Two other participants in the study have also received the therapy in the South Island and at another Auckland site.
All the participants are facing a cancer diagnosis, and the results so far have shattered Evans’ expectations.
Dr Will Evans and Naima Evans at Mana Health in Parnell. The pair have also developed their own botanical water called Senza. Photo / Annaleise Shortland
The study is now searching for more people with cancer to take part and for further donations to complete the trial by April next year.
At age 46, Evans is someone who has been surrounded by death for most of his medical career, but that doesn’t lighten the weight of responsibility he feels for this work.
He trained in neurology and pharmacology before being drawn into palliative care through work in the oncology ward at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.
The hospital experience left him feeling dissatisfied that the focus of palliative care was on treating only the physical body in relation to a person’s deteriorating state, whereas he had observed many patients were often going through mental anguish that was integral to understanding their pain.
The problem niggled at him: it felt as if he was offering treatment to people but never solving the root cause of their suffering.
As Evans walks calmly through the clinic, the hallway smelling faintly of essential oils, he points out the room where he has carried out most of his lengthy discussions about death with people who have taken MDMA.
Doctors often end up being forced to ignore a person’s internal unwellness, he says, because of the pressure facing them within the health system.
Dying patients in particular were facing a flood of difficult feelings such as anger, a sense of unfairness or resentment, endless questioning and a deepening anxiety about what might come next.
“The focus was all on survival and fighting and treating the disease, and death, which was this elephant in the room, was treated as a medical failure,” he says.
“It seemed to me there was so much suffering not being addressed around this issue that it almost felt like this was my only option, there was this sense of responsibility to not continue to ignore that suffering.”
In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has permitted the use of MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. But the cost of receiving this treatment is high, at about $20,000.
Evans says his patients have experienced a dramatic decrease in death anxiety and many have felt being pain-free or comfortable for the first time in years.
Naima Evans has studied different traditions of yoga therapy, somatic movement, and breathwork and has assisted people throughout the trial in learning mindfulness techniques.
“It [MDMA] kind of ripens the person and their state to bring up material that they can then process and liberate,” she says.
By learning breathwork or meditative practices, people could slow down their mind, come into their body, and rediscover the same peaceful feeling they had experienced in a session while taking MDMA.
Through working with people who were dying, Evans has a rare insight into the kind of questions and thought patterns people experience when they are facing the end of their life.
“Often, they would come to beautiful conclusions, and they weren’t complex things, they were simple, very clear,” he says.
“I always felt incredibly grateful to be sitting at the bedside of enlightenment, of people who were grappling with the fundamental question of being and not being.”
He says often people will discuss memories of pain or suffering inflicted upon them by loved ones, and through the sessions people will often seek to mend bridges with family members or to restore broken relationships.
The whole theory behind different types of psychedelic therapy such as MDMA and magic mushrooms is that these substances can increase plasticity in the brain, which could make the brain more open to change and developing new neural pathways.
MDMA therapy lowers a person’s fear response, Evans says, and enables them to access things they might find too painful to think about in their everyday consciousness, which could allow them to process difficult or deeply suppressed thoughts.
Early results from a study involving neuroscientists working with survivors following the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel revealed MDMA could provide some psychological protection against trauma.
During the NOVA music festival, where Hamas terrorists killed about 370 people and took dozens of hostages into Gaza, many of those attending the festival were on different forms of party drugs, such as LSD and magic mushrooms. Neuroscientists have found those people on MDMA appeared to cope better mentally with the traumatic event.
The outcomes Naima has witnessed of people in the trial is that they were able to find immense emotional relief and become more comfortable with the process of dying.
Evans says a session taking MDMA combined with therapeutic assistance allowed people to reach this feeling of complete and utter acceptance, a state of healing.
Aaron Edgington has been taking part in the MDMA-assisted therapy trial in Auckland. Photo / Annaleise Shortland
For Aaron Edgington, 51, who recently took part in the trial, the therapy helped him face head and neck cancer while being the solo parent of his 3-year-old daughter.
