Consciousness Cafe - Entheogens and Psychedelic Cultural Transmissions

Book Description
Psychedelic substances present in nature have been used by humans across hundreds of years to produce mind-altering changes in thought, mood, and perception - changes we do not experience otherwise except rarely in dreams, religious exaltation, or psychosis. U.S. scientists were studying the practical and therapeutic uses for hallucinogens, including LSD and mescaline, in the 1950s and 1960s supplied by large manufacturers including Sandoz. But the government took steps to ban all human consumption of hallucinogens, and thus the research. By 1970s, all human testing was stopped. Medical concerns were not the issue, the ban was moved by social concerns, not the least of which were created by legendary researcher Timothy Leary, a psychologist who advocated free use of hallucinogens by all who desired. Nationwide, however, a cadre of scholars and researchers has persisted in pushing the federal government to again allow human testing. And the moratorium has been lifted. The DFA has begun approving hallucinogenic research using human subjects. In these groundbreaking volumes, top researchers explain the testing and research underway to use - under the guidance of a trained provider - psychedelic substances for better physical and mental health. Experts including physicians and psychiatrists at some of the most respected medical schools in the nation, show how psychedelics may alleviate symptoms or spur cures for disorders from AIDS to arthritis to post traumatic stress disorder. Spiritual uses are also addressed and the perceived benefits described. Medical and legal issues for therapeutic uses are also presented. The psychedelic drugs explained in these pages for potential health use include: LSD Ayahuasca Psyilocybin Peyote MDMA/Ecstasy Marijauana Appendices list a sample of sites where medical research with pscychedelics is underway, and describe prominent advocates and organizations pushing to further this research.

About the Authors
MICHAEL J. WINKELMAN is former Head of Sociocultural Anthropology and current Associate Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He has served as President of the Anthropology of Consciousness section of the American Anthropological Association, and was founding President of its Anthropology of Religion section. His PhD was completed at the University of California at Irvine and his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has reserched shamanism across 30 years. His book, Shamanism (Bergin & Garvey, 2000) was reviewed as "brilliant."

THOMAS B. ROBERTS is Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology in the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations at Northern Illinois University. He is a Founding Member of MAPS, the Mutlidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. As part of his retirement activities, he spent the fall of 2006 as a Visiting Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Psychiatry and Human Sciences' Behavioral Biology Research Center, chairing a weekly staff development discussion about psychedelics. He has taught Foundations of Psychedelic Studies, now an Honors Program Seminar, at NIU since 1982. Roberts' PhD in Educational Administration and Psychology is from Stanford University.

// posted by ustaath @ 1/09/2007 08:43:00 PM