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Zach Leary – Trans-humanism, psychedelic use, over-use and taking a break

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Introduction

During this episode of Psychedelics Today, your hosts Kyle Buller and Joe Moore talk to Zach Leary host of the MAPS podcast and It’s All Happening. We have an incredible time talking to Zach and his worldview, experiences, opinions and much more. It was a very fun time recording with Zach and we hope it can happen again in the near future. 

Show Notes

  • Joe and Kyle discuss Zach’s connections with Ram Dass
  • Zach Leary calls himself a futurist and we discuss what a futurist is.
    • A natural way to continue the narrative of our physical evolution and our spiritual development.
    • Cyberspace is an invention as a result of our human condition.
      • The way and the reason we invented it is that we found a need to create another dimension.
    • Futurism and transhumanism and embracing the way technology is augmenting the human experience is a great place to be.
  • Do you see any major problems in psychedelia?
    • Overall, it’s a great time to be into psychedelics.
      • There’s so much research and data available to the end-user and the discussion is improving.
      • Many people are starting to be more open about their beneficial relationship with psychedelics.
      • It’s important to get people in the mainstream aware of their beneficial properties.
      • The Ayahuasca fad going on in the U.S. has many people calling themselves shamans, which raised a red flag to Zach.
      • It used to be that going to the medicine man was a common occurrence in any culture.
      • Mysticism didn’t go away, it just got turned into a more doctrinal practice.
  • The part of the church that bothers Zach is the authoritarian aspect, that there is only one god.
    • There’s an element of fanaticism when someone says there’s only one drug that’s worth taking.
    • April 19 is the 75th anniversary of the first intentional use of LSD (Bicycle Day).
    • We have to start re-thinking about what “natural” means.
      • The human imagination and what it creates is a by-product of nature.
  • There’s no stopping the technological march, the train has left the station.
    • A return to nature can include biodiverse rooftop gardens in New York.
    • It’s very hard to get off the grid.
  • What do we have that’s readily available and sustainable?
    • Mushrooms
    • LSD
    • Other synthetic compounds that don’t bother the rainforest, etc.
  • Drugs that may not be sustainable:
    • Ayahuasca, Peyote, 5-MeO (Sonoran Desert Toad – Bufo Alvarius toad venom)
    • Some people are playing fast and loose with 5-MeO
      • There are people who give do things to “patients” that are non-consensual while they are under the effect of the drug.
  • Psychedelics are often highly individualistic.
    • It’s nice to be able to jump in with a shaman, but to what extent?
  • There is some cultural appropriation here when you take ancient practices and move them into new environments.
    • It’s best not to ignore the roots and traditions of these practices but honor them as best as you can.
  • How do we not make mistakes in psychedelics?
    • There’s so much data, examples and role models now.
    • There are best practices based on data now.
  • Zach would like to see less consumption of MDMA.
    • People over-consume MDMA.
    • More of a concern about bodily harm.
    • 2-3 times a year is probably enough.
  • There are parallel paths going on and if the parallel path of computers and humanity are going on, what does that look like eventually?
  • What are some of your major influences in the psychedelic world?
    • Terence McKenna, Jim Fadiman, Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Dennis McKenna
  • How would you like to see the future of psychedelics evolve?
    • We’re seeing the rumblings of what’s to come.
    • There’s going to be a firmly legitimate place in the psychiatric world for the psychedelic therapy.
    • Hopefully, it carries over into recreational use and cognitive therapy.

Links

About Zach Leary

     

Zach is the host of both the “It’s All Happening with Zach Leary” podcast and “The MAPS Podcast.” They have helped to cement him as one of the most thought provoking podcasters in the cultural philosophy genre of podcasting. He’s also a blogger/writer, a futurist, spiritualist, a technology consultant and socio-cultural theorist.

In all of Zach’s work he blends his roles as a spiritual aspirant and a futurist into a unique identity all his own. His spiritual background has it’s roots in being a practitioner of bhakti yoga as taught through many of the vedantic systems of Northern India, in particular Neem Karoli Baba as taught by Ram Dass. Through the practice of bhakti yoga he has found keys that unlock doorways that allow the soul to experience it’s true nature of being eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. In addition to bhakti yoga, Zach is influenced by many different methods and traditions of consciousness exploration ranging from trans-humanism to buddhism and clinical psychology. Zach is also a frequent pundit on the political systems that are fueling todays economic and cultural structures. At the core of all of Zach’s work is the belief that we have been fused together by the collective practice of using technology to expand our species imagination with spirituality and mysticism to define the very nature of who we are.

Check out our online store

 

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Matthew Segall, Ph.D. – Whitehead, Process Philosophy, and Ecology

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During this episode of Psychedelics Today, your hosts Kyle and Joe Moore talk to Dr. Matt Segall, a philosopher with a Ph.D. working at CIIS as an administrator and adjunct lecturer. In this episode, we explore psychedelics through the lens of philosophy and Alfred North Whitehead.

Show Notes:

  • Philosophy is really important when talking about psychedelics.
    • This movement is working on a lot of different levels.
    • Looking to get accepted into academia therefore it’s important to be precise.
  • About Dr. Matt Segall
    • Strong interest in Alfred North Whitehead
    • 12 levels of abstraction away from Plato.
    • Ropes in all of western philosophy and science into a cohesive system that seems to reenchant the world a bit.
  • Extended state DMT research
    • Use an IV pump to keep a steady stream of DMT in the bloodstream for an undetermined amount of time.
    • The initial phase of the study is 10-20 minutes.
    • Not just for medical research, it’s for the community.
    • Join the class at psychedelicstoday.teachable.com.
  • How did Matt Segall stumble his way into the Whitehead world?
    • Philosophy came first, but not by much.
    • He had a teacher who introduced him to some psychedelic teachers.
    • His first experience with psychedelics was when he was 19 years old with mushrooms.
      • He realized that there were many other worlds running in parallel with this one.
    • These substances open up our perceptions of other worlds and other facets of the same world.
    • We need to incorporate the experience induces by these substances.
    • Western philosophy is rooted in the psychedelic experience.
    • Plato’s encounter with the ideal forms that led him out of the cave proves that the origins of philosophy include psychedelics.
    • There is chemical evidence that the rituals in Athens were psychedelic in nature.
    • When ancient Greeks refer to wine, they’re talking about something that was way more mind altering.
  • What drew you into Whitehead?
    • In college, he listened to a McKenna lecture and he mentioned Whitehead a lot.
      • McKenna introduced him to Whitehead.
      • He waited until he started graduate school, so he could take a course on him and study him alongside other graduate students.
      • Whitehead incorporated 20th century physics and a version of Darwin’s understanding of evolution expanded to a cosmological level.
      • Combining advanced science with an enchanted view of the universe.
    • The modern era has alienated human beings from the rest of the natural world.
      • The industrial revolution made this alienation even more profound.
      • There has been a gradual isolation of the human being from the rest of life and the universe.
      • Human beings have come to think of the rest of life and just robots seeking to reproduce.
        • Value has to be assigned to anything non-human by humans.
        • This thinking is highly destructive.
        • Our idea has not fit the reality and it’s destroying the reality.
      • Whitehead helps us re-inhabit the planet as one of the many species.
      • When human beings come to recognize that value is not just made up in our human society but it’s an intrinsic cosmic value, they can act accordingly.
    • Whitehead’s process is called a process-relational process.
      • We’ve traditionally been thought to have a soul or mind that’s independent of others.
      • Whitehead proposes that our soul or mind is in relation to others.
        • So that what it means to be me is that I’m not unique, but my uniqueness comes from my unique perspective and works with the other souls in the environment.
        • This attempts to move us away from thinking of ourselves as isolated minds.
        • The biggest challenge is to get people to not shut down when they see Whitehead’s terminology.
      • Philosophy can serve to help us develop a language that actually serves to represent our experience.
        • It’s well worth it to learn the dictionary that Whitehead provides.
      • Whitehead’s understanding of perception is welcoming more indigenous ways of knowing back into the realm of philosophy.
        • Whitehead helps us make sense of indigenous experience.
        • All of human culture stems from these shamanistic practices.
        • We don’t yet have the words to explain yet what these psychedelic journeys are doing to us.
        • A downside to being in the west is that we don’t have relationship with psychedelic substances.
        • The plants that are a part of the ayahuasca brew told the indigenous people how to brew them.
        • People talk about nature deficit disorder, kids being raised indoors being told the outdoors is dirty.
        • The problem is not one of trying to reinvent the wheel, we have to stop beating this capacity out of children.
      • When we talk about the human nervous system in the context of symbiotic relationships with our ecosystem:
        • It doesn’t make sense to consider the human brain and nervous system as enclosed within the skull.
        • The human nervous system is actually a lot more ecological in its extent than most physiologists would let on.
        • The chemical metabolism of our brain extends out into the environment.
      • Richard Doyle wrote a book called Darwin’s Pharmacy where he coins the term “ecodelic” which challenges the idea of an autonomous individual.
        • The idea is we’re actually permeated by the chemicals flowing through our environment.
        • Our consciousness is shaped any time we eat anything.
        • Some drugs are not thought of as drugs: sugar, caffeine, tobacco.
          • These are accepted psychedelic substances.
        • The fact that cannabis and other psychedelics are becoming more mainstream again shows that we in late-stage capitalism.
      • Is there anything in particular you’ve been excited about in psychedelics lately?
        • The research on MDMA for PTSD in veterans coming back from Iraq and the success rate they’re achieving.
        • The FDA may be forced by the sheer weight of the evidence to approve MDMA.
        • The hope is that we can use MDMA to treat “pre-traumatic stress disorder.”
          • Enhance the empathic capacity of those who handle a great deal of conflict.
        • Within a year or two the FDA is going to be approving MDMA, which is unbelievable.
      • Joe and Matt talk about how credentials are often forced as a barrier to entry into certain fields.
        • Matt is all for a standardized approach to mainstream these things.
        • He wants to go in all directions to get the therapy out.
        • The plants used in psychedelics are so much safer than any drug that’s on the market right now.
        • Some lawmakers are trying to pass a law to allow the death penalty for drug dealers, including those who sell cannabis.
      • Do you have any places you’d like to send people to re-engage with philosophy?
        • Study the history of philosophy.
        • Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas.
        • Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
      • Matt teaches an online course on Whitehead, the next one begins in January 2019.
        • Philosophy is not an abstract linguistic analysis.
        • He approaches philosophy as a spiritual practice.
        • Philosophy is learning to die.
          • We’re embodied creatures and philosophy is a way to come to terms with that.
        • Psychedelics help you experience ego death, but we’re still conscious.

Tweetable Quotes

  • Psychedelics are not just theoretically interesting, they have profound practical implications for how we organize our lives.
  • Whitehead’s terminology is an attempt to return us to our concrete experience.
  • Philosophy is learning to die.

Resources Mentioned

About Matthew Segall, Ph.D.

    

Matthew T. Segall, PhD, received his doctoral degree in 2016 from the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS. His dissertation was titled Cosmotheanthropic Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead. It grapples with the limits to knowledge of reality imposed by Kant’s transcendental form of philosophy and argues that Schelling and Whitehead’s process-oriented approach (described in his dissertation as a “descendental” form of philosophy) shows the way across the Kantian threshold to renewed experiential contact with reality. He teaches courses on German Idealism and process philosophy for the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS. He blogs regularly at footnotes2plato.com.

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Dennis McKenna and Mark Plotkin – Richard Evans Schultes, Conservation in the Amazon and the ESPD 50

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In this episode of Psychedelics Today, Kyle and Joe speak to Dennis McKenna (of Dennis McKenna fame) and Mark Plotkin founder of the Amazon Conservation Team. We discuss a broad range of subjects. One of the most interesting was a project that Dennis and many others have been working on for over a year at the time of recording this, titled Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs, which was a conference in the UK in 2017. It was a 50-year follow up to the initial event (and later seminal book) that Richard Evan Schultes, Ph.D. helped coordinate and host.

This link will take you to a page where you can see all of the talks that were given at ESPD50. https://vimeo.com/album/4766647

We really think you’ll enjoy the show. Please let us know what you think and if you can, pre-order the ESPD 50 to save some money on the post-release price.

About ESPD 50

From ESPD50.com

“In 1967, a landmark symposium entitled Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs was held in San Francisco, California. It was the first international, interdisciplinary group of specialists – from ethnobotanists to neuroscientists – who gathered in one place to share their findings on the use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies. Follow-up meetings were intended to be held every ten years, but the War on Drugs intervened.  The findings of the convention were printed in a book entitled with the same name as the gathering.

On the 50th anniversary during the month of June 2017 an international group of specialists gathered again to share their perspectives on past, present, and future research in ethnopharmacology.  The symposium was held at the spectacular Tyringham Hall in Britain.

ESPD50 was organized by a team led by Dennis McKenna, Founder of Symbio Life Sciences, PBC.  Synergetic Press published a collector’s box set including the first edition of 1967 plus a brand new book with the 50th-anniversary symposium’s findings.”

Show Notes & Links

About Mark Plotkin, Ph.D

Dr. Plotkin has led ACT and guided its vision since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with his fellow conservationist, Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America.

Dr. Plotkin has previously served as Research Associate in Ethnobotanical Conservation at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University; Director of Plant Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund; Vice President of Conservation International; and Research Associate at the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution.

Among his many influential writings, Dr. Plotkin may be best known for his popular work Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice (1994), which has been printed continuously and has been published in multiple languages. Other works include the critically acclaimed children’s book The Shaman’s Apprentice – A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest, illustrated by Lynne Cherry, and Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing Secrets. His most recent book, The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria, coauthored with Michael Shnayerson, was selected as a Discover Magazine book of the year.

In 1998, he played a leading role in the Academy Award-nominated IMAX film Amazon. Dr. Plotkin’s work also has been featured in a PBS Nova documentary, in an Emmy-winning Fox TV documentary, on the NBC Nightly News and Today Show, CBS’ 48 Hours and in Life, Newsweek, Smithsonian, Elle, People, The New York Times, along with appearances on National Public Radio. Time magazine called him an “Environmental Hero for the Planet” (2001) and Smithsonian magazine hailed him as one of “35 Who Made a Difference” (2005), along with Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, and fellow New Orleanian Wynton Marsalis.

Dr. Plotkin has received the San Diego Zoo Gold Medal for Conservation; the Roy Chapman Andrews Distinguished Explorer Award; an International Conservation Leadership Award from the Jane Goodall Institute; and, with Liliana Madrigal, the Skoll Foundation’s Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2010, he received the honorary degree of “Doctor of Humane Letters” from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale and Tufts University.

About the Amazon Conservation Team

The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving South American rainforests. This small but robust outfit occupies a unique niche among other environmental non-profits working in the tropics: ACT works hand in hand with local indigenous communities to devise and implement its conservation strategies.

About Dennis McKenna

Dennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer, and author. He is a founding board member and the director of ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines. 

McKenna received his Master’s degree in botany at the University of Hawaii in 1979. He received his doctorate in botanical sciences in 1984 from the University of British Columbia,[2] where he wrote a dissertation entitled Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in Amazonian hallucinogenic plants: ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological investigations. McKenna then received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine.

 

Dennis McKenna Links

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Tarif Ahmed – America, Opportunity, and Open Source Experimentation

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Joe recently had the opportunity to interview an old friend, Tarif Ahmed while visiting Long Island, New York. They had the opportunity to record about all sorts of things from diversity, privilege, open source experimentation with different psychedelic regimens, bringing psychedelics safely into Islam and much more.

If you enjoy the episode, please let us know what you think by leaving an iTunes review!

Topics in the show

  • Meeting at Evolver Boston events years ago.
  • Race and privilege
  • Growing up in a Muslim community
  • Bringing in psychedelics into Muslim communities quietly
  • How status could be helpful in the Muslim world
  • Possible psychedelic origins of some aspects of Islam
    • Psychedelic art
    • Sufism
    • Some teachings
  • Open source testing of ideas on places like reddit
  • Tracking experiences and tests in a journal is very important
  • Working with mentors long term to have consistent support over time

Nicholas Powers Ph.D. – Psychedelics, Race, Where They Intersect, and Where They Don’t

Stefanie Jones – Safer Partying and Harm Reduction

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Malin Vedøy Uthaug – Exploring Ayahuasca Ceremonies and 5-MeO-DMT

Malin Uthaug - Psychedelics Today


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Malin Vedøy Uthaug is a Ph.D. candidate at Maastricht University and based out of Prague. Malin joins Psychedelics Today to talk about her interest and research with ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT. Malin shares her experience how she got involved studying psychedelics and shares a little bit about her personal experiences with ayahuasca. Malin is currently working on an interesting research study examining the potential influence that the ritual and ceremony may have on the overall ayahuasca experience.

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think about this episode!

Show Notes & Links

Seminar with Malin Uthaug on the effects of ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT

About Malin Vedøy Uthaug

Malin Uthaug received a B.A degree in Psychology from University of New York in Prague and Empire State College June 2016. She then pursued her master in Health and Social Psychology at Maastricht University in The Netherlands 2016/2017 and graduated August 2017. During her last semester of her Masters, Malin was on a research internship in Colombia whereby she did field research on Ayahuasca under the supervision of Dr. Jan Ramaekers from Maastricht University, and Dr. Jordi Riba from Sant Pau hospital in Barcelona. The research internship was part of her master thesis titled “The Long-term Effects of Ayahuasca on Affect and Creative Thinking”. Now, on the side of being a PhD candidate researching the effects of Ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT, she is a life coach and public speaker. She started her coaching project titled Love & Gratitude in September 2016 which serves as a platform to spread information related to positive psychology and transpersonal psychology. Love & Gratitude has also become a way to bring about information about psychedelics, and help destigmatizing them. She has since September 2016 delivered talks and workshops in Belgium, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Norway, and Colombia.

