Funzing Talks: Psychedelics: Origins, History & Future

Funzing Talks is a new concept which aims to re-invent your after work drinks. They've pulled together an impressive array of leading entrepreneurs, intellectuals, bright thinkers and incredible individuals to inspire your evenings.

Although not often recognised by researchers and scientists fungi and plants have been used for millenniums by indigenous Africans for spiritual, personal and community development. Darren will be sharing his extensive research on the indigenous usage of psychedelic plants on the African continent. Several communities use these sacred plants in their rites of passage, initiation ceremonies and daily ritual. We have discovered that when these groups left the African continent onto new pastures their practices traveled with them. In this presentation, Darren will take you on a historical journey from the pre-historic ancient world and bring you into the here and now. He will also explore the current psychedelic renaissance (as some have coined it) and where we are potentially heading.

Darren Springer is a grass-roots researcher and event organiser based in London, the Director of Ancient Future, the Convenor of the Psychedelia Railway Gatherings and curator at Earth Tone Arts. After setting up Ancient Future in 2006, a voluntary organisation, he has continued to develop workshops and projects geared around creative arts, personal-development and African-Caribbean spiritual systems in his community. Collectively his work aims to inform and empower individuals from diverse backgrounds to cope with social challenges and contribute to community development as well as self-improvement in an innovative, creative, culturally-aware style. He has presented at the Breaking Convention in London, the Detroit Entheogenic Conference, Ozora in Hungary, Altered in Berlin and numerous consciousness gatherings around Europe, the U.S and Africa. Darren is a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker who is passionate about sharing his research on African Entheogenic plants and their various applications on the continent and the diaspora. By day Darren is an Organic Horticulture and Food Enterprise tutor and teaches young people in east London. He's also a keen mushroom grower and for the last seven years has been growing edible mushrooms and has translated his home growing experience into a commercial experiment.