Caspar Montgomery

PhD candidate. Supervisors: Prof. Christine Hauskeller, Dr Luis Eduardo Luna
Thesis: Plant spirits in colonial shadows: Survival, healing and extraction in the Amazon rainforest

Trained in philosophy and cognitive science, Caspar works on the intersections between Indigenous philosophies, ayahuasca rituals and sociocultural shifts.

He founded the University of York’s Psychedelic Society before moving to Germany in 2021 to study a master’s at the Berlin School of Mind & Brain. He has since published research on diverse topics, including applying the Free Energy Principle to the Gaia Hypothesis, and on the interaction between hallucinations and music in altered states.

Caspar completed placements at the working at the Charité Hospital studying changes to the sense of self in schizophrenia, and at the Freie Universität studying flicker-light-induced visual hallucinations and music. He has spent time in the Peruvian Amazon with Onaya Science, conducting naturalistic research on the effects of Shipibo-style ayahuasca retreats for veterans with PTSD, where the traditional practices and worldviews of the Shipibo left a big impact.

Other previous professional roles have included working night shifts for the Royal Mail, refereeing football matches, social work in Yorkshire police stations, bartending in a five star hotel, coordinating welfare services at music festivals and working at a Colombian hostel. Outside of work, he is a big fan of cold water, rhythm, and biscuits, and can often be found happily roaming his native Devonshire countryside. 

He owes any achievements and relative contentment to the lottery of privilege, and the quality of love from those around him.