B3 Non-refereed article in a conference publication

Exploring psychedelic experiences: Insights from narrative collections in transformational festivals




AuthorsHeikkilä, J-P & Toomistu T.,

Conference nameThe 2nd Finnish Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelics

Publication year2023

Web address https://psyty.fi/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Psykedeelit2023-FullProgram.pdf


Abstract

This explorative academic work explores the ancient practice of storytelling and aims to extend the discussion from what is a psychedelic to what is a psychedelic experience?

The focus area is transformational festival, a extreme festive, where participants undergo intense and transformative experiences, often involving psychedelic substances. The methodology used to study thesae transformational event communities, includes innovative Story Sharing Cube as a data collection device. Selected transcribed data prompts are shared to provide insights from the festival participants ́ psychedelic experiences.

The ongoing project by non-funded and institutionally independent Burning Stories scienceart collective has successfully collected 184 stories from 9 transformational festivals, addressing the challenge of collecting qualitative data long after the transformative moment by capturing it in situ, during the psychedelic experience itself. Concluding remarks include discussing the validity of the Story Sharing Cube method and highlighting its potential benefits for studying extreme environments, such as war zones.



Last updated on 14/03/2026 07:19:41 PM