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PTSF55 – Creativity, Group Ceremony, and Astral Projection

In this week’s Solidarity Fridays episode, Kyle, Joe, and Michelle start out with what’s turning out to be a weekly legalization update (what a time to be alive!), this week highlighting New Mexico and Virginia’s recent legalization of cannabis and Maine representative Anne Perry filing a bill to decriminalize the possession of all drugs. Vacationland, indeed! 

They then talk about a recent study that proved scientifically that psilocybin increases creativity, and another that analyzed changes in personality after ceremonial group ayahuasca use, which, based on self-report assessments filled out by both participants and informants alike, showed a reduction in neuroticism among participants. This leads to a conversation about the benefits of group work and the importance of more research being done on ceremonial ayahuasca use. 

They then discuss Vice’s recent recovering of the long-lost page 25 from the CIA’s report on astral projection, why this was something conspiracy theorists have been clamoring for, and how the self-knowledge aspects of the report relate to psychedelics (other than astral projection being really freaking trippy, man). And they talk about Navigating Psychedelics (which has its next round coming up on May 20th) and remind us that although that’s the one they talk about the most, there are actually several other courses at psychedeliceducationcenter.com worth checking out. Maybe there’ll be one about astral projection soon? This guy sure hopes so.

Notable Quotes

“It’s nice to see that Virginia is authorizing home grow (up to 4 plants per household) beginning July 1st. I see all these other states being able to offer this besides New Jersey, so… F. U., New Jersey.” -Kyle, who lives in New Jersey

“Human creativity kind of got us here. Human creativity can get us out, and psychedelics can play a huge role in that, if we figure out how to leverage it properly. Let’s not use this stuff to help us get more oil out of the ground or pump more freshwater into single-use plastic bottles. Let’s use it to solve this crisis.” -Joe

“Our culture is set up in this weird way that it’s constantly making us feel bad and that we’re not doing enough. So when we can all be really vulnerable and honest and open in a group, whether it’s with psychedelics or not, it’s so important.” -Michelle

“We can take an analytic approach and tear it apart and try to get to the core of ‘What is this?’  but all humans have this access to this other realm through breathwork, through meditation, through psychedelics, through near-death experiences. And if you’ve ever had that experience, how do you deny it?” -Kyle

Links

Marijuanamoment.net: Maine Lawmakers File Bill To Decriminalize Possession Of All Drugs

Marijuanamoment.net: New Mexico Governor Signs Marijuana Legalization Bill, Making State Third To Enact Reform Within Days

Marijuanamoment.net: Virginia Lawmakers Approve Governor’s Marijuana Amendment To Speed Up Legalization

Shout out to Marijuana Moment!

CBS New York: New Jersey Marijuana: Lawmakers Eye Bill Allowing Adults To Grow Pot At Home

Nature.com: Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure

Dni.gov: Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World

Nature.com: Examining changes in personality following shamanic ceremonial use of ayahuasca

The Exploration of Naturalistically used Ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT, by Malin Vedøy Uthaug

Frontiersin.org: Psychedelic Communitas: Intersubjective Experience During Psychedelic Group Sessions Predicts Enduring Changes in Psychological Wellbeing and Social Connectedness

Soltara.co: Announcing a New Ayahuasca Research Study Partnership

Vice.com: Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection

Journeys Out of the Body: The Classic Work on Out-of-Body Experience, by Robert A. Monroe

The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson

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Navigating Psychedelics


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PT239 – Richie Ogulnick – Ibogaine, Unicity, and Beneficence

In this episode, Joe interviews returning guest Richie Ogulnick, a facilitator/guide who has been helping clients through ibogaine experiences for 26 years. 

Ogulnick talks about how ibogaine works, why he prefers working with the whole plant (iboga), why the flood doses he used to recommend weren’t as effective, and the importance of allowing his clients to spend as much time as they want on intention-setting before their session. And of course, he talks about the session itself, which usually tends to be a gradual slide into a 15 to 30-hour waking dream state of deep exploration, followed by the slow process of coming out of it, making sense of it, and starting to work towards integrating what was learned.

He also talks about LSD, the work of Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (Osho), an instance of someone who had no experience with iboga (and why), methodologies and experience, and tells a story of a time in NYC, watching someone shoot up heroin while explaining their experience to him as a way for him to better understand addiction and an addict’s search for a feeling of peace.

Notable Quotes

“Very often, people ask me if they should bring a tape recorder with them, and I say, ‘Well, just make sure that it’s a voice-activated tape recorder, because you may say a few words and then 15 hours later, you may finish the sentence.’”

“Unlike other psychoactives, it’s interesting- it’s almost like you’re introduced to a new language, and 6 months, 8 months later, people are sharing with me that their intentions have finally all been worked through and they’re maybe considering doing another session in 6 months or a year. Whereas, with other psychoactives, you can very comfortably do ayahuasca once a week, once a month, for months or years. People tend to do iboga maybe 2 to 4 times in a lifetime.” 

