Consciousness Cafe - Entheogens and Psychedelic Cultural Transmissions

U.S. federal marijuana decriminalization legislation

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:13:00 +0000

Exciting news about Barney Frank's new marijuana decrim bill HR 5843:

Barney Frank's bill to legalize 100 grams or less of pot gets some press on CNN
Coverage by NORML
Representative Frank's page about the bill
GovTrack on 5843

Categories: psychedelic, marijuana, decriminalization

The Medical Marijuana Economy

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:29:00 +0000

There is a fascinating piece on the California medical marijuana industry in today's (July 28, 2008) New Yorker. If you're interested in learning more, I also recommend watching Doug Benson's hilarious and informative documentary, Super High Me.

Categories: psychedelic, marijuana, california

Synthetic Pot as a Military Weapon

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:52:00 +0000

"Dr. James Ketchum tested a potent form of synthetic marijuana on soldiers to develop a secret weapon in the '60s. Now he's telling the tale. "

Interesting tale about how Cold Warrior James Ketchum, after attempting to harness the military potential of psychedelics, became an advocate of legalization and their therapeutic use. Good references in this article to Burning Man, Sasha Shulgin, Edgewood Arsenal, Tod Mikuriya, Tim Scully, Orange Sunshine.

Categories: psychedelic, LSD,Ketchum,BurningMan,Shulgin

alternet: LSD makes a comeback

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:49:00 +0000

Great article by Charles Shaw on Alternet celebrating the renewed interest in LSD by medical researchers.

Categories: psychedelic, LSD

LONG LASTING EFFECTS OF LSD ON CERTAIN ATTITUDES IN NORMALS

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:43:00 +0000

Interesting article from the Rand Corporation, circa 1962.

Categories: psychedelic, LSD

Amusing Psychedelic Warning

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:43:00 +0000

Categories: psychedelic, TAG

And here is the rest of it.

Ashes and Snow: New Age Porn

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:01:00 +0000

Image via Ashes and Snow, © Gregory Colbert

I just found the perfect review stating how I feel about Ashes and Snow.

First let me say we were given a copy of the DVD by two dear friends and I did really enjoy the DVD. I agree with them that the imagery is beautiful. But the more I watched it, the more I felt that there was a very creepy message behind it; something just . . . wrong.

I would classify Ashes and Snow as sacred contemporary fiction or fantasy, along with books such as The Celestine Prophecy. Sacred fiction has a long history if you include the oeuvre of Spiritualist writers and channelers such as H.P. Blavatsky, or works such as Edward Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni: A Rosicrucian Tale. I couldn't call Ashes and Snow just simple surreal fiction, however. My sense is, if there is New Age^* porn, this is it. This is mind candy, a mystical mash-up, devoid of content and meaning. The film-maker has perfected the sacred cut and paste, and in the process of appropriating imagery has commodified the Profound. Objectify the archetypal, the way acts of sex are objectified by pornography, and you come up with a film like Ashes and Snow.

Along with reviewer Nicholas Marques, I found the scenes of humans taking a nap or playing with cheetahs and hyenas extremely jarring. Cheetahs and hyenas are both very dangerous carnivores who in the wild would be the last thing you would want to see if you were taking a stroll. What does this tell us? It says, hey, let's completely ignore the realities of nature in favor of comfortable myths. Let's re-invent Nature, color it classic Disney. This is the ultimate in Romanticism taken to an extreme - instead of helping us to really connect with the beauty (and terror) of nature, it encourages a comfortable disconnect between Nature and how we objectify it, just as sexual pornography causes a disconnect between sex and loving, emotional engagement.

If the intent of this art is to show that humans and other animals can live together, then we must respectfully show the carnivores being what they are, and juxtapose humans dealing with their violent nature. Let us see them devouring their prey. But in fact domesticated animals were used to shoot the footage used in Ashes and Snow.

There is a place where human beings and animals live in peace and harmony, and humans are hardly ever harmed by other animals. That place is called a farm.

