BREAKING CONVENTION 2019

5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PSYCHEDELIC CONSCIOUSNESS -

This summer (on the exact 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival), the largest psychedelic research conference in Europe returns to the University of Greenwich.

Hosting more than 150 interdisciplinary presentations over three days, across FIVE simultaneous academic tracks, Breaking Convention is one of the biggest psychedelic meetings in the world. The conference expands this year and features more than a dozen interactive workshops, a visionary art exhibition, installation gallery, psychedelic film festival, a comedy night, theatre and performance programme, evening banquet, and celebrations every night at the new SU bar within our Telesterion building!

At Breaking Convention there's something for everyone, with contributions from cutting-edge neuroscience, clinical psychology and psychiatry, pharmacology, sociology and criminology, policy analysis, anthropology, archaeology, ethnobotany, music, art, history, literature, theology, mysticism, indigenous perspectives, parapsychology, and much else besides.

Confirmed speakers so far (many many more to come) include:

TORSTEN PASSIE, MD, PhD: Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of the Laboratory for Neurocognition and Consciousness, Hannover.

GAIL BRADBROOK, PhD: Molecular bio-physicist and co-found of Extinction Rebellion

ROBIN CARHART-HARRIS, PhD: Head of Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London.

JAY GRIFFITHS: Award winning author of Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, and Wild: An Elemental Journey

NZAMBE DIVANGA: Bwiti practitioner, Gabon.

DAVID NUTT, MD, PhD: Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College, Ex-head of UK Govn. Adisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

MIKE JAY: Author of 12 books and curator of the Wellcome Collection exhibitions 'Bedlam & Beyond' and 'High Society'.

ROSALIND WATTS, ClinPsychD: Clinical Psychologist, clinical lead of the Imperial College psilocybin for depression study.

KILINDI IYI: Psilocybe mushroom technician.

CHRIS TIMMERMANN, MSc: Brain imaging DMT researcher, Imperial College.

BEN SESSA, MD: Psychiatrist and MDMA for addictions and PTSD research, University of Bristol

...plus some 140+ MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

FEATURES

Five-room academic programme, featuring 150+ speakers.

Additional new adjacent building space - The Telesterion!

Visionary art gallery

Psychedelic film festival

Interactive workshops

Light shows, dance and theatre performances.

Evening parties & concerts

Installations, exhibitions & stalls

Psychedelic comedy night

Limited edition Breaking Convention bag, including the famous welcome pack stuffed with free books, conference material, and more.

LOCATION

Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, London.

The Greenwich Campus is on a World Heritage Site on the banks of the River Thames. The campus is centred on three baroque buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren at the end of the 17th century and has been described by The Independent as ”more breathtaking than the Versailles of Louis XIV” and by UNESCO as one of the “finest and most dramatically sited architectural and landscape ensemble in the British Isles”.

The grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, in which the Greenwich Campus is situated, also houses the tourist attractions of the Painted Hall and Chapel.

Greenwich is a bustling town with a great atmosphere fostered by markets, pubs, clubs and restaurants. Up the Creek, a comedy and cabaret club, offers up-and-coming names in stand-up and is a short walk from the campus.

The borough is steeped in history. East meets west on the Greenwich Meridian line, which divides the hemispheres and marks longitude zero. The line runs through the courtyard of the 17th-century Royal Observatory and indicates the spot from which Greenwich Mean Time is calculated. Greenwich is home to the Cutty Sark, a 19th-century clipper ship, and the National Maritime Museum, as well as one of London’s finest Royal Parks.