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James Norwood – Madness, Spiritual Emergence, and the Gnosis Retreat Center

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James Norwood, MA, joins Kyle and Michelle Hobart for a talk about spiritual emergence, madness, entheogens, and the Gnosis Retreat Center.

Learn more about Gnosis: http://www.gnosisretreatcenter.org/

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-lJWwwRc8]

A brief introduction to Gnosis

Suppose you come to the end of your tether, can no longer cope, have a break-down, fall apart, go to pieces. To whom would you turn? Where would you go?
What alternatives do you have when you desperately need help, but have little, if any, say in the kind of help available?

When a person’s suffering becomes insupportable, to him or herself and to others, and yet persists, that person is in a state of distress. Once you find yourself in distress you come to realize that you are at the mercy of other people. Which of those people are you willing to be at their mercy, for better or worse? To whom are you willing to entrust your life? If you don’t happen to know anyone who comes to mind, then how will you go about finding someone you can trust? Do such persons exist?

Gnosis Retreat Center aspires to be such a place, by providing a safe place to be, when you are alone and afraid, confused, bereft, and not sure whom to turn to for help. Gnosis is a household that is populated by others like yourself, a refuge for those who are lost, afraid, bewildered, or simply seeking a fresh start, who may, if they choose, get over their ordeal and see it through, without jeopardy.

If you want to learn more about spiritual emergence(y) check out this online webinar: Spiritual Emergence or Psychosis?

Links

Additional video link of interest to the viewers:

This is the video of the talk on Why Radical Community is Vital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOI_qT0mDKs&t=15s

About James Norwood, MA

James Norwood, MA, is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. Norwood is presently working as a clinical intern, researching MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in concert with the Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, and is on the board of directors of Free Association Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides alternatives to treatment for people with altered experiences of reality in the Bay Area.

About Michelle Anne Hobart, MA

Michelle Anne Hobart, MA: is a practitioner of energy medicine and holistic health educator. She holds a BS in Biology, and an MA in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. Currently, she is doing coursework in Integral Counseling Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies. Michelle is an advocate for the Neurodiversity movement and a certified Spiritual Emergence Coach. She supports sensitive, empathic people whose gifts and experiences have been judged or oppressed and who are in the process of reclaiming and recovering their self-care, power, and personal truth. Michelle offers workshops, retreats, support groups, and one-on-one sessions.

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Matt Kay – Floating with East Coast Float Spa


Matt Kay, Co-Founder of the East Coast Float Spa, joins Kyle on this episode of Psychedelics Today. This is another experiential episode where Kyle gets to float and report on his experience. Kyle and Matt also talk about the benefits of floating, the history, and how Matt got involved in the float business. We hope you enjoy this episode! Let us know what you think below in the comment section.

Mission of East Coast Float Spa

Nothing too complicated: At East Coast Float Spa, our mission is to help as many people as possible by providing Floatation Therapy in a modern, comfortable setting, and being welcoming to everyone! We maintain a strong commitment to our passion for health through our core values and having the distinction of being an all organic and natural Spa; which includes buying local and sustainable products whenever possible. This includes all of our soaps, shampoos, health products, cleaning supplies, food, drink, and anything else we can think of!

Show Notes/Links

 

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Leonie Joubert – Psychedelic Policy in South Africa

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Leonie Joubert, a science writer, author, trainer and public speaker, joins Kyle Buller and Joe Moore to discuss psychedelic policy in South Africa. We discuss the promising avenues of improving policy around mushrooms, iboga and more. We also learn about South Africa wanting to be more involved in the psychedelic movement including research and medicalization.

About Leonie Joubert

Leonie uses different storytelling approaches to wander through the often unmapped terrain faced by all of us as we find ways to live together on an ever more tightly packed planet: climate, energy, environmental change, and hunger and malnutrition in the world of Big Food. Mostly, her stories try to give voice to a silenced environment, and the social injustices of a society where the divide between rich and poor has never been greater.

She has spent the better part of 15 years exploring these topics through books, journalism, communication’s support to academics and civil society organisations, and non-fiction creative writing.

Bibliography

  • Scorched: South Africa’s Changing Climate
  • Boiling Point: People in a Changing Climate
  • Invaded: the Biological Invasion of South Africa
  • The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities
  • Oranjezicht City Farm: Food, Community, Connection
She has also contributed a few book chapters, including:

Opinion Pieces by South African Thought Leaders, edited by Max du Preez (Penguin, 2011)

Bending the Curve, edited by Robert Zipplies (Africa Geographic, 2008)

Climate Governance in Africa – A Handbook for Journalists (IPS Africa and HBF, 2014), contributed an article.

Links – South Africa Psychedelic Policy

Enter to win a bunch of product from Bluebird Botanicals!!

 

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Dr. Ben Sessa – MDMA in the UK

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Dr. Ben Sessa is a writer, psychiatrist, and researcher working in the UK to start the first ever MDMA for alcohol addiction study. We have a very exciting discussion and even get Dr. Sessa’s first reaction to the idea of DMTx. We also explore Ben’s background and his experiences with psychedelics legally – Ben is one of the few people who has ever received MDMA, LSD, DMT, ketamine, and psilocybin in a legal research setting.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

Links

Books

The Psychedelic Renaissance

 

 

 

 

 

To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic

FHSA Front Cover Only

The Psychedelic Renaissance

PR book

Psychedelic Drug Treatments

Screen Shot 2014-07-03 at 19.05.00

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ben Sessa – Videos

https://vimeo.com/38063005

About Ben Sessa

ben bwDr. Ben Sessa, M.B.B.S., M.D., B.Sc., M.R.C.Psych., is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist working in adult addiction services and with custodial detained young people in a secure adolescent setting. He trained at UCL medical school, graduating in 1997. He is interested in the developmental trajectory from child maltreatment to adult mental health disorders. Dr Sessa is currently a senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is conducting the UK’s first clinical studies with MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. In the last ten years he has worked on several UK-based human pharmacology trials as study doctor or as a healthy subject administering and receiving test doses of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, and ketamine. He is the author of several dozen peer-reviewed articles in the mainstream medical press and has written two books exploring psychedelic medicine; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012 and 2017) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015). In speaking publicly at universities and medical conferences, Dr Sessa is outspoken on lobbying for change in the current system by which drugs are classified in the UK, believing a more progressive policy of regulation would reduce the harms of recreational drug use and provide increased opportunities for clinical psychedelic research. He is a co-founder and director of the UK’s Breaking Convention conference.

 

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James Casey – MDMA Therapy, Psychedelics, Neuroscience and More

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James Casey, a student at Colorado University Boulder, joins us on Psychedelics Today to share his experience with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, forming the Psychedelic Club Boulder, and his interest in neuroscience. James had the unique opportunity to be a research participant in the MAPS phase-2 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD trials and shares part of his experience with us. The MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has been a life saver for James, and now he advocates for the therapeutic use of MDMA for treatment of PTSD and other mental health issues.

Source: MAPS (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155866837087764496/)

Episode Quote

I think it is criminal that we are really keeping this (MDMA-assisted psychotherapy) from people….. Veterans aren’t the only people suffering that need this (MDMA-assisted psychotherapy), people who have experienced childhood trauma, law enforcement, firefighters, people that are victims of rape, or gang violence. This really has the potential to heal so many people. To speak for the veteran community, I know so many people that I’ve deployed with or know that have been deployed, that I am afraid I am going to get a call tomorrow, next week, or next month because they killed themselves. To know that if they try to do the same treatment that I did outside of the MAPS study, that they risk getting thrown in a cage for years on end is criminal to me.

Show Notes

  • Researching the effects of LSA on cockroaches
  • Psychedelic Club Boulder
  • Tips on starting a psychedelic club/group
  • Drug testing on campus at CU Boulder
    • Results of testing – 88% of the MDMA samples tested positive for meth. About 40% of the LSD samples tested positive for a research chemical
  • Drug reform and war on drugs
  • Veterans, PTSD, and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
  • Changing the psychedelic narrative among law enforcement
  • DMTx

About James Casey

U.S. Army veteran, participated in a study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2014. After three sessions of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, James no longer qualifies for PTSD.

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Kyle and Joe talk CBD, Navigating Psychedelics, Floating, Ketamine and More!

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In this episode, Kyle and Joe talk CBD, ketamine, terpenes, floating, psychedelic education and much more! This conversation is a little different than our normal episodes, but we wanted to share some things that are going on here at Psychedelics Today, such as exploring our recent sponsorships for the show. Please let us know your thoughts about this! Our goal is to keep this podcast sustainable, as well as help promote those who are doing great work directly or indirectly with the psychedelic community.

If you enjoy the show and want to support in another way, donating to our Patreon is a great option!

Thanks for listening!

The Pharmacology of Cannabis Cannabinoids and Terpenes by Dr. Ethan Russo

Wheel of Terpenes

Via Leafly 

Source: Leafly: https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/infographic-what-are-cannabis-terpenes-and-how-do-they-affect-you

 

Thanks to our sponsors EntheoZen and BlueBird Botanicals!

Sponsor: Bluebird Botanicals
  • The only hemp extract company that offers full purity and potency tests on our website for every batch of our products.
  • All of the hemp extracted is grown using organic methods in CO using only sun, soil, and water
  • Legal to ship to everywhere in the US aside from SD
Sponsor: EntheoZen

About TransZen

TransZen is an all natural mood enhancement and stress support supplement designed to:
  • -fill in nutritional gaps that may be causing low mood
  • -promote neurotransmitter production such as serotonin and dopamine
  • -maintain a healthy inflammatory response in the brain
  • -promote the repair and regeneration of brain cells.
-It consists of 17 scientifically-studied ingredients including vitamins, minerals, amino acids and potent plant extracts.
-Works by providing your body with the raw materials it needs to balance the nervous system.
-It is made in a USA facility that is certified by the FDA as having Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and third-party tested.
**Can not ship outside of the U.S.

Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration

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Alyssa Gursky – Ketamine and Transpersonal Art Therapies

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Naropa graduate student, Alyssa Gursky, joins us on Psychedelics Today to talk about her experience with ketamine therapy, breathwork, transpersonal art therapy, and being a night attended for the MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy studies in Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado. Alyssa has been already played multiple roles in the psychedelic community, such as volunteering for MAPS, Psymposia, and Psychedelics Today. Her passion and energy for this work are motivating. We are really excited to see how her career in the psychedelic field unfolds as an inspiring transpersonal art and psychedelic therapist.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqsvJedwUyg]

Show Notes & Links

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdXGhsAynGI]

About Alyssa Gursky

Alyssa Gursky is a master’s level candidate in Transpersonal Art Therapy. She currently is subcontracted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) on their study using MDMA for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on their Boulder and Fort Collins sites. She’s incredibly passionate about the healing potential of the creative process and the body’s innate wisdom. She loves science fiction, anything by Alejandro Jodorowsky, and petting all of the dogs.

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Don Lattin – Changing Our Minds

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New York Times bestselling author, Don Lattin, joins us on Psychedelics Today to talk about his new book, Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy. Lattin’s new book covers the current psychedelic renaissance by exploring the scientific and academic research examining these powerful substances for an array of mental health issues, spirituality, and more.

In this episode, we explored psychedelic history, Don’s new book, some personal experiences, and more.

Changing Our Minds

From Synergetic Press

Changing Our Minds is an essential read for those interested in the expanding field of psychedelic research for therapeutic and spiritual uses.

CHANGING OUR MINDS is an experiential tour through the social, spiritual and scientific revolution that is redefining our relationship with mind-expanding substances. It tells the inspiring and very human stories of pioneering neuroscientists, psychotherapists, shamans and ordinary people seeking to live more aware and compassionate lives by combining the miracles of modern chemistry, therapeutic techniques and the wise use of ancient plant medicines.

A new era of research into psychedelic-assisted therapy has begun. Party drugs like Ecstasy (MDMA) are used to help U.S. veterans struggling with the psychological aftermath of war. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is employed as a medicine to help alcoholics get sober and cancer patients struggling with the existential distress of a life-threatening illness. Meanwhile, the use of the ayahuasca, a shamanic brew from the Amazon jungle, has grown into an international movement for those seeking greater spiritual and psychological insight.

Changing Our Minds is the essential primer for understanding and navigating this new consciousness-raising territory.

Links and Notes

About Don Lattin

Don Lattin is an award-winning journalist and the author of six books.

His most recent work, CHANGING OUR MINDS – Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, was published in the spring of 2017. It chronicles a quiet revolution underway in our understanding of how psychedelic drugs work and how they can be used to treat depression, addiction and other disease. The stories behind this cutting-edge medical research and religious exploration reveal the human side of a psychedelic renaissance.

Changing Our Minds is the latest installment in a trio of books about the recent history and future prospects for finding beneficial uses for drugs and plant medicines like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and ayahuasca.

Don’s previously published work is titled DISTILLED SPIRITS — Getting High, then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk. It’s a memoir/group biography that looks at how writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, opened new doors in Western religious thought

Distilled Spirits is a prequel to THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB — How Timothy Leary, Andrew Weil, Ram Dass, and Huston Smith Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. It was a national bestseller and won the 2010 California Book Award, Silver Medal, for non-fiction.

Lattin’s journalistic work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle, where Don worked as a staff writer for nearly two decades.

His other books are JESUS FREAKS – A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge and FOLLOWING OUR BLISS – How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today. He is also the co-author of SHOPPING FOR FAITH – American Religion in the New Mil-lennium

Don has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where he holds a degree in sociology. He is a contributing writer for the Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions and the Encyclopedia of Religion in America.

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What is Breathwork?

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What is breathwork and Transpersonal Breathwork? Kyle and Joe talk about the components and mechanics of breathwork and share some personal experiences. Breathwork is a topic that is brought up often on Psychedelics Today, so here is a more in-depth discussion about what it is. The form of breathwork that Joe and Kyle are trained in is Transpersonal Breathwork. More about this practice below.

About Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork

From dreamshadow.com

Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork is an applied, practice-linked philosophy that uses the method of Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathwork as a modern shamanic practice for self-discovery through cathartic re-experience of events from a person’s biographic history and the process of birth, as well as the potential apprehension of archetypes and events in the cosmos.

The experiential aspect of Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork uses a combination of group process, intense breathing, evocative music, body work, and expressive drawing.

The term “transpersonal” refers to those experiences where our sense of self-identity expands beyond our personal biography and ego boundaries and transcends the usual limitations of time and space. These experiences facilitate deeper understanding of ourselves, our relation to others and our place in the universe. They help us gain increased comfort in daily life and a spiritual intelligence that fosters calm and optimism amidst the difficulties of the world.

Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork draws on the work of William James, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof and others. Grof is a pioneering psychedelic researcher, investigator of exceptional human experiences and cofounder of the transpersonal psychology movement. Together with his wife Christina Grof, he developed Holotropic Breathwork, an inspiration of Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork, Integrative Breathwork and other methods. In his book The Holotropic Mind, Grof describes Holotropic Breathwork as a seemingly simple process with “extraordinary potential for opening the way for exploring the entire spectrum of the inner world.”

5 Components of Breathwork

  1. Intense Breathing  – Deep circular breathing with a minimal pause in between the in and out breaths. There is no “right” technique, but to intensify and deepen one’s breathing.
  2. Evocative Music– A music setlist is created to help drive the breathing session. The music is typically all instrumental with no distinguishable language. There are often times when music with foreign languages will be used because of the lack of context. The music setlist is around two to three hours long.
  3. Focused Bodywork – Emotional energy can become stuck in the body. To help assist with stuck emotional or physical energy, bodywork is performed to help release the energy. Bodywork can also be in the form of support by offering a hand to hold.
  4. Expressive Drawing – After the breathwork session, participants are asked to create a mandala or drawing. This helps to process the experience without language or words and can be very symbolic. This process helps to integrate the experience.
  5. Group Process– We are social creatures. As Lenny Gibson states, “we are the descendants of successful tribes.” We need one another to survive in the world. The group helps to form a safe container for participants to dive deep into their psyche and being. The group holds the space for a healing process to occur.

Links & Notes

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Caitlin Thompson – Ayahuasca, Kambo and Psychedelic Nutrition

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Caitlin Thompson, the founder of EntheoZen, joins us on Psychedelics Today to share her healing story, her interests in psychedelics, and the supplement company that she started. Caitlin is also involved in the psychedelic community – she hosts events for the Aware Project San Diego and is a Kambo practitioner.

After struggling with her own depression and anxiety, Caitlin founded EntheoZen. She applied her background in neuroscience, diving deep into the scientific literature and discovered the importance of nutrition in brain and mood health. She created a scientifically-supported line of products that nourish, resource and balance the nervous system to promote a happy, healthy mind.

Caitlin uses EntheoZen as a platform to provide informative resources and tools to empower people to take their mental wellness into their own hands in a natural and sustainable way. EntheoZen provides educational media on cutting-edge wellness modalities including nutrition, herbs, meditation, psychedelics, neurofeedback training, kambo, and float tanks. Caitlin is a researcher and advocate in the psychedelic medicine movement, using EntheoZen to support research and promote awareness of psychedelic therapies as effective psychiatric interventions.

