecological restoration and has conducted ecological fieldwork in various parts of the world. Gandy is an independent researcher and a collaborator with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London and Onaya Science, with a research interest in nature connectedness.
Please note that interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
BCSP
How are psychedelics and environmentalism connected?
Sam Gandy
The key link between psychedelics and environmentalism is that psychedelics have the potential to enhance people’s relationship with nature, using a scientific construct called nature-relatedness (or nature connectedness in the research literature). Nature-relatedness is linked to feelings and actions of care and stewardship towards the natural world.
Nature-relatedness is not the same as going outside into nature. One can have passive or superficial contact with nature without actively connecting to it, while nature-relatedness is primarily emotional and experiential. Put another way, it encompasses the difference between hearing birdsong and actively listening to it. A simple definition would be a measure of someone’s psychological relationship with nature and a sustained awareness of the connection between themselves and the rest of the natural world. Nature-connected people tend to appreciate species and wildlife that don’t have direct material value to human beings and appreciate the wider community of nature.
A psychedelic experience appears capable of increasing nature-relatedness, whether the experience takes place in a clinical setting or a forest.
BCSP
What’s the state of the research on nature-relatedness and psychedelics?
Sam Gandy
A growing body of evidence shows a link between lifetime usage of psychedelics and someone’s feelings of nature-relatedness. I recently collaborated on a paper called “Transpersonal Ecodelia,” which aimed to shed light on the different mechanisms and mediators at play here, shedding some light on how psychedelics can influence people’s relationships with nature. Central among these was the capacity of psychedelics to reliably elicit states of interconnectedness with nature.
BCSP
What are the gaps in this body of research?
Sam Gandy
It’s important to note that most of the research has been retrospective, which only looks back on past experiences. Retrospective research can reveal potentially interesting relationships worthy of further investigation, but it does not allow you to draw causal associations between variables. If you want to step up the scientific rigor you will need pre-psychedelic experience baseline measures and a control group to compare to and follow up any potential changes over time post-experience. This is sometimes considered the scientific gold standard. In general, we need more controlled research in this area -here is some in the pipeline, but we need more. We also need research to handle better the influence of nature-based or enriched settings on outcomes, including nature connectedness.
More specifically, there’s a big research gap regarding whether using psychedelics influences pro-environmental behaviors. People get quite excited by this topic because they see the link and extrapolate: “Psychedelics enhance nature-relatedness, and nature-relatedness is tied to environmental behavior, so psychedelics are going to save the world”. That is skipping ahead and missing the murky nuance in the middle, and overlooking the value-action gap. The yet unanswered, million-dollar question is: Are psychedelic-elicited shifts in nature-relatedness sufficient to bring about pro-nature behavior change reliably?
BCSP
Can you say more about any forthcoming findings?
Sam Gandy
Psychedelics seem to be able to affect or elicit a sustained shift in people’s nature-relatedness. That’s significant, especially when compared to the literature on conventional interventions for enhancing nature-relatedness, which often focus on things like residential stays in nature reserves and nature-based engagement, educational, and restoration activities. We are essentially in the dark with regard to the potential of these interventions to promote sustained effects, and they can also be time and resource-heavy.
Another very interesting finding is that psychedelics such as psilocybin can have this effect on nature-relatedness independent of the setting in which they are administered. A psychedelic experience appears capable of increasing nature-relatedness, whether the experience takes place in a clinical setting or a forest. While using psychedelics in nature-rich environments could enhance these effects, it seems this context is not a necessity for positive outcomes.
BCSP
Which other topics are most interesting and important to investigate next?
Sam Gandy
Firstly, research in nature-based settings. In a paper that I collaborated on, “Egoism to Ecoism,” we netted data on the use of nature-based settings for psychedelic experiences. That said, we didn’t differentiate between types of settings. It could have been a suburban garden, Alaskan wilderness, or anything in between. Investigating the effect of different settings would bolster this field.
Then there’s contact with nature and health benefits. Nature-relatedness predicts valuing having contact with nature, and this has been associated with an array of its own mental health benefits: reduced stress and anxiety and improved mood, well-being, cognition, creativity, working memory, spatial memory attention, visual attention, reasoning, fluency, and intelligence. Even brief contact with nature can have benefits, and two hours over the course of a week has been strongly associated with health and well-being. Further research is needed to evaluate to what degree psychedelics might inspire people to live more nature-rich lives, as potentially, this has major implications for health across the lifespan.
I have plans afoot with collaborators to explore whether psychedelics (in a group-based context) might help address some aspects of eco-anxiety, which has been defined as a “chronic fear of environmental doom.” This is a growing issue, and while it is considered a normal, adaptive, and healthy response to the environmental crises we face, for some, it can be overwhelming and debilitating. People working on the ‘front line’ are likely more at risk of debilitating eco-anxiety and associated burnout, including climate change and environmental researchers, conservationists, environmental educators, and activists.
I’m also hoping to collaborate on research looking at whether psychedelics like psilocybin could help treat biophobia or feelings of fear or disgust generated by nature. This is a growing issue due in part to more and more people growing up without much contact with nature, and an important barrier to connecting with nature.
Lastly, there’s a very small segment of people who are effectively flatliners for nature-relatedness, scoring zero across the board on the measures used. Could a psychedelic like psilocybin potentially be helpful here where conventional interventions are failing? That remains an unanswered question, obviously.
BCSP
You’re an ecologist. We’d love to hear more about your work and ideas for exploring psychedelic and pro-environmental behavior.
Sam Gandy
We’re a very nature-disconnected species now, particularly in the so-called Western world with our societal value system of materialism, individualism, consumerism, and anthropocentrism. Neither the scale of our disconnect from nature nor the scale of the environmental crises have a single, one-pot solution. It would be naïve and misguided to look to psychedelics to single-handedly mitigate this mass extinction event that we’re orchestrating. But my hope for psychedelics is that they could be helpful catalysts of nature connection, potentially as a supplemental, rather than standalone, intervention. An interesting hypothetical would be to use psychedelics in a group-based, nature-oriented way. Such an approach could yield major benefits to mental health alone without even considering the potential wider ecological implications.
My main job is for an environmental consultancy that specializes in rewilding, habitat creation and restoration, and biodiversity enhancement. It’s restoring nature broadly speaking. I feel that is really important work as we can actually do something — and like it or lump it, climate change is happening now. We can’t stop it. But maybe we can slow it down and facilitate adaptation by restoring ecosystems and biodiversity and making the planet more resilient to ecological change. If we’re truly committed to restoring our connection to nature – and we should be – restoring nature will also be vital.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.