Nature, in truth, is often violent and disturbing to sensitive souls. So, in making a film like this you have a choice. You can make a comfortable film that portray hyenas as Care Bears, and might as well also have unicorns, because everything about its portrayal of nature is a lie. Or, you can make a film that shows the other animals we share this planet with as sometimes violent and self-interested, trampling the occasional child and quaint monk. The latter is more honest but sends your BoBo (bourgeois bohemian) audience shrieking with indignation.

I also found the voice-over monologue inane. If we could have lost the monologue, and gotten rid of the cheetah and hyena imagery or been more representational of their nature, I think I would have liked Ashes and Snow much more. I believe that Nature, to be respected, should be shown as it is. Ashes and Snow is Nature portrayed as petting zoo.

I don't doubt that some will think I am taking Ashes and Snow too seriously. I don't think so. I believe this kind of adroit and cynical myth generation opens the door to future abuse. Look at Triumph of the Will, a beautiful and stirring work used skillfully for recruitment by the Nazis. I feel there is a possibility that we are in the nascent stages of a Romantic renascence that could be cynically manipulated by skilled political players with imagery such as we find in Ashes and Snow. That is why I take this kind of product seriously.

Ashes and Snow website

^*By New Age, I mean the Romantic myth-building machinery and merchandising empire, emphasizing right hemisphere over left, and efficient cash extraction; not the many good, progressive, enlightened and balanced works available that merge ideas from East and West.

Categories: psychedelic, Ashes and Snow

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:32:00 +0000

Psychedelic Celebrity Watch

Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated American actress Mariel Hemingway will host a fund-raising dinner November 9th for Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) in New York. According to Hemingway on the CoSM website,

Alex's art is multi dimensional and my interest in opening to different dimensions especially the fourth/ the heart is my passion.

The Chapel and Alex have created space and work where the world as we see it, is open to a world that we can feel and experience differently, perhaps a world we are not familiar with. We are on an integrated path and the combination of the music art dance and fine art is the window into dimensions that are Bigger than us. Alex has opened this door.
- Mariel Hemingway

Ticket price for the dinner starts at $250.

More information available at CoSM.

Categories: psychedelic, CoSM, Hemingway, celebrity

Entheocartography

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:04:00 +0000

Entheocartography is the mapping of psychedelic experience space, particularly as it is experienced by many. It is the definition of markers and pathways through the entheogenic landscape.

Since Lewis Lewin's revolutionary encyclopedia of psychoactives, "Phantastica", was first published in English in 1931, entheocartography has been the pursuit of Aldous Huxley, William S. Burroughs, Gordon Wasson, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, the McKenna brothers, R. Gordon Wasson, Carl A.P. Ruck, Jonathan Ott, Jeremy Bigwood and Danny Staples; the Shulgins, Dale Pendell, and Erowid.

By Ustaath, who hereby claims coinage rights on the term "entheocartography."

Categories: psychedelic, entheogens

And here is the rest of it.

Dalai Lama will be in Chicago May 6th, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 02:06:00 +0000

From the Tibet Center of Chicago:

As the dates of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to Madison in Wisconsin and Chicago is drawing closer, more up to date information, especially with ticketing, are now available online. So, please purchase your tickets as soon as possible.

Deer Park Buddhist Center for May 2-4

608-276-4110
HHDLdrpk2007 "AT" tds.net

www.deerparkcenter.org

Chicago: Sunday, May 6

The details for the Chicago visit will be online within a few days. The tickets will be sold through TicketMaster.

www.dalailamachicago.com

Teaching at Harris Theater, Millennium Park in the morning.

Public Talk at Jay Pritzker Pavillion, Millennium Park, in the afternoon.

With Tashi Delek (Tibetan greeting)

Tashi T. Phuri
TIBETcenter
Chicago: 773-319-2302 (8:30 to 11:00 AM)
Evanston (Tues - Sat): 847-492-0809 (1:00 to 7:00 PM)
Email: tibetcenter "AT" aol.com
www.tibetgift.com (Click TIBETcenter Programs under Category)
www.buddhapia.com/tibet