EntheoZen

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57PZK74BK00]

EntheoZen is a nutritional supplement company based in San Diego, CA. It was launched in 2014 by Caitlin Thompson. At EntheoZen, our goal is to contribute to the practice of using safe and natural ways to balance brain chemistry and promote brain health and a happy mood. Blending neuroscience and holistic nutrition, we believe that the mind, body, and soul need the proper resources to stay balanced and lively. Our products are based on proven scientific principles and target specific mechanisms & issues related to mood disorders based on scientific literature. When the brain has access to the raw materials it needs to repair and function optimally, it can often heal and regulate itself.

About TransZen

TransZen is an all natural mood enhancement and stress support supplement designed to:
  • -fill in nutritional gaps that may be causing low mood
  • -promote neurotransmitter production such as serotonin and dopamine
  • -maintain a healthy inflammatory response in the brain
  • -promote the repair and regeneration of brain cells.
-It consists of 17 scientifically-studied ingredients including vitamins, minerals, amino acids and potent plant extracts.
-Works by providing your body with the raw materials it needs to balance the nervous system.
-It is made in a USA facility that is certified by the FDA as having Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and third-party tested.
**Can not ship outside of the U.S.

Links & Notes

About Caitlin Thompson

After struggling with her own battle with depression and anxiety, Caitlin Thompson applied her background in neurobiology and dove into the cutting edge scientific literature on mood disorders and mental illnesses. This led her down a health rabbit hole, realizing that Lyme disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, microbiome dysbiosis and emotional trauma were at the root of her and many others’ depression. After successfully improving her own health, Caitlin founded her nutritional supplement company, EntheoZen in 2014.  Caitlin now uses EntheoZen as a platform to spread information about modalities and tools to empower others to heal and achieve optimal mental wellness. Caitlin also works in the psychedelic field advocating for psychedelic research and education around their implications in mental wellness and autoimmune conditions. Caitlin is also a certified Kambo frog medicine practitioner based in San Diego CA.

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Tim Cools – The Yelp of Psychedelic Organizations & Retreats

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Tim Cools joins us on Psychedelics Today to talk about his project, Psychedelic Experience, a web platform that allows individuals to post reviews about different psychedelic retreat centers and organizations. There is a psychedelic journal feature that is currently in beta-testing that allows users to write about their experiences, in hopes to further phenomenological and qualitative research in the future. As described on the site, this is a “one-stop-shop” for resources surrounding psychedelics.

About Psychedelic Experience

We aim to reduce harm and stigma associated with psychedelics by helping to best inform users, offer tools to help with integration of their experiences, and a space for communal support.

One-stop-shop web resource surrounding psychedelics

  • Online community by and for beginning and experienced psychonauts.
  • Promote safe use of psychedelics by providing scientific, responsible information.
  • Privacy is a top-priority. Users have full control over what is public and what isn’t.

Psychedelic experiences journal

  • Keep a private journal of your psychedelic experiences.
  • Share your experiences with your friends or the community. Reports are peer-reviewed by community to ensure quality.
  • Integrate your experiences by discussing them with fellow psychonauts and professional therapists.
  • Advanced search functionality by substance and keywords. Anonymous statistics can beused for scientific research.

Global organisations directory

  • A community managed global directory of organisations related to psychedelic experiences.
  • Connect people with honest organisations to stay updated on meetings, events and retreats.
  • Collect reviews by the community to create an unbiased image of the organisations.
  • Promote sustainable projects to help indigenous communities.
  • Issue warnings for organisations linked to abuse or dishonesty.

Support Psychedelics Today by becoming a Patron

Show Notes/Links

About Tim Cools

Tim lives in Belgium as a professional software developer/social entrepreneur. With his latest project, PsychedelicExperience.net, he aims to reduce harm and stigma associated with the use of psychedelics, and to support psychedelic research. Driven by some profound experiences, he hopes to make psychedelics more accessible in a safe way.

 

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Nicholas Powers Ph.D. – Psychedelics, Race, Where They Intersect, and Where They Don’t

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Nicholas Powers Ph.D. is a poet, journalist, and Associate Professor of English, SUNY Old Westbury. Nick joins us to talk about psychedelics, race, cultural diversity, and the future of psychedelics. Race and diversity within the psychedelic community has been a hot topic lately, and it is an important topic to continue discussing and examining. Unfortunately, the community is exclusive to people of privilege and power, which shows some concern when it comes to the future direction of this field, as it leaves out diverse ideas and beliefs from people from other cultural backgrounds and communities.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Leave us a comment below!

Show Topics

  • Diversity in research
  • Monica Williams – Diversity in the psychedelic research
  • The trust between diverse populations and institutional research
  • History of forced sterilizations and the Tuskegee syphilis study
  • The importance of storytelling and authentically listening to stories of people from other cultural backgrounds
  • Start your own psychedelic community
  • Psychedelics and intergenerational trauma
  • Including minority groups into the psychedelic community

Nick’s Book

The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street

Links/Show Notes

About Nicholas Powers, Ph.D.

Nicholas Powers

Nicholas Powers is a poet, journalist and professor. His books, The Ground Below Zero and Theater of War, was published by Upset Press. He has written for The Indypendent, Alternet and The Village Voice. He has spoken and read all over the country. He teaches literature at SUNY Old Westbury and co-hosts the long running New York City College Poetry Slam at the Nuyorican Cafe. If you would like to work with Nick, please contact tara@upsetpress.org.

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Dr. Matt Brown – Chicago Psychedelic Club

Dr. Matt Brown

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Dr. Matt Brown of the Chicago Psychedelic Club and the Psychedelics and the Future of Psychiatry Meetup joins us to talk about his interests and involvement with psychedelics.  We talk about how Dr. Brown got interested in psychedelic research and how he got involved in forming two psychedelic meet up groups in Chicago.

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think!

Show Notes

  • Perspectives on psychedelics
  • Creating a psychedelic meetup
  • Building community
  • Introducing more voices into the conversation besides medical professionals and students – artists and other creative people can help to provide various insights into the psychedelic conversation.

Show Links

If you enjoy the show, please consider donating to our Patreon!

About Dr. Matt Brown D.O., M.B.A.

Dr. Brown Specializes in whole health psychiatry. This approach differs from many other practitioners who more and more practice symptomatic management when it comes to mental health. Dr. Brown takes the perspective that the body has the ability to heal itself, but from time to time may need assistance through balancing the things that are important for physical health that are also important from mental health. These include, sleep, diet, exercise, meditative/spiritual practice and cultivating positive social relationships. Dr. Brown also has a strong command of how to balance vital nutrients in our body with the aid of supplementation to augment traditional psychopharmacological therapies. Dr. Brown’s method is aimed primarily at the treatment of Depression and Anxiety as well as other mood disorders and ADHD. Dr. Brown is a specialist in the treatment of OCD specifically and is board certified by the ABPN in both adult as well as child and adolescent psychiatry.
​

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Dr. Scott Shannon – Ketamine Therapies

Dr. Scott Shannon

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Dr. Scott Shannon joins Psychedelics Today to share his experience and insights about ketamine therapy used in conjunction with integrative psychiatry. Dr. Shannon has been working with ketamine for the past year within his psychiatry practice and has found tremendous benefit in using this medicine for particular disorders. Dr. Shannon is also part of the Fort Collins MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy Phase 3 study, which is just starting up.

Show Topics/Notes

  • What is ketamine?
  • Mechanisms of action of ketamine.
  • What is the ketamine experience like?
  • Three types of administration methods – IV, IM, and oral
  • MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and the MAPS Phase 3 trials
  • Transpersonal experiences fostering change and transformation
  • Critiques of traditional psychiatry.
  • Patient with 40 years of depression became a new person no longer suffering from depression.
    • Electro Convulsive Therapy was almost an option, thankfully avoided.
  • The importance of music with ketamine therapy and other psychedelics

Scott Shannon: Cannabidiol in the Treatment of Anxiety

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1TvU6Hqf2U]

Show Links

About Scott Shannon, MD

Dr Scott Shannon’s Bio from Wholeness Center

I decided to become a psychiatrist in high school after my first psychology class. The amazing capacity of the human mind simply astounded me. I wanted to help people by using this power of the mind. What intrigued me the most then (and now) is that our human potential remains only partially understood. I am still on that journey of discovery about our true potential. To this end, I resonate with the theme of empowerment: my greatest day is the day that you have the skills to thrive without my services.

I feel blessed with all that I have been given in my life. I have been married for almost thirty years to Suze with two wonderful children, Noah and Sarah. I love to travel the world teaching or just exploring. My nature is relentlessly creative and curious. I love to cycle, snowboard, golf, run, climb, backpack and listen to music. Seamus, my big black Lab, may accidentally show up to work with me occasionally just because he likes people so much. My spiritual life is very important to me and I have meditated for over thirty years. Helping people makes my heart sing.

As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, my current focus involves supporting young people to find wholeness and recover their full health in body, mind and spirit. Although I use prescription medication at times, I much prefer to employ natural methods like nutrition, supplements, mind-body skills, acupuncture and a shift in awareness to support the healing process. This approach represents the new field of Integrative Psychiatry. Most importantly, I employ a holistic philosophy to understand people and their struggles. The single most important thing that I have learned in my professional life is to listen well: deeply and intuitively. After this listening, much of my work involves teaching you what I have heard. I founded Wholeness Center to work in collaboration with a team of gifted healers to help you better understand your story.

College: University of Arizona
Medical School: University of Arizona
Internship: Columbia Program, Cooperstown, NY
Psychiatric Residency: Columbia Program, Cooperstown, NY
Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship: University of New Mexico

If you liked this episode you may also like these episodes

Shane LeMaster – Ketamine

Lex Pelger – Psymposia, Ibogaine, Ketamine, Research and Knowing Your Dose

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Emanuel Sferios – Dance Safe and MDMA The Movie

Emanuel Sferios - MDMA The Movie

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Emanuel Sferios joins us to talk about his upcoming film “MDMA The Movie” along with the founding story of Dance Safe.

Emanuel has a fascinating story that includes.

  • Humble beginnings
  • Lots of media attention
  • Huge amounts of fundraising for harm reduction
  • A film that is going to be incredible. Check out the trailers below!

MDMA was one of the last drugs that the old guard anti drug US government worked to smear with disinformation and outright lies,  using outlets like Oprah and more to stain MDMA’s reputation. While Ophra’s media empire has now come around a bit, MDMA continues to hold parts of the social stigma that Oprah helped to give it. Emanuel tells the story here with on the ground details in ways that Kyle and Joe haven’t heard before.

We hope you love it!

If you enjoyed this episode you may love these other podcasts.

Confessions of an Underground MDMA Therapist
Thomas Roberts Ph.D. – The Broad Future of Psychedelic Research

Show Notes/Links

Want to learn more about psychedelic harm reduction, safety, and integration? Sign up for our online course!

Find MDMA The Movie On Social Media

Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram
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About Emanuel Sferios

Emanuel Sferios is an activist, educator, public speaker and harm reduction advocate. Founding DanceSafe in 1998, Emanuel was an early pioneer of MDMA harm reduction. DanceSafe has volunteer chapters in over two dozen cities across the United States and provides non-judgmental, peer-based drug education and drug checking (a.k.a., “pill testing”) services in the electronic dance music community. Emanuel also started the first public laboratory pill analysis program in 1999 which allowed ecstasy users for the first time to anonymously send tablets to a DEA-licensed laboratory for chromatography analysis. Originally publishing the results on the DanceSafe website, the program still exists today and is hosted at Ecstasydata.org.
Today Emanuel speaks at colleges and universities about MDMA, harm reduction, and drug policy. He lives in Grass Valley, California with his wife and two stepchildren.

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Rafael Lancelotta – Exploring 5-MeO-DMT

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Rafael Lancelotta, the administrator of the site, 5meodmt.org (5 Hive), joins us to talk about the powerful psychedelic compound, 5-MeO-DMT. Some of you may have heard of this medicine, but if you have not, chances are you will begin hearing about it more and more. 5-MeO-DMT is a powerful psychedelic medicine that comes from venom secretion of the Bufo Alvarius toad. This compound is also found in various plants as well.

Correction – 5-MeO-DMT has an oxygen and a methyl group attached to it, not just an oxygen.

Show Topics

  • What is 5-MeO-DMT
  • How does it differ from N.N-DMT?
  • Near-death experiences and DMT
  • Dr. David Nichols talking about DMT at Breaking Conventions
  • Experiences of 5-MeO-DMT
  • The pros and cons of online forums
  • Risks and concerns

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeeqHUiC8Io]

Show Links

About Rafael Lancelotta

Rafael Lancelotta is a graduate student at the University of Wyoming studying Mental Health Counseling. He is interested in the use of psychedelics towards greater levels of resiliency, mental health, and openness. He is also interested in the investigation of techniques used in the counseling relationship that may deepen and enhance the benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy integration. He is passionate about opening the doors to psychedelic research to all students that are interested as well as helping to raise awareness as to the responsible clinical applications of psychedelics/entheogens and serves as the administrative assistant for the Source Research Foundation. He hopes to continue on to a PhD to help develop evidence-based practices for psychedelic-assisted therapy integration to empower individuals to make lasting positive change in their lives and in their communities. He is also the administrator of 5meodmt.org, which is a forum dedicated to forming community discussions on harm reduction, integration, and safe practices around 5-MeO-DMT.

If you liked this episode, you may enjoy these.

Brian Normand – Microdosing, Amazonia, Psymposia and Horizons Afterparty

Ashley Booth, M.S. – Ayahuasca, DMT, Integration, and Los Angeles

Kyle and Joe – Life, Death, and DMTx

 

 

 

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Daniel McQueen – Extended-State DMT Research (DMTx)

Daniel McQueen - Extended State DMT - DMTx

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Daniel McQueen of Medicinal Mindfulness joins us to talk about extended-state DMT research, also known as DMTx. Daniel has been presenting this idea at local events in the Colorado area to help raise awareness and money to help bring this research idea to life. To learn more about this project, upcoming events, or to donate to help fund the research check out DMTx.org

Here is a quick message from Daniel:

A few years ago we started a community gathering and speaker series called Psychedelic Shine, and it was through this project that I met Dr. Rick Strassman, Dr. Dennis McKenna, and Dr. Andrew Gallimore, to name a few. The process of creating psychedelic inspired programs, meeting innovative leaders in the field, and also the inner exploration this work requires, were all factors that initiated this journey into exploring Extended-State DMT research. It has been a wild and wonderful ride ever since, and we’re excited to step into the next stage of this work.

It is our intention to create a sustainable, multi-generation DMT research program that is both congruent with scientific inquiry, as well as with the creative and spiritual interests and values of the psychedelic community. We believe Extended-State DMT research is as much an expedition as it is a scientific experiment. We believe it is both deeply inspiring and practically feasible.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_rrjBD16_0]

Show Notes/Links

About Daniel McQueen

Daniel earned a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa and received advanced training in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy through a year internship with the MAPS Boulder MDMA for PTSD Study.  It was his experience with MAPS that inspired Daniel to explore alternative visions in psychedelic activism and entrepreneurship.

Daniel bridges transpersonal paradigms with the grounded clinical and organizational skills necessary to begin addressing the significant ecological and mental health crises facing our society today.  Although Daniel no longer practices as a clinical psychotherapist, he supports his clients as a teacher, coach, ally and event facilitator, providing individual and group transformational experiences and deeply held intentional conversations.  In his practice, Daniel quickly realized that the most important intervention he could provide to his clients, who were isolated and longed for meaningful contact with others, was a sense of community.  Medicinal Mindfulness is, in a very real way, a cultural intervention that provides a safe and transformational community container for healing and awakening… a program based on skill development and not dogma.  Since 2012, Daniel has been teaching a psychedelic harm prevention and intentional psychedelic use course called Mindful Journeywork.  Since the legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado, he has been facilitating Conscious Cannabis Circles and individual cannabis journeys.

In addition to his work with Medicinal Mindfulness, Daniel has a successful spirituality and life coaching practice with his wife, Alison, through their company, Aspenroots Counseling LLC.  Highly skilled in identifying and cultivating giftedness in young people and supporting significant life transitions, Daniel is inspired to support passionate and talented individuals striving to live into their calling.  A primary focus of his practice involves assessing and addressing the benefits and difficulties related to psychedelic and cannabis use and misuse.

Daniel co-founded the Naropa Alliance for Psychedelic Studies and helped organize the first annual Psychedelic Symposium at Naropa University in 2012.  He is currently working with Grounding Solutions, Inc. to develop a natural rescue medicinal for users of psychedelics and cannabis.

Our online course, ‘Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration” will keep you and your friends safer. Just say KNOW to drugs.

 

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Kwasi Adusei – Psychedelic Month of Service

Psychedelic Month of Service

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Kwasi Adusei of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York joins us to talk about the Global Psychedelic Month of Service campaign. This is a wonderful campaign to help encourage members of the psychedelic community to become more involved in their communities.

