What's On: Fantastic Fungi Screening and Q&A

Mind Medicine Australia is thrilled to announce our second screening of Fantastic Fungi at 6:30pm on Tuesday March 30th at Byron Theatre in Byron Bay followed by a Q & A Panel and conversation. This is a second screening as the first screening has sold out.

Mind Medicine Australia is Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisation working towards the use of medicinal psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapies to treat a range of mental illnesses. Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering caused by our accelerating mental illness epidemic, through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients.

In a world where people feel so deeply disconnected, the use of medications to further detach them may work to dampen the emotions that are experienced, but often provide little relief and no profound insights into the internal experience of life. What science has shown is that psilocybin works to calm the region of the brain called the Default Mode Network and stimulates connections between new or under-utilised regions of the brain.

Unlike current treatments such as anti-depressants, which only manage the illness and can have nasty side effects, psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapies have been scientifically proven to be a safe and effective cure for anxiety, depression, end-of-life stress, addictions and PTSD after just a short treatment program. These medicines are also currently being researched for dementia, eating disorders, OCD and a number of other conditions. Both medicines have been granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA in the USA to fasttrack their approval. This designation is only given to medicines which are highly likely to be vastly superior to existing treatments.

This stunning film by award-winning director Louie Schwartzberg touches on the groundbreaking work being done at Johns Hopkins, UCLA, New York University and other places. It will open a door to a meaningful and important conversation and exploration into the potential mushrooms offer.

The film also covers topics including innovation, health, wellness and medicine, the environment and biodiversity, foraging, food and cooking, consciousness and spirituality, culture, history and the arts.

Following the screening there will be a Q & A panel with MMA Founders Peter Hunt AM and Tania de Jong AM, Psychologist, National Practice Manager Psychological Services and Co-Lead Facilitator of CPAT Course Dr Alana Roy and GP, Medicinal Cannabis Leader, Member of the MMA Advisory Panel Dr Jamie Rickcord. This will be an opportunity to engage in a discussion about psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies for mental illness broadly, and what Mind Medicine Australia and other local organisations are doing here in Australia.

Tania de Jong AM, Mind Medicine Australia’s Executive Director, says, “Unlike conventional treatments, which often require patients to endure years of daily medications and weekly support from a mental health professional, medicine-assisted psychotherapy can be effective after just two to three clinically supervised sessions with these medicines. All the research indicates that the medicines are safe and non-addictive when administered within a medically-controlled environment. There have been no adverse events in over 150 trials globally.” Board member and Executive Director of the Ethics Centre, Dr Simon Longstaff AO says, “We should not allow the prejudices of the past to deny relief in the present. If these medicines are safe and effective when applied in a clinical environment, as current research suggests, then Australian governments have an obligation to make them available.”

Get tickets to the Byron screening of Fantastic on Thursday March 25th.