Ben De Loenen

Ben De Loenen

Co-Founder ICEERS
Abhishek Borkar and Pt. Rajkumar Misra

Abhishek Borkar and Pt. Rajkumar Misra

Indian Classical concert

Elevate Symposium

Elevate Symposium Zurich 2018.

Elevate Symposium
This panel took place during Mental Health day at the Heimatmuseum, Davos on Tuesday 20th January 2026. Paul Stamets is a world-leading mycologist and advocate for the therapeutic and ecological potential of fungi. Marc Buckley is a futurist and systems thinker working on regenerative development and global transformation. Pamela Kryskow is a medical doctor and psychedelic therapist leading trauma-informed mental health programs in Canada. Dina Baenninger works on systemic change and human transformation within regenerative and social innovation initiatives. Panel Summary This panel explored mental health not as an isolated medical issue, but as a reflection of humanity’s broken relationship with nature, economy and consciousness. The speakers argued that true healing requires a shift from extractive and “sustainability” models toward regeneration, understood as the original operating system of life based on symbiosis, cooperation and continual renewal. Paul Stamets highlighted emerging research into psilocybin and other psychedelics, describing them as tools for neurogenesis, psychological healing and expanded perception. He framed psychedelics as part of a broader “tryptamine universe,” suggesting consciousness itself is embedded within the fabric of life. Marc Buckley placed mental health within planetary systems, arguing that burnout and collapse mirror ecological degradation. He critiqued modern civilization’s tendency to romanticise collapsed societies instead of designing regenerative ones. Pamela Kryskow emphasized psychedelic-assisted therapy as a fast and effective pathway back to self, community and nature, while Dina Baenninger stressed that human transformation is the core lever for systemic change. Together, the panel concluded that mental health, ecological regeneration and future civilization are inseparable — and that healing the psyche may be one of the most powerful tools for healing the planet.
Theo Cosmora is dedicated to developing transformational Internet and mobile based solutions and business models that empower people and facilitate the emergence of a fairer, more connected, sustainable world. He is the co-founder and CEO of SDG ONE, which is committed to realising the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), representing the future hope and evolution of Humanity. Millions of people and thousands of organizations are now involved in purpose-driven SDG projects aimed at empowering people and shaping our planet. SDG ONE is a unified community platform that enables the funding SDG projects, emerging crowd wisdom and the facilitation of Universal digital financial inclusion and empowerment. The SDG Protocol™ is a mechanism for creating Empowerment Assets™ which are instantly tradable, SDG Security Tokens with intrinsic, incentive-based economic support across SDG participants. They are designed to also accelerate increased collective consciousness through Omnicryptopresence™. A former Decathlon champion, Theo enjoys running and swimming to keep fit, connecting with like-minded individuals and collaborating on disruptive technologies that realize global human potential. For more information about Theo, check out this interview with him by Joann Barefoot, CEO of the Barefoot Innovation Group.
DENNIS MCKENNA, PHD – CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY AT HEFFTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE https://heffter.org Dennis will be at the conference to officiate the European launch of the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (ESPD50). ESPD50 is a publication which followed the landmark symposium held in 1967, bringing together groups of specialists who gathered to share their findings on the use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies and in modern medicine. On the 50th anniversary, during the month of June 2017, an international group of specialists gathered again to share their perspectives on past, present, and future research in ethnopharmacology. Dennis was the organiser of the ESPD50 conference, as well as one of the chief editors of the volume. At this event Dennis will launch his book ESPD50 (Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs) ESPD50 Book Launch:- http://espd50.com Dennis McKenna is an ethnopharmacologist who spent nearly half a century researching psychoactive plant medicines, many of which have been used for millennia by indigenous tribes for sacred rituals and healing purposes. However, most of these plants are scorned, forbidden and criminalised under the penalty of imprisonment in the today’s society. Dennis holds a doctorate from the University of British Columbia, where his research is focused on ayahuasca and oo-koo-hé, two hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. Dennis has received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1990, he joined Shaman Pharmaceuticals as Director of Ethnopharmacology, and in 1993 became the Aveda Corporation’s Senior Research Pharmacognosist. Dennis has been an adjunct assistant professor at the Centre for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota since 2001, where he teaches courses in ethnopharmacology and botanical medicine. He has taught summer field courses in Peru and Ecuador, and has conducted fieldwork throughout the upper Amazon. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization focused on the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychoactive medicines. In addition, Dennis is the author of many scientific papers, and co-author, with his late brother Terence McKenna, of: The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching as well as Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide. He also wrote the memoir, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna (2012).
Andy speaks to audiences globally on brain and behaviour. To further our understanding of brain processes and communication.