About The Global Psychedelic Month of Service

kwasi adusei - psychedelic month of service

Still hiding in the psychedelic closet? Looking for an opportunity to join the movement? This November, find a need in your community, gather your friends, and participate in the Global Psychedelic Month of Service.
In the month of November, the global psychedelic community invites you to take on a need in your community in the name of psychedelics. Psychedelic groups all over the world are joining the cause by giving back.
At the core of the psychedelic movement is a mission of social activism. So take part in seeing this mission through by volunteering at your local soup kitchen, food pantry, or doing a community clean up.
The integration of a psychedelic experience is as important as the experience itself. Transform the feelings of connectedness induced by the psychedelic experience, into actions of connectedness.
How to get involved
 
1. Find a local service organization
2. Reach out to find volunteer opportunities in the month of November
3. Find psychedelic friends to volunteer with
4. Volunteer and send in pictures and number of hours completed
What to join the cause? Email buffalopsychedelic@yahoo.com with your name and location so we can add you to the list of participating individuals.

Kwasi Adusei Show Topics

  • Building community
  • Breaking down stigma
  • Doing psychedelic things
    • Spending time helping
    • Doing compassionate things
  • Psychedelic values and morals
  • Access to expensive MDMA therapies
  • How to bring more diversity into the psychedelic movement
  • Nick Power’s talk at Horizons NYC

[vimeo 237699822 w=640 h=360]

Show Links

About Kwasi Adusei

Kwasi dedicates his work in the psychedelic movement to altering the stigma in mainstream channels by promoting the science, the healing potential of psychedelics, and civic engagement.
Kwasi is a nurse and a doctoral student at the University at Buffalo, studying to be a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. He is the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York and project manager for Psychonauts of the World, an initiative to share meaningful psychedelic stories, with the ultimate goal of publishing them in a book as an avenue to raise money for psychedelic research. He is also one of the administrators for the Global Psychedelic Network, a conglomerate of psychedelic groups and individuals from around the world.
He hopes to use his training and education to become a psychedelic therapist. Born in Ghana and raised in the Bronx, New York, Kwasi hopes to bring psychedelic therapy to communities of color.

 

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Horizons NYC – 2017 – recap

Horizons NYC

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Kyle and Joe report from the scene of the amazing Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference. We had the chance to interview attendees of Horizons NYC 2017 outside the venue on the closing day.

Horizons NYC

Horizons is a fantastic event at an amazing venue in the heart of Manhattan at the historic venue – “The Cooper Union.” The same podium on stage was shared by Abraham Lincoln, Susan B Anthony, and along with many other important historical figures.

It was an amazing event and we hope that this episode helps share some of the excitement. We talked to past guests, future guests, and also some new friends. You may recognize some of the voices 🙂 Let us know what you think of this episode and if you want to hear similar episodes to this in the future.

Horizons 2017: NICHOLAS BYRON POWERS, Ph.D “Black Masks, Rainbow Bodies: Race and Psychedelics” from Horizons on Vimeo.

In the show, we speak about a lot of things from Horizons NYC including

  • The most interesting thing learned
  • The sense of community inside a conference like this
  • Some problems the movement has that we need to stay aware of
  • Issues with communicating the science of psychedelics with a wider audience
  • Volunteering for events for free tickets

Do you want to listen to Joe and Kyle recap their highlights of the conference and the Psymposia Microdosing event? Support us on Patreon to get exclusive access! Check out the video introduction to this episode – Here

Check out our book giveaway! Books by Grof, Shulgins, Hoffman, and many more!

About Horizons NYC

Horizons NYC

Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics is an annual forum that examines the role of psychedelic drugs in science, medicine, culture, and spirituality.

In recent years, a growing community of scientists, doctors, artists, activists, seekers, and scholars have orchestrated a renaissance in psychedelic thought and practice.

Horizons brings together the brightest minds and the boldest voices of this movement to share their research, insights, and dreams for the future.

Horizons was founded in 2007 by Kevin Balktick, with Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., joining as speaker curator and MC in 2008.

Horizons Media, Inc., a 501c(3) not-for-profit educational charity, is currently led by board members Kevin Balktick, Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., James Vasile, Esq., and Ingmar Gorman, M.A.

Having outgrown Judson Memorial Church, its original location, Horizons is now hosted at The Cooper Union Great Hall, which has been a center for public dialogue since its founding in 1858, having hosted such illustrious speakers as Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and more recently, Barack Obama.

Horizons Media, Inc. conducts no other business besides the annual conference and is funded in solely by registration and concession sales. All profits go towards producing and improving the following year’s event. Its board members are not compensated.

Horizons Media, Inc. is not a political advocacy or scientific research organization, nor does it have any financial relationships with other organizations and businesses that participate as presenters or informational presences.

 

 

Sign up for our online course, “Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration”

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Shane LeMaster – Ketamine

Shane LeMaster - Ketamine

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Kyle and Joe talk with Shane LeMaster about ketamine as a therapeutic tool and also a tool for self-discovery and personal development. Shane shares some amazing stories, and we get to peel off some of the layers around ketamine. There are some amazing uses, and perhaps some therapeutic falling short of the mark in the ketamine world that we discuss. Hope you enjoy!

Source: https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/is-ketamine-really-a-miracle-drug-for-depression/

Shane is a past guest on the show and one of our favorites. You will really like his past episodes where we talked about peyote, treating veterans, Jiujitsu for PTSD and microdosing for athletic performance. (first – second)

Sign up for our course!

Show Topics/Discussion

  • Chemical effects
  • Lego world of the Ketamine experience
  • Hallucinogenic properties of Ketamine for Shane
  • Astral Projection
  • Therapeutic method. Music, Temp, Comfort, Safe setting, etc.
  • Not trauma work – getting to see all of reality as the machine as it is and his role in it.
  • 1 gram – half a gram per nostril.
  • 360-degree waterfall
  • Mindfulness practice can helps his practice.

Show Links

Check out our book giveaway! Books by Grof, Shulgins, Hoffman, and many more!

About Shane LeMaster, B.A., M.A.,  LAC, CC-AASP

Bio from Mind-OPS

Shane earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, completed extensive coursework towards a Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Performance Psychology at the University of Denver, and earned his Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Exercise Psychology from Argosy University.

Shane is nationally certified as a Sport Psychology Consultant and a licensed mental health clinician in the state of Colorado.  Having worked in community non-profit mental health since 2008, Shane has gained experience working with the entire spectrum of mental disorders and with all populations and age groups.  Shane plans on attending a Ph.D program in Counseling Psychology where his interest in Resiliency, Mental Toughness, and Mindfulness Training Program Development can be explored and further developed.

He is a life-long athlete having competed at various levels in more than a dozen different sports.  Because of his passion for warrior cultures of past and present, Shane has been ardently developing his own “Warriorship,” training in various forms of Martial Arts for 25 years.  Shane feels that the self-discipline, the philosophy of non-violence, the innumerable mental and physical benefits, and the enjoyment that he gains from the Martial Arts is what helped drive his passion in the field of Psychology.

His personal interest in Eastern Philosophy stems from his adoption of a Buddhist lifestyle and blends well with his training in Western Psychological Science.  Clients describe Shane as an out-of-the-box clinician that is easy to get along with, knowledgeable on a variety of topics, credible with lived experience, and as having the ability to make therapy fun and interesting.

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Aaron & Andras – Cute Animals Doing Drugs

Cute Animals Doing Drugs Banner

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Animals are known to indulge in psychoactive compounds. Humans are not the only species who like to become intoxicated. From bees drinking to fermented nectars to reindeer of the Siberian tundra eating Amanita muscaria mushrooms, Aaron and Andras find a creative way to start a conversation about drug policy, harm reduction, and psychedelics. Aaron and Andras have started a company that produces tshirts depicting cute animals doing drugs. While this may seem like a way to promote drug use using cute animals, Aaron and Andras have a deeper meaning, which is about starting a conversation and trying to shift the cultural narrative about drug use.

If you want to get one of your own t-shirts, use the coupon code: PSYCHEDELICSTODAY25 to receive 25% off your purchase!

                              

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVqObIauPJA]

Enroll Today!

Show Notes/Links

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkCS9ePWuLU]

About Cute Animals Doing Drugs

Cute Animals Doing Drugs was created by two friends to raise awareness around these issues, support drug policy reform, and encourage honest conversations about drugs in everyday life.

We believe individuals have the right to sovereignty over their own consciousness and that there is no reason to deny any adult the safe and beneficial use of psychoactive substances.

We believe social and political change can start from the bottom-up. Our apparel serves as a conversation-starter and a fun, unique way to show your support for an increasingly important social issue.

Cute Animals Doing Drugs is here to call attention to these issues, support psychedelic research, encourage drug policy reform, and promote cognitive liberty for all.

We also donate 10% of our pre-tax profits to MAPS, the Drug Policy Alliance, and other drug-related non-profit organizations.

Check out our current line of apparel here.

Andras L

Andras L is a cofounder of Cute Animals Doing Drugs Apparel, an initiative intended to help shift societal perceptions around drug use. Cute Animals builds on his previous work as a director on the board of Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, where he advocated for the advancement of harm reduction and evidence-based drug policy reform. He is especially focused on reversing harmful policies and combating stigma. Andras graduated with an M.Sc. in Primary Care Research from McGill University and now researches infectious disease.

Aaron

Aaron co-founded Cute Animals Doing Drugs Apparel with Andras in the summer of 2017. He finished his BA at McGill University in 2014 and has since been traveling the world and working online. Aaron has a longstanding fascination with psychedelics, and is particularly interested in the subjective elements of psychedelics experience as well as the potential broad social impact of mainstreaming psychedelic use, especially in spiritual contexts. He writes about personal development, spirituality, and psychedelic experience at freedomandfulfilment.com.

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Brian Normand – Microdosing, Amazonia, and Horizons Afterparty

Brian Normand - Microdosing

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What is microdosing? Is this a growing trend in the psychedelic community? What do some people in the psychedelic community think about it? Can it really help boost creativity and productivity? While the idea that microdosing can help with depression, creativity, and productivity, these claims are usually backed by self-reported experiences. There is currently no hard science/research that highlights the risks, safety, or benefits of this concept despite the growing trend and loads of anecdotal evidence. If you want to learn more about this current trend, be sure to get your ticket to the upcoming Psymposia Microdosing event. We are sure all of these questions will be laid out on the table, and it will sure be a great night and discussion!

Brian Normand, Co-Founder of Psymposia, joins us again to talk about the Psymposia Microdosing event/Horizons afterparty. The event will be hosted by the one and only, Duncan Trussell. If you have plans to attend the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in NYC, be sure to check out the afterparty. It is always a great time and also a great place to “find the others.”

Save 5 dollars on your ticket with the coupon code psychedelicstoday

We also cover topics revolving around drug policy and Brian’s experience in the Amazon.

Microdosing event

About the Microdosing Event

You’re invited to Psymposia’s 4th annual celebration following day 1 of the Horizons Perspectives on Psychedelics forum in New York City that examines the role of psychedelic drugs in science, healing, culture and spirituality.

This year, Comedian Duncan Trussell joins Hamilton Morris (VICELAND’s Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia), Katherine MacLean, Sophia Korb, and Paul Austin to talk about everything you wanted to know about microdosing and more, surrounded by a live audience in Brooklyn.

Co-sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies // MAPS

Buy tickets here: https://www.psymposia.com/events/microdosing-duncan-trussell/

Remeber to use coupon code: psychedelicstoday

[vimeo 233615239 w=640 h=360]

Show Notes/Links

About Brian Normand

Brian Normand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Normand is CoFounder, lead designer, and webmaster of Psymposia. He’s a greenthumb, social entrepreneur & occasional trouble maker, focused on changing minds and creating spaces to teach people about plants and drugs. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BS in Plant, Soil, Insect Science, & Sustainable Horticulture, Magna Cum Laude.

Navigating Psychedelics

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Becca Segall Tarnas – Jung, Tolkien and Human Imagination

Becca Segall Tarnas

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Joe speaks with Becca Segall Tarnas about her work with Carl Jung’s Red Book and J.R.R. Tolkien. There is a substantial amount of overlap between the two. Why these two in a show about psychedelics? Transpersonal Jungian psychology is the bridge. There appears to be objects or entities beyond the veil of our perception and understanding (so far). We have a collective imagination collective unconscious that these things interact in. Psychedelics and other methods can give us access to these. Becca will be presenting her work to this point at the Prague ITC 2017. This discussion goes all over the world, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We really enjoy Becca’s work and hope to have her on again in the near future!

About Becca Segall Tarnas

Becca Segall Tarnas

Becca Segall Tarnas is a doctoral candidate in the Philosophy and Religion department at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her dissertation research is focused on the theoretical implications of the synchronicity between the Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien. Becca received her M.A. from CIIS, and her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests include ecology, imagination, philosophy, and depth psychology, and she is also co-editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. J. R. R. Tolkien

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.” Tolkien – The Fellowship of the Ring

“I indignantly answered, “Do you call light what we men call the worst darkness? Do you call day night?”
To this my soul spoke a word that roused my anger, “My light is not of this world.”
I cried, “I know of no other world!”
The soul answered, “Should it not exist because you know nothing of it?”
― C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus

Links – Becca Segall Tarnas

James Hillman

Jorge Ferrer

Navigating Psychedelics

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Lenny Gibson – A brief history of psychedelics in the Western world

Lenny Gibson

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This talk was recorded live in Bolton, Vermont during a MAPS Psychedelic Dinner fundraising event in May 2016.

Lenny Gibson presented a lecture during the event about the brief history of psychedelics in the Western world — surveying the ancient Greek mysteries to the current contemporary psychedelic culture.

“Blessed is he who, having seen these rites,
undertakes the way beneath the Earth.
He knows the end of life,
as well as its divinely granted beginning.”
Pindar

Creatures for a day! What is a man?What is he not? A dream of a shadow Is our mortal being. But when there comes to menA gleam of splendour given of heaven,Then rests on them a light of glory And blessed are their days.
Pindar

I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain in relief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colours became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, coloured pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. What had caused this condition?
Dr. Albert Hofmann – Laboratory Notes (1943)

To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.
Dr Humphry Osmond

Show Notes & Links

  • Greek Mysteries
  • Pindar
  • Albert Hofmann
  • Humphrey Osmond
  • Aldous Huxley

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckzfckwiyQ0]

About Lenny Gibson

Lenny Gibson

Leonard Gibson, Ph.D., graduated from Williams College and earned doctorates from Claremont Graduate School in philosophy and The University of Texas at Austin in psychology. Lenny has 50 years of experience working with non–ordinary states of consciousness. He has taught at The University of Tulsa and Lesley College and served his clinical psychology internship at the Boston, MA V.A. Hospital. He also taught transpersonal psychology for 20 years at Burlington College. Lenny serves on the board of the Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region in Vermont. A survivor of throat cancer, he facilitates the head and neck cancer support group at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He is a past president of the Association of Holotropic Breathwork International.

You can find out more about Lenny at these two links.

Holotropic Breathwork – http://dreamshadow.com

Papers and Discussions – http://www.lennygibson.com/

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Kyle and Joe – Contexts of Psychedelic Use

Contexts of Psychedelic Use

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In this episode, Joe and Kyle discuss the difference contexts of psychedelic use:

  • Therapeutic
  • Recreational
  • Psychospiritual & Self-Discovery
  • Ceremonial & Shamanic

While these categories can be flexible and sometimes merge into one another, we thought that it would be important to give context to the variety of experiences. As MAPS has just received “Breakthrough Therapy” status on the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research, this is an exciting time for research and therapeutic use of a powerful medicine. However, there may be some confusion about how the therapeutic approach is different from some of these other contexts and ways of using psychedelics. While we believe that all contexts are valid or legitimate and each carry their own risk/benefit, we thought that it would be helpful and fun to talk about our views about this subject.

Become a Patron!

If you want to learn more about navigating the psychedelic experience or learn more about safety guidelines for these different contexts, check out our new online course, “Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration.”

Navigating Psychedelics

Useful Texts & Resources

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Zoe Helene – Psychedelic Feminism: Women’s Work in The Medicine Space

Psychedelic Feminism

Zoe Helene of Cosmic Sister and Medicine Hunter joins us to discuss feminism, psychedelic feminism and eco feminism, and her organization, Cosmic Sister. During this conversation, we explore ayahuasca safety in general as well as ayahuasca safety for women — from understanding the risks of Toé as an admixture to ayahuasca to traveling in a group to stay safe.

Other Show Topics

  • Synthetic vs Natural compounds
  • Masculine energy in the psychedelic space
  • Ayahuasca Dieta
  • Sex and ayahuasca
    • Working with sexual energy pre and post ceremony
  • Sexual abuse in the medicine space
  • Finding one’s voice and power

What is Psychedelic Feminism?

Psychedelic Feminism is a sub-genre of feminism that embraces the power of the frontier field of psychedelic healing, transformation, inspiration, and mind/body/spirit exploration into altered states of consciousness. Safe, intentional journeying with psychedelics can help women look deeply inside themselves, in part to face core feminist issues in fresh and exciting ways. – Cosmic Sister

About Cosmic Sister

Cosmic Sister® is a network that connects kindred-spirit women in mutually supportive ways, working collectively toward shared goals while enhancing the personal journey of each individual. Cosmic Sister promotes love, higher consciousness, abundance and creativity, and members pledge to hold each other’s best interests at heart as allies and affiliates. We want to see women shine.

We envision a healthy, life-affirming balance of power between genders, worldwide. We envision a well world where women are fully respected globally, where their voices are heard and respected, and where a natural, healthy, life-affirming gender balance is restored. We believe that many of the world’s most critical problems are a result of a gross gender imbalance that has been sustained for thousands of years. We do not want our species to evolve in the direction we see the majority of human beings choosing, and we wish to be part of a global cultural shift that helps us evolve more rationally and with functioning minds, hearts and spirits with respect and love for other life-forms and the planet we all depend on to survive. We are passionate about helping to protect wilderness spaces and wildlife species that are currently in crisis or threatened.

