I THRIVE & The Kintsukuroi Project Sister Series:
The Looking Glass Project

The Looking Glass Project was a 2021 performance piece housed within I THRIVE's Kintsukuroi Project. Inspired by civil rights efforts and the performance work of artists and activists including  Emma Sulkowicz, I THRIVE's creator pursued peaceful protest, performative art, and activism efforts that began January 2021. The project aimed to expose rape culture and violence against women in the Utah mental health community in response to the June 2020 psychedelic facilitated sex assault that I THRIVE's creator experienced at the hands of Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) professor Stamatios G.M. Dentino MD. The Looking Glass Project was also designed to highlight historical abuses that I THRIVE's creator witnessed and experienced at the University of Utah during psychiatry residency and aimed to explore psychiatric ethics through real world examination of The Goldwater Rule by gauging community responses and speculation made relative to this project and I THRIVE's creator throughout its delivery.

 

The Looking Glass Project initially was launched via mass January 2021 outreach to the SLC mental health community seeking the opportunity to share I THRIVE creator's side of the story, her work and experiences via guest presentation at an HMHI Utah Psychedelic Science Interest Group (UPSI) meeting. The goal of The Looking Glass Project and this proposal was to take a stand against sexual assault, to seek inclusion for survivors of sexual violence, to expose sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuses occurring in the SLC mental health and psychedelic science community, as well as to highlight the culture of violence, harm, and rape against women in Utah as evidenced by recurrent high profile cases of harm at the University of Utah (Lauren McCluskey, Zhifan Dong, the abuses named here). The Looking Glass Project additionally aimed to highlight the arbitrary nature of the psychiatric profession when its professors and providers fail to adhere to ethical principals, including The Goldwater Rule, when utilizing diagnoses as pejorative terms to avoid accountability, issues of countertransference, or personal bias in our approach to our peers and clients in psychiatry. I THRIVE intended to achieve these efforts by gauging and exposing the response and openness to I THRIVE creator's proposal to share our work and story at our alma mater, HMHI, and by our SLC community's openness to her as a professional in setting of her survivor status and the public advocacy efforts that she was undertaking. UPSI was chosen as the site for I THRIVE creator's proposed presentation, because UPSI's founder had mentored I THRIVE's nonprofit project in residency, and because she had hoped, incorrectly, that as an ethicist studying the psychedelic sciences, this professional may prove to be a trustworthy resource from which to seek guidance as to how to report psychedelic facilitated sex assault occurring in the Utah mental health community and Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI).

​

While the original goal of this project was to expose the sex assault experienced by I THRIVE's creator in 2020 at the hands of a HMHI professor Stamatios G.M. Dentino MD and the historical culture of violence against women in Utah, most prominently at the UofU, The Looking Glass Project was ultimately successful in exposing a further reaching net of sex abuse and cover-ups than we ever imagined was present or possible within the SLC mental health community. This merited the early retirement and evolution of the original project and cancellation of our 2021 photo advocacy series in its early planning phases to pursue national whistleblowing and advocacy efforts amongst leaders in the psychedelic sciences, local mental health providers, police & various investigative bodies, ethics committees, journalists, and spiritual leaders beginning July 2022 through 2024. In our darkest hour over the summer of 2022 I THRIVE's creator turned to the guidance of her many mentors, relying most prominently on the 2017 article by her mentor Omar Reda MD in which he described the necessity of reporting predators to police and our investigative bodies in situations such as this as well as the utilization of his method L.O.V.E. (Listening, healthy Options, Validating the survivors’ experience, and Empowering them through making them part of the solution) when approaching survivors of trauma and affiliated communities. I THRIVE's creator gleaned from these teachings in addition to her own experience healing from trauma and advocating for survivors in her work and studies both locally and abroad to expose the harms and ethical violations occurring in the Utah mental health community on a state and national level in July 2022. I THRIVE contributed significant effort to report Parth and local peers to national leaders in the psychedelic sciences and to multiple investigative bodies (police, DOPL, FBI) throughout 2021-2023. Despite our greatest efforts I THRIVE learned that we were unable to prevent recurrent rape and eventual murder in Utah when on May 13, 2023 we received word that I THRIVE creator's former professor Parth Gandhi PhD had completed murder-suicide against his 16 year old son Om Moses Gandhi amidst an ongoing custody battle and the active SLC sex assault investigation that we had helped secure.

 

A Timeline of Events:

• I THRIVE's creator reported that she was a survivor of psychedelic facilitated assault by Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) professor Stamatios G.M. Dentino MD to friends and family after her June 2020 assault, then later to multiple local mental health providers during the spring and summer of 2021 including peers at HMHI, Cedar Psychiatry, and the founders of the Salt City Psychedelic Training and Research (SCPTR) program Parth Gandhi PhD and James Evans BSc.

• I THRIVE's creator pursued mass January 2021 outreach to HMHI and affiliated local hospitals seeking the opportunity to present our work and side of the story at the Utah Psychedelic Science Interest Group (UPSI) meeting at the University of Utah. 

• I THRIVE's creator was harassed and cyber-bullied via a University of Utah sponsored Zoom meeting hosted by faculty at HMHI and members of UPSI intent to cover these and other historical abuses June 7, 2021. Multiple of these peers went on to further harass I THRIVE's creator in a series of attacks late spring, June, and July of 2021 including a visit to her private residence by sexual perpetrator Stamatios G.M. Dentino MD and episodes of harassment and abuse that infiltrated I THRIVE's creator's personal workplace over this period.

• I THRIVE's creator was fired from her work July 2021 in part due to foul-play related to peers in the local mental health community dedicated to covering these and historical abuses. At this point I THRIVE's creator had limited criminal evidence available to report Parth Gandhi PhD or her prior perpetrator, HMHI professor Stamatios G.M. Dentino MD, for sexual abuse and violence or her peers for their historical labor violations and discrimination. She continued to make efforts to gather evidence, heal, and to explore her reporting options. 

• I THRIVE's creator first reported Dr. Parth Gandhi as potentially murderous to >10 Huntsman Mental Health Institute providers late summer 2021. She did so in a state of obvious fear after Parth's former business partner James Evans BSc warned I THRIVE's creator that Parth was dangerous and that if her advocacy work to support survivors of sex assault in the SLC community were to harm the psychedelic medicine movement, that she could be harmed, potentially murdered. This resulted in a cease and desist directed toward I THRIVE's creator from the University of Utah and threatening criminal charges for reporting Parth's and peers' violations to colleagues at the University of Utah. No interventions against Parth Gandhi PhD or the peers involved in these other harms was taken by the University of Utah at this time. 

• In February 2022, Parth Gandhi PhD approached I THRIVE's creator indicating that engaging her in a sexual relationship under the influence of psychedelic medicines could be healing in the context of her prior history of assault. Recognizing the unethical nature of this proposition, I THRIVE's creator sought the guidance of two local leaders (Paul Carlson MD, Reid Robison MD) in the Utah mental health community in spring of 2022 regarding how to proceed and urged caution against future professional and student relationships with Parth to University of Utah Psychiatry Program Director Paul Carlson MD. Despite these warnings, no interventions were made by these professionals to intervene or to assist in reporting Parth or associated peers in the Utah mental health community at that time. Parth was additionally observed to remain a speaker at the UofU Generations conference May 2022, enabling his final reported rape the following month.

• In June and July 2022, I THRIVE's creator heard from two founders of separate local psychedelic medicine churches, The Divine Assembly (TDA) and Temple of Hermes, that there were others who Parth Gandhi PhD may have attempted to solicit or may have actually harmed through historical sexual abuses. Despite these churches acknowledging pre-existing knowledge of Parth Gandhi's abuses in the community, the founders of either organization deferred intervention, TDA founder Steve Urquhart stating he was aware that Parth was a problem, but that there was nothing he could do about it. When I THRIVE's creator disclosed her own June 2020 psychedelic facilitated sex assault by an HMHI professor, Steve Urquhart was similarly dismissive.

