June 14-27, 2022

Invited speakers

Monica Gagliano, Evolutionary Ecologist
Ede Frecska, Psychiatrist and Psychopharmacologist
Mauricio Tolosa, Writer/Photographer

Monica Gagliano

Monica Gagliano is a Research Associate Professor in Evolutionary Ecology, an adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, a Research Affiliate at the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney and a former Research Fellow of the Australian Research Council. She is the author of numerous scientific articles in the fields of animal and plant behavioral and evolutionary ecology and is coeditor of The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World (Lexington, 2015) and The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy, Literature (Minnesota University Press, 2017).

Her research is radically transforming our perception of plants and more generally, Nature. She has pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics by demonstrating for the first time that plants emit their own ‘voices’ as well as detect and respond to the sounds surrounding them. She has extended the concept of cognition to plants by demonstrating experimentally that plants can learn just like animals do, re-igniting the discourse on plant subjectivity and ethical standing.

Her progressive and holistic approach to science interfaces with areas as diverse as ecology, physics, law, anthropology, philosophy, literature, music and art, and spirituality. By re-kindling a sense of awe for this beautiful place we call home, she is creating that fresh imaginative space which inspires truly innovative solutions to arise. For more information, visit www.monicagagliano.com.

Lectures by Monica Gagliano

  • The intelligence of plants (and the games we play)
  • A mind of their own: the science plants make
  • A story of two seeds

Lectures and Interviews with Monica on Youtube


Ede Frecska

Ede Frecska received his medical degree in 1977 from the Semmelweis University in Hungary. He then earned qualifications as certified psychologist from the Department of Psychology at Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest. Dr. Frecska completed his residency training in Psychiatry both in Hungary (1986), and in the United States (1992). He is a qualified psychopharmacologist (1987) of international merit with 15 years of clinical and research experience in the United States, where he reached the rank of Associate Professorship.

During his academic years, Dr. Frecska’s studies were devoted to research on schizophrenia and affective illness. He published more than 50 scientific papers and book chapters on these topics. In his recent research he is engaged in studies on psychointegrator drugs, especially on the effects of DMT. His theoretical work focuses on the interface between cognitive neuroscience and quantum brain dynamics. He is specifically interested in the mechanism of initiation ceremonies and healing rituals. Dr. Frecska is a member of several professional organizations (APA, ECNP, CINP), and has received grants and awards from a variety of sources (NARSAD, NIAA).

Ede Frecska is a co-author with Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtowicz and Luis Eduardo Luna of Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies. A recent study lead by him, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, proves that ayahuasca increases creativity.

Lectures by Ede Frecska

  • The microbiota and the canopy diet in health
  • The shamanic state of consciousness
  • The katabasis of Parmenides and the ascent of the West

Lectures and Interviews with Ede on Youtube


Mauricio Tolosa

Mauricio Tolosa is an independent writer and photographer, communicologist, naturalist, and gardener. His work is focused on ‘arborecer´, (become a tree) exploring the interaction and communication between plants and human beings through contemplation, immersion, ingestion, and vibrational essences. He shares the results of this exploration through poetry, essays, visual arts, conferences, and workshops.

With a crab apple tree and the forests of Patagonia he co-created a short video film ‘Do apple trees dream?’ which was shown in film festivals around the world. He has written the haiku book ‘arborecer’ and many texts and poems on our relationship with the plant kingdom.

He has harvested dozens of flower essences in different gardens, making the process an artistic and creative path to communicate with the plants that he names “la senda de las flores” (the path of the flowers).

He has worked as a communication expert and international consultant for governments and organizations in different cultures. He has created and directed development programs on strategic communication and communicology for universities, corporations, and foundations in Latin America. He has written five books and hundreds of articles for different types of media.

Lectures by Mauricio Tolosa

  • Communicating with plants

Can a human being enter the plant kingdom? Is it possible to have a sort of communication beyond the resonance with the plants? How will that relation be, what forms will it take? These are the questions that have raised through my surprising journey of arborecer (becoming a tree) that started years ago in the patio of my house in Santiago, with the invitation from a crabapple.
More than specific or terminal answers to those questions I have experienced amazing facts that have expanded the questions themself and reshaped my beliefs and my life. The co creation with other species, the regeneration of the bond with the bios, the synchronies as eventual signs of communication, the expansion of my own senses, the beautiful mystery of the flower essences, those are the topics I will share in this conversation.


Lectures by Luis Eduardo Luna

  • Animism and personhood in Amerindian cosmology.
  • Ayahuasca and yajé, a comparative overview.
  • Wasiwaska. Twenty years of activities. A retrospective.