Links

About Zoe Helene

Zoe Helene, MFA, an artist, environmental and cultural activist, and psychedelic feminist, founded Cosmic Sister, an “underground collective” for women who understand that balance of power between genders is the only way to true sustainability—a system in which all parties (human and non-human) thrive. Educational advocacy projects championing women’s frontline voices are a core concept in Cosmic Sister’s approach to creating positive change. Through these projects, Zoe emphasizes our responsibility—as Earth’s apex predator—to evolve ethically. Cosmic Sister’s educational advocacy projects include a trio of psychedelic feminism grants—Women of the Psychedelic Renaissance, Cosmic Sisters of Cannabis and the merit-based immersive Plant Spirit Grant—promote sacred plants (and fungi) such as ayahuasca, cannabis, peyote, and psilocybin mushrooms and our fundamental human right to journey with them. Zoe’s work in the field is focused on how exploring the wilderness of our own psyches with these natural allies can be a profoundly self-liberating experience for females in male-dominated cultures. She also speaks out for cannabis as a sacred plant for journeying and an “ambassador” for promoting the greater plant medicine conversation.

Zoe’s work has been featured in Bust, Vice, Forbes, Outside Magazine, Boston Magazine, Wisdom Daily, Utne Reader, AlterNet, Newsday and others, and her articles and interviews have been published in LA Yoga, Boston Yoga, Utne Reader, Huffington Post, Organic Spa Magazine, Eco Salon, Organic Authority and more. She has presented to audiences ranging from top-tier corporate executives to nonprofit organizations and women’s empowerment gatherings. Most recently, she led a psychedelic feminism talking circle at Bastyr University, and taught about Psychedelic Feminism: Core Concepts and Key Stages for Plant Spirit Journeying and Global Sustainable Medicinal Plant Trade at the 30th Anniversary of Rosemary Gladstar’s Women’s Herbal Conference. For the past decade, Zoe has traveled to remote regions of the globe with her husband, ethnobotanist and Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham, to promote medicinal plants (including sacred plants), environmental protection and cultural preservation and bear witness to the state of women, wilderness and wildlife. She also supports media professionals in communicating messages around global sustainable plant medicine and has worked with NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, The Dr. Oz Show and many others.

For the past decade, Zoe Helene has traveled to remote regions of the globe with her husband and partner Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham, to promote medicinal plants, environmental protection and cultural preservation.

For more information, see www.cosmicsister.com. (@CosmicSister)

#women #psychedelics #psychedelicfeminism #cosmicsister

Be sure to check out our new online course, “Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration”

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Kyle and Joe – Life, Death, and DMTx

Life Death and DMTx - Joe Moore and Kyle Buller

DMTx

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The summer has been busy for us at Psychedelics Today. We have been working hard on launching our new online course, “Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration.” Beside lining interviews up for the podcast, we have been recording video interviews/master classes for the course. Since we just launched the course this week, we figured that would check in and just talk about what’s been going on.

This conversation takes off with Joe and Kyle discussing the recent DMTx event that took place last month in Boulder, Colorado. During this talk, we both speculate the risks and concerns of this research as well as the potential benefit. With the conversation revolving around DMT and extended-state DMT research, the discussion heads down the rabbit hole for a bit and we explore the global crisis, climate change, future uses of DMT, alien worlds and alternative dimensions, and more!

We also highlight the recent death of Baylee Ybarra Gatlin, who passed away at the Lightening in a Bottle festival during Memorial Day Weekend. The autopsy report suggests that Gatlin passed due to “Acute LSD Toxicity.” Many condolences to the Ms. Gatlin’s family and friends.

It is very unlikely that Gatlin died from “Acute LSD Toxicity,” but rather most likely from ingesting another substance like 25i-NBOMe. Tragic situations, like these, really stress the importance of substance testing. It seems that with the rise of research chemicals, adulterations in substances, and drugs laced with fentanyl one can never be 100% certain of what they are actually ingesting. If you have the time to ingest, you have the time to test. Get a test kit today.

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of the show!

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes/Links – DMTx

Psychedelic Shine with Andrew Galimore – Cyber DMT

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Vilmarie Narloch PsyD – Harm Reduction and Policy

Vilmarie Narloch, PsyD - Students for Sensible Drug Policy

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We have an awesome time speaking with SSDP’s Drug Education Manager, Dr. Vilmarie Narloch. Vilmarie is making a big difference with drug safety in the US and internationally with SSDP’s education program ‘Just Say Know.’

During the show we discuss Vilmarie’s work with policy around the Good Samaritan laws and other impressive and impactful harm reduction projects. We also discuss some of the pressure from various elements in the government regressing rules, like some law enforcement offices refusing to use Narcannaloxone to help save the lives of people overdosing.

This episode is a dose of compassion and gives perspective about the different impacts from the drug war and prohibition.

If you are a student who wishes to get involved in drug policy work, please check out the work that SSDP is doing. If you do not have a chapter at your school or university, start one today!

Vilmarie also joins us in our course Navigating Psychedelics for a master class featuring harm reduction strategies and more. Be sure to sign up today to learn more from Vilmarie and many others!Navigating Psychedelics

About Students For Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is the only international network of students dedicated to ending the war on drugs. At its heart, SSDP is a grassroots organization, led by a student-run Board of Directors. We create change by bringing young people together and creating safe spaces for students of all political and ideological stripes to have honest conversations about drugs and drug policy. Founded in 1998, SSDP is comprised of thousands of members at hundreds of campuses in countries around the globe.

About Just Say Know

Just Say Know is a series of drug education modules aimed at promoting open and honest dialogue around commonly used substances. The program aims to equip young people with harm reduction tools and skills as it relates to the specific substance, but can be applied to substance use generally.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy believes that students should be an overall part of any campus and community prevention and intervention strategy. Our SSDP Peer Education program seeks to empower students in our network to analyze the relationship between drug policy and drug use by providing evidence-based drug information, teaching students to recognize and address dangerous behaviors and unhealthy attitudes, and promoting prosocial and harm reduction oriented behaviors and attitudes.

Show Notes/Links

Vilmarie Narloch PsyD. – Bio

Vilmarie Narloch, PsyD., is the Drug Education Manager at Students for Sensible Drug Policy. In this role, Vilmarie oversees the development and implementation of the SSDP Peer Education program, which is a training program for SSDP Members to become certified to deliver our drug education program, Just Say Know, to their peers. Vilmarie is passionate about reforming drug education in the U.S. and abroad, and has dedicated years of study on the topic for her dissertation. Vilmarie has taken on this position because as an organization driven by students with exceptional knowledge on drug policy and other drug use related issues, SSDP is uniquely positioned and qualified to be developing a drug education program. Additionally, Vilmarie educates staff and the network on the current state of research and treatment issues with regard to substance use disorders and mental health. Vilmarie aims to aid in the connection of policy and practice by helping our network understand the impact of policy on access to treatment and care while utilizing the latest research.

Vilmarie earned her M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services from Saint. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology. During her time at Roosevelt, she was a graduate research assistant with Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy. Her work at ICDP included research support, report co-authorship and event planning and coordination. Vilmarie’s interests in drug education, access to treatment, and harm reduction policy and practice have led her to numerous projects, including the provision of counseling and harm reduction services to students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and DePaul University, serving as a member of the Chicago Consortium on College Alcohol Harm Reduction, a predoctoral internship in the Adult Behavioral Services department in a local public health department, and a postdoctoral fellowship in a small prviate agency, where she provided therapy for individuals, couples, families, and groups in addition to supervising interns. Additionally, Vilmarie has been an adjunct instructor teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and substance use disorder treatment. She has dedicated her studies and clinical work to advance Harm Reduction as the standard of practice for substance use disorders. In doing so, she has sought opportunities to educate others in her field about harm reduction, including her students. Vilmarie’s dissertation, titled, “What Youth Want: Developing a Drug Education Curriculum Based on Youth Guidance and Evidence-Based Principles,” inspired her to continue to advocate for effective drug education on a professional level, which led to her current position at SSDP. Additionally, Vilmarie’s next personal career goal is to become trained to deliver psychedelic psychotherapy, which she considers to be the future of psychological practice.

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Ashley Booth, M.S. – Ayahuasca, DMT, Integration, and Los Angeles

Ashley Booth

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Ashley Booth

This week we talk with Ashley Booth, co-founder of InnerSpace Integration and founder of the Aware Project: Rethinking Psychedelics. Ashley shares with us how she went from being an oceanographer to starting a psychedelic community in the Los Angeles area and also pursuing psychedelic research. We talk about how the formation and history of both the Aware Project and InnerSpace Integration, and the importance of building a psychedelic community.

We also talk about Ashley’s background in somatic practices such as Hakomi and how Hakomi can be used for integration as well as in the psychedelic space. Body psychotherapy seems to be a tool of the future for many psychotherapists who are interested in psychedelics and psychedelic research as normal talk therapy does not always address some of the underlying issues that are stored within the body.

Other Show Topics

  • Non-visual experiences with Aya
  • Not getting caught up in the story.
  • Burning Man
  • Integration groups/networks
  • Tips on getting involved in the field

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsTxzEB-XA0]

Ashley Booth Show Notes/Links

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aq_cOMsyik]

About Ashley Booth, M.S.

Ashley Booth, M.S. is a scientist, philosopher, and psychedelic ambassador. After years of working in environmental science, she experienced a radical paradigm shift through the use of psychedelics which ignited a passion for the awakening of human consciousness. Ashley uses her scientific background to break through the “war-on-drugs” rhetoric and have an intelligent and scientifically-based conversation about the safety and use of psychedelic substances. Ashley is the founder of the Aware Project: Rethinking Psychedelics (awareproject.org), which hosts educational and community-building events in Los Angeles and San Diego, California. She is also a co-founder of the InnerSpace Integration (innerspaceintegration.com), a psychedelic integration support service and harm reduction organization in Southern California. For a year and a half, she worked as a psycho-spiritual coach at Crossroads Treatment Center, supporting people through ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT experiences. She is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher and is currently training in a somatic psychotherapy approach known as the Hakomi Method. www.AshleyBooth.net

Header Photo: https://www.instagram.com/scarlet.barnett/

Check out our upcoming course, “Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration.” Sign up Today!

Navigating Psychedelics

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Daniel Pinchbeck – How Soon is Now?

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Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the new book, How Soon is Now? joins us this week to talk about the global ecological crisis, climate change, and how psychedelics may play a role in transforming human culture.

If you do believe that we are in a time of great ecological crisis, what are you doing about it? Taking action is the most important step to creating change, but are we willing to take the sacrifices and action to create change?

Daniel shares his insights about how to take action to implement change. While some of these changes may be challenging, i.e., stop traveling as much, it may be necessary to help cut carbon emissions and to slow down the global warming cycle. Or is it too late to even take action?

A recent journal article, “Lifetime experience with (classic) psychedelics predicts pro-environmental behavior through an increase in nature relatedness” states:

Our model controlled for experiences with other classes of psychoactive substances (cannabis, dissociatives, empathogens, popular legal drugs) as well as common personality traits that usually predict drug consumption and/or nature relatedness (openness to experience, conscientiousness, conservatism). Although correlational in nature, results suggest that lifetime experience with psychedelics in particular may indeed contribute to people’s pro-environmental behavior by changing their self-construal in terms of an incorporation of the natural world, regardless of core personality traits or general propensity to consume mind-altering substances. Thereby, the present research adds to the contemporary literature on the beneficial effects of psychedelic substance use on mental wellbeing, hinting at a novel area for future research investigating their potentially positive effects on a societal level.

About How Soon is Now? 


Description of his book from Amazon.com

We are on the brink of an ecological mega-crisis, threatening the future of life on earth, and our actions over the next few years may well determine the destiny of our descendants. Between a manifesto and a tactical plan of action, How Soon is Now? by radical futurist and philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck, outlines a vision for a mass social movement that will address this crisis.

Drawing on extensive research, Daniel Pinchbeck presents a compelling argument for the need for change on a global basis. The central thesis is that humanity has unconsciously self-willed ecological catastrophe to bring about a transcendence of our current condition. We are facing an initiatory ordeal on a planetary scale. We can understand that this initiation is necessary for us to evolve from one state of being – our current level of consciousness – to the next. Overcoming outmoded ideologies, we will realize ourselves as one unified being, a planetary super-organism in a symbiotic relationship with the Earth’s ecology and the entire web of life.

Covering everything from energy and agriculture, to culture, politics, media and ideology, How Soon Is Now? is ultimately about the nature of the human soul and the future of our current world. Pinchbeck calls for an intentional redesign of our current systems, transforming unjust and elitist structures into participatory, democratic, and inclusive ones. His viewpoint integrates indigenous design principles and Eastern metaphysics with social ecology and radical political thought in a new synthesis.

Show Notes/Links

Daniel’s Books

How Soon is Now?
Breaking Open The Head
2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

Check out more of Daniel’s writing: Here

About Daniel Pinchbeck

    

From Daniel Pinchbeck’s Website

I am the author of Breaking Open the Head (Broadway Books, 2002), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), Notes from the Edge Times(Tarcher/Penguin, 2010), and How Soon Is Now (Watkins, 2017). I co-founded the web magazine, Reality Sandwich, and Evolver.net, and edited the publishing imprint, Evolver Editions, with North Atlantic Books. I was featured in the 2010 documentary, 2012: Time for Change, directed by Joao Amorim and produced by Mangusta Films. I founded the think tank, Center for Planetary Culture, which produced the Regenerative Society Wiki. I hosted the talk show Mindshift on GaiamTV. My essays and articles have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Rolling Stone, ArtForum, The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, Dazed & Confused, and many other publications.

Check out our upcoming course, Navigating Psychedelics

Learn about harm reduction practices, self-care, and ways to integration your experience

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Sara Gael, M.A., Director of Harm Reduction, Zendo Project, Psychotherapist

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Sara Gael joins us on this week’s episode. Sara is the Director of Harm Reduction at the Zendo Project. We get into some great stuff including some of Zendo’s biggest wins, how Zendo works, how to discuss harm reduction with festival organizers, and how to manage difficult experiences that arise in the Zendo.  Something interesting that we learned during this talk was how law enforcement at Burning Man has really been interested in learning more about Zendo and their services, and requested Zendo to help train their staff.

Sara also shares her experience and insights working on the MAPS Phase 2 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD trials and how she got involved in psychedelic research. We also explore how transpersonal psychology can serve as an important framework for working with psychedelic experiences.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to leave us a comment below and share this episode!

The Zendo Project

The Zendo Project is sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Zendo provides harm reduction services to the community and to festivals. Zendo strives to:
  • Reduce the number of psychiatric hospitalizations and arrests.
  • Create an environment where volunteers can work alongside one another to improve their harm reduction skills and receive training and feedback.
  • Demonstrates that safe, productive psychedelic experiences are possible without the need for law enforcement-based prohibitionist policies.

Psychedelic Harm Reduction

Show Notes/Link

Sara Gael, M.A., Director of Harm Reduction, Zendo Project

Sara Gael
Sara received her Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University. She began working with MAPS in 2012, coordinating psychedelic harm reduction services at festivals and events worldwide with the Zendo Project. Sara was an Intern Therapist for the recently completed MAPS Phase 2 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in Boulder, CO. She maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Sara believes that developing a comprehensive understanding of psychedelic medicines through research and education is essential for the health and well being of individuals, communities, and the planet.

Community is an important part of integration. One of the most difficult aspects of integration is returning to a society that doesn’t understand or support psychedelic exploration. In fact, re-entering society can feel like a stark contrast between the interconnected, transpersonal state of the psychedelic experience. Therefore, one of most important tools for successful integration is a supportive, understanding community. We encourage our Guests to connect with and build supportive communities around themselves when they return home from the event. We support them in seeking professional help if necessary.

-Sara Gael, Zendo Project Coordinator
source

Sara Gael – Links

Sara’s Professional Practice site – Re-membering

Sara’s Profile on Psychology Today

Mikedelic Podcast – October 5, 2016 

Understanding and Working with Difficult Psychedelic Experiences – MAPS Bulletin

Entheogen Show – Psychedelic First Aid 

Be sure to check out our upcoming course: Navigating Psychedelics

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Cognitive Liberty, The War on Drugs, & Personal Freedom

Psychedelics Today - Cognitive Liberty, The War on Drugs, and Personal Freedom

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It is the week of the 4th of July. That means the United States is celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, breaking free from the British Empire, and becoming an independent nation.  With the holiday underway, it seems like a great time to reflect on the concept of freedom (including cognitive liberty) and what it means to each and every one of us.

In honor of Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence, here is a quote by Terence McKenna:

Terrence McKenna - Cognitive Liberty
Photo from: http://www.cannalawblog.com/they-said-it-on-marijuana-quotable-saturday-part-cxxvi/

In this episode, Joe and Kyle reflect on the concept of personal freedom, cognitive liberty, and the impact that the War on Drugs has on the American people. It seems to be the consensus that the War on Drugs is failing. The policy has huge negative consequences on people across the globe, and significantly marginalizes minority groups and people of color.

Cognitive Liberty

As psychedelic research continues to progress in the academic and scientific realm, many people are still subjected to arrest and imprisonment because of this failed policy. Kyle and Joe share their thoughts about the pursuit for cognitive liberty and personal freedom.

