Research

Thomas Roberts Ph.D. – The Broad Future of Psychedelic Research

January 12, 2017

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The future of psychedelic research is endless. There seems to be thousands of ways to get involved, and thousands of ways to approach the topic. In this talk, Kyle and Joe talk with Thomas Roberts Ph.D. — author of the book, The Psychedelic Future of the Mind: How Entheogens Are Enhancing Cognition, Boosting Intelligence, and Raising ValuesTom shares his story with us about how he got involved in the field of psychedelic research and education. Starting in 1981, Dr. Roberts taught one of the world’s first university-cataloged psychedelic course, “Foundations of Psychedelics Studies.”
We get into a great conversation with Tom about his early days at Esalen to talking about mindapps, mindbody states, and different ways to approach psychedelic research.

Topics of Discussion:

  • Esalen Institute — Stanislav Grof, Holotropic Breathwork, and Maslow
  • Psychedelics in humanities and religion
  • Joseph Campbell
    • How the, The Hero with a Thousand Faces relates to the new archetype of the conscious explorer
  • The Good Friday Experiment
  • Huston Smith
  • Tips and advice about starting a psychedelic course/independent study
  • A Really Good Day book review by the New York Times.
  • Mindapps & Mindbody states
    • How different “spiritual technologies” can produce various mindbody states
  • Hints on Looking for Graduate Programs
  • Tips and advice about getting started with psychedelic research in various departments — for example, in the humanities or religious department.
  • Using Grof’s cartography of the psyche and Basic Perinatal Matrices to analyze art and literature

About:

 Thomas B. Roberts promotes the legal adaptation of psychedelics for multidisciplinary  cultural uses, primarily their academic and spiritual implications. He formulated Multistate Theory (2013) coined Singlestate Fallacy, mindapps, neurosingularity, metaintelligence, and ideagen, and he named and characterized the Entheogen Reformation (2016). He is a founding member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a cofounder of the Council on Spiritual Practices and the International Transpersonal Association, originated the Rising Researcher conference sessions, and launched the celebration of Bicycle Day to commemorate the day that Albert Hofmann first intentionally took LSD.

AB Hamilton College, MA University of Connecticut, PhD Stanford, Roberts is an emeritus professor of educational psychology at Northern Illinois University, where he taught Foundations of Psychedelic Studies as an Honors Program Seminar. Started in 1981 and taught through 2013, it is the world’s first university-cataloged psychedelic course.

In the fall of 2006, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Medical Schools’ Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit (Griffiths psilocybin team).  His website is: www.niu.academia.edu/ThomasRoberts


Writing & Articles:

How LSD Saved One Woman’s Marriage – New York Times
Review: ‘A Really Good Day,’ Ayelet Waldman’s Better Living Through LSD – New York Times