By Barış Parlan

We slept beside the woman the entire night.

This was at a music festival in Cyprus. The woman was having a crisis—the kind of crisis medics and police can't help with. The type of emotional and psychological breakdown that is surprisingly common at festivals—where intense music, lack of sleep, and psychoactive substances can create mental and spiritual collapses.

These kinds of problems can be best helped by a new kind of care: peer-support. Regular people lending a helping hand to someone in need in a safe and nurturing space.

Which is what we did for the woman. We supported her family, reassured them, and helped her plan her return home safely. With just a few caring people, we helped stabilize a real life or death crisis. Afterwards, she thanked us 100 times, and  told us:

“You saved my life.”

Her words became a core memory for our team — a powerful reminder of why we do this. This was a valuable experience that made everyone on our team 'older and wiser.'

[Read our blog post: 'We're Dying Out Here.' How PsyDAO Aims to Change the Culture.]

A Chill Space for Grounding, Care, and Community

Over five days and four unforgettable nights at Dark Dreams IV Festival, in the Lefkara Mountains of Cyprus, on an island in the Mediterranean, we created a PsyCARE tent—a humble sanctuary where people could pause, ground themselves, and reconnect with safety and inner peace.

This effort is one way festivals can keep people safe—through decentralized, self-organized efforts.

Together, we welcomed 50+ people into our space. Many came to recharge — phones, minds, and bodies. Some found joy in creating art. Others simply needed someone to talk to or sit quietly. Four minor psychological cases and one major situation, outlined above, were supported.

PsyCARE became more than a chill space. It became a living experience of what’s possible when strangers choose to hold each other with presence, trust, and love.

[Read our blog post: 'Sculptural Environments Made of Feeling': How an Acclaimed Artist ‘Sees’ DMXE]

What We Offered

• A shaded chill zone with psychill music — a flow of psychedelic chillout, downtempo, and nature-inspired sounds

• Gentle trip-sitting and emotional support

• Non-judgmental space to sit, cry, create, or just breathe

• Herbal tea, water, snacks, and pillows

• Art tools—paper, stones, markers—for expression and connection

• A warm place to charge phones — and hearts

Many visitors found peace through art and creative play.

With simple tools they turned intense feelings into form. In silence or light conversation, they stayed for hours, reconnecting with their inner world.

[Buy PsyDAO’s psychedelic science hat.]

PsyCARE in Context

Most psychedelic trips are harmless, and many are helpful. Yet, "bad trips" exist. When psychedelic trips go sideways, people can find themselves anxious and fearful, with existential struggle and social disconnection. There's often no help—in part because psychedelics are mostly illegal. Bad effects can last for years.

A few festivals do have help for this. Zendo, from MAPS, works at Burning Man and a few other major American events.

In the UK, the organization PsyCare is one of the biggest and oldest peer support harm reduction services. PsyCare trains people to support people in psychedelic crisis. “Psychedelic experiences can bring about massive shifts in worldview, and if you’re not totally prepared it can push you over the edge,” a psychology professor told The Guardian in a story about PsyCare. There's a greater need for psychedelic peer support than the PsyCare team can support. That's where regular people come in.

[Buy our PsyDAO token and participate in governance decisions.]

Who We Are

We were Barış, Marianna, Joy, B, and Aurelia—five individuals from different paths, united by a shared intention: to create a safe, welcoming space for those who needed it most during the four-night journey of the festival.

We are creative professionals, healthcare workers, skilled artisans, tech specialists and passionate volunteers. There was B, a French designer who builds healing spaces with recycled materials, shaped the structure, tent, and physical space of PsyCARE. I'm a tech consultant, DJ & VJ who brings the fusion of technology and empathy. I handled digital infrastructure, QR designs, music, lighting, massage, and soft support. I also introduced many to PsyDAO, POAPs, and blockchain ideas. Joy is a nurse who has cared for refugees and people at festivals. Her medical know-how and gentle presence gave PsyCARE depth and safety. Aurelia came all the way from India to help. (Some of our team use pseudonyms, or only first names.)

Along the way, two beautiful souls — Mira and Marinos — joined our circle with spontaneous compassion and energy. Without planning or obligation, they both felt the call to help and brought their full hearts into the PsyCARE space. Mira’s gentle vocal care, aromatic teas, and healing presence held people in softness. Marinos, deeply moved by what unfolded, gave his time and effort selflessly. After witnessing how care can shift lives, he told us:

**“This is something I want to keep doing in life.”     **

[Join the PsyDAO Discord.]

Tokenized Curiosity

In our corner of the mountains, care met blockchain. We issued a limited-edition POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) for our space. Only 7 were minted, each now carrying the energy of this special gathering.

Blockchain can be a way for people to learn about these decentralized methods of care.

This is where PsyDAO came in.

We introduced visitors to the mission of PsyDAO, a decentralized funding movement supporting progress in psychedelic science and culture. Many became curious about:

• Decentralized Science (DeSci)

• NFTs as memory tokens

• Crowdfunded, collective ownership of psychedelic research

"There are so many people who went to so many festivals and they could do it but they just don't know how," said BeataB, from the PsyDAO core team. "But when we share the idea, maybe it will spark ideas at all other festivals and all parts of the world."

Community in Action

One participant scanned our donation QR and sent $10 in USDT—our first crypto donation, and a gesture that meant more than its amount.

Our team has created a crypto wallet—0xe97B53945244490431DEF28371c1C246923b4073—if you’d like to support this work.

Crypto is the most useful, most frictionless, easiest way to transfer value. At a music festival, it’s as easy as pulling out your phone and, zoom, the money is there.

What’s Next?

We leave Dark Dreams IV changed. We held space. We were held. We witnessed healing. We helped someone stay alive. We welcomed curiosity, creativity, and shared learning.

We plan to bring our model of care back to Dark Dreams next year.

We are more certain than ever: intentional care at psychedelic gatherings is essential. And now, more of us are ready to carry this work forward.

Thank You

To the Dark Dreams IV Festival organizers, thank you for the trust, and for the tickets. To every visitor who entered our tent, thank you for your presence. To PsyDAO, thank you for inspiring us to dream decentralized.

And to the mountains — thank you for holding us all.

One More Thing

Reminder: PsyDAO is a mission-driven organization and we rely on a lot of help.

Thank you to all our token holders; your purchase funds our art and science.

DAOs are powered by regular people working toward their passions. If you believe in the power of psychedelics and Web3 and want to contribute to PsyDAO, please:

• Join our Discord. Discord is the main way DAO members coordinate.

• Follow PsyDAO on X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and engage.

• Follow our AI research bot, BeeARD, on X.

• Use psychedelics responsibly, and tell us how it went.