In handwritten notes made by Edgington following the experience, he talked about a deep sense of peacefulness that stayed with him and that he found he could return to in difficult moments following the session.
“I’ve felt, at times, like I’ve been searching for something, searching for answers … it feels like I don’t have to necessarily search for that peace. I can actually find it within myself,” he wrote in his notes.
Edginton is looking after his young daughter in New Zealand as her mum currently lives in Vietnam, and says one of the hardest parts of the cancer diagnosis was worrying about her long-term welfare and her potential future without him.
“I suppose the initial thought is that it’s like a death sentence, so of course you’re reeling right. It’s pretty tough.
“I’m in a little bit of an uncertain space right now waiting on results. It obviously means so much to me being with my daughter, and I’d like to think I have longer, and maybe I do.
“But you don’t know, you just don’t know for sure.”
He said that when going through cancer treatment, you often feel physically strong and healthy outside of treatment windows but the diagnosis is still hanging over you all the time as this dark reality.
MDMA therapy made him feel more comfortable, aware of himself and connected to the present moment, something that allowed the painful knowledge of the diagnosis to not take up the forefront of his mind.
As a clinician, working with people facing death could be very emotionally heavy.
“I think it’s revealed to me how there is a complete blind spot in medicine, all forms of medicine where you’re dealing with death and dying, disease and suffering constantly, and there’s a lot of vicarious trauma that happens,” Evans says.
“I don’t know if it’s dealt with very well in medicine. We don’t have an inbuilt system of self-care for the carer, even not just for doctors but for family members caring for loved ones who are dying.
“There’s a need to look after yourself in the presence of that trauma … it taught me to take extra time to make sure that your cup is full so it can overflow into other people’s lives, rather than just running on empty all the time.”
Naima Evans supports people involved in the trial with learning mindfulness techniques to strengthen the benefits of the therapy. Photo / Annaleise Shortland
The trial so far has seen some unexpected outcomes.
Three patients the Weekend Herald spoke to in May who were involved in the MDMA trial have all seen marked improvements in their cancer after the completion of the therapy.
The significant joint pain Edginton was experiencing throughout his cycles of chemotherapy treatment reduced after receiving MDMA therapy.
In Evans’ view, some of these results may be linked to the easing of stress that some patients have experienced in the aftermath of the trial, and he wondered if this may have helped support their immune response.
However, it was too early to make any assumptions about its impact on cancer outcomes and it is an opportunity for further research.
He and Naima also say the intense reflection and processing carried out in the therapy sessions is not solely reliant on a psychedelic experience or drug.
“I guess this is one version of a self-inquiry or self-reflective process that can change your life, but there are so many, so that would be the other thing is not to get fixated on psychedelics as a substance you have to take in order to have these experiences.”
He says this is definitely not something that should be attempted alone without clinical support and the experience within recreational settings is entirely different.
“I always felt incredibly grateful to be sitting at the bedside of enlightenment”. Photo / Annaleise Shortland
Other services such as Hospice NZ also provide free palliative and end-of-life care to people which includes providing psychological and spiritual support to people who are dying and their families.
This can also mean home visits and inpatient stays with nurses.
The cost of MDMA therapy could be a prohibitive factor in its conceivable introduction into the health system because of the labour required, with an extensive number of hours needed for therapists to oversee patients.
Currently, the therapists doing the work involved with the trial are voluntary and not being paid for their time.
Evans says they are doing this out of goodwill and because they believe in the transformational effect it is having on people who are dying.
To finish the study by the desired date of April next year, Evans is hoping they will be able to raise a further $300,000 to support the work.
To take part in the trial, people have to be over the age of 18, living with a confirmed cancer diagnosis, and experiencing distress. Interested individuals and health professionals can find out about the study and make inquiries by contacting info@manahealth.co.nz or 0274907717.
Donations to support the work can be made through The Mana Foundation Trust website.
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