The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates

Do you think that exploring one’s own consciousness, whether through plants or other drugs, be illegal? Why should a person have to “ask permission” to have an experience with their own body, mind, and spirit?

Let us know your thoughts about this topic.

Joe and Kyle also talk about their new upcoming course, Navigating Psychedelics: Lessons on Self-Care & Integration. Be sure to check out this course and sign up TODAY!

We are giving away a SPECIAL offer just for the 4th of July! Receive 10% off our Earl-Bird special with the coupon code “freedom” when you check out. You do not want to miss this offer!

 

Show Links

Geoffery Schwartz presents: Cognitive Liberty and Entheogenic Freedom for ERIE

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Shane LeMaster, B.A., M.A., LAC, CC-AASP – Part 2

Shane LeMaster

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Shane LeMaster joins us again to talk about his work with veterans, enhancing human performance and traditional use of peyote. If you haven’t listened to part one, check that out first here.

Show Topics

  • Warriorship and Shambhala
  • Micro-dosing as it would apply to sports performance research
  • Flow states
  • Eckhart Tolle
  • Microdosing at JuJitsu competitions
  • High or standard dose psychedelic use at NASA
  • The difference between microdosing and normal dosages
  • Shane’s own practice
  • JuJitsu for healing trauma
  • Vets only JuJitsu class
  • Where is trauma stored
  • Insights on Peyote Integration

Show Links

About Shane LeMaster, B.A., M.A.,  LAC, CC-AASP

Bio from Mind-OPS

Shane earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, completed extensive coursework towards a Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Performance Psychology at the University of Denver, and earned his Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Exercise Psychology from Argosy University.

Shane is nationally certified as a Sport Psychology Consultant and a licensed mental health clinician in the state of Colorado.  Having worked in community non-profit mental health since 2008, Shane has gained experience working with the entire spectrum of mental disorders and with all populations and age groups.  Shane plans on attending a Ph.D program in Counseling Psychology where his interest in Resiliency, Mental Toughness, and Mindfulness Training Program Development can be explored and further developed.

He is a life-long athlete having competed at various levels in more than a dozen different sports.  Because of his passion for warrior cultures of past and present, Shane has been ardently developing his own “Warriorship,” training in various forms of Martial Arts for 25 years.  Shane feels that the self-discipline, the philosophy of non-violence, the innumerable mental and physical benefits, and the enjoyment that he gains from the Martial Arts is what helped drive his passion in the field of Psychology.

His personal interest in Eastern Philosophy stems from his adoption of a Buddhist lifestyle and blends well with his training in Western Psychological Science.  Clients describe Shane as an out-of-the-box clinician that is easy to get along with, knowledgeable on a variety of topics, credible with lived experience, and as having the ability to make therapy fun and interesting.

Interested in learning more about psychedelic self-care and integration? Check out and sign up for our new online course!

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Shane LeMaster, B.A., M.A., LAC, CC-AASP – Peyote, Veterans and Flow States

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Shane LeMaster joins us to talk about his work with veterans, enhancing human performance and traditional use of peyote.

Show Topics
  • Psychedelics and martial arts.
  • Martial arts / JuJitsu for Veterans.
    • Exposure therapy
  • Flow states and psychedelics.
  • Psychedelic Integration and groups.
  • Opinions on MDMA being a psychedelic drug or not.
  • Doing work with veterans and gaining their trust for therapeutic relationships.
  • Traditional approaches to ayahuasca.
  • First hand accounts of what the Peyote world is like.
  • Shifting away from the predominant Newtonian Cartesian paradigm after psychedelic use and understanding that we know very little about what is really happening here in the world.
  • Sustainability in the Peyote habitat.
Show Links

About Shane LeMaster, B.A., M.A.,  LAC, CC-AASP

Bio from Mind-OPS

Shane earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, completed extensive coursework towards a Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Performance Psychology at the University of Denver, and earned his Master of Arts Degree in Sport & Exercise Psychology from Argosy University.

Shane is nationally certified as a Sport Psychology Consultant and a licensed mental health clinician in the state of Colorado.  Having worked in community non-profit mental health since 2008, Shane has gained experience working with the entire spectrum of mental disorders and with all populations and age groups.  Shane plans on attending a Ph.D program in Counseling Psychology where his interest in Resiliency, Mental Toughness, and Mindfulness Training Program Development can be explored and further developed.

He is a life-long athlete having competed at various levels in more than a dozen different sports.  Because of his passion for warrior cultures of past and present, Shane has been ardently developing his own “Warriorship,” training in various forms of Martial Arts for 25 years.  Shane feels that the self-discipline, the philosophy of non-violence, the innumerable mental and physical benefits, and the enjoyment that he gains from the Martial Arts is what helped drive his passion in the field of Psychology.

His personal interest in Eastern Philosophy stems from his adoption of a Buddhist lifestyle and blends well with his training in Western Psychological Science.  Clients describe Shane as an out-of-the-box clinician that is easy to get along with, knowledgeable on a variety of topics, credible with lived experience, and as having the ability to make therapy fun and interesting.

Interested in learning more about psychedelic self-care and integration? Check out and sign up for our new online course!

 

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Leia Friedman – The Boston Entheogenic Network and Tips on Creating a Psychedelic Group

Leia Friedman

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In this episode, Kyle talks with Leia Friedman, co-founder of the Boston Entheogenic Network (BEN) and also known as “The Psychedologist.” Kyle recently was invited to facilitate an “Introduction to Transpersonal Breathwork” workshop for BEN. Joe also was in town for the weekend and presented a talk about “Breathwork, Psychedelics, and Ecological Collapse.” It was a great psychedelic weekend in Massachusetts.

After the workshop, Kyle had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Leia about her interests in the psychedelic field, feminism and eco-feminism, and how she got involved with starting a psychedelic group in Boston. She provides some helpful tips and advice for creating/starting your own local group.

Tips for starting your own psychedelic group:

  • First, what is the point of the group?
  • What is the purpose or mission?
  • Learn about your local laws and the legal risks
  • Do not condone or facilitate illegal activity
  • Go slow
  • Find the others to help you out
  • Check in with yourself and the other members of the group
  • Protect your members
  • Start online to gain awareness and then start an in-person meet up

Sign up below to get your FREE download “How to Create Your Own Psychedelic Group”

We hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what you think!

Leia Friedman
Kyle and Leia holding space for the breathwork circle
Leia Friedman
Breathwork on the river.
Leia Friedman
Joe and Kyle presenting, “Breathwork, Psychedelics, and Ecological Collapse” in Lowell, MA, USA

Show Notes/Links

About Leia Friedman

Leia Friedman is a professor, clinician, writer and the cofounder of Boston Entheogenic Network. Her present focus is an amalgamation of psychology, ecology, and experiences of altered consciousness as tools for deeper self-understanding. She is also involved in local social and climate justice activism, alphabet soup, and body positivity.

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Allison Pelissier – Lucia N°03 Light Experience

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In this episode, Kyle talks with Allison Pelissier, of The Traveling Light Machine, about the Lucia N°03 Hypnagogic Light Machine. It turns out it is very powerful and induces powerful visions in some.

During Kyle’s recent trip to Vermont, he met a fellow fan of the podcast, Grant, at the recent Dreamshadow Holotropic Breathwork retreat. While meeting Grant felt like a synchronicity, it led Kyle to experience the Lucia N°03 with Allison. Kyle shares his experience with the hypnagogic light machine in this episode while Allison discusses the background and development of this this fascinating piece of technology. Be sure to continue below to learn more about the Lucia N°03, get show notes/links, and to find out more about Allison’s work.

Consider leaving us a comment to let us know what you think about the episode.

About The Lucia N°03 Hypnagogic Light Machine

The Lucia N°03 was developed in Austria by clinical psychologist Dr. EngelbertWinkler and medical neurologist Dr. Dirk Proeckl.

It is important to note that the Lucia N°03 is not a medical device. Rather it is a therapeutic light meditation. That is, it helps light travelers achieve a state of effortless meditation. It is not in competition with, nor a replacement for pharmaceutical drugs, clinical therapy, or any other medical intervention. It is a journey into consciousness.

The Lucia N°03 gently entrains the brain, stimulates the pineal gland and opens up a beautiful space for visionary exploration.

The Lucia N°03 helps clear the mind and allow even beginning meditators to reach a space of peace quickly. It is not a replacement for a meditation practice but quite the opposite – it encourages people to meditate by realizing how powerful the practice can be and gives them the confidence (and roadmap) to get there on their own. As the Lucia is both a stimulation (through light), and a relaxation (through brain entrainment), it helps the individual learn to let go in stressful situations, rather than resist and make things even more difficult. The Lucia N°03 also uses a wide spectrum of light which has been reported to have a great impact for people with both seasonal affective disorder and other types of depression.

Source: The Traveling Light Machine Facebook 

The Lucia light experience is different for each person, as it works with each person’s individual system and has a balancing effect. Everyone feels more clear and centered after an experience, while some people feel more energized or deeply relaxed.

Source: iReVibe

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAjhrhsAsmA]

 

Links

Source: The Traveling Light Machine Facebook 

About Allison Pelissier

    

Dedicated to assisting in the expansion of consciousness of humanity, Allison is a lightworker that is both a clairvoyant and ambassador for the Lucia N°03 light experience. Allison has a MA in International Education and Development and a BA in Political Economics. She also holds a 200 hr Yoga Teaching Certification, a Children’s Yoga Teaching Certification and has worked across the world in many different capacities as an academic teacher, textbook author, meditation and yoga teacher, project manager and developer and light ambassador.
The Lucia N°03 light experience peaked Allison’s interest after her first experience at Light Eye Mind Gallery in London, UK. She traveled deeply into her own mind and memories and emerged from the experience feeling like she had come back to herself in a way she would never have suspected could be possible. Her experience helped her shift from a state of depression and PTSD to an ability to sleep through the night and wake up with a sense of joy again.
Feeling a strong calling to work with the Lucia N°03, Allison purchased her own lamp and started touring around the US with Traveling Light Machine project, aiming to bring the experience to wherever the light was called. The most moving part of the experience for Allison is that as a light ambassador she holds space for people to have their own experiences. She strongly believes that we cannot help anyone, but rather hold space for them to see and love themselves.
Currently Allison travels around the US and the world with her partner in business and love, Zachary Noel, sharing the Lucia N°03 light experience.
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Jag Davies – Drug Policy Alliance

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The MAPS Psychedelic Science 2017 conference was the largest psychedelic conference in history to date. It is an exciting time to be part of the movement and to get involved in the field. There is a push to legalize psychedelics for therapy and to recognize these substances as medicine. While the field needs the science and research to legitimize psychedelics as medicines to treat various disorders, but the change in status does not mean access for everyone. This is not to discourage the research or science, we acknowledge that it is important, but rather it is to help educate the public that the change in status does not mean psychedelics will be legal for recreational use.

There may be a misconception floating around that once MDMA or psilocybin becomes medicine there will be greater access. This is not entirely true according to Jag Davies. The criminalization of psychedelic substances will continue despite the health and clinical applications. Jag and the DPA strive to help move drug policy away from a criminalization approach and help to move it towards a more health-based approach.

In this episode, we talk with Jag Davies, Communication Strategy Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). Jag provides us with his insights about the current state of psychedelics, psychedelic research, and other drug laws. Jag also talks about his work with the DPA and what the DPA’s mission is. We discuss drug policy, advocacy, harm reduction, scheduling vs penalty, racism, and so much more.

One of the best things to do to get involved is to help spread the word about the healing potential of psychedelic medicines and substances. The policy around these substances are constantly changing and new issues are always arising. We talk a lot about privilege in this episode, and how being in a privileged position makes it easier to speak about experiences with psychedelics or other substances.

Another great way to get involved is connecting with the Drug Policy Alliance. There is a wonderful drug reform conference coming up and that is also a great way to get your foot in the door with this work.  The Reform Conference is happening in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 11th-14th. If you do not think you can attend, try applying for the scholarship, which ends June 9th.

About the Drug Policy Alliance

 

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation’s leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
Our supporters are individuals who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. Together we advance policies that reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and seek solutions that promote safety while upholding the sovereignty of individuals over their own minds and bodies. We work to ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and otherwise harm millions – particularly young people and people of color who are disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
Mission and Vision of the Drug Policy Alliance

The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Our mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.

  

Show Notes/Links

About Jag Davies

From Drug Policy Alliance:

As director of communications strategy, Jag Davies works with communications, program, development and senior management staff to oversee production of all DPA publications and to facilitate best practices in the implementation of the organization’s messaging and brand identity.  Davies manages a team that includes DPA’s research coordinator and communications coordinator, as well as external consultant relationships with writers, designers, and multimedia content producers.

Davies also plays a key role in DPA’s media work.  He is regularly quoted in a wide range of media outlets and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC.com, CNN.com, and dozens of regional and online publications.

Davies has more than a decade of professional experience working to establish drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.  Before joining the organization, he served as director of communications for MAPS, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company conducting clinical trials aimed at developing marijuana and certain psychedelic drugs into federally-approved prescription medicines.  Davies also previously served as policy researcher for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Drug Law Reform Project (now known as the Criminal Law Reform Project), where he coordinated local, state, federal, and international efforts to end punitive drug policies that cause the widespread violation of constitutional and human rights.

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Julie Megler MSN, NP-BC – ERIE, Mental Health, and Integration

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In this episode, Kyle and Joe talk with Julie Megler from Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE) about psychedelics and integration. We learn about the work and mission of ERIE, and how Julie got involved/interested in psychedelics. Integration is a growing concern in the psychedelic world.  We continue the conversation by having Julie on the show to learn more about her work.  Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think!

About Erie

ERIE is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the sharing of entheogenic and transpersonal knowledge in a non-hierarchical, community based format, located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We offer a platform for entheogenic research, integration and education. ERIE is not only a hub of integration information for entheogenic and transpersonal experiences, we also host peer integration circles to facilitate meaning-making and community building. We host monthly educational events including symposiums, forums, and conferences on varied topics surrounding entheogenic research and activism.
We are dedicated to supporting cognitive liberty by offering a learning environment to support grassroots education and outreach on the topics of integration and entheogenic potentials.

Mission

The Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE) mission:
1) Review and conduct research on the use of traditional plant medicines, and their modern analogs, for creativity, healing, personal growth, and spiritual exploration

2) Develop integration methods that combine new research with existing, tested practices to help people incorporate extraordinary experiences into their lives

3) Articulate a new educational paradigm that honors and draws upon the vast Indigenous knowledge of plant and fungi kingdoms, then envisions new applications of it within contemporary Western contexts

4) Create a forum for the responsible discussion of these topics.

Links

Julie Megler, MSN, NP-BC

*Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner * Trained in Somatic Experiencing * Shipibo/Vegetalista Dieta Experience*

Julie is a board certified nurse practitioner in psychiatry and family medicine. She received her Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Miami, Florida and post master’s certificate in psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco. Julie maintains licenses in family medicine and psychiatry in an effort to close the gap between medical and psychiatric care, incorporating the mind/body connection for most effective treatment. She currently is in private practice in the San Francisco/Bay Area.

Her practice focuses on integrative mental health services for emotional and physical well being, as well as integration of non-ordinary states of consciousness. In addition to her clinical work, Julie is on the board of directors of ERIE (Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education). She has presented on the topics of psychedelic risk reduction, integration, and therapeutic applications of ayahuasca at the Psychedelic Science Conference 2013 & 2017, The Women’s Visionary Congress, Detroit’s First Entheogenic Conference, and the Visionary Convergence 2015.

She has also co-authored chapters in the books Manifesting Minds and The Therapeutic Uses of Ayahuasca. As an experienced clinician, and activist for the psychedelic movement, Julie is dedicated to educating the community about safety and the therapeutic benefits of entheogens. Her particular emphasis on integration assists individuals to develop practices that bring insights from entheogenic work to daily life. You can learn more about Julie’s work at erievision.org & mindfulnp.com.

Julie has done many ayahuasca sessions and other plant work as well. This along with her medical provider practice as a nurse practitioner in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is able to speak about psychedelic integration from a unique perspective with her background. We think you will really enjoy this episode and please let us know what you think.

 

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Sherree Malcolm Godasi – The Psychedelic Integration Coach

Sherree Malcolm Godasi

As psychedelics and plant medicines continue to gain mainstream attention, more and more people are becoming interested in having their own experience. While many people travel outside their home country to experience ayahuasca legally in a retreat setting, many people are participating in ceremonies in the “underground” all over the world. Attending a festival, large or small, is also a very common place for people to experiment with psychedelic substances. This new wave of psychedelic use is almost like a new rites of passage for many. Two parts of any rites of passage is the preparation and integration of the experience. Sherree Malcolm Godasi can and does help.

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Sherree Malcolm Godasi - The Psychedelic Integration Coach

We talk with Sherree Malcolm Godasi about her work with psychedelic preparation and integration. As she mentions on her site, Psychedelic Integration Coach:

Preparation for ceremony and ongoing, post-ceremony integration of the lessons shown by Ayahuasca are all about developing the physiological and psychological flexibility that would enable the drinker to surrender to her awesome, wise spirit. It is also about harnessing the time, effort and resources put into ceremony work to ensure that the healing is anchored and cultivated in the default life. The diligent preparation stage aims to cleanse the mind, body and energetic field and opens the drinker to receive, and is most beneficial when started a month in advance.

