Developing Yogic Methods for Psychedelic Healing
The PYRC is a third path, alongside clinical research and traditional ceremony. We develop and refine body-mind practices that support psychedelic healing — working from direct experience and sustained practice, and bringing what experienced practitioners know into reach for clinicians and the people they serve.
What is Psychedelic Yoga?
Psychedelic yoga is a collection of practices, drawn from many yogic traditions and curated specifically for the psychedelic experience. Some are familiar; some are esoteric, like Tibetan Dream Yoga, which turns out to be highly relevant here.
The Tibetan teacher Namkhai Norbu taught that a practice performed within a dream is many times more powerful than the same practice performed in waking life. Something similar applies to a supported psychedelic journey. The heightened neuroplasticity and non-ordinary state of consciousness open a window where yogic practices can work with unusual depth and precision — where progress that might otherwise take years becomes possible in an afternoon. Dream Yoga is where this insight comes from, and it remains the inspiration at the center of this work.
This is science-adjacent work, with no pseudoscience in it. It relies more on intuition and direct observation than on double-blind trials and peer review. Formal science will eventually produce knowledge that is more precise and harder to argue with — but it will get there slowly. Psychedelic yogis can make progress now.
A Third Path for Psychedelic Integration
The landscape of psychedelic healing has two established domains:
Clinical research produces trustworthy knowledge through careful method, but it moves slowly — held back by funding, regulation, and a necessary focus on what can be measured across many people rather than what happens in one.
Traditional practice offers deep, holistic frameworks refined over centuries, but its methods are often bound to a particular culture and can include elements that resist verification.
The PYRC honors both and works in the space between them. We are neither anti-science nor in awe of it — the stance is anti-pseudoscience and anti-scientism at once, grounded in direct experience and patient observation. It's a way of working that lets us learn quickly, share what we find, and bring body-mind and psychedelic communities into the same room.
The inspiration of Tibetan Dream Yoga
Think of Tibetan Dream Yoga—methods developed over centuries by yogis through quasi-scientific processes (trial and error, observation, refinement) that work. Stephen LaBerge, a scientific authority on lucid dreaming, credits Tibetan practitioners with being "far ahead" of current science. Yet these methods were developed without rigid scientific methodology—the greater role of intuition and lack of strict protocols that slow science down were key in allowing the Tibetan yogis to make such progress.
The Body and the Breath
Or consider trauma therapy's recent paradigm shift: the understanding that trauma is stored in the body and on the breath. Yogis have known this for centuries—complete with detailed understanding of how emotional pain connects with breath and which parts of the body serve as storehouses for various types of suffering. The field could have saved decades of struggle by going immediately to this knowledge.
Our Methodology
The PYRC develops methods through the deep study of experienced yogis' own body-minds—systematic refinement through collaborative exploration that produces practical results more quickly than conventional research, without pseudoscience. While a clinician says, "Here's what the data suggests as best practice for your particular issue," a psychedelic yogi says, "I have studied my own mind-body in great depth, and because all human body-minds share universal issues, here's how my practice can inspire yours."
How the Work Gets Done
The PYRC develops its methods through the close study of experienced yogis' own body-minds — refining practices together until they produce real results, faster than conventional research can, and without drifting into pseudoscience.
A clinician says: here is what the data suggests will help with your particular issue. A psychedelic yogi says something different: I have studied my own body-mind deeply, and because every human body-mind shares the same basic problems, here is a practice that may serve yours.
Two examples of where this leads:
Stephen LaBerge, the scientific authority on lucid dreaming, credits Tibetan practitioners with being far ahead of current science. They developed their methods over centuries — through trial, observation, and refinement — without rigid protocol. The looseness was the point: the freedom to follow intuition is part of what let them get so far.
Or take the recent shift in trauma therapy: the recognition that trauma is held in the body and in the breath. Yogis have understood this for centuries, down to which parts of the body store which kinds of suffering, and how emotional pain moves with the breath. The field could have arrived decades sooner by going straight to that knowledge.
Built on Years of Practice
The PYRC emerges from years of community-validated work:
130+
workshops delivered through the Psychedelic Yoga Meetup, the vast majority of them free
5,500+
member community engaged
4+
years of consistent programming, grounded in harm reduction
Published work including Yoga of the Ketamine State
Professional collaboration with the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society and therapeutic practitioners
Training programs for therapists and yoga teachers in psychedelic integration methods
This foundation represents the transition from organic community validation to formal research infrastructure.