• These abuses were additionally reported to peers in her home group by I THRIVE's creator at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Certificate Program in Psychedelic Therapies and Research, one of whom (Wendy Muirbrook LMFT) subsequently involuntarily drugged and interrogated I THRIVE's creator with a psychedelic wine designed to loosen boundaries and elicit truth to confirm the factuality of I THRIVE's reports June 2022. These events were reported to CIIS director Janis Phelps PhD and leadership prior to I THRIVE creator's academic leave from this organization September 2022. The experience of being drugged on an unknown psychedelic substance proved deeply traumatic and confusing for I THRIVE's creator, requiring significant support and integration assistance to recover from. This experience is one we continue to integrate to present day.

• These historical abuses and experiences were reported to Tess Huntington, former affiliate of The Divine Assembly (TDA) seeking her assistance and counsel after I THRIVE learned of TDA's work through an article posted promptly after I THRIVE creators' CIIS training with the MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program for PTSD in San Francisco, CA June 2022 as sent to I THRIVE's creator by the peer who had drugged and interrogated her post their California training. After a brief call with Tess I THRIVE's creator offered the anonymous use of her reports relative to Parth Gandhi's and additional SLC mental health provider's abuses to Tess in an effort to raise awareness related to abuses occurring in Utah and to stop further abuses at the hands of Parth Gandhi PhD. Tess indicated that Michael Pollen was offering $10k investigative journalism scholarships for authors publishing articles relative to psychedelics and indicated that she had an idea for an article related to how psychedelic churches were self-policing to keep bad actors out of the science.

• Subsequent to this, an article was released in The New Yorker, July 2022 that held significant overlap with this narrative (psychedelic involvement, the experience of struggling to find help from opposing forces, being sexually assaulted by a professor, and involuntarily drugged by a peer), I THRIVE creator's historical studies (trained at UofU, BYU, & enrolled in mentorship with a UCLA professor), resume (psychiatrist with psychology and social work training), and personal history (Utah & Idaho lineage, California & Oregon ties, Latter Day Saint aka Mormon heritage), which was forwarded to I THRIVE's creator by multiple members of her CIIS home group. While Tess Huntington later confirmed she was not the informant for this article and that she is no longer affiliated with TDA's founder, citing concerns for mishandling of sexual abuse reports, this experience was of significant confusion and trauma to I THRIVE's creator who had shared her personal information and these reports with multiple peers in the psychedelic sciences seeking their assistance to stop sex abuse in Utah. I THRIVE's creator elected to take a pause in our study of the psychedelic sciences to heal and recover from these and other abuses shortly after these events. 

• I THRIVE's creator reported Parth's Feb 2022 solicitations to SLCPD July 2022. The officer I THRIVE's creator spoke with indicated that Parth's suggestion was not criminal as it was simply a proposition between two adults that I THRIVE's creator had not consented to and that Parth had not proceeded. He indicated that perhaps this proposition could be criminal in that it was an abuse of authority because he was a former teacher, however he stated that to investigate Parth he would have to contact him and ask about this. I THRIVE's creator feared that this would increase her chances of being harmed, potentially murdered, by Parth in setting of historical hypothetical murder threats she'd received from Parth's former business partner, warning her that Parth was dangerous. Given these risks, which were shared with the reporting officer, she deferred investigation and filed an information only report.

