If you know a combat veteran who might fit this research, the friendly observer is how you would participate. This page covers what the role involves, what's expected, and how to share the study with the veteran in your life.
The Microdosing Vets study is a doctoral research project at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) examining the qualitative experience of microdosed LSD among U.S. combat veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is led by Patrick Nienaber, principal investigator and a fellow Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. The study is ethics-approved and is the first qualitative research to treat self-directed veteran microdosing as primary data.
Participation involves a five-minute anonymous screening, followed (if the veteran qualifies) by one remote, recorded interview of approximately eighty minutes. The interview is conducted by a fellow combat veteran. No information is shared with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, or any federal agency.
Strong qualitative research benefits from triangulation: pairing a participant's first-person account with the perspective of someone close to them who has seen the impact of the experience from the outside. That outside perspective is the friendly observer.
The role exists because some changes are easier for the people around us to notice than for us to notice in ourselves. A friendly observer's job is not to evaluate or diagnose — it is to describe what they have observed in someone they know well, over time.
You don't need clinical expertise, research experience, or familiarity with psychedelics. What you need is lived knowledge of the veteran you would be observing for.
Who qualifies as a friendly observer:
A veteran describing their own experience of microdosing is the centerpiece of the study. That account is essential and irreplaceable — but it is also bounded by what any one person can see in themselves. Sleep changes, irritability shifts, the way someone speaks about a memory they previously avoided, the small re-entry into the room when a conversation gets hard: these are often more visible to the people around the veteran than to the veteran in real time.
Methodological triangulation pairs the participant's first-person account with the friendly observer's independent perspective. Where the two accounts agree, the finding is strengthened. Where they diverge, the divergence itself becomes data worth examining. This is how qualitative research builds claims that hold up to peer review.
Without friendly observers, the study would still have something. With them, the study has the depth a dissertation defense and subsequent peer-reviewed publication require.
Patrick Nienaber is a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a doctoral candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Meet the research team →
The study is reviewed and approved by the CIIS Human Research Review Committee. Protocol and consent documents are on file.
Data is de-identified. No information is shared with federal agencies. Participating creates no record tied to service or benefits.
Selected for the Pat Tillman Foundation Scholarship in 2023, a nationally competitive fellowship for veterans pursuing high-impact graduate work.