Get Involved
For Aspiring Psychedelic Yogis
Interested in participating in PYRC research? We're building a community of experienced yoga practitioners to explore psychedelic integration methods. Participation involves:
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Demonstrated commitment to yogic practice
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Clear personal goals aligned with PYRC mission
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Willingness to maintain detailed practice records
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Screening process and interview
For Therapists & Healers
We're developing educational programming for mental health professionals and experienced healers interested in integrating psychedelic yoga methods into their practice.
Attend PYRC Community Workshops
Join us for online workshops exploring psychedelic yoga practices. Our Psychedelic Yoga Meetup community (5,400+ members, 120+ workshops) offers regular programming.
Stay Connected
Sign up for updates on PYRC projects, research findings, and events.
About the Founder
Henry Kandel is an educator, yoga practitioner, and pioneer in psychedelic yoga integration.
For over three decades, Henry has explored the intersection of learning, consciousness, and transformation. As a teacher across subjects from mathematics and physics to improvisational theater, he observed a consistent pattern: anxiety inhibited learning, while practices that balanced energy—movement, breathwork, meditation—unlocked creativity and focus. He began incorporating yogic practices into every learning space, from astrophysics classrooms to improv stages, watching students transform when their energy was harmonized.
Henry's personal journey with depression stemming from childhood trauma led him deep into yoga practice. Certified as a yoga teacher and trained in esoteric forms including jnana yoga and Tibetan Dream Yoga, he spent years seeking practices that could address suffering at its roots. The breakthrough came through integrating psychedelic therapy with yogic methods—a combination that finally dissolved decades of depression and anxiety.
This transformation inspired the development of Ketamine-State Yoga and the founding of the Psychedelic Yoga community. Henry has trained therapists in psychedelic yoga methods, led workshops for the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, and built online communities (including the KSY subreddit) dedicated to developing and sharing these practices. His book, The Yoga of the Ketamine State, details the methodology that emerged from direct experience and systematic exploration.
The PYRC represents the formalization of this work—creating rigorous structures for developing and validating methods that can benefit the broader psychedelic healing community. Henry brings together expertise in teaching, consciousness exploration, and community building to establish a "third path" that honors both ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding.
How We Develop Methods
Note: This framework applies to PYRC's formal research projects.
The PYRC uses a three-circle structure where knowledge flows continuously between levels:
Individual Circle Deep personal exploration by experienced practitioners. Intensive documentation of subjective experiences. Freedom to explore intuitive adaptations with emphasis on qualitative depth.
Small Group Circle Systematic testing of promising techniques with 3-5 practitioners. Collaborative refinement through regular discussion. Teaching method development, balancing structure with creative exploration.
Community Circle Broader implementation of refined techniques with 12-20 participants. Testing accessibility across diverse backgrounds. Gathering feedback to adapt methods for various contexts.This approach balances depth of exploration with breadth of application—insights from individual exploration inform group refinement, and group findings shape community implementation.
Concrete Examples
Mudras in Deep States
I have found that mudras—hand positions in yoga—can be preserved, and even hold onto the intentions and emotional aspects they are endowed with, during the deepest dissociative psychedelic experience. This capacity to maintain a certain kind of awareness within the therapeutic ketamine state might prove beneficial for ketamine therapists, who at the moment have no way of communicating with a patient who has lost the capacity for language.
The Depth of Breath
The importance of breathing is well known to somatic therapists and psychedelic therapists. But a yogi who practices regularly with pranayama brings a deeper, more nuanced understanding. The very bottom of the breath, when accessed through letting go rather than force, is associated with vivid intimacy with one's own emotions. The top of the breath has its own qualities. There is great potential for understanding and influencing the energetic/emotional system by breathing "into" areas of the body. An experienced psychedelic yogi might suggest very different practices and teach them in far more nuanced ways for different patients with different needs.
Current Projects
Therapist & Healer Workshop Series
Monthly co-presented workshops pairing expert specialists in therapeutic modalities with custom-designed psychedelic yoga practices. Professional education for mental health practitioners interested in integration methods.
Launching Spring 2026
Developing integration protocols for clinical settings, including NDE-inspired breathwork techniques and somatic awareness practices during ketamine therapy.
Pilot projects in development
Mirror meditation for self-compassion development, demonstrating PYRC's three-circle research methodology. As children, we met our own image with open curiosity and fascination. What might happen if we looked again at our reflections with beginner's mind?
Just as psychedelic states cause psychic material to emerge—"mirroring" our inner world back to us—literal mirrors do the same. This practice teaches practitioners to hold what arises in a framework of self-acceptance and compassion.
Launching Spring 2026
Get in Touch
Questions about the PYRC? Interested in collaboration? Reach out: