Five Insights From Breaking Convention 2025
What I learned from Europe’s largest psychedelics conference
I was lucky enough to attend Breaking Convention 2025, Europe’s largest psychedelics conference. This is the Archimedean point for all psychedelic and consciousness expansion affairs, with people from all walks of life congregating and sharing knowledge. And when I say all walks of life, I’m not speaking in hyperbolic terms– this conference had indigenous leaders and representatives from across the globe, mixing with researchers, PhDs, doctors, philosophers, ravers, and everybody in between.
It’s a rarity and a pleasure to be met with such viewpoints, and engage with so many varied intelligent conversations. I’m still coming to terms with everything I assimilated in my short time at the conference, but these are five of the biggest points that currently stand out to me.
Note: several of these points might come across as negative, but my overall perspective of Breaking Convention was one of joy and acceptance. More than anything, I wanted to shine a light on
1. It’s less about substance use, and more about prohibition
When I first heard about Breaking Convention, I took it to be that attendees are all united under the one perspective that psychedelic substances have transformative qualities. On the surface this looks to be true, but I found a stronger narrative form as I spent longer at the event. It’s not so much about transformation, and more about worldwide prohibition. Most countries have some legal restrictions on psychedelics, in one way or another. As a result, academic research, medical interventions, sacred rituals, and personal growth attempts have been limited or outright banned.
This brings people closer together than the understanding that psychedelics are significant– this is especially noticeable when it comes to how Westerners approach plants that have an indigenous significance. European researchers are often interested in their medical utilities, whereas those who worship it are looking more into preservation of their beliefs and the plants themselves. Collectively, they’re fighting for a lack of judicial and governmental strong-arming. Individually, they have wildly different goals.
2. Western medicine and indigenous ideologies are co-existing, but only by a thread
Building on from the last point, the way American and European medicine is approaching psychedelics is very different from how other cultures around the world are. Doctors and researchers want to get their hands on these substances so they can treat depression, anxiety, OCD, Bipolar, PTSD, and a huge range of other ailments. They want to expand their toolbox so they can help increase human flourishing.
Representatives of indigenous tribes and cultures are interested in educating the West on their traditions, and ensuring their way of life doesn’t wither into non-existence. There’s a way to do both of these things, but it requires the Western medical world to learn how to respect the plants and mushrooms they’re curious about. Breaking Convention does a great job of giving underrepresented cultures a platform, but change will only happen when researchers take their word on board. Right now we’re still early when it comes to building medicine from many of the psychedelics out there, so there’s still time. The best results will not only involve education, but will actively include people from indigenous cultures into the fold so they can lead certain trials and ceremonies.
It’s not immediately obvious, but there’s a friction between some of these cultures and Western academics. Without the right mindset and frameworks, the mission to take historically rich psychedelics over to standardised medicine can feel like another arm of colonialism.
3. The FDA brought a somber tone
In 2024, the FDA rejected MDMA as an official treatment for PTSD. This came as a shock to many researchers in the psychedelic space, as MAPS had been working harder on this than on other areas in psychedelic medicine. Just a year ago, it felt like MDMA’s approval was all-but-guaranteed. However, this didn’t materialize. While some of this could have come from traditional archaic views on “party drugs”, it does not seem to be the main reason. In fact, a major limiting factor was in how the trials were designed, and how evidence was acquired by researchers. This gives the impression those conducting the studies made mistakes in their practices.
Whether that’s true or not is a point of contention, and I was faced with many different perspectives on it. But it’s left the psychedelic community feeling uncomfortable and dismayed. There was a strong sense of stillness in the air. What was meant to be a triumph ended as a moment of reflection.
4. Counter-cultures are thriving
Breaking Convention features a collection of counter-cultures. The hippie movement is the most obvious of them. The 60s aesthetic, mindset, and ideology is still thriving, but it’s just one dimension of the conference. In many ways, the medical practitioners who embrace and welcome psychedelics are their own counter-culture– I was speaking with a psychiatrist who told me that people like her who advocate for psychedelics in their professional roles are shunned at traditional medical conferences. The same is true of many policymakers.
Rave-culture is also huge at Breaking Convention. This is most prevalent at the afterparty on the final day of the conference, which essentially becomes a club night with more of a traditional psychedelic focus. It’s a reminder that this is a much a social gathering as it is a networking event.
5. Dissociatives are still shunned
Breaking Convention is more about entactogens and classical psychedelics than it is about dissociatives. Ketamine gets the pass, as it currently acts as the shining example of how to get a consciousness-altering drug approved on a global scale. But substances like 3-MeO-PCP, MXE, 2FDCK, or even Salvia are hardly ever discussed. They’re not exactly shunned, more so forgotten and ignored.
Talking about them brings fascinated looks, which is good as it means they’re still taken seriously. It’s simply that there’s little research into them. As somebody who’s deeply interested in dissociative substances, this disappoints me. With the exception of Salvia, most dissociatives are human-made and relatively modern, meaning they have little cultural or historical ties, therefore making them less complicated to work with in a Western medical way. But there’s little focus on them.
Final Words
Breaking Convention is a necessity to visit for anybody who’s interested in psychedelics. Whether you’re a researcher, have an intimate cultural relationship, or merely curious, this is the place to be. It feels like the perfect middlepoint between the whole spectrum of the substance-use world. This is by far the most meaningful event I’ve been to, and one I’ll definitely be returning to.
For further critical discussions on substances, culture, and medicine, check out my physical magazine, Existential Horror. This is a 250+ page publication designed to be a critique and celebration of psychedelia and substance-use culture. Vol 2 is out now!
