"A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin" a film by Robert J. Barnhart

A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin explores the treatment of end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill cancer patients using psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms, to facilitate deeply spiritual experiences. The documentary explores the convergence of science and spirituality in the first psychedelic research studies with terminally ill patients since the 1970s.

As a society we devote a great deal of attention to treating cancer, but very little to treating the human being who is dying of cancer. A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin shows patients and their families coming to terms with dying through the skillful treatment of the whole human being.


Robert J. Barnhart has a BA in comparative religion from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He has been a strong advocate for the study of psychoactive materials in spiritual and non-traditional healing practices for many years. He sits on the board of both The Heffter Research Institute and The Multi-Disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. He further sits on the board of COSM, supporting the visionary art work of Alex Grey.
Mr. Barnhart is active caring for the well-being of our planet's environmental ecosystem. He has now completed producing this documentary film about the use of psilocybin medicine in modern healing practices. He currently lives in Austin, Texas where he enjoys being a father to his ten year old daughter.


Jeffrey Guss, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with specialization in addictive disorders and psychotherapy. He is Co-Principal Investigator and the Director of Therapist Training for the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Project. Dr. Guss is developing a model for training therapists for cancer related therapy trials, as well as imagining clinical practice with psilocybin-assisted therapy. He maintains a psychotherapy based practice in New York City and is a graduate of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.


Stephen Ross, M.D., is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology and Medicine at the NYU College of Dentistry. He is the Director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital Center, Director of Addiction Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center/Tisch Hospital, and the Director of the NYU Addiction Fellowship. Dr Ross directs an NIH funded Addictive Disorders Laboratory at Bellevue Hospital Center and is the Director of the NYU Psychedelic Research Group. Dr Ross researches the therapeutic application of hallucinogen treatment models to treat psychiatric and addictive disorders. He is an expert in psycho-oncology and is studying novel pharmacologic-psychosocial approaches to treating psychological distress associated with advanced or terminal cancer. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Project (a recently completed FDA phase II RCT studying the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in patients with life-threatening cancer and psychological/existential distress), PI of a controlled trial administering psilocybin to religious professionals, and co-PI of a controlled trial assessing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in patients with alcoholism. Dr. Ross receives his research funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the NYU School of Medicine and the Heffter Research Institute.


Charles S. Grob, M.D., is Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Grob conducted the first government approved psychobiological research study of MDMA, and was the principal investigator of an international research project in the Brazilian Amazon studying the visionary plant brew, ayahuasca. He has also completed and published the first approved research investigation in several decades on the safety and efficacy of psilocybin treatment in terminal cancer patients with anxiety, and is currently studying the use of MDMA in the treatment of autistic adults with social anxiety. Dr. Grob is the editor of Hallucinogens: A Reader (Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) and co-editor (with Roger Walsh) of Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics (SUNY Press, 2005). He is also a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute.