Welcome to the website of Stichting OPEN (Foundation for Psychedelic Research in The Netherlands). Our goal is to re-introduce psychedelics into in the academic world, and to encourage research on psychedelic experiences. Our precise objectives can be found in our regulations (in Dutch), which we signed on July 18, 2007. 

Stichting OPEN is an interdisciplinary initiative, intending to stimulate research on all aspects of the psychedelic experience. We hope to excite the interest of present and future researchers by organizing lectures, symposia and other informative meetings, mostly at universities. We want to spread serious information on the potentials as well as the risks of psychedelics. With this we hope to take away stigmas, which have surrounded the topic of psychedelics for too long. In addition, we want to create a virtual forum for all students and researchers interested in doing psychedelic research. Thus, researchers should be able to join together and help each other in their work and in writing research proposals. In brief: we want to lower the resistance for carrying out -and applying- the psychedelic potential.

The idea to set up a foundation originated in January 2006 in Basel, on the occasion of the LSD symposium, organized in celebration of Albert Hofmann's (the inventor of LSD) 100th birthday. Being together with so many people thinking about psychedelics in a serious, scientific way, was a very inspiring experience for both Dorien and Joost. The fact that amongst the speakers, there were no Dutch scientists, amazed us, and made Dorien found Stichting OPEN, with the intention to raise awareness for, and accessibility to psychedelic research amongst academics.

President This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (1982) is a philosopher, working as a social science researcher at the CVO (a Dutch center for research on addictions). During and after his studies, he has been involved in the value and meaning of intoxication and mystical experiences. His present work focuses on Dutch drug policies. The (neuro-)chemical basis of psychedelics as well as their ethnobotanical backgrounds fascinate him. But also social and cultural practices and the origin of the use of psychotropic substances have intrigued him greatly. He is convinced of the fact that good research on psychedelics can lead to results of great value. Medical science and psychotherapy can benefit from this, but also the study of the cultural meanings and background of altered states of consciousness can yield important information. Moreover, he thinks that objective knowledge should form the base of policies, and of the relations between policymakers and those affected.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (1983) is vice-president and initiator of OPEN. She studied cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and acquired her BA (cum laude) in 2007. She has always been fascinated by altered stated of consciousness, whether they are caused by meditation, fasting, psychedelics, 'possession', of psychiatric conditions. She has been involved in medical anthropology, mostly the parts considering with mental health. Her bachelor's thesis dealt with Western discourses surrounding schizophrenia. Right now, she works at a center for daytime activities, for people with psychiatric backgrounds. Here she is gaining practical experience with those people and topics that during her studies she only read about. According to Dorien, a serious consideration of psychedelic states of consciousness could cause a shift of paradigms. Dorien is much interested in psychotherapeutic applications of psychedelics, and she greatly admired the work of Stanislav Grof and the MAPS organization.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (1981) is OPEN's secretary. In his philosophy education, he has focused on all possible ways in which people have examined their own minds. Especially areas like metaphysics, religion and mysticism, and political and social philosophy have drawn his attention. He see the use of psychedelics as a different, too little studied way of self-discovery, with much potential within therapeutic as well as more spiritual contexts. With Stichting OPEN, he hopes to help create a new wave of research on psychedelic experiences, generating more knowledge about these subjects, utilizing the full potential of the use of psychedelics and lowering its risks.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (1978) is general board member of the OPEN foundation. At the moment, he studies philosophy at the VU University in Amsterdam. From childhood, he has been intrigued by all aspects of existence. For him, reading The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley has been a revelation, encouraging him to learn more about psychedelics. Raoul thinks that the psychedelic experience could play an important role in modern society, alienated as we today are from our environment, other people and the earth. Psychedelics could help us become conscious of this separation, making it possible to start changing things around. But how this should happen is uncertain, for too little research is carried out on the subject. Raoul's mission and hopes are for Stichting OPEN to give new impulse to science, so that the exploration of these derelict grounds can be resumed.