“Psychedelics or iboga or meditation- methods won’t get us to that beneficence. What methods tend to do is allow us to crawl back to ourselves and say, ‘I’ve accumulated all of these experiences through this methodology, but I can’t go any further. I have to let go of this method’ and then the beneficence really happens. So it’s running at the arrogance of adulthood until you crawl back to yourself and you say, ‘I surrender.’”

“The cool thing about setting intentions is not so much the content but the impetus. You create the pilgrimage to go deep within, irrespective of what you really explore.”

Links

Ibeginagain.org

His last appearance on the podcast: Richie Ogulnick – Ibogaine Uses and Addiction-Interruption Therapy

About Richie Ogulnick

Richie Ogulnick is a long time Ibogaine provider and enthusiast Over the course of fifteen and a half years, he conducted about 750 sessions, including addiction-interruption treatments. He spent the next several years referring close to 1,000 more people to other ibogaine providers. During that time, he also trained doctors and ex-addicts who opened ibogaine centers throughout the world. Richie feels a pull to focus again on the more therapeutic and psycho-spiritual treatments where he is able to offer his expertise in ibogaine treatment along with his knowledge of reintegration with individuals who are looking to deepen and enrich their life experience.

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PTSF54 – Theft, Patents, and Ethical Psychedelic Companies

In this week’s Solidarity Fridays episode, everyone’s back and so is the news.

They cover California Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 519 bill to decriminalize psychedelics statewide (which is the first time a decriminalize bill has been put through and passed by lawmakers instead of ballot initiatives), a 3rd Massachusetts city decriminalizing psychedelics, an article pointing out how the various flaws in our capitalistic world also thrive in the psychedelic world, and a TIME magazine article on ibogaine and Marcus and Amber Capone’s VETS organization (that curiously didn’t mention Marcus’ 5-MeO-DMT use or iboga’s endangered status).

But there are 2 big articles that lead to the most discussion this week: first, Psymposia’s article about Third Wave’s Paul Austin stealing provider information (possibly including Kyle’s) from Psychedelic.support and MAPS and the ethics of doing something like this, and second, Vice’s article examining patents and ethics within the psychedelic world. How can companies be profitable while also being ethical? How can a company grow within a capitalistic society without falling into the greed traps of our Western ways?

And although he doesn’t call it out, this episode features the return of this show notes writer’s favorite PT segment, Joe’s Paranoid Update- this time about the chaos that could ensue if the Colorado River dries up.

Notable Quotes

“We can work on ourselves, but does that ultimately heal the society when these systemic issues are at play which continue to make us sick? It just feels like this endless feedback loop. …If we’re just focused on our individuation and not actually engaging and participating in the community, in the society, then what are we doing the work for? Are we just doing it for our individual selves?” -Kyle 

“Representation matters so much and it affects people’s self-esteem and self-worth when they don’t have it there, because they don’t think that that’s ever going to be a possibility for them. It just felt so good to be able to put that article out there and to represent some different types of people in this space and highlight their really important and often overlooked work. And we’re going to continue to do it.” -Michelle 

“It really is just this cool new therapy for the affluent class [that] Compass [Pathways] wants, and that’s how you make the most money. But I think that if you were an ethical psychedelic company, that wouldn’t be the goal. That wouldn’t be the mission, and you wouldn’t dress it up all in this B.S. language.” -Michelle

“I do feel like we’re in the middle of something really powerful and it can either really change everything or… not. I just hope that we, as a community, keep our eye on the prize, which is like- it’s more than psychedelics. It’s cultural change, societal change.” -Michelle

Links

Marijuanamoment.net: California Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Possession Of Psychedelics Like LSD, MDMA And Psilocybin

Masslive.com: Northampton City Council votes in support of decriminalizing psychedelic drugs

Psymposia.com: The Third Wave’s Paul Austin Has Been Accused of Stealing Information For His Psychedelic Provider Directory

Womenonpsychedelics.org: Why Psychedelics (Alone) Won’t Heal Us

Theancestorproject.com: Psychedelic Anti-Racism: The Workbook

How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi

Time.com: Inside Ibogaine, One of the Most Promising and Perilous Psychedelics for Addiction

Vetsolutions.org

Psychedelicstoday.com: Comparing 18-MC vs. Ibogaine for the Treatment of Substance Use Disorder

Vice.com: Is it Possible to Create an Ethical Psychedelics Company?

The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi

Wikipedia.org: Colorado River Compact

Psychedelicstoday.com: PT221 – Bennet Zelner – The Pollination Approach

Mt. Tam Psychedelic Integration Jam

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Navigating Psychedelics