Sozo
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Public education · research translation · access advocacy

Making psychological healing more human.

We are building a nonprofit platform focused on trauma, addiction, personality-level suffering, and psychedelic education—designed to help the public, policymakers, and vulnerable communities imagine a better model than exclusionary care.

Explore the MissionRead the Founding Story
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Strategic pillars
Core thesis

Many destructive behaviors survive because the self defends against what it cannot bear to know.

Sozo exists to bridge lived experience, public language, and system-level change so healing is not reserved for people with money, status, or institutional access.

What we do

Four pillars for a public-interest healing movement.

01

Research & Evidence

Translate lived experience, observational data, and emerging science into language the public, press, and policymakers can actually use.

02

Public Education

Create elegant, accessible media that explains trauma, addiction, ego defenses, and psychedelic transformation without institutional fog.

03

Policy & Access

Advocate for affordable, ethical, non-extractive pathways to healing through public-interest policy, equity, and accountability.

04

Community Support

Build bridges between recovery communities, survivors, families, and people seeking psychological healing outside shame and stigma.

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Framework

We use public language, narrative clarity, and research translation to narrow the distance between hidden suffering and usable change.

Our Mission

A public-facing foundation for healing, education, and access.

Origin

Why this project exists

Sozo Initiative begins from a simple conviction: many people are suffering inside defensive identities that current systems know how to label, but not how to truly reach.

Values

What we protect

Human dignity over stigma. Public benefit over extraction. Access over exclusivity. Clear language over institutional fog.

Approach

How we work

We combine narrative, education, research translation, and policy-facing communication. We turn lived experience into frameworks, frameworks into public language, and public language into momentum.

Vision

What we are building toward

A future where psychological healing is more honest, more affordable, more culturally legible, and less captured by corporate incentives.

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Why now

Current systems often know how to manage symptoms, not transform lives.

Too many people dealing with trauma, addiction, shame, coercive relationships, or entrenched personality-level defenses end up moving between systems that classify them without truly reaching them.

Our project is built to speak into that gap through education, public storytelling, policy-facing advocacy, and a framework that keeps access, dignity, and cultural honesty at the center.

This site is designed as the foundation for a nonprofit presence: clear mission, legitimate structure, public resources, and obvious pathways for coalition-building, fundraising, and future pilot initiatives.

Resources

A chronological map of modern psilocybin research.

1958
Sandoz
Albert Hofmann isolated psilocybin and identified its structure.

Early chemistry milestone that helped define psilocybin as a research compound.

Historical milestone
1960
Sandoz
Indocybin entered psychiatric research use.

Psilocybin was introduced into psychiatry as an investigational compound.

Historical milestone
1966
Sandoz
Distribution of indocybin to researchers was discontinued.

A turning point that narrowed formal access to psilocybin research.

Historical milestone
1971
United Nations
Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

International treaty that placed psychedelics under tighter global control.

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1994
University of New Mexico
Strassman and colleagues reopened modern human psychedelic research with DMT.

A landmark psychoactive trial involving 60 participants.

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2006
University of Arizona
Moreno et al. studied psilocybin for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry study with 9 patients.

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2011
UCLA / Harbor-UCLA
Grob et al. examined psilocybin for anxiety in advanced-stage cancer.

Archives of General Psychiatry study with 12 patients.

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2014
Johns Hopkins
Johnson et al. piloted psilocybin-assisted treatment for tobacco addiction.

Journal of Psychopharmacology study with 15 participants.

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2015
New York University / University of New Mexico
Bogenschutz et al. tested psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol dependence.

Journal of Psychopharmacology proof-of-concept study with 10 patients.

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Jul 2016
Imperial College London
Carhart-Harris et al. published an open-label feasibility study for treatment-resistant depression.

Lancet Psychiatry study with 19 patients.

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Dec 2016
New York University
Ross et al. reported rapid and sustained reductions in cancer-related anxiety and depression.

Journal of Psychopharmacology randomized trial with 29 patients.

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Dec 2016
Johns Hopkins
Griffiths et al. found substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in cancer patients.

Journal of Psychopharmacology randomized trial with 51 patients.

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2019 / Jan 2022
Compass Pathways / King's College London
Rucker et al. reported phase 1 COMP360 findings in healthy participants.

Journal of Psychopharmacology publication following a 2019 healthy-volunteer study with 89 participants.

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Nov 2020
Johns Hopkins
Davis et al. tested psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depressive disorder.

JAMA Psychiatry randomized clinical trial with 24 participants.

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Apr 2021
Imperial College London
Carhart-Harris et al. compared psilocybin with escitalopram for depression.

New England Journal of Medicine trial with 59 patients.

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May 2022
Compass Pathways
COMP360 treatment-resistant depression results were presented at APA and ASCP.

Conference posters summarizing data from 233 patients.

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Nov 2022
Compass Pathways
Goodwin et al. published a single-dose COMP360 trial for treatment-resistant depression.

New England Journal of Medicine phase 2 study with 233 patients.

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Resources

A chronological map of modern DMT research.

1956
Stephen Szára
One of the earliest published human DMT papers linked metabolism and psychedelic effects.

Experientia report that helped establish DMT as a human psychoactive research compound.

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1957
Szára et al.
Early follow-up publication described DMT as a new psychotic agent in humans.

A short historical paper often cited in the first wave of human DMT literature.

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1994
University of New Mexico
Strassman and Qualls published dose-response data on DMT’s neuroendocrine, autonomic, and cardiovascular effects.

Arch Gen Psychiatry paper from the modern reopening of controlled human DMT research.

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1994
University of New Mexico
Strassman, Qualls, Uhlenhuth, and Kellner published the companion subjective-effects paper.

Arch Gen Psychiatry report detailing the subjective response profile and rating scale findings.

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2019
Imperial / Scientific Reports
Timmermann et al. mapped neural correlates of the DMT experience with EEG.

A modern lab-based human neurophysiology paper that helped renew mechanistic DMT research.

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2021
Buenos Aires / Imperial
Pallavicini et al. studied neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings.

Journal of Psychopharmacology field study with 35 experienced participants.

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2022
Yale / VA Connecticut
D’Souza et al. explored dose-related safety, tolerability, and next-day antidepressant signals.

Neuropsychopharmacology phase 1 study with 3 healthy controls and 7 participants with major depressive disorder.

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2023
Imperial / PSP
Eckernäs et al. analyzed DMT’s EEG effects in a concentration-dependent PK/PD model.

Clinical pharmacology work linking plasma exposure to electrophysiologic changes.

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2024
Small Pharma / Imperial
James et al. published phase 1 safety, tolerability, and wellbeing data for SPL026 in healthy participants.

Randomized placebo-controlled Frontiers in Psychiatry trial that informed later depression dosing.

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2024
Imperial / Scientific Reports
Timmermann et al. reported mental health outcomes after IV DMT in healthy volunteers.

Scientific Reports analysis spanning placebo-controlled and prospective datasets totaling 30 healthy volunteers.

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2025
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Egger et al. studied the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interaction of DMT and harmine.

Dose-escalation healthy-volunteer research expanding the clinical picture around combined administration.

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2025
University Hospital Basel
Erne et al. tested continuous DMT infusions and self-guided titration in healthy participants.

Neuropsychopharmacology placebo-controlled crossover study with 22 participants.

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2026
Imperial / Cybin
Erritzoe et al. published a phase IIa randomized placebo-controlled trial of DMT for major depressive disorder.

Nature Medicine paper with 34 randomized participants showing rapid antidepressant effects with psychotherapeutic support.

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