Psychedelic Leaders Ask for UN Help in Return of 5 Nova Hostages
Five months after the Hamas attack on the Nova Psychedelic-Trance Music Peace Festival in Israel left 364 young people dead, and others sexually violated, mutilated, and taken captive, some of the most-widely respected leaders of America’s psychedelic medicine community have written an open letter of concern to the United Nations to urge the release of the 5 girls seized by Hamas at the Festival, as well as release of the other hostages.
In a letter that also denounced the tragic loss of life in Gaza and expressed support for aspirations for peace and good neighborliness between Israelis and Palestinians, the psychedelic leaders urgently flagged a concern raised by a US State Department briefing which revealed that young women abducted by Hamas during the Nova Psychedelic-Trance Dance Music Festival for Peace in Israel remain in captivity due to the continued perpetration of sexual violence by Hamas. On March 3 the UN Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict confirmed evidence that sexual violence against the Hamas-held hostages is “ongoing.”
Rick Doblin, PhD, the founder of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, the neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda, PhD, Brigadier General (Ret.) Stephen N. Xenakis, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, and the executive director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association, Leonard Pickard, MPP, activist and Harvard researcher, Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, host of Ted Health and founder of the EndWell Project, and Jeannie Moller Fontana, MD, PhD, CEO of TREAT California, a public health project, are the letter’s co-authors.
“The psychedelic community cannot remain silent,” states the letter to UN Women which adds, “Our field, recognized for groundbreaking research in psychedelic medicines, understands the profound impact of trauma on mental health. We are committed to healing and alleviating human suffering, and thus, find it imperative to raise our voice against such atrocities.”
“Leaders across various sectors, including biopharma, technology, finance, and law, have already taken a stand,” acknowledged the letter’s writers who point out “For instance, Dr. Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, called at Davos for the immediate release of the hostages. The Yale University School of Management lists numerous Fortune 500 corporations that have denounced terrorism and advocated for the hostages release.”
The open letter to Simi Sami Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women reads, “Our call to action is clear: We urge UN Women, under your esteemed leadership, to actively engage in securing the release of the 19 women still held hostage by Hamas, including the five from Nova Psychedelic-Trance Dance Music Festival for Peace. Their names are Noa Argamani, 26, Amit Esther Buskila, 28, Romi Gonen, 23, Inbar Haiman, 27, and Eden Yerushalmi, 24.”
In making a public statement about the Hamas atrocities at the rave, the letter’s co-signers are commenting on a psychedelic-adjacent event that is at a very far remove from their professional focus, a world of evidence-based FDA-approvals, clinical trials, academia, state and federal legislation, high level policy concerns, and Wall Street investments.
Some 50 psychedelic companies are now publicly listed in the U.S.; MDMA is expected to receive FDA approval later this year, Johnson & Johnson’s fastest growing product is Spravato, which is related to Ketamine, considered by some to be a psychedelic, many major universities now have departments dedicated to psychedelic studies conducted with the highest rigor.
In contrast — as is widely known — raves are underground music gatherings held in the spirit of Woodstock, where affirmations for peace and harmony frequently combine with psychedelic experiences involving MDMA, LSD, or psilocybin in a tradition of night-long dancing. The October 7 Tribe of Nova Festival described itself as: “a journey to peace, love, and unity.”
The letter explains that while these psychedelic raves are outside their professional scope, Nova represented an event of profound significance because those targeted by Hamas were aligned with Israel’s most dedicated peace-makers.
“While many of us may not have [personally]experienced a Psychedelic-Trance Festival, we recognize its cultural and symbolic significance, particularly in the context of the Israeli peace movement. The Hamas atrocities on October 7 and also the tragic loss of civilian life in Gaza, demand a global response,” urges the plea to UN Women.
Some of the most barbarous acts of violence on October 7th were perpetrated by Hamas at the rave against known peace-makers. Shani Louk, 22, the artist whose lynching was livestreamed by an authenticated and geolocated Hamas social media feed and whose broken and desecrated naked body was paraded before cheering crowds in Gaza, was an avowed pacifist who had declined to serve in the IDF. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, also last glimpsed on an authenticated Hamas video feed with his left arm blown off being dragged away to Gaza, had worked to establish Jerusalem as an open city and who has been hailed by Al-Jazeera as a peacemaker.
The psychedelic community letter to the UN has been posted on change.org, so that allies may add their names, said Dr. Ungerleider, who explained: “ President Joe Biden rightly condemned these heinous acts when he called for ‘individuals, civil society, and the business community’ to join governments and international organizations in denouncing Hamas’s sexual violence unambiguously.”
Dr. Ungerleider highlights that the letter to UN Women is accessible on change.org allowing members of the psychedelic community to sign and express their support for the hostages’ return.
General Xenakis, a medical doctor, who serves on the Advisory Board of Physicians for Human Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture, is an Executive Board Member, Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, said that his intention behind sending an open letter to UN Women is to inspire others to action: “I pray this will recruit more voices to condemn violations of human rights.”
The link to the open letter to U.N. Women from the American psychedelic leadership can be found here.
Mary-Elizabeth Gifford is chair of the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute’s Psychedelic & Healing Initiative and is Chief of Global Impact at Psyence Biomed, a nature-derived psilocybin biopharma with a focus on palliative care.
