At the American Public Health Association’s annual conference on November 4, Zendo Project Research Fellow Nima Veiseh presented new research alongside Missi Wooldridge from the Center for Psychedelic Public Health.
Nima introduced his Theory of Altered State Compassionate Integration (ASCI), which states that empathic and emotionally attuned support during transitions into or out of altered states facilitates psychological coherence and mitigates trauma by reinforcing trust, safety, and meaning-making processes that transactional or procedural approaches fail to activate.
ASCI underscores that compassion is not decorative but functional—a requirement for human resilience and collective well-being. This sits at the core of Zendo Lab’s research: compassionate presence stabilizes both individuals and the systems they move through.
Both psychedelic experiences and emotional crises are forms of altered states—interruptions in our usual sense-making frameworks. Whether those states arise intentionally through psychedelics or unexpectedly through pain, loss, or overwhelm, the variables that determine the outcome remain the same: safety, trust, and compassionate care.
Our world is producing more altered states, not fewer. As psychedelics become more accessible, mental health crises increase, and emerging technologies create new cognitive and emotional disruptions, the need for skilled compassionate support remains constant. As AI becomes more integrated into daily life, these technologically mediated shifts in attention, emotion, and meaning-making echo the same dynamics we see in psychedelic states.
This context makes Zendo Project’s work increasingly vital. Our SIT training brings ASCI to life, teaching grounded, expert-informed support skills for any environment where individuals navigate unfamiliar internal terrain.
We offer our deep gratitude to Nima and the entire CPPH team, including Missi Wooldridge and Heather Kuiper, for their collaboration and leadership in bringing psychedelic science to the wider public health conversation.