Categories: psychedelic, Buddhism, Chicago, Dalai Lama

Psilocybin and Mysticism discussion

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:11:00 +0000

Thanks to Bruce Eisner for heads up on a discussion of psilocybin mushrooms, mysticism and religion in the Huffington Post. Professor of Policy Studies at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research Mark Kleiman discusses the acclaimed Hopkins 2006 study into religious or mystical experiences had by psilocybin users (look HERE for the html version) (see the MAPS links on the study, go to "July 11, 2006"). Kleiman notes that the researchers, despite overwhelmingly positive responses to the study, are still struggling to find funding for further research. "But neither those comments, nor the extraordinarily high score — in the top 7.4% of all submissions — peer reviewers gave a follow-up proposal was enough to persuade the current NIDA Director to support that additional work, so the team is now scrambling to find enough funding to keep itself together. "

Categories: psychedelic, psilocybin, mushrooms, entheogens, Hopkins

Vancouver Mayor asks for Canada Drug Law Exemption

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:28:00 +0000

More enlightened public policy from British Columbia:

Sam Sullivan, the mayor of Vancouver, is asking Canada's federal government for a legal exemption to the country's drug laws so the city can implement a drug substitution treatment program. The program would target 700 people struggling with drug addiction.

Drug Policy Alliance article HERE.

Categories: psychedelic, Canada, Vancouver, drug policy, addiction

LIMITED TIME matching donations for Erowid

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:18:00 +0000

Up to February 14th donations of $300 and higher will be matched by an Erowid supporter, effectively doubling them. A total of $3,000 is available in matching funds.

More info HERE.

Categories: psychedelic, Erowid

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:52:00 +0000

Thanks to Arthur Magazine for this info:

Saturday, January 27 at 8PM
Arthur Magazine and Drag City presents…
Trinie Dalton and Steve Krakow

Ms. Dalton, author of Wide Eyed (Akashic Books) and co-editor of the wonderfully weird Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is (McSweeney’s) will read from her yet-to-be-finished novel. Her writing has appeared in Arthur, LA Weekly, Bomb, Nerve.com, Purple, and The Believer. When not playing guitar hero for reals in Plastic Crimewave Sound, Mr. Krakow writes, edits and draws the mind-expanding psychedelic pop hurricane called Galactic Zoo Dossier. Together, they will have an amicable chat about zines, weird Americas old and new, and other subcultural curiosities.

Trinie Dalton & Plastic Crimewave Steve Krakow
Saturday, January 27th, 8pm, FREE
Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 West North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
www.quimbys.com

Categories: chicago

Pro-MDMA ("ecstasy") article in Slate

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:23:00 +0000

Amanda Schaffer has written a pro-MDMA piece in SLATE this week, titled "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been: Ecstasy, the new prescription drug?" Good quotes from the article:

This year, the drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, could take a step toward medical respectability. Researchers in South Carolina have begun experimenting with MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. At Harvard, a long-awaited pilot study will begin on whether the drug can help relieve anxiety and pain in terminal cancer patients in connection with psychotherapy. And studies will also start in Switzerland and Israel, where a former chief psychiatrist of the Israel Defense Forces will oversee work with people whose PTSD stems from terrorism or war. . . . It's too soon to say what these trials will yield. But if all goes well, MDMA could help some patients, and also help build acceptance for parallel work on the potential therapeutic effects of psilocybin (found in 'shrooms) or even LSD. Even at this late date, it's possible to imagine for psychiatry a small psychedelic renaissance.

Categories: psychedelic, MDMA, research, ecstasy

Pinchbeck Watch: 2012 Review in Reason

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:32:00 +0000

Thanks to Bruce Eisner for telling us about this review in Reason magazine of Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.

(since this post appeared Pinchbeck has mirrored this discussion to his Amazon plog)

The review focuses on several areas of Pinchbeck's thought that have concerned me for some time:

