Beyond Wonderland brings together researchers, practitioners, clinicians, healers, and curious newcomers for two days in Austin.
What does that look like from the inside?
Here’s a sneak peek at two days at Beyond Wonderland
7:15 AM — Coffee, Yoga & Wisdom Circles
Danger Coffee is pouring at Omni Barton Creek.
The Hill Country morning gives you a few minutes to wake up before the day gets moving. As you’re sipping on your delicious coffee, you head toward the Pavilion. VIP breakfast is starting. Outside, the lawn is filling with people for yoga and breathwork. Down the hall, the healing rooms are opening for the first wisdom circles of the day.
You have choices before the first keynote even starts.
Maybe you meet someone new. Maybe you head outside for breathwork. Maybe you walk into a wisdom circle and find yourself in a conversation about consciousness, ritual, or healing with someone you met five minutes earlier. Or you could join “Darkness as an Altered State” with Pavel.
This is how a day at Beyond Wonderland begins.
8:45 AM — Opening Keynotes on the Main Stage
The crowd starts moving toward the main stage.
Mary Olivar opens the conference with “Community as Medicine.” Then Dave Asprey takes the stage for the opening keynote.
Look around the room and you see the Beyond Wonderland community right away. There are therapeutic healers, researchers, neuroscientists, psychologists, artists, clinicians, practitioners, and curious newcomers, all ready to learn and share. You might have a conversation about clinical research over coffee, then find yourself talking with someone whose work centers on ceremony and lineage.
The awesome part is you’ll have these unique and useful encounters all day long.
Paul Stamets takes the stage next for “Psilocybin Mushrooms as Agents for Enhancing Neuroplasticity and Consciousness.” Then Dave moderates “Beyond the Journey: Integration Science & Best Practices” with Dr. Dave Rabin, Jetta Blaine, Talia Eisenberg, and Aychele Hill.
We’re talking about everything from what happens during an experience to what happens afterward. Integration, therapy, neuroscience, and practical support are all part of this.
10:45 AM — Wander & Play in the Exhibitor Hall
It’s time to wander and play. You head into the Exhibitor Hall.
This part is hands-on. You get to walk around, try things, ask questions, and see what companies and practitioners are bringing into the field.
The range of what you’ll learn is mind-blowing.
Beyond Wonderland brings psychedelic science, consciousness tech, and exploration into the same place. You get the research and the technology. You also get ritual, breathwork, ancestral traditions, and practices that have helped humans explore altered states for thousands of years.
If you’re a science nerd who likes to socialize, this part of the day gets dangerous for your schedule.
12:00 PM — Lunch With Dave and the Speakers
If you have a VIP pass, you’ll head to lunch with Dave and the speakers.
This is one of the biggest differences between spending two days at a conference and spending two days at Beyond Wonderland. Dave is there. The speakers are there. You have an hour to sit down, eat, and talk with the people you just heard on stage.
Then you head back out for another hour in the Exhibitor Hall before the afternoon sessions begin.
By now, you’ve had enough coffee to have opinions.
2:00 PM — The Afternoon Gets Weird, In a Good Way
Bryan Hubbard starts the afternoon with “Ibogaine in America: The Parable of Our Time,” bringing policy and access into the discussion.
Then Dave sits down with Céline Cousteau for “Sacred or Sellable? The Future of Ayahuasca, Ibogaine, and Beyond.”
You’ll hear about plant medicine, sustainability, culture, and the tension between ancient traditions and a rapidly growing modern industry.
Then Dr. Jeff Tarrant takes the stage.
In his talk, “No Molecules Required: Hacking Expanded States through Sensory Deprivation and Overload,” he’ll discuss ways technology and sensory experiences affect consciousness. You’ll learn about flotation, light, sound, breathwork, meditation, and other approaches.
Following Dr. Tarrant is board-certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin. His talk is titled ‘Psychedelic ‘Antibiotics’ for Mental Illness.’.
At Beyond Wonderland, you don’t have to choose between the scientist and the shaman. You don’t have to choose between neuroscience and ritual. You get to spend the same afternoon learning from both.
4:25 PM — Closing the Main Stage
Rick Doblin, who has done decades of psychedelic research, closes the main stage with “From Clinical Trials to the Clinic: The Path for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies.” He’ll talk about how to bring these therapies into clinical care, from training therapists to figuring out access and reimbursement.
5:00 PM — Networking, Music & Conversation
Formal programming winds down for the day, but the gathering doesn’t.
It’s time to network and mingle.
Steve Farst is playing some groovy live music.
Someone you met in the morning asks what you thought of Stamets and you end up talking about a session you almost skipped.
Someone introduces you to a researcher and another conversation turns toward something completely unrelated to psychedelics.
The agenda doesn’t tell you this, but two days in the same resort with 600 curious people creates plenty of room for fun conversations that happen between the sessions.
6:00 PM — It’s Time for a Dinner Break
You go back to your room, grab dinner, and take a walk around the resort. Let your brain catch up with the day.
Then, if you’re ready, you come back for the evening.
Beyond Wonderland doesn’t end when the keynotes finish.
8:00 PM — Nighttime Experiences Start
You have two very different ways to close the day on Tuesday.
On the main stage, Pavel and Aychele lead the Evening System Reset Party Experience. At the same time, William Naylor guides The Star Protocol, a heart and gut journey featuring Wyrd light response activation.
You have spent the day hearing researchers, clinicians, practitioners, and explorers explain how humans experience altered states. Now you get space to experience a different kind of evening for yourself.
That’s the end of Tuesday.
Day Two: And Then You Wake Up and Do It Again
Wednesday starts with Danger Coffee, VIP breakfast, wisdom circles, and another morning on the lawn.
The main stage opens with a sound experience before Dave kicks off Day Two. From there, the talks include topics on ayahuasca and sustainability, the body and the psychedelic experience, psychedelic policy in Texas, and some of the more provocative conversations of the conference.
You’ll also hear from Joel Brierre on 5-MeO-DMT and human evolution, John Gray on “Knowing God With or Without Drugs,” and Indigenous leaders who close the main stage with a prayer.
Then, after one last round of networking and live music, everyone heads to the dance party for the final night.
This Could Be You
Or you could hear about it afterward.
You decide.
The event is capped at 600 people, which gives the gathering a different feel from a convention center filled with thousands of attendees.
Beyond Wonderland takes place October 13th–14th at Omni Barton Creek in Austin.
Get 10% with code WONDER10 through September 30th. Prices go up again on October 1st.
Register at wonderlandconference.com.
And if you’re staying at the resort, book the Beyond Wonderland room block.
Bring your curiosity.
If you have a staff and pointy hat, Dave says you can bring those too.
