Johns Hopkins University Academics just got a boost in their funding thanks to the recently launched program Roland R. Griffiths Ph.D. Professorship Fund.

Recently, his life’s work as a pioneer in psychedelics research and his current work in the New York Times, Griffiths is a psychopharmacologist and professor of neuroscience, psychiatry, and behavioral studies. He is the founding director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at the same institution, where he now passes the torch to others to further advance the science of psychedelics.

The funding, which is to be administered by the university on a permanent basis, serves psychedelic research “on secular spirituality and well-being”, the support of an endowed professorship at JHU and the establishment of a program for empirical research with psychedelics.

That said, unlike most existing research that focuses on medicinal therapies, the Trust will support scientific investigation into the spiritual side of psychedelics and their ability to induce prosocial behavior and life-changing experiences.

This field is what Griffiths’ investigations have attempted to assess during his many years of work in psychedelics research: subjective effects, the spiritual meaning of the experience, and effects on well-being.

Griffiths recognizes that there are certain risks associated with the use of psychedelics and hopes that their approval for medical use will serve as a basis for later expansion to other uses and provide safe and supportive conditions for implementation.

The professor has worked in particular with Bob Jesse, Bill Richards and Una McCann based on a pioneering work published in 2006 clinical study on the long-term effects of a psilocybin macrodose in psychedelic-naïve participants and on a 2016 study Psilocybin for Cancer Patients with depression and end-of-life anxiety.

As reported from clear messagesthe fund has received approximately $16.5 million to date of the overall $20 million goal from donors and prominent philanthropists. Its first recipient is