Pinchbeck's millenarian belief in redemptive apocalypse
his soteriological belief in an immaterial "consciousness shift"
his distrust of modernity and technology (which lead him to reject Viridian-style engineering and bioremediation approaches of the planet's climate problems, and dismiss transhumanist optimism about the future), and Pinchbeck's accompanying romanticization of aboriginal societies and magical modes of thought (at the expense of rational/analytical cognition).
his revisionist critique of capitalism as essentially rapacious
Pinchbeck's seemingly transcendentalist perspective that only by transcending the evils of this world, by shaking capitalist modernity off our back, can the world somehow be saved.
An accompanying underlying nihilism that suggests that perhaps Pinchbeck does not want the world to be saved. Perhaps he believes that the Earth is just a staging area for our souls as we evolve to "higher" planes of existence. Perhaps he believes that our world must be "purged" of civilization in order for us to pass beyond the Kali Yuga. I am not sure. He appears to have a strong belief via his personal interest in occultism in other nonphysical realms of existence, which may be superordinate to our own. This is suggestive of "another world" more akin to the Christian heaven or Mormon Celestial Kingdom, where everything will be made right in death. In my opinion this is a tempting and dangerous idea which moves Pinchbeck closer to the apocalyptic radical Luddites of our dawning age.

((At the same time I would like to applaud Pinchbeck for being such a public and outspoken champion of entheogens - the idea that psychedelic plants and chemicals are gateways to the divine. He wears an affable and agreeable countenance in his public appearances, and has been accessible and never aloof. He did not ask for the title of psychedelic guru that Rolling Stone magazine hung on him, though it was perhaps inevitable when we consider his intense self-promotion.

I have the greatest respect for him as a committed and devoted father; as an intellectual who has made great sacrifices to pursue his craft; and I find him to be an entertaining writer and story-teller.

My enduring interest, however, is in portraying psychedelic culture as life-affirming, not world-negating; a culture, not always a subculture, capable of taking a seat in mainstream society. I want to see psychedelic culture empowered as a mature and acknowledged healer, no longer the guilty and ostracized child of the American counterculture. I feel that Pinchbeck is not taking us in that direction. ))

Now excerpts from the REASON review itself:

Did you know that the ancient Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl'the all-encompassing plumed serpent whose return has been prophesied for centuries'has decided to weigh in on politics? Here's an excerpt from his message for the world of mortal men: “The global capitalist system that is currently devouring your planetary resources will soon self-destruct, leaving many of you bereft.

Quetzalcoatl has chosen to speak through the curious medium of Daniel Pinchbeck, 40, a former editor of the Manhattan lit-journal Open City. Pinchbeck has had a glowing reputation in hipster circles since his 2002 book Breaking Open the Head, a travelogue and treatise on exotic psychedelics, which transformed him into the 21st century's chief pop guru on the meaning and significance of altered states - a thought leader whose musings, no matter how offbeat, are considered worthy of review in publications as mainstream as The New York Times.

... [Pinchbeck's] general sense of dread and dissatisfaction regarding capitalist modernity existed before his spiritual journey. Those sentiments are in fact nearly universal in the post-'60s counterculture for which he is a spokesman. Indeed, they're pretty common in mainstream intellectual culture as well; few literary intellectuals under 40 do not share them to some degree, though most refrain from claiming they learned them from a supernatural serpent with feathers.

Pinchbeck knows you'll think he's a bit of a freak for saying that he did just that. He openly acknowledges that seeing oneself at the center of a great cosmic drama is normally written off as a sign of mental illness. With that on the table, the reader can either give up or go along for the ride. Despite the zaniness, it's a ride worth taking, partly for the wild entertainment value but also because the book is a document with genuine sociopolitical relevance. Beneath the nutty metaphysical musings, 2012 is an engaging take on contemporary eco-politics, pretty much the hottest topic around in this year of awful summer heat and the Second Coming of Al Gore.

... In Pinchbeck's reading, that end is approaching via planetary death caused by capitalist excess. Modernity, Pinchbeck argues, is inherently doomed and deserves to be doomed for playing into the detestable human urges of atomistic individualism and ugly greed; it has led to global warming, irreversible and tragic forest depletion, and a rapidly hastening loss of all the resources on which life depends.

2012 is more interesting than the typical doom-laden environmental policy document because Pinchbeck delivers his eco-political message in the form of a syncretic mad masterpiece, a colorful mash-up of the alien-archaeology fabulist Erich Von Däniken, the purveyor of fabricated Amerindian wisdom Carlos Castaneda, the psychedelic theorist Terrence McKenna, and the robed mystics behind the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, who prophesied a shift in planetary consciousness to a higher level. Pinchbeck thinks almost all the phenomena he discusses'including the calendar (our Gregorian one, for reasons this reader found very hard to understand, is held responsible for a lot of our spiritual/cultural crises), his trips on the psychedelic drug ayahuasca, and various ancient cultures' prophecies' suggest a rapidly approaching apocalypse.

