Logo of a book with ripples, with the word 'RIPPLES' below it.

Connection &

Liberation      

Intertwine     

Creating and researching collective psychedelic practices to explore their potential for peace-building, sacred activism, collective liberation, and healing collective trauma. Currently focused on Middle East based conflicts, with the goal of developing approaches applicable to other contexts.

Ripples is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

We do not normalise the status quo. We recognize and name the asymmetry, power dynamics, and imbalances of rights, freedoms, and privileges. Rather, we challenge it in our commitment to Co-resistance until Collective Liberation.

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Brief History

Ripples is the continuation of seven years of research and practice: Our pilot project, launched as a research study at Imperial College London, revealed the potential of transformative practices for societal healing. Working with a cohort of Palestinian and Israeli researchers, peacemakers, and artists, we led several successful sessions for deep personal & collective healing and visionary future building. We recognise that a strong emphasis on harmony can serve the status quo, but we also consider psychedelics as liberatory agents. At times they can reveal oppressive systems, and guide us on the path to co-liberation. Revelatory events are revolutionay in-potentia.

What We Do

Ripples energizes peace and liberation movements by creating shared psychedelic programs, researching them through academic collaborations, training facilitators, educating the public, and supporting ecosystems that help communities integrate, sustain, and express their insights through art and collective action.

We are not THE solution. We do what we can with the states of mind that inspire us.

How We Do It

  • Collective intention and participatory rituals

  • Healing collective trauma through shared experience

  • Dialogue, storytelling, and narrative work

  • Experimentation and an evolving, emergent process

  • Political and cultural grounding

  • Turning insights into action

  • Building networks and ecologies of care

  • Imagination, visioning, and creative exploration

  • Rooted in love as a guiding principle

Board

  • Leor Roseman (Exeter): Leor is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at the Exeter Psychedelic Interdisciplinary Centre (EPIC). He has previously worked at Imperial College London, under the mentorship of Prof. Robin Carhart-Harris and Prof. David Nutt. His interdisciplinary research spans neuroscience, psychology, phenomenology, anthropology, and conflict resolution. Since 2017, Leor has led pioneering research into peacebuilding, collective liberation, and healing collective traumas.

  • Souli Khatib (Ramallah): Souli is a committed advocate for peace in the Middle East and actively participates in various programs aimed at promoting a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at local, regional, and international levels. He is a co-founder and former Director of Combatants for Peace, a non-profit peacebuilding organization initiated by former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian prisoners dedicated to non-violent resistance to end the occupation and achieve equality, freedom, and peace for both peoples.

  • Rana Rahimpour (London): Rana Rahimpour is an Iranian journalist in exile and former Lead Presenter at BBC World Service and BBC Persian. After more than 15 years reporting on conflict, politics, and human rights, she now works at the intersection of storytelling, psychedelic therapy, and peacebuilding as co-founder and Executive Director of Obsidiana. Inspired by the Sufi tradition, her work is rooted in creating spaces where people can move beyond labels and reconnect through compassion and presence.

  • Jade Netanya Ullmann (New York): Jade has spent her career at the intersection of funding and transformation. A next-generation philanthropist, she spent seven years as Major Gifts lead at MAPS and is part of the Global Drug Policy Reform Funders Coalition. She also brings deep roots in Jewish Renewal, having served as one of the founding Executive Directors of Romemu, and a long-standing commitment to social change through community and culture.

  • Noam Enbar (Tel-Aviv-Jaffa): Noam is a versatile artist and a catalyst for several innovative musical projects. As a singer, composer, and songwriter, his work challenges established norms. He is the founder of the Israeli post-rock band Habiluim, the Klezmer-Punk ensemble Oy Division, and The Great Gehenna Choir. Noam is also acclaimed for composing music for theatre and film. Additionally, he contributes as a musician to ceremonies for diverse communities, firmly believing in the transformative power of psychedelic work to unite and connect people.Item description

AYWA: Pilot Psychedelic Peace Program

Sami Awad & Leor Roseman

Sami Awad & Leor Roseman, Psychedelic Science, Denver, 23 June 2023. From personal to collective: ayahuasca as a peace-making tool among Palestinians and Israeli

The presentation describes the pilot project which led to the creation of Ripples. In the spring of 2022, three groups of Palestinians and Israelis were invited to participate in an ayahuasca peacebuilding program. The invitation was to explore the ceremonial and healing space of ayahuasca through a collective intention: to ground the transformative spiritual practice in the political reality of conflict and oppression; to heal collective trauma and liberate from rigid narratives and ethos; to invite revelations and transform them into actions of co-resistance; to create a community of solidarity and care; and to celebrate life and good music together.