• As a student of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) I THRIVE's creator was in touch with world leaders in the psychedelic sciences and given these concerns for public safety, she reported Parth Gandhi PhD, as well as her prior perpetrator and peers at HMHI for unethical and criminal conduct to leaders (Rick Doblin PhD, Annie Mithoefer B.S.N., Michael Mithoefer M.D.) in the psychedelic sciences at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS/MAPSPBC), CIIS, as well as to the University of Utah Huntsman Mental Health Institute, and to the Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) July 31, 2022, also forwarding these reports to TDA founder former Utah senator Steve Urquhart urging his assistance to stop Parth's abuses at that time. I THRIVE's creator did this at the risk of her own life and in violation of previous University of Utah cease and desists threatening criminal charges for her repeated advocacy. In doing so she surrendered her reports to the Utah Division of Professional Licensing for investigation. Post this outreach I THRIVE's creator received recurrent cease and desist from the University of Utah threatening criminal citation for reporting Parth Gandhi PhD July 31, 2022 from U of U general counsel Scott Smith JD, further reiterating the U of U's passive and active support of rape, murder, and violence against women and children in Utah throughout these proceedings.

• Given her involvement in reporting these grievances, I THRIVE's creator was also investigated and cleared by DOPL as relative to these investigations. She elected to take academic leave from CIIS September 2022 to attend to these reports, ongoing investigations, and her own healing.

• I THRIVE's creator became increasingly concerned for patient and public safety in Utah throughout this period. In setting of these grievances, she warned the University of Utah that it was her intention to continue reaching out to every regulatory body seeking assistance until she reached the United Nations (U.N.) Human Rights Council, with the help of her mentor 2019 U.N. Civil Society Conference speaker Omar Reda MD. Understanding that the U.N. will only intervene once all national resources have been exhausted, I THRIVE's creator continued her efforts to secure local assistance to stop Parth and associated violations in the Utah and national psychedelic science community and to spread awareness of state and national failings to protect our community from recurrent violations of human rights, psychiatric ethics, and psychedelic safety in Utah.

• I THRIVE's creator was recruited to DOPL's investigation into Parth Gandhi PhD October 2022 at which time she was also encouraged to continue the reporting of all affiliated parties associated with these activities and abuses. I THRIVE followed counsel and remains open in all investigations associated with these cases and events, also joining the SLCPD's investigation into Parth Gandhi PhD winter 2022 and extending multiple calls to the FBI relative to these cases spring 2023 to limited avail. 

• On May 13, 2023, I THRIVE was shocked and dismayed to learn that 16 year old Om Moses Gandhi had been killed by his father, I THRIVE creator's former professor Parth Gandhi PhD, amidst an active custody dispute and the SLC sex assault investigation that we had helped secure.

• I THRIVE's creator observed public posts on the social media of founder of The Divine Assembly (TDA) former Senator Steve Urquhart after the murder of 16 year old Om Moses Gandhi in May 2023 commenting publicly on the abuses and solicitations that I THRIVE's creator had been subjected to by Parth Gandhi PhD in February 2022. Subsequent to this I THRIVE's creator contacted TDA's founder and received legal counsel and referrals from former senator Steve Urquhart June 2023 that ultimately proved re-traumatizing and unnecessarily exposing. When I THRIVE's creator asked TDA founder Steve Urquhart why the 2022 New Yorker article that was published shortly after I THRIVE's creator spoke with a former TDA affiliate bore so much similarity to I THRIVE creator's life and circumstances, including foreshadowing the death of a 16 year old boy as occurred the following year, he declined to respond.

• Subsequent to I THRIVE's creator's interaction with former Senator Steve Urquhart she received notification that her emails were being forwarded. Former Senator Steve Urquhart was then observed to post about treason on his social media and to block I THRIVE creator's emails. These confusing and traumatic experiences and interactions were something that I THRIVE's creator would have to integrate on her own and with the assistance of her care providers and integration support peers in the psychedelic sciences Reid Robison MD and Steve Thayer PhD of Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers amongst others. In the aftermath of these traumas I THRIVE has come to recognize these experiences and Parth's actions to have been in combined retaliation against his former wife Leah Moses' efforts to obtain custody of Om and in retaliation to the psychedelic community who had distanced from him in support of those women who had the courage to report his abuses.