... anyone reading 2012 should also contemplate the computer-world guru Ray Kurzweil's vision of the singularity, an idea moving along in a countercultural universe parallel and very close to Pinchbeck's. It's a vision that, while not designed as such, is in direct competition with Pinchbeck's. Kurzweil believes our increasing control of machinery, computer intelligence, biology, and the material world at the smallest levels puts us on the cusp of an earthly near-paradise in which we will have highly advanced control over both matter and mind without destroying the earth or even using very much of it. . . . whether or not its wildest extrapolations come true, Kurzweil's vision of a technological rescue from environmental and human limits seems more plausible than either Pinchbeck's apocalypse or his alternative Quetzalcoatl ex machina of a sudden shift in planetary consciousness.
...
What is more likely than either the Pinchbeck or Kurzweil visions of a planet utterly changed is that 2012 will pass into 2013 with the world a little bit different and a lot the same. But the kind of slow, gradual betterment in overall human well-being'the sort that has swept the Western world in the last century'lacks that shot of emotional drama that human beings crave. Some of us don't fear a vivid, certain end to the world we know; for various psychological reasons, some of them quite creepy, we want it. In an essay written after 2012 came out in June, Pinchbeck acknowledged this about a certain element in his own fan base: "A lot of people in the radical and progressive cultural realm, on some level, are actively looking forward to the destruction of the present system and then a truly horrendous and volatile passage before we potentially come out the other side." Pinchbeck means that as a criticism, but it's no surprise that such people would find his book attractive: He frequently sounds just like them.

Put another way, he frequently sounds like that other apocalyptic tribe, the Christian fundamentalists. His book lays into fundamentalism early on, but both he and the religious right are offering variations on the same ancient mentality'the one that's always finding new reasons everyone else deserves to get it good and hard.

More Pinchbeck posts in this blog:
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2007/01/ayahuasca-monologues.html
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2007/01/more-pinchbeck.html
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2006/12/daniel-pinchbeck-on-colbert-report.html
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2007/01/another-pinchbeck-podcast.html

All Pinchbeck posts in Consciousness Cafe can always be found here in del.icio.us

Categories: psychedelic, Pinchbeck

How the Moon rules our Behavior

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:35:00 +0000

Fascinating overview in the UK's The Independent about the role that the Moon plays in human behavior.

Thanks for the referral from Strange Attractor.

Here are some good quotes:

Having carried out new research and reviewed 50 other studies, scientists suggest that doctors and the police even need to prepare for how their work rate will increase at different points in the lunar cycle. Among the findings examined by the researchers were studies that showed GP consultations go up during a full moon, according to Leeds University. Appointments rise by 3.6 per cent, which works out at around three extra patients for each surgery. The researchers did not speculate on the nature of the moon-related problems or why they happened, but said that "it does not seem to be related to anxiety and depression".

Gout and asthma attacks peak during new and full moons, according to work carried out at the Slovak Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine in Bratislava, where attacks over a 22-year period were monitored.

Data from 140,000 births in New York City showed small but systematic variations in births over a period of 29.53 days - the length of the lunar cycle - with peak fertility in the last quarter. "The timing of the fertility peak in the third quarter suggests that the period of decreasing illumination immediately after the full moon may precipitate ovulation.''

A study in Florida of murders and aggravated assaults showed clusters of attacks around the full moon. A second study of three police areas found the incidence of crimes committed on full-moon days was much higher than on all other days. And a four-year study into car accidents found that the lowest number happened during the full-moon day, while the highest number was two days before the full moon. Accidents were more frequent during the waxing than the waning phase.

Another study of some 800 patients with urinary retention admitted to hospital over a period of three years found higher retention during the new moon compared with other phases of the cycle. Interestingly, patients didn't show any other daily, monthly or seasonal rhythms in their retention problems.

Even what we eat and drink is affected by the lunar cycle, according to a study at Georgia State University. Researchers looked at lunar variations in nutrient intakes and the meal patterns of 694 adults. They concluded: "A small but significant lunar rhythm of nutrient intake was observed with an 8 per cent increase in meal size and a 26 per cent decrease in alcohol intake at the time of the full moon relative to the new moon.''