Following the ceremony, as the lessons from La Medicina – THE Medicine – will keep unfolding for weeks, months and even years later, a mindful integration stage of minimum 3 months is recommended. This intentional awareness surrounding the experience allows you to successfully retain the positively life-changing connection with Mother Ayahuasca long after you exit the jungle and return to your home environment – this is how miracles turn into your reality.

Ayahuasca

What type of services does Sherree Offer?
  • Information addressing your concerns about the use of psychedelic substances/entheogens based on contemporary scientific research, ancient medicine teachings, my academic studies, professional training and personal experience
  • Support and guidance to those who are experiencing challenging and adverse effects related to psychedelic substances
  • Support and guidance to those who are undergoing a spiritual emergence or spiritual emergency, due to the use of psychedelic substances or otherwise
  • Educational tools to individuals who wish to learn how to support others who have experienced/are experiencing altered states.
What type of services does Sherree NOT offer?
  • Plant medicines or psychedelic substances of any kind, or advice on where/how to acquire them
  • Psychedelic therapy sessions, guided medicine journeys, or ceremonies involving plant medicines or psychedelic substances
  • References to facilitators or centers who provide psychedelics/medicine sessions
  • Recommendations for using any plant medicines/psychedelic substances
  • Psychotherapy or other clinical mental health services, medical services, evaluations or diagnosis, or legal services.

Work with Sherree: The Psychedelic Integration Coach

Ayahuasca
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jairinflas/11949706744/

Sign up for our online school on Teachable

Currently offering our “Psychedelic Integration & Self-Care” Course!

 

Show Notes/Links

About Sherree Malcolm Godasi

Sherree Malcolm Godasi

Sherree Malcolm Godasi, “The Psychedelic Integration Coach”, lends a passionate philosophy about mindful integration of the psychedelic experience as an enriching self-care practice and a harm reduction technique. She holds a Master’s in psychology specializing in Psychedelic Integration Therapy with a focus on spiritual/depth theories, is a certified senior Psychedelic Integration and Addiction Recovery Coach at Being True To You and is trained in Spiritual Emergence. She also co-leads ayahuasca healing retreats to Peru, incorporating a preparation and post-retreat integration program. Her approach draws from transpersonal, mindfulness and shamanic healing modalities to fuse ancient wisdom with modern & practical practices. At this psychedelic renaissance she hopes to educate towards a responsible engagement with entheogens to cultivate a connection with our inner healer and live that psychedelic feeling.
Social Media Links
     

 

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Ibogaine Therapy – David Stetson – Oka Center Iboga

Oka Ibogaine Therapy - David Stetson

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David Stetson – Oka Center Ibogaine – Ibogaine Therapy

IBOGAINE and  AYAHUASCA in the MAYAN YUCATÁN

Kyle and Joe discuss iboga and ibogaine with David Stetson who runs Oka Ibogaine Center in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. David was a wonderful guest on the show and we had a lovely talk that was very broad. We discussed the ecological issues surrounding iboga and ibogaine therapy, as well as the differences between the more traditional model and the clinical model of administering these medicines. Oka has recently started offering ayahuasca retreats as well.Iboga.jpg

We also get to talk about the idea of psychedelic aftercare facilities and they are substantial importance for people requiring serious psychedelic work to heal. When healing, going back to your old life is often not the best decision. The inpatient rehab model is something that we should really look at. The Holistic House in the Las Vegas area is one successful model and we are very excited about it.

We hope you enjoy the episode and reach out if you have any questions or comments.

Our place is a marriage of two different worlds: While we respect and utilize western clinical protocols for safety and detox success, we love and live by our numerous and ongoing experiences with the traditional use of these master plants in Africa and Peru.

Links from the show

 

About David Stetson

David’s passion has been Bwiti since his Iboga initiation in 2007. It’s his privilege to be sharing this medicine with people in need.   

David is extensively well-traveled in Gabon, Africa where he is known as Okukwe.  During his time in Gabon he learned Bwiti traditions, music, and ceremonial practices and is proficient on both the moungongo (musical bow) and ngombi (harp) instruments.      

David views Bwiti and Ibogaine as a lifeway that champions communion with others while also empowering the individual.  His approach to working and healing with others starts with the awareness of alienation and isolation as common and appropriate responses to our western culture, and is based in nonjudgement.     

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Psychedelic Science 17 Recap

Psychedelic Science 17

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Psychedelic Science 17 in Review

We discuss our recent trip to MAPS‘s Psychedelic Science 2017. It was incredibly fun and we loved being able to connect with so many with this shared interest. Many attendees are actively working to progress the case of psychedelic substances.

This was the largest psychedelic conference ever in recorded history attended by over 3000 people from 42 countries. There were discussions around ayahuasca, peyote, DMT, salvia, MDMA and many other substances. Some of the most interesting discussions were around ibogaine treating people with addiction. Turns out there are far more things that can be treated with ibogaine than simply opiate addiction.

I was very excited to discuss drug testing and harm reduction with the people from DanceSafe. We were also able to check out some really interesting technology – lights and music – that triggered some of the most intense visuals of my life.  Illuminated SF put that demonstration together. It is highly recommend.

The experience of Psychedelic Science 17 was so incredible and encouraging that I cannot wait to go to the next one. Being around the movement was truly humbling and gratifying. Connecting with people from as far as Brussels, Poland and Hong Kong gave extra context to how far and wide this movement is spreading and that there is real depth in the movement.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you want to connect with us please feel free to reach out using the contact page. If you want to stay in touch with us please join our mailing list and we will send some interesting links to you on a semi regular basis.

Links

https://www.solarwolfenergy.com/

MAPS.org – Support Psychedelic Science

MAPS made available a tremendous amount of the talks for free on youtube. You should spend some time digging through the talks for things you may find very interesting.

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Psychedelics, Philosophy, Transhumanism and Peter Sjöstedt-H

Psychedelic Philosophy and Peter Sjöstedt-H

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Peter is a psychedelic philosopher focusing on panpsychism, psychedelics, Whitehead, Nietzsche and some other heavy weights. We discuss Peter’s psychedelic philosophy and influences from psychedelic liberty cap mushrooms found in a field in England, his influence on the famous comic author Warren Ellis, his essay Neo-Nihilism, transhumanism and much more. We really look forward to having Peter on the show again in the future!

Show Notes/links

Whitehead Quotes

‘The terms morality, logic, religion, art, have each of them been claimed as exhausting the whole meaning of importance. Each of them denotes a subordinate species. But the genus stretches beyond any finite group of species.’ (MT)

‘Philosophy is an attempt to express the infinity of the universe in terms of the limitations of language.’ (Autobiog.)

‘The doctrines which best repay critical examination are those which for the longest period have remained unquestioned.’ (MT)

‘[I]n the development of intelligence there is a great principle which is often forgotten. In order to acquire learning, we must first shake ourselves free of it. We must grasp the topic in the rough, before we smooth it out and shape it.’ (MT)

More on Peter’s site here 

Peter’s Social Media

Instagram
Twitter
Facebook

Warren Ellis

The Brink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyMbQAgiVc

About Peter

Peter Sjöstedt-H is an Anglo-Scandinavian philosopher who specialises in the thought of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Whitehead within the fields of Philosophy of Mind and Metaphysics – especially with regard to panpsychism and altered states of sentience. Peter received a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Continental Philosophy from the University of Warwick, where he was awarded a first-class distinction for his dissertation on Kant and Schelling in relation to ‘intellectual intuition’. He subsequently became a Philosophy Lecturer in London for six years but is now engaged in his PhD at Exeter University where he also teaches philosophy modules and writing skills. Peter is the author of Noumenautics and an inspiration behind the new inhuman philosopher Marvel Superhero, Karnak.

In the words of futurist, philosopher and pop star Alexander Bard: ‘One of our favourite contemporary philosophers, Peter Sjöstedt-H…think a psychedelic Nietzsche’.

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MDMA – The Underground Continued – More Confessions of an Underground Therapist

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Kyle and Joe recently chatted with a second therapist who works underground. Trained as a traditional therapist, this therapist integrates MDMA work into her practice with selective clients. She has been mentored by a teacher who has done this work for a very long period of time. She has a community of therapists around her providing support.

MDMA is not a typical psychedelic drug but it is the focus of most of MAPS’s efforts in the Psychedelic Psychotherapy world. Psychedelic therapy is THE frontier of psychology. Therapists like Selina are on the vanguard of these therapies. By working underground they have great risks (legal) and advantages (huge amounts of healing for their patients).

Why are we waiting? We are in a mental health crisis, far too many people are suffering and committing suicide. If one compares this to any recent “outbreak” the numbers certainly make sense to fast track MDMA as a viable therapy for PTSD and other disorders.

We want to keep interviewing people doing underground work, so please send them our way for interviews. We are going to be able to provide anonymity for those that want it, so feel free to ask about this if you want it.

Enjoy!!

MDMA Therapist – Show Notes

We will not provide any information about this therapist. Please do not email/contact us about therapy sessions or gaining information about the therapist. These interviews are anonymous and private. We can provide general advice. We will not provide any information about this or other anonymous guests of the show. Thanks for understanding! 

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Kevin Franciotti – Psychedelic Therapy, Iboga and Journalism

Iboga researcher and advocate - Kevin Franciotti

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Kevin is a science writer, graduate student researcher and aspiring clinician, harm reduction educator and substance use recovery advocate. Kyle and Joe talk to him about loads of topics including early Iboga therapies, an early Boston Ibogaine Conference, his approach to journalism and his future aspirations to do future clinical work and research.

Kevin’s website

Kevin’s writing

Staff Writer (Fall 2012–Spring 2013) – NuScience Magazine, Northeastern University

Links

Autism
20-25 mg Psilocybin
200 mcg – LSD

A Conversation Between Gary Fisher and Myron Stolaroff (2004) – Psychedelic Salon

2009 Ibogaine Conference Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.

Alicia Danforth Ph.D -Dissertation

National Geographic – Breakthrough season 2

About Kevin:

Kevin graduated from Northeastern University in 2013 with a degree in neuroscience. As an undergraduate he completed an internship as a research assistant at Harvard Medical School working on the Phase 2 dose-response study investigating the therapeutic potential of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of cancer related anxiety. Kevin was also one of the founders of the Northeastern chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and in 2009 the group hosted and co-sponsored the Boston Ibogaine Forum. He now lives in New York City where he is enrolled in a clinical psychology graduate program at The New School for Social Research and is pursuing a doctoral degree. Kevin has worked part-time for the Drug Policy Alliance, and also works as a writer covering topics related to psychedelic therapy, addiction, and mental health advocacy. His recent contributions include: New Scientist, Reason.com, Reset.me, Reality Sandwich, and VICE.com.

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Lex Pelger – Endocannabinoids and the Blue Dot Tour

Lex Pelger - Psychedelic writer and thinker

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Psymposia’s MC and Host, Lex Pelger, joins us again on Psychedelics Today to talk about Psymposia’s upcoming Blue Dot Tour. Lex also talks about his graphic novel about cannabis, the endocannabinoid system, and the War on Weed.

What is the Blue Dot Tour?

(From Psymposia.com)

The Blue-Dot Tour is our two-month open-mic Psychedelic Stories road trip across the continent starting on the way to the Psymposia Stage Psychedelic Science 2017 in Oakland.

Our goal is to hit blue cities in red states that serve as such pressure cookers of activism, education, and art. But also blue cities in blue states, red towns in red states, purple villages in green states, and anywhere we can find a host from Mexico to Canada.

We’ll also be screening Robert Barnhart’s excellent film ‘A New Understanding – the Science of Psilocybin.’

Blue Dot Tour Dates (Subject to Change)

For the most up-to-date schedule check out the schedule at Psymposia.com 

4/21-23 Psychedelic Science
4/26 Los Angeles, CA
4/27 San Diego, CA

Don’t see your city on the tour schedule? Reach out to Psymposia to host them in your town/city for an event: hi@psymposia.com

Show Notes/Links
About Lex Pelger:

Lex is Host of Psymposia. He’s also a drug writer and scientist based in Brooklyn.

His current project, Anandamide or: the Cannabinoid a graphic novel about cannabis (based on Moby Dick), illustrates the beauties of the endocannabinoid system (the Whale), the brutalities of the racist War on Weed (Ahab), and the staggering benefits of medical marijuana to ease the aging of our grandparents

He graduated from Boston University with a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

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Ed of Psychedelic Milk- Drugs, Hong Kong, Trump, & Trickster Medicine

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In this episode, Joe and Kyle chat with Ed Liu of the podcast, Psychedelic Milk. It has been great to connect with other folks that host podcasts, and are doing whatever they can to spread the message about psychedelics and the psychedelic movement. We really enjoyed talking with Ed and appreciated his honesty as well as the conversations he is bringing to the field.

Show Notes

PsychedelicMilk.com is an independent media collective that takes a deeper look into the world of psychedelics through interviews and discussions. Our mission is to bring more awareness and understanding to alternative medicine and different ways of thinking to our our audiences through young and exciting ways. Psychedelic Milk also aims to investigate old and new consciousness opening technologies to see what roles they can play in our modern world. We believe psychedelic technologies are not just limited to plant medicines, but can be accessed through meditation, movement, knowledge, and many more. If you like the podcast, leave us a review on iTunes! (will help us tremendously)

          

About Ed Liu

Ed Liu is a podcast host and a music producer – previously charted on the Beatport Top 100. He is currently the host of the Psychedelic Milk podcast, a long form conversational interview with interesting and influential guests from all over the world to discuss topics of consciousness, psychedelics, and new emerging technologies.

 

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Paul Austin – Psychedelia and The Third Wave – Psychedelic Media

Psychedelia Podcast - The Third Wave - Psychedelic

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Kyle and Joe speak with, Paul Austin, psychedelic educator, founder of The Third Wave and Psychedelia. Paul is a super fun guy to talk to. He tours both in the US and internationally to speak about microdosing. Microdosing is becoming incredibly popular and seems to be making psychedelics more popular in the mainstream. Microdosing can help with creativity, therapy and many other things without any of the burden of a “full” dose.

What is the psychedelic Third Wave? Paul describes it as:Psychedelia Podcast - The Third Wave - Psychedelic

A new era of psychedelic use. It is an era of psychedelic use defined by practical, measured use for specific purposes. It is an era, not for ‘dropping-out’ of society, but for integrating psychedelics into the mainstream. It is an era, not to fear psychedelics for their possible negative repercussions, but to embrace psychedelics for their tremendous upside.

Some insight from DR. JAMES FADIMAN
“For some people, it is helpful to identify your goals. Your goals may be spiritual: to have direct experience with aspects of your tradition or another tradition, to transcend prior beliefs, even to transcend belief itself. You may hope to have what is called a “unity experience,” in which there is no separation between your identity and all else. Your goals may be social: to improve relationships with your spouse, children, siblings, parents, colleagues, friends, and spiritual and secular institutions. Your goals may be psychological: to find insight into neurotic patterns, phobias, or unresolved anger or grief.”

We get into some great psychedelic topics such as:

About Paul Austin:

As an entrepreneur and avid psychedelic explorer, Paul believes in the power of rational dialogue and community engagement in stripping Paul Austin - Psychedelic Educator away the stigma around psychedelic use.

He understands the power of responsible psychedelic use in aiding psycho-spiritual development, and believes in sharing this message with others.

When not ruminating on his next psychedelic project, Paul enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time outside.

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Psychedelic Shine – Boulder Theater Featuring Dennis McKenna

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Joe talks about his recent experience at the Psychedelic Shine event in Boulder CO that featured Dennis McKenna.

Super fun time and was very thankful to connect with the Colorado Psychedelic community.

 

Here are some links to some folks I ran into at the event.

Dennis’s book

Links

Antlife

Psychedelic Club

The Rooster – Reilly Caps

Trichome Institute  (Max)

Kimba Arem

Knew Revolution

 

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Kyle and Joe review a new documentary – The Sunshine Makers

The Sunshine Makers - Review by Psychedelics Today

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Joe and Kyle talk at length about the recently produced documentary titled “The Sunshine Makers” created by Cosmo Feilding-Mellen and starring both Nick Sand and Tim Scully.

Let us know what you think about this and if it was interesting to you at all. Please rent or purchase the documentary through our amazon link here to support Psychedelics Today.

The Movie
Amazon – rent or buy

IMDB

Links 

Tim Scully

Nick Sand

Orange Sunshine

Brotherhood of Eternal Love

 

Video of Kyle and Joe recording this discussion

 

 

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Confessions of an Underground MDMA Therapist

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Kyle and Joe talk to an anonymous MDMA therapist and relationship coach. He has been working with people while they use MDMA beginning in the early days while it was still legal and continues to facilitate work with people while it is prohibited.

For his safety, his identity is kept anonymous. The insights here are wonderful and worth learning. Hopefully you will learn something here and it can be applied to future therapies once we hit the 2021 MAPS target date.

Some interesting thoughts from the interview:

  • Transcending the parent-child relationship.
  • We are human beings that can be in good relationship with one another.
  • Do I feel safe? What does it mean to feel safe?
  • Appropriate dosages.
  • Intuitive approaches for engaging with the client patient.
  • Possible applications for group therapy.

Enjoy!!

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

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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 Values. Tom 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

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Psychedelics Today – Kyle and Joe – Year End Recap

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It is the start of a New Year. People are saying 2016 has been pretty horrible, but 2016 has been pretty decent in regards to psychedelic science and research. We are hoping that 2017 will be a fruitful year as well.

