Martin Fortier
Co-Founder of ALIUS in 2016
On April 11th, 2020, Martin Fortier tragically passed away after a long and harrowing battle with cancer. He was thirty years old. We mourn the loss of a wonderful friend and a brilliant colleague, gone far too soon to realize his extraordinary potential despite his many precocious achievements.
On April 11th, 2020, Martin Fortier tragically passed away after a long and harrowing battle with cancer. He was thirty years old. We mourn the loss of a wonderful friend and a brilliant colleague, gone far too soon to realize his extraordinary potential despite his many precocious achievements.
Read ALIUS' Tribute to the scientific work of Martin Fortier
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The Neuroanthropology of Hallucinogenic Experiences... And an essay to the remembrance of his personage by George Fejer: It is with grief and sorrow that I share this post, in remembrance of Martin Fortier, one of the dearest friends and contributors within our scientific community. His passing came too soon and will have left a deep absence in our hearts. I derived a deep sense of belonging to the academic community by knowing Martin and rarely have I met somebody who embodied curiosity-driven research so passionately. For that reason, I would like to acknowledge what his personal acquaintance meant to me, as a friend and as a member of our shared academic community. His acquaintance marked a crucial point in my development. Martin delivered a highly engaging lecture about the ‘Neuroanthropology of Hallucinations – From Nativism to Culturalism’, which stood out in its critical stance towards the cultural biases rooted in the field of psychedelic research. Martin had been the first person I met who preferred the term ‘Serotonergic Hallucinogen’ over ‘Psychedelic’, regardless of its negative connotation. He was likewise critical towards the usage of the terminology describing psychedelic experiences as ‘mystical’ and ‘ego-dissolving’, in favor of a more anthropologically informed term such as ‘supernatural’. His critical stance was a refreshing perspective, given that cultural biases rooted in Perennialism are not widely reflected upon. Moreover, I admired the fervor with which he pursued the demarcation of psychedelic pseudoscience. His writings on social media channels and the ALIUS bulletin provided an impressive combination of professionalism and accessible reading. His ideas continue to inspire me, as well as his critical stance towards tackling scientific fallacies. I dearly hope his final works can also see the light of day.
Martin's demeanor epitomized open collaboration and multidisciplinarity. He offered me a chance to collaborate on his project about the Neurophenomenology of Hallucinations, only briefly after we had met. He immediately offered the second authorship for my efforts. The innovative nature of his ideas spanned many different projects and domains. It was inspirational to see someone take cognitive research outside the lab setting and into the Peruvian rain-forest. We embarked on a further collaboration to extend his line of research by investigating Bayesian Rule-learning and cognitive flexibility related to psychedelic use. Martin provided me with all the necessary resources, instructions and feedback every step of the way. Martin also introduced me to several colleagues and helped me apply for Ph.D. positions across various institutions. He also asked me to collaborate in organizing the next ALIUS workshop with him, which felt like an incredibly empowering opportunity to contribute to his association. From the time he was diagnosed with cancer to the week before Martin transferred into palliative care, he continuously wrote me emails about all these different project ideas. In reflection of his work, it is quite evident that his passion for research was an intrinsic part of his personality. |
While working with Martin, I derived a great source of meaning and a sense of belonging with the academic community. His openness to collaborate with other people served as a role model to value science as a societal project. In contrast to those ideals, the world of academia often confronts us with an entirely different mentality. The harsh reality of publish-or-perish is ripe with instances of toxic competitiveness, fraudulent behaviors, and idea-hoarding. The incentive structures in place do not readily prevent these tendencies. For example, it is disheartening to bear witness to a talented colleague who loses their position through no fault of their own. Regardless of their teaching skills, abilities or publications in high ranking journals, if they cannot secure funding. One should hope that these instances do not make a person feel devalued by being rejected from academia. Yet those who are lucky to have found a footing may often derive a sense of worth, by casting off the relevance of the fields above or below their discipline. I only go into such details to emphasize that Martin's spirit counteracted these types of tendencies. He valued the input and opinions of researchers from so many different positions and fields and brought so much curiosity-driven energy into the community. His interests sprang the self-constructed niche of overspecialization and asked questions that required multidisciplinarity to answer.
Martin also served a critical function towards the psychedelic community in terms of demarcating pseudoscience. His vast knowledge and scholarly rigor was certainly a role model! He was never the one to withhold a critical opinion towards unsubstantiated or unfalsifiable claims and backed up all of his opinions with a thorough list of references. Through our interactions, I became increasingly aware of the pitfalls of Jungian psychology, and the incompatibility of universal archetypes with the notion of psychedelic induced plasticity. It was equally informative to read his rebuttals of DMT-induced Near-Death experiences or the Archaic Hallucinogen Hypothesis. This type of reflective critical stance is often missing within the psychedelic community. And while many speak of Ego-Dissolution and Mystical Experiences, there is often plenty of Ego left to proselytize psychedelics as a cause in and of itself. Martin’s work is representative of using psychedelics as a tool for science and not just a means of using scientific language to promote psychedelics. His work ethic reflected an authentic interest to investigate consciousness in its full diversity. The last time I met Martin personally was when one of his chemo treatments was spontaneously canceled and he came down to the World Ayahuasca Conference. At this meeting, he had strong hopes of making a full recovery, but it stood out that he was less interested in attending the lectures than to catch up and meet everyone. In retrospect, I regret not having known Martin more intimately, and I will dearly miss the great discussions we had during the last two years. I consider him to be a crucial figure in our field and I feel grateful to have met him. He connected so many people to one another, exhibited relentless readiness to help others, and a wonderful sense of humor and energy. Even up until his death, we were talking about our work, such that it felt difficult to even realize that our time was so limited. But it felt as if it had truly mattered a lot to him. His passing came too soon, but I am thankful that I could at least convey these thoughts to him before he left. I know his memory will live on in the hearts of those who draw inspiration from his work and continue to embody his mentality. His absence will be felt. - George Fejer |
ALIUS Bulletin editions written or co-editted by Martin
Tanya Luhrmann (interviewed by Martin Fortier)
The anthropology of mind:
exploring unusual sensations and spiritual experiences across cultures, 12 pp.
The anthropology of mind:
exploring unusual sensations and spiritual experiences across cultures, 12 pp.
Robin Carhart-Harris (interviewed by Martin Fortier & Raphaël Millière)
Consciousness and psychedelics, 16 pp
Consciousness and psychedelics, 16 pp
Karl Friston (interviewed by Martin Fortier & Daniel A. Friedman)
Of woodlice and men:Doss - Alius Bulletin n°6
A Bayesian account of cognition, life and consciousness, 27 pp.
Karl Friston
Am I autistic? An intellectual autobiography, 8 pp.
Of woodlice and men:Doss - Alius Bulletin n°6
A Bayesian account of cognition, life and consciousness, 27 pp.
Karl Friston
Am I autistic? An intellectual autobiography, 8 pp.
Ann Taves (interviewed by Martin Fortier & Maddalena Canna)
Conceptual, anthropological and cognitive issues surrounding religious experience, 20 pp.
Conceptual, anthropological and cognitive issues surrounding religious experience, 20 pp.