Tomorrow Talk: Courageous Consciousness - Religious Freedom and Sacred Psychedelic Ceremonies
- Tom Tom Foundation Staff
- Nov 26, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Thurs, Dec. 18
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Vault Virginia, 300 E Main St
As we prepare for the 14th Annual Tom Tom Festival (April 22–26, 2026), whose theme is COURAGE, the Tomorrow Talk series invites us to explore what courage looks like—in our personal lives, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our society.
As psychedelic spirituality enters a new era of visibility, few scholars have examined its lived reality with the depth and nuance of Jeffrey Breau, researcher at Harvard Divinity School. His recent article, What Makes Psychedelic Experiences Sacred?, features Charlottesville’s own Church of Direct Experience (CODE) and explores a central question that is reshaping religion in America. Through his fieldwork, Breau highlights how meaning arises not from the substances alone but from the structure, ethics, and communal interpretation that shape these ceremonies.
In this Tomorrow Talk, Breau will share insights from his multi-year study of new psychedelic spiritual communities and what distinguishes CODE within this emerging landscape. From preparation of the setting -- rigorous preparation, safety protocols, lineage-informed practice, and devotional culture -- to spiritual communal values grounded in gratitude, humility, and forgiveness, Breau’s research illuminates how new religious movements are developing sacred understanding, and shared texts.
As academic institutions, policymakers, and faith leaders grapple with questions of legality, spirituality, and public safety, this research is at the forefront of a broader movement to situate psychedelic ceremony as a legitimate expression of religious freedom.
Registration is required. Tickets are offered at GA ($30) or Scholarship ($15) prices.
FACILITATORS
Jeffrey Breau is program lead for the Psychedelics and Spirituality initiative at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions. His research focuses on contemporary psychedelic churches and psychedelic chaplaincy. He is currently conducting a multisite ethnography of psychedelic spiritual communities in the United States. Jeffrey is also a Project Affiliated Researcher of PULSE (Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. He is co-founder of Harvard’s annual Psychedelic Intersections conference and is co-editor of the Psychedelic Intersections: Anthology.
Since its founding in the late 1950s, the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) has been at the forefront of promoting the sympathetic study and understanding of world religions. It has supported academic inquiry and international understanding in this field through its residential community, its involvement with the study of religion at Harvard, its research efforts and funding, and its public programs and publications.
Alex Patterson is the Founder and President of the Church of Direct Experience, a federally recognized religious organization whose sacramental practice centers on naturally occurring tryptamines expressed through the Sacred Mushroom Ceremony, the Rosa Divina Communion, and traditional Colombian Yagé Ceremonies. Over the past decade and a half, Alex has guided and overseen more than 400 ceremonies, helping establish CODE as one of the most active and thoughtfully organized modern entheogenic churches in the country. His leadership and the Church’s sacramental framework are currently the focus of a formal ethnographic study at Harvard Divinity School.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Tomorrow Talks are a year-long series that picks up critical themes from our April Festival and continues the conversations to create impact in Charlottesville. Each session is facilitated with an emphasis on participation, connection, and new collaborations. Tomorrow Talks begin with a connection exercise or meditation, and proceed into a presentation and breakout activities. They aim to impart knowledge that is practical and relevant to people's lived experience; combining academic or theoretical insights, alongside pragmatic tools, and experiential and somatic learnings.