• Post the murder of Om Moses Gandhi, I THRIVE's creator extended the reports of her June 2020 sex assault, the historical labor abuses and discrimination she experienced by HMHI, and Parth Gandhi's historical abuses as previously reported to multiple police and FBI throughout 2022 and 2023 to the Utah Office of the Attorney General (AG) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) at which time the Utah AG's office sent their investigative seal implying that an investigation had been secured with their offices.

• Within a few hours following I THRIVE's call to the DOJ, the CIA reported to I THRIVE creator's workplace requesting release of a former patient's psych records, with indications on the request documents stating that her signature could be copied to other documents, hypothetically including those requesting the release of I THRIVE creator's psychiatric records for government review to determine the merit of these cases. The CIA does not typically involve itself with investigations surrounding U.S. citizens, however, given I THRIVE creator's reports that she intended to seek U.N. assistance to address these grievances and the fact that HMHI is sponsored by Jon Huntsman Jr, a well known political figure, she worried that her peers had attempted to accuse her of violations of national security to cover their abuses. Additionally, I THRIVE's creator attended the spring 2022 Utah Psychiatric Association meeting where it was implied that her efforts to report Parth and HMHI peers to various regulatory bodies was a form of political activism and terror, therefore falling under CIA investigative jurisdiction. Knowing her psychiatric records were already to be delivered to the Utah medical board, and given the obscure nature of these requests, I THRIVE elected to trust our local investigative bodies and chose not to sign the HIPPA release forms delivered to her workplace by CIA summer 2023.

• I THRIVE's creator was subsequently questioned by local police after University of Utah HMHI peers made effort to criminally cite I THRIVE's creator in an attempt to cover these and historical abuses. Police confirmed that I THRIVE's advocacy and reporting efforts were not criminal and encouraged our continued efforts to protect patients and community members in Utah.

• Late summer 2023 I THRIVE's creator went on to pursue cares and resources secured through her neighborhood Latter Day Saint church ward including services at LDS Family Services for forensic therapy cares to assist I THRIVE's creator to heal from recent and historical community abuses such that she would be prepared to continue as a competent witness in these investigations and proceedings despite the ongoing abuse, harassment, and defamation she has sustained throughout it.

• I THRIVE's creator has continued to experience harassment, intimidation, and threats from the University of Utah, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, and various members of the Utah mental health community in their effort to silence their involvement or participation in committing or covering up these abuses since she began her public reporting of these crimes in 2021 through 2024. She has continued to struggle to gain investigations into these matters outside of the Utah Division of Professional Licensing which has indicated the possibility of pursuing additional investigative measures post completion of their internal review.

• I THRIVE's creator has been the subject of political speculation related to various interest groups within the Utah community since she originally began publicly reporting these abuses in 2021 and throughout 2024 that have complicated I THRIVE creator's efforts to achieve justice in these matters and that have attracted state and national attention. She learned from the liaison of the family of Om Moses Gandhi, Cherise Udell, summer 2023 that Parth Gandhi PhD had personal relationships with SLC District Attorney Sim Gill potentially contributing to the difficulty SLC police may have had in prosecuting Parth in addition to his prestigious status and local cover-ups prior to the murder complicating these investigations. These discrepancies were observed in addition to frank biases against survivors that I THRIVE's creator experienced in her reporting process with University of Utah General Counsel Scott Smith JD who antagonized I THRIVE's creator throughout this process as well as within other police forces who reportedly failed to interview or apprehend Parth before his recurrent and final acts of violence May 2023.

• I THRIVE's creator contacted Governor Cox in addition to those investigative entities she reported to previously for support 2023-2024 to limited avail and learned summer 2024 that despite previous notices of investigation by his offices, that AG Sean Reyes had chosen not to investigate these reports in an apparent combined effort to keep attention off of his own recent affiliations with psychedelic sex abuse with Operation Underground Railroad as well as those psychedelic sex abuses occurring at HMHI and in affiliation with Parth Gandhi PhD silent. AG Sean Reyes' offices later indicated they excused themselves from investigating I THRIVE creator's reports as I THRIVE's creator had raised concern for state corruption in setting of personal relationships with Parth Gandhi PhD and state failures to investigate and intervene on these crimes, culminating in recurrent rape and eventual murder.

