Gail Bradbrook has said she was moved to form Extinction Rebellion after going on a psychedelic retreat.

The group's co-founder, who lives in Stroud, took the drugs ayahuasca and iboga while in Costa Rica in 2016.

Both the drugs are traditionally used for spiritual practice and have hallucinogenic properties.

Dr Brabrook credits the retreat as 'part of the birth of the movement' she had been trying to start for years.

"The consistent experiences of people who work with psychedelic medicines is that they make a connection with something bigger than themselves," she told the Independent recently.

In a video posted on Extinction Rebellion's YouTube channel in 2019 Dr Bradbrook said: "It was fairly full on. I did have my heart scanned and my liver, I had to beg the NHS for that beforehand.

"I couldn't have been more frightened if I was going to an electric chair. You have to take the iboga capsule after capsule it takes hours to get to a flood dose.

"When I started vomiting it made such a loud noise it sounded like an exorcism.

"This voice said 'resistance'.

"I've never been the same since.

"If we wanted to have psychedelics be legalised we could do it.

"But we would have to trust each other and we would have to do some mass civil disobedience. You know mushroom each out on the streets."