The Right Major, Half a Century Later

When CIIS’ new Bachelor of Science in Psychedelic Studies  graduated its inaugural class, it bestowed degrees on a diverse cohort united by curiosity and passion for an emerging healing modality. Among them was Gina Black, 72, a writer, television producer veteran, and rebel at heart who was completing a degree she had started in the 1970s – she was a college graduate exactly fifty years later, to the day.

In her youth, Black was eager to gain experience and explore the world. “She didn’t see the point [in college]. The only reason she actually came back is because we had this program,” says Huffman. “If the B.S. in Psychedelic Studies had been available to her fifty-odd years ago, she would’ve done it in a heartbeat.”  

For Black, the fit was obvious from the start. "I knew it immediately. I joke that I did the research for it in high school," she says. The math worked too — the program's three-semester length lined up exactly with the units she needed to graduate, and its online format meant she could do it from home. "It looked to be a perfect fit, and it has been."

The cohort benefitted tremendously from Black’s presence. She's a leader, a contributor, part of the collective. “It's just been a joy to see how integrated she is with everyone,” Huffman says. “There's this commonality, this passion, this collective wisdom that they all want to take back out into the world.” 

Black felt it too. She'd taken a few classes before, twelve years earlier at Santa Barbara City College, but full-time study in a fully digital program was new ground — ground her television career had prepared her for more than she expected. "I am very comfortable with computers, software, and Zoom," she says. What stayed with her most was the cohort itself. She hadn't spent this long with the same group of people since sixth grade. "There's something special about learning alongside the same people over time — it creates a cohesive group that feels, in some ways, like a family," she says. 

Black's capstone research emerged from her own experience as a teenager in early 1970’s Southern California, when dropping acid was part of the zeitgeist. But she felt that this generation’s experiences had never been systematically documented. She decided to capture her peers’ stories before they disappeared: why did they decide to try psychedelics when there was so much scaremongering around drugs in the broader culture, and what exactly did they experience? “She’s identified a gap in the research literature,” says Huffman. “She’s going to keep filling it and write a book.”

That book is already underway. She's calling it The LSD Project — an exploration of long-term integration over fifty years among people who, like her, grew up surrounded by psychedelia and took psychedelics as adolescents between 1967 and 1974. "It's like asking Alice, fifty years later, how that trip down the rabbit hole affected her life's journey," Black says. She hopes to publish it online this September at thelsdproject.com.

So how did Black feel about the winding road she took through education? “Apparently I had to wait fifty years for the right major to come along,” Black told Huffman. “I'm proud to be a member of the inaugural graduating class in Psychedelic Studies here at CIIS.”