• In setting of political speculation related to this project, I THRIVE's creator reported these events to the United States Department of Justice (as headed by presidential [current President Biden] appointee Merrick Garland) September 2024 in addition to the Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump (Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy) campaigns to ensure clarity in I THRIVE's efforts to remain apolitical in all events associated with our project and organization. These disclosures were additionally made in our best effort toward the safe implementation of the psychedelic sciences, to expose community corruption in Utah, and to ensure justice for the survivors of Parth Gandhi PhD and associated HMHI abuses.

• ​Though we await the ultimate result of these investigations, I THRIVE concluded from The Looking Glass Project and these experiences that a culture that supports abuse, violence, and rape against women and children is ongoing, present, and apparent in Utah. Given her personal experiences and the behaviors of peers and national leaders in the psychedelic sciences witnessed by I THRIVE's creator during her study of the psychedelic sciences, she advocates for provider monitoring, community education, and regulatory body involvement as appropriate throughout all aspects of psychedelic medicine cares and delivery while we work to determine the best and safest means for these medicines to enter society and medical practice.

 

Despite these and other circumstances, I THRIVE's creator remains an advocate for survivors of sexual violence in Utah and abroad as well as a willing witness in all aspects of these cases for the Utah Division of Professional Licensing, local police, and the FBI who inquired regarding her willingness to serve as a witness in aspects of these cases in the event of future investigations at the time of their contact. I THRIVE's creator sends thanks to her LDS church ward, bishop, and the forensic therapist she worked with at LDS family services for their cares and kindness in her recovery journey throughout this process. Specifically, she thanks her forensic therapist for his validation and encouragement to continue coming forward as these efforts would both spread truth and also keep I THRIVE's creator safe from additional covert harm, intimidation, and harassment. I THRIVE's creator sends additional thanks to Reid Robison MD and Steve Thayer PhD of Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers and Numinus Wellness for their effort to assist I THRIVE's creator to integrate her past psychedelic medicine experiences and these traumas, despite our differences and concern for community failure to report Parth and associated peers throughout these proceedings. We additionally send thanks to Rick Doblin of MAPS for his 2022 encouragement and 2024 integration assistance during his guest appearance on Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers, despite our concerns and differences in opinion as to the safety profile of MDMA for public use outside of medicinal delivery given its history of misuse in drug facilitated assault. I THRIVE's creator remains grateful to all community providers, institutions, individuals, and organizations that have supported her throughout this project, this investigative journey, and recovery process. I THRIVE continues to rely on the support of our community to continue this work and service. We await the Utah Division of Professional Licensing's decision related to these investigations and that of the American Psychiatric Association Ethics Committee pending DOPL's completed investigation. In the meantime, we remind all survivors to remember... You Are Never Alone. 

• ​

​

**Disclaimer: Temple of Hermes founder Demetri Vallejos later retracted the statement that he had knowledge of Parth Gandhi abusing persons in the Utah community utilizing tantra post I THRIVE's July 2022 reporting of Dr. Gandhi and his abuses. Temple of Hermes founder also indicated post Dr. Gandhi's death that they believed in the ability to consent to sex post psychedelic medicine dosing despite this being counter to traditionally accepted consent guidelines. I THRIVE's creator distanced from Temple of Hermes and its founder summer 2023 in setting of these and other differences. I THRIVE's creator also distanced from The Divine Assembly summer 2023 in setting of historical negative interactions and impressions from a few members of this organization and its founder. In general, I THRIVE supports respect of pre-existing native churches and evaluation of decriminalization efforts and community education over new and upcoming psychedelic churches, which she believes have proven themselves to be ripe for substance misuse and the exploitation of vulnerable persons in pursuit of spiritual and emotional healing. I THRIVE urges caution and discernment to anyone considering alternative healing and healing communities.