Bodytripping: When Psychedelic Healing Gets Physical

We're Discourse BHAM, a pop-up public lecture series bringing the most interesting academic talks to Birmingham's bars & breweries. It's like a college class, but there's drinking.

Tickets are $15. Seating is limited.

People often describe their most powerful psychedelic experiences not just in terms of visions or insights, but in terms of what their bodies did—shaking, purging, moving in unexpected ways. These strange physical reactions are common, but mainstream models of healing struggle to explain them.

In this talk, UAB's Dan Grossman explores what these bodily experiences might mean, drawing on interviews from those who’ve used psychedelics therapeutically. We’ll also trace the controversial history of body-focused therapies—from early pioneers like Wilhelm Reich to modern works like The Body Keeps the Score—and ask whether psychedelics might be forcing a reckoning with the body’s role in healing.

Dan Grossman, M.A. is a Medical/Clinical Psychology PhD student at UAB in the lab of Dr. Peter Hendricks, where he works on clinical trials of psychedelic therapy for a wide range of indications. Prior to doctoral training, Dan worked at Yale School of Medicine, the National Center for PTSD, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and took a gap year in 2017 to pursue Buddhist monastic training in northern Vermont. His clinical and research interests center on the nuances of trauma treatment with psychedelics.

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• Next month, 20th November, 07:00 pm, Existentialism in the Mountains: Camping with Kierkegaard & the Meaning of Life in Birmingham
• This December, 11th December, 07:00 pm, How Student Debt Changed Higher Education in Birmingham

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