Futurist, Founder of Aadii & Co-Founder of PRISM, a Non-Profit Association Supporting Scientific & Medical Research with Psychoactive Substances www.eman8.net Steve McDonald served 15 years with the Australian Army as a reconnaissance helicopter pilot and infantry officer. He gained significant international experience in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Thailand and saw active service in Somalia as a member of the Unified Task Force, comprising 37,000 troops from 28 different countries working alongside the United Nations. On leaving the army he flew a rescue helicopter for five years before transitioning to management consulting. As a consultant he applied a Complex Adaptive Systems approach to organisational development, founded upon the developmental psychology research of Dr Clare W Graves. His clients spanned the government, corporate and non-profit sectors. A life changing encounter with ayahuasca (a traditional psychoactive plant medicine indigenous to the Amazon Basin) in 2006 sparked a deep interest in altered state technologies. Realising the potential of psychoactive compounds as both medicines and self-developmental tools, he co-founded Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine in 2011, an Australian non-profit association. Steve is presently focused on two significant shifts in human consciousness. The first involves the decline of the corporate-scientific-industrial era and the rise of a highly networked, humanistic way of being. The second shift involves the emergence of quantum or multi-dimensional consciousness, the most significant leap forward in the history of humanity. Both of these shifts were evident in Dr Graves’ research data. Current projects include the planned launch of a network-of-networks using decentralised technology, to support the emergence of a planetary society and associated global systems. Steve is also the founder of Aadii, a non-profit organisation devoted to supporting the evolution of human consciousness through the development of crypto technologies. His other interests include mysticism, music, photography and Kung fu. Podcast and Blog – www.eman8.net Crypto project – www.aadii.org www.prism.org.au
Managerial Editor of Gaia Media http://www.gaiamedia.org Susanne G. Seiler is both manager and editor of Gaiamedia, a non-profit organisation established in Basel on July 23rd 1993. Gaiamedia takes shape in the form of an online publication which communicates information leading to a holistic understanding of nature and human life. They monthly produce a ‘goodnewsletter’ presenting a selection of enjoyable publications as well as links to helpful initiatives and organisations. The exploitation of Earth, the technical progress, and the steadily faster changing ecological and social conditions continue to endanger our environment and our existence. This rapid global trend confronts us with an unprecedented challenge of hitherto unknown complexity and urgency. A change of consciousness is needed in order to form a better world is possible. Gaiamedia investigates good news, positive developments, and meaningful insights from various sources. They are convinced that mindful and respectful acting in cooperation with our fellow human beings and in harmony with nature is desirable and that it will enable all of us a fair, peaceful and fulfilling life.
DR OCTAVIO RETTIG HINOJOSA Medical doctor & Bufo Alvarius Toad (5-MeO-DMT) Medicine Practitioner http://octaviorettig.com Dr Octavio Rettig Hinojosa is a Mexican doctor and a pioneering practitioner of the medicinal treatment with the sacred toad medicine of the Sonoran Desert toad, also known as Bufo Alvarius. The toad secretes venom containing the chemical compounds 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin which have the ability to transform mental and physical health, deeply enhancing our perceived reality and fostering a sense of wellbeing. Octavio initially worked with the Seri peoples of Sonora, Mexico as a medical practitioner helping to treat drug addicts in the local area. Later, he worked to reintroduce the tribe to the long forgotten medicine of their native toad. He has learned the ancient songs and rites of the Seri from ‘Don Pacho’, an elder Seri shaman, and has been authorised by the council of Seri elders to use this powerful shamanic medicine in the West. Over the past few years, he has successfully assisted thousands of people in recovering from abusive conditions associated with addiction to stimulants and other psychological afflictions such as PTSD and depression. Octavio is also the author of The Toad of Dawn: 5-MeO-DMT and the rise of Cosmic Consciousness.
Matthias is a passionately curious neuroscientist who is always questioning commonly held beliefs and trying to find new answers to modern life challenges. He holds a PhD in psychology and has research expertise in the functional neuroimaging of music, language, cognitive conflict, emotion, and sexuality. To resolve the physical, mental and spiritual exhaustion of stress is surely the crucial marker for health in modern societies. Especially when looking at reports that signal increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and autoimmune disorders. After years of interviewing experts in his podcasts and learning various techniques, Matthias developed the concept of ‘stress hacking’. In ‘stress hacking’, Matthias combines the body-hacking advantages of the Wim Hof Method with functional medicine analyses as well as modern coaching techniques that are based on self-acceptance and the discovery of one’s own needs and desires against the socio-cultural odds. The goal is to use stress positively, helping people learn how to transform it for themselves by using adrenaline for their health, and literally “hacking” it! Matthias hosts workshops for groups and offers one-to-one sessions for people who want to accelerate life changes. By combining the most effective methods, he coaches peak performers in sports, music and multiple other disciplines to attain higher levels. Currently, he is supervising a research project in Hannover, Germany in which people who have a chronic fear of flying in an airplane are successfully treated in as little as 50 minutes! Together with his wife – Dina Wittfoth – he hosts the podcast Science on the Rocks, in which he sheds light on the science behind experiences with the Wim Hof Method.