In this episode Kyle and Joe run through the year in review — thoughts about the podcast and project as well as recap just a few of the psychedelic highlights of 2016. Continue reading “Psychedelics Today – Kyle and Joe – Year End Recap”

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Natalie Ginsberg – Psychedelic Policy and Advocacy

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Natalie Ginsberg – MAPS Policy and Advocacy Manager

In this discussion, Natalie shares her insights surrounding U.S. and international policy around drugs. We talk about Continue reading “Natalie Ginsberg – Psychedelic Policy and Advocacy”

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Emma Bragdon PhD. – Can Spiritual Emergencies Be Transformative?

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In this episode, Joe and Kyle talk with Emma Bragdon, Founder/Director of Integrative Mental Health for You. The mission of IMHU is, “To facilitate improvements in mental healthcare and encourage psycho-spiritual growth in individuals around the world.” Continue reading “Emma Bragdon PhD. – Can Spiritual Emergencies Be Transformative?”

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Daniel McQueen – Medicinal Mindfulness & Conscious Cannabis Circles

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In this episode, Joe and Kyle chat with Daniel McQueen of Medicinal Mindfulness , which “is a grassroots consciousness organization supporting individuals and communities who choose to use psychedelics and cannabis with intention.  Continue reading “Daniel McQueen – Medicinal Mindfulness & Conscious Cannabis Circles”

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Gabby Agin-Liebes – Can Psilocybin Help Ease Anxiety & Depression for Those Who Are Facing Death?

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It has been a big week for psychedelic research. Psilocybin and MDMA have made national headlines. The New York Times article, “F.D.A. Agrees to New Trials for Ecstasy as Relief for PTSD Patients,” highlights the recent win for MAPS in regards to their MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research. The FDA has given MAPS the green light to pursue phase 3 research for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Continue reading “Gabby Agin-Liebes – Can Psilocybin Help Ease Anxiety & Depression for Those Who Are Facing Death?”

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Shannon Clare Petitt – MAPS, Zendo and an update on MDMA’s status

 

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Joe and Kyle talk to Shannon Clare Petitt about the current state of MDMA research and what MAPS needs to do in the next number of months with the FDA as the phase three trials become approved. A few days after the interview the New York Times reported that the phase three research was approved. Shannon’s story is great and optimistic. If you are interested in how to get a job in the psychedelic field, this is certainly an episode you’ll want to listen to. We also discuss some possible tweaks to the studies that could be done that may yield interesting results, and also why MAPS is taking the approach that they are (its the most straightforward way to push the research through the FDA). Continue reading “Shannon Clare Petitt – MAPS, Zendo and an update on MDMA’s status”

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Faan Rossouw – Indeeva Biomedical

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Faan was a great guest. He is currently working on a cannabis startup in Montréal, Québec, Canada named Indeeva Biomedical. Joe previously interviewed Faan for his permaulture podcast Permaculture Salad to talk about how shamanism, ayahuasca and permaculture go together in a complementary way (link). At the time of that interview Faan was living on a permaculture/ayahuasca retreat center in Peru named the Paititi Institute. Continue reading “Faan Rossouw – Indeeva Biomedical”

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Kyle and Joe – MAPS MDMA training in New York

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Kyle recently had the great opportunity to attend one module of the MAPS MDMA Therapy sessions. In this episode we talk about the experience at the workshop and about some other valuable topics as well. Let us know what you think, and please leave a review on iTunes! Continue reading “Kyle and Joe – MAPS MDMA training in New York”

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Kyle and Joe Talking About The Interview with Dimitri Muganis and the Field

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Kyle Buller - Psychedelics Today

In this episode Kyle and Joe speak about the recent interview they recorded with Dimitri Muganis. There were some relatively important points in the interview that needed further discussion and expansion and in this podcast we unravel some of the material. There is plenty more to unpack there.

Some of what is discussed in this episode includes.

  • Race
  • Class
  • Research and Treatment
    • When should one take priority
  • Democratization of the medicines
  • Privilege
  • Paying for people to participate in research
  • The white upper middle class bias in the research
  • The bias in research towards veterans

Overall there are loads of things that we discussed, and in short the real message here is that we all need to keep moving forward. There is plenty of room for growth in the field for all of us to move our agendas forward.

With endless amounts of research left to be run, we can still treat people. I’m not sure we are going to see Psychedelic medicines be used in the next 1-2 years in major hospitals outside of research, but we are going to see it in the next decade for sure.

Lets keep moving and taking care of each other.

-Joe

Sign up for our mailing list here.

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Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. – Psychedelic Healing

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Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist specializing in psychospiritual development. He is a popular speaker on drug policy reform, spiritual maturation, and the emergence of an integral society (a six-minute clip of his talk on the “Fusion of Spirit and Science” may be found at: http://vimeo.com/7517009) and an author, most recently of Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development.

Dr. Goldsmith has curated dozens of successful conferences and cross-disciplinary “meetings of minds” for corporations as well as the psychedelic community, including the Horizons and MAPS Psychedelic Science conferences. He is a founder of several discussion salons on integral philosophy, governance, media, postmodern science, healing, and the future of society.

Trained in humanistic, transpersonal, and eastern traditions, Dr. Goldsmith maintains a (non-psychedelic) psychotherapy practice in New York and Sag Harbor, NY, and may be reached via his Web site: http://www.nealgoldsmith.com/psychedelics. Continue reading “Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. – Psychedelic Healing”

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Tom Shroder – Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal

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Tom Shroder Joe and Kyle talk about Tom’s great book titled “Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal”. Tom is an editor, and author of a number of books as well as the former editor of the Washington Post.
Interviewing Tom was real fun and we appreciate him joining us for the show.

We get into some great topics including

  • Tom’s interesting connection to Rick Doblin
  • The history of Rick’s rise to influence
  • The story of the Mithoefers transitioning from emergency medicine and sailing to Holotropic Breathwork and MDMA research
  • The book and this interview also follow the story of a US Marine who came home with treatment resistant PTSD and was then treated by the Mithoefers with MDMA as part of their research.

The book is amazing and well worth your time if you want to get familiarized with the hopes and history of psychedelic research.

Links

Tom giving a talk in Berkley covered by CSAPN

Tom Shroder

Wiki

Acid Test on Amazon

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Dimitri Mugianis- Iboga, Psychedelic gas-lighting, and Structural Criticism

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In this episode we speak with Dimitri about a ton of interesting subjects including:

  • Iboga
  • Addiction
  • Bwiti
  • Dana Beal
  • Structural Criticism
  • Problems with giving psychedelics to the current medical system
  • Psychedelic Anarchy
  • Non-hierarchical organizing – making the group the parent instead of making a person the parent
  • Peer programs
  • Alexandre Tannous
  • Century of Self documentary

“Be hurt, forgive and organize”

Blessings of the Forest – Give back to Gabon

Links

Dimitri’s site
Instagram
Facebook

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Brian Normand – Events And How To Get Involved

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Featuring Brian Normand, Co-Founder of Psymposia.
Bio from Psymposia’s site. 

Brian Normand is Co-Founder of Psymposia, greenthumb, and occasional
trouble maker, focused on creating spaces and projects to teach people about plants and drugs.

He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BS in Plant, Soil, Insect Science, & Sustainable Horticulture, Magna Cum Laude. He lives in Baltimore.

In this interview, we discuss a lot, but here are some highlights.

  • Brian’s introduction to psychedelic art.
    • Music and plants informing Brian’s interest.
  • The genesis of Psymposia at a more academic conference.
  • The stuffiness of the academic world and it not being suitable for everyone.
    • Yet how important the academic work in top schools is.
      • Rick Doblin, David Nichols, Mithoffers and Grifiths and Dennis McKenna are individuals who prove how important it is to have top academic credentials.
  • The Psymposia Afterparty at this years Horizons: Perspective on Psychedelics Conference
    • This year’s after party includes guest speakers such as Duncan Trussell and Rick Doblin.
  • The legal status of psychedelics in the USA and internationally.
    • Some loose discussion about Portugal.
  • Leveraging the globe for legal research on Psychedelics.
  • John C. Lily’s LSD, Ketamine and float tank research.
  • How to get involved in Psychedelic work of different kinds.
  • Speculation on how to take advantage of different legal systems globally to move research forward.
  • Singing to the plants – Steve Beyer

Brian Normand

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Katherine MacLean – Imagining Interesting Futures

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In this episode we talk about the following:

  • Katherine’s path to becoming involved in psychedelic research
  • Bias in Research
  • Mental state required to be a researcher
  • Impact to worldview after
  • Privilege
  • Harm reduction
  • Paying participants involved with psychedelic research
  • Future best uses of psychedelics
  • Medicalization of birth and death
  • Taking away human life from humans and giving that power to institutions
  • Katherine’s work with Ingmar Gorman at the Center for Optimal Living
  • Integration circles
  • Happyacres.farm

Bio via Psymposia – Katherine MacLean is an academically trained research scientist and meditation practitioner with a long-standing interest in the brain, consciousness and the science of well-being. As a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, Katherine was supported by a prestigious National Science Foundation research fellowship to study the effects of intensive meditation training on concentration, emotional well-being and brain function.

As a postdoctoral fellow and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, she was one of the only scientists in the world studying psilocybin — a psychedelic chemical found naturally in certain types of mushrooms. Her groundbreaking research on psilocybin and personality change suggests that psychedelic medicines may be the key to enhancing mental health and promoting openness and creativity throughout the lifespan.

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Ingmar Gorman – MDMA Psychotherapy and how to get Involved with Psychedelic research

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In this episode we talk to Ingmar about some great topics that included.

  • Harm Reduction
  • Psychedelic Science 2017
  • Upcoming Zendo Training in NYC
  • Czech Psychedelic Medical History
  • MAPS MDMA Psychotherapy Video Archive
  • Group work to help support Processing

Ingmar Gorman, M.A. is a currently unlicensed doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the New School for Social Research. His clinical work is supervised by licensed clinical psychologists at his training sites.  After receiving his B.A. in Psychology from the New College of Florida. Ingmar completed a pre-doctoral externship at Bellevue’s Chemical Dependency Outpatient Program and Dual Diagnosis Inpatient Unit, where he obtained specialized training in treating people living with substance use disorders. He has also gained extensive experience treating severe mental illness at South Beach Psychiatric Hospital’s Heights Hill Outpatient Clinic. Ingmar has trained in individual and group psychotherapy at Beth Israel Medical Center’s Psychiatric Inpatient Services, as well as the Brief Psychotherapy Research Program. Ingmar uses an integrative approach to treatment utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Psychodynamic principles. When treating substance misuse, Ingmar draws on his extensive training with Dr. Andrew Tatarsky and Dr. Jen Talley, in Harm Reduction Psychotherapy and Mindfulness based approaches.

Links

Ingmar’s site

Center for Optimal Living – Psychedelic Program

Upcoming Zendo Training in NYC (Training for harm reduction at festivals)

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Joe – Holotropic States, Philosophy and Healing

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This episode features Joe Moore, co-host of Psychedelics today. Joe was a student at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts and coordinating Transpersonal Breathwork workshops mostly in Breckenridge, Colorado.

LINKS

Dreamshadow – Holotropic Breathwork in Vermont
CAPS PTSD scoring system
VICE article on Tony Macie – MDMAPTSDmt. silverheels with aspenglow (colorado)

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Djinn Thompson – Psychedelic Parenting

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Kyle and Joe speak with Djinn Thompson about their podcast Psychedelic Parenting and the future of the Psychedelic Parenting organization.  Other topics that were covered include:

Djinn has over 20 years’ experience with psychedelic plants and has been trip sitting in a professional capacity for over a decade, having served as a facilitator for legal psilocybin retreats in Jamaica and other venues. Djinn specializes in working with victims of childhood trauma, those with treatment-resistant depression, and issues related to LGBTQ identities. Djinn came out as a nonbinary trans person in 2017. They are currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Social Work. Djinn was previously the host of the Psychedelic Parenting Podcast under their birth name, and has been a speaker on psychedelics and family life at multiple conferences, both in the USA and abroad.

Psychedelic Parenting: http://www.psychedelicparenting.org/

Contact: psychedelicparenting@gmail.com

Here’s the link to Psychedelic Parenting MAPS donation page: https://store.maps.org/np/clients/maps/donation.jsp?campaign=59

Hope everyone enjoys this episode. We really enjoyed talking to Djinn and feel blessed by their wealth of knowledge and wisdom. Let us know what you think!

Links and articles mentioned: 
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Raven Renee Ray – The Aftercare Project

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Kyle and Joe speak with Raven Renee Ray about the Aftercare project. Here is a short description of the project from it’s facebook site.

The Aftercare Project is dedicated to the psychological and spiritual well-being of people reintegrating after challenging psychedelic experiences.

The conversation is fun and wide ranging. We hope it is helpful and informative to academics, therapists, counselors and psychiatrists who are interacting with people coming back from difficult experiences.

Here is a slightly longer description of the ACP.

Given the fact that ayahuasca has shown promise in research studies, we feel we not only have the humane duty to help those in need, but also the responsibility to ensure the reputation of ayahuasca and her traditional stewards among decision-makers in our own culture. This will allow us to continue holding space for research to continue, while protecting traditional practices. Because of the colossal challenges inherent in navigating multicultural spaces and the lack of understanding outside of the anthropological community regarding conflicting paradigms of urban capitalism and jungle reciprocity, we must do our best as North Americans to prepare those in our own communities who are called to this experience prior to their trip. This preparation will include full, informed consent, education on safety, cultural expectations and differences, and what to do in the case that further care is required upon return.

Raven is also fundraising for the Aftercare Project. You can find a page for the fundraising effort here.

Main site for Aftercare Project – Facebook

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Lex Pelger – Ibogaine, Ketamine, Research and Knowing Your Dose

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Lex, Kyle and Joe discuss MAPS, Psymposia, Ibogaine, Mushrooms, Ketamine, LSD, Cannabis, and loads more. Lex is working on a book related to the supremely complex neurochemistry of cannabis.

“Whales, Cannabis and Neurochemistry”

Lex — http://www.lexpelger.com/

Aunt Zelda’s

Tea Farie Iboga Story https://www.erowid.org/columns/teafaerie/2014/12/18/hard-reset/

Dimitri — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvEv5trIdrg

Nese — http://www.psymposia.com/magazine/preview/nese-devenot-coming-out-of-the-psychedelic-closet

Ketamine — https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00088699

Bluebird Botanticals — https://www.bluebird-botanicals.com/

 

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Kyle’s Story

Kyle Buller - Psychedelic Podcaster

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In this episode of Psychedelics Today, Joe interviews the co-host of the show, Kyle Buller.  As hosts of the show, we thought that it would be fun to dig a little deeper into our own personal narratives to give our listeners an idea of who we are.  This episode offers the opportunity for Kyle to share his story about how he became interested in psychedelics and other non-ordinary states of consciousness.

From Kyle of Psychedelics Today

I became interested in non-ordinary states of consciousness at an young age.  One event that sparked my interest in these topics stems from suffering a near-death experience when I was teenager.  This experience changed the trajectory of my life and also left me with asking myself many questions about life and death.

Tune into this episode as Joe asks me about my history with non-ordinary states of consciousness, the development of a psychedelic course at Burlington College, my interest in Holotropic Breathwork, and much more.

Thanks for listening!

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Elizabeth Gibson – Dreamshadow Holotropic Breathwork

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Kyle and Joe get to talk with Elizabeth regarding her experience with MDMA assisted psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, and her work with Stan and Christina Grof in the Grof Transpersonal Training program. Elizabeth also discusses the importance of bodywork such as working with people who “aren’t back” from their experience, doing breathwork/bodywork with other experienced facilitators, observation of bodywork, and the lack of bodywork in psychedelic psychotherapy. Elizabeth will be facilitating some Dream Work at her next Holotropic Breathwork workshop.

Mentions
Petra and Ken Sloan | Sandra Phocas | Jack Kornfield

Insight and Opening Retreats (for historical reference)

Michael Mithoefer & Annie Mithoefer (2013) – YouTube

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Lenny Gibson – Whitehead and Holotropic Breathwork – Part 2

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This is a continuation of our last episode with Lenny Gibson.

In it we discuss psychedelics, Spring Grove Psychiatric Hospital, Holotropic Breathwork, Agency, and Philosophy.

Let us know what you think.

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Lenny Gibson – Whitehead and Holotropic Breathwork

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Philosophy and psychedelics brought Lenny to Holotropic Breathwork. Since then he has co-facilitated countless sessions with even more people mainly in Vermont, but also in Massachusetts and Maine. Lenny and Elizabeth (his wife) have helped foster Kyle and Joe’s interest in Holotropic states and facilitating breathwork sessions. We are thankful and happy to share this two part interview with Lenny Gibson.

From his website

Lenny Gibson is a philosopher and clinical psychologist concerned with issues that bridge both disciplines:

  • Practices that foster experiential understanding of philosophy, historically and contemporarily.
  • Transpersonal psychology, particularly Holotropic Breathwork.
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Brett Greene

Psymposia

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Brett Greene is the co founder of Psymposia. Kyle and I talk to him about how Psymposia is different from events currently being put on and important for the psychedelic world. Story telling of people in the psychedelic world is just as important as doctors and academics giving presentations. Psymposia is having their busiest year yet. Check them out here to keep track of their upcoming events.

https://vimeo.com/143491234

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