In this joint presentation, Sami Awad, a Palestinian peace activist and one of the leading facilitators (together with Armelle Lehman and Indios Brasil), presents the program – tailored for this intention - and discusses the processes the groups went through. Leor Roseman, an Israeli psychedelic researcher from Exeter Psychedelic Interdisciplinary Centre (EPIC) (previously from Imperial College London), presents quantitative, qualitative, and phenomenological research findings from the program. The presentation reveals how psychedelics can be used intentionally for socio-political endeavours beyond personal healing.

Previous Ethnographic Research

Shared Unity

Participants experienced group unity, identity dissolution, and deep intercultural connection, alongside insights into conflict that inspired action toward resolution.

This research explores the underground ayahuasca scene in the Holy Land, where Israelis and Palestinians shared ceremonies without an explicit peacebuilding intention, informing the ideas and practices behind our approach to psychedelic peacebuilding.

A purple star and crescent moon symbol on a black background

Limits of Harmony

Overemphasis on oneness can reinforce the status quo, excluding Palestinian voices and histories.

Purple swirl with small diamond shapes and a star in the center

Revelatory Disruption

Certain experiences can challenge dominant narratives, sparking political awakening and motivating change.

A star-shaped graphic with a purple background and a white star in the center.

RESEARCH LIBRARY

Relational Processes in Ayahuasca Groups of Palestinians and Israelis

Roseman, L., Ron, Y., Saca, A., Ginsberg, N., Luan, L., Karkabi, N., Doblin, R., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2021).

On Revelations and Revolutions: Drinking Ayahuasca Among Palestinians Under Israeli Occupation

Roseman, L., & Karkabi, N. (2021).

Oneness, Liberation, and Revolutionary Revelations Observational Research on Ayahuasca Rituals of Israelis and Palestinians

Roseman, L. (2022).

Art: Collective Liberation Ritual

Documentation of manifestations arising from altered states. These reports serve as qualitative data for sensory integration.

A woman in traditional clothing and a checkered head covering kneels by a small outdoor fire during a gathering with many people seated in the background.
Live musical performance in a grand, Gothic-style church with an audience seated around the stage, candles for ambiance, and a band playing in the center.
Audience seated in a theater watching a stage performance or presentation, with musicians and a woman sitting on the floor in front of the stage, decorated with plants and candles.
A person dressed in white robes standing in front of a large group of people sitting on the grass outdoors, with a tipi in the background and trees surrounding the scene.

Ripples aspires to create art projects based on shared processes, which will inspire others to seek peace and collective liberation. An exemplary project is Ripples Collective, created for Medicine Festival 2024, and performed in London, Davos, Denver, Oxford, Ibiza, Paris, ICPR, and Medicine 2026. The collective comprises Palestinian and Israeli activists and artists who journeyed together in our project and now seek to ripple out their process.

The Collective Liberation Ritual is partly a performance and partly a process, held by musicians, facilitators, educators, and peace activists. The performance includes storytelling, facilitated processes, theatre, dance, and music – and carries the audience through grief into solidarity and empowerment. It is a journey from separation to connection, feeling the collective pains to allow them to reveal a shared vision. Sitting in Circle, alchemising, with song, word, and movement, an alternative reality - nearly lost - for the land we come from and all its people. 

See the Financial Times piece about our performance

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Support Ripples

  • Peacebuilding and reconciliation programs bringing people from opposing sides of conflict into sustained, facilitated dialogue

  • Collective healing retreats and long-term integration support for participants

  • Research and documentation to responsibly advance this work and share learnings with the field

  • Artistic and cultural projects that help shift narratives and strengthen movements for peace and co-liberation

Ripples is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

We believe that political change requires various strategies, including community building, consciousness-raising, and resistance to dominant systems. Hence, we also recommend supporting our allies in Noor, providing humanitarian aid in Gaza, and supporting Combatants for Peace for a protective presence in the West Bank.

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