The outlook for our future has been darkened because of the way we have organized our society. Especially in the West we have given priority to the individual over the communal, and the results are not encouraging. Based on the observations that many individuals in Western societies have developed identity conflicts (which we diagnose as PTSD, radicalism, auto-immune and other diseases). I point to the ways our normal and healthy ways of dealing with trauma, typically embedded in a coherent worldview or religion, have been replaced by ‘substitute identities’ and affected by the identifications of the day. The underlying inter-personal conflicts (often sociopsychological) have not been resolved nor has the trauma been overcome. So now the West identifies with whatever currents the media, the politicans or their leaders invent, like the wars on drugs, on terror, on minorities, all basically wars on self. But the inauthenticity of it, aggrevated by social media, deeply hurts; the cohesion and the true sense of belonging is gone. To counter this trend, which not leads to a win-win, zero-sum game, but rather a ‘winner takes all’ situation, unsustainable diversity and conflicts in ourselves and society. Thus, in order to counteract it, we need to go back to our to go back to studying how humans deal with adversity and trauma. Undergoing suffering and hardship is often a catalyst for change and the development of creative solutions. Yet another iPhone or Maserati or robot is not going to turn the tide, shift the paradigm. We have to refocus and rigorously assess the development models (like how we use play, why we need temporary atonomous zones and privacy) and educational structures, not only for kids, but for science. This will require a serious revision of the past, and fostering an appreciation of models that we have previously discarded as ‘primitive’, but have protected many non-Western cultures from the dead end of nihilism and consumerism, from our fake ‘progress’ and dead-end meaninglessness.
Wim Hof Method™ Instructor & Ice Freediver who utilises the therapeutic potential of cold water immersion to overcome trauma, reset the mind & harmonise with the body. http://www.kikibosch.com/ Kiki Bosch is a freediver, nutritionist, biohacker and daredevil from the Netherlands. Having undergone a traumatic event which led to perpetual panic attacks and nightmares, she found solace in cold water. From extreme cold she drew the mental fortitude required to overcome torturous mind manifestations and the life yoke of trauma. Kiki’s main philosophy is summarised in the phrase: “Disturb the comfort and comfort the disturbed.” She believes that we should aim to uproot the comfort of everyday life in order to stretch our belief systems and expand our notion of what is possible. Whilst simultaneously having the ability to seek comfort when we are feeling down, and to support those around us who are in need of it as it is part of our obligation to our community and ourselves to find a balance between both of these forces. Since, she has been scouted by Discovery Channel™ to film documentaries which shed insights on her techniques used to still the mind and harmonize with her trauma to find deep lasting inner peace. Kiki is also an ambassador for:- @extremeofficial@mybraineffect
High performance trainer, entrepreneur, author and founder of the Human Blockchain, a unique platform bringing private investment into personal and social development. Kern would describe himself firstly as a re-evolutionary and social entrepreneur, as he spends the majority of his time developing strategies and mechanisms to literally change society on a global basis. His focus is on releasing ‘potential’ — en mass, away from the limiting personal and social dynamics that we all suffer from birth; dynamics that cause us all to live inauthentic, suppressed lives at a fraction of our true potential. Kern’s expertise as a trainer, is drawn from a highly specialized career at the top of the entrepreneurial word— teaching influence and persuasion to business and thought leaders for many years, and then subsequently researching why the majority of people have self-defeating mind conditioning, supported by negative social structures. Skilled in many areas of therapy, Kern chooses to use his own methodology of moving a person’s thinking — from what he determines as ‘type one’ and ‘type two’ thinking, to a point of ‘super-creativity’ within all daily life — by changing self programming language and thought patterns. Manifestation of this state of consciousness, has allowed him to write twelve books, produce detailed fine art, as well as develop new ways to lose weight and get fit through less than a minute workouts. Ultimately, he has used this form of advanced thinking to create a unique platform for private investment into human development — in order to free people from corporate repression as he sees it; to trade consciousness for high returns, helping other people achieve within the platform. Kern’s latest visionary book on social development called ‘Point Zero’, is a revealing and dramatic journey into all our futures, where our destiny as a race is firmly placed into our hands, lest we meet our impending demise through ignorance of our potential within the context of AI and the lead up to singularity.
She has co-founded projects which integrate art, ecology and science, such as Biosphere 2 closed ecological experiment in Arizona. She is active in the field of bio-regenerative life systems for space and terrestrial applications. She is a director of Research Vessel Heraclitus, a Chinese junk which has sailed 270,000 nautical miles on 11 expeditions for ethnography and conservation projects. The vessel is currently being refitted in Spain by its crew of artist/explorers. Gray co-founded October Gallery, London, one of the first galleries to show pioneering artists from cultures worldwide. With John Allen, she founded Theatre for the Reconstitution of Reality (THEATRRR), a pataphysical research initiative. It is successor to Theatre of All Possibilities ensemble, which toured internationally for 18 years. She consults to William Burroughs Communications and is a director of Institute of Ecotechnics, UK/USA. Gray lives in Santa Fe and London.
Ethnopharmocologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs:- Dennis McKenna gives the lowdown on his lifes work and psychedelic and plant medicines. http://espd50.com
Egyptian Arabic singer song writer performs @Elevate Symposium 2018.
Four panelists discuss the future of humanity and the planet, touching upon psychedelic medicines, global environment issues, politics and philosophy. Featuring:- Dennis McKenna:- Ethnobotanist. Steve McDonald:- Conscious Crypto ecosystem CEO. Octavio Rettig:- Toad Shaman and medical doctor. Filip Záruba:- Documentary film maker
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