Categories: lunar, Moon

Testimony of Timothy Leary in the Chicago Seven Trial

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:51:00 +0000

This interrogation of Timothy Leary during the Chicago Seven Trial (which began in September 1969) is still very interesting and often amusing. Some excerpts specifically regarding psychedelics:

MR. KUNSTLER: Dr. Leary, have you been the author of any publications?

THE WITNESS: Yes, I have written two books on experimental clinical psychology and about twenty scientific articles in this field. I have written six books and over fifty scientific articles on the effects of psychedelic drugs on human psychology and human consciousness.

MR. KUNSTLER: Doctor, can you explain what a psychedelic drug is?

THE WITNESS: I will try. Psychedelic drugs are drugs which speed up thinking, which broaden the consciousness, which produce religious experiences or creative experiences, or philosophic experiences in the person who takes them.
These psychedelic drugs, of course, are the opposite of the nonpsychedelic drugs like heroin, or alcohol, and barbiturates which slow down thinking, as opposed to psychedelic drugs which expand and accelerate the consciousness.

. . .

MR. KUNSTLER: Even better.
All right, Dr. Leary, when did you first meet Abbie Hoffman?

THE WITNESS: The first time I met Mr. Hoffman was at the LSD Shrine and Rescue Center in New York City. That would be November or December of 1966.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, lest there be any confusion, what does LSD stand for?

THE WITNESS: It was the League of Spiritual Discovery. That was a religion incorporated in the State of New York and we had a rescue center in New York
where hundreds of people taking drugs could be rehabilitated.

. . .

MR. FORAN: Dr. Leary, will you name the drugs that you said speeded up thinking?

THE WITNESS: Yes, psychedelic or mind-expanding drugs include LSD, mescaline, peyote, marijuana, and I could go on. There is a list of perhaps thirty or forty chemical compounds and natural vines and herbs. Do you want more?

MR. FORAN: No, that is enough.
. . .

Categories: psychedelic, Leary, Chicago, Chicago Seven

The Ayahuasca Monologues

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:43:00 +0000

Check out The Ayahuasca Monologues: Tales of the Spirit Vine on Souldish. This New York City event on January 25th features. . .

Five dynamic storytellers will describe their visionary experiences with ayahuasca, the renowned sacred brew of the Amazon. For centuries, shamans have drunk this powerful concoction to heal illness, obtain mystical insights, contact spirit guides, and explore magical worlds. Hear of experiences both miraculous and terrifying when Westerners access ayahuasca's incredible gifts. Q & A session to follow. Proceeds benefit Souldish.com.

Featuring:
Daniel Pinchbeck - author of Breaking Open The Head: Psychedelics and Contemporary Shamanism and 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
Jamye Waxman - sexplorer, Playgirl advice columnist, 'Sex and Spirit' podcaster
Nat Bletter ethnobotanist
Bill Kennedy actor/storyteller and ayahuasca guardian
Jonathan Phillips founder of the NYC Gnostics, executive editor of Souldish.com

(more on Pinchbeck in this blog:)

http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2007/01/more-pinchbeck.html
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2006/12/daniel-pinchbeck-on-colbert-report.html
http://www.consciousnesscafe.org/2007/01/another-pinchbeck-podcast.html

Categories: psychedelic, ayahuasca, New York City, Pinchbeck

And here is the rest of it.

Mexico Drug Policy - Drogas Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:49:00 +0000

Check out this excellent Spanish-language site on Mexico drug policy, run by Ricardo Sala. (thanks to the referral from Andrew)

A related site of interest is Takiwasi, Centro de Rehabilitación de Toxicómanos y de Investigación de Medicinas Tradicionales, founded 1992 in Tarapoto, Peru. According to MAPS " Attempting to cure drug addiction by the ritual use of ayahuasca, a plant beverage with psychotropic effects, might appear to be crazy or at least very daring. When Takiwasi (Center for the Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts and for Research of Traditional Medicines) was born in September 1992 in Tarapoto, Peru, the idea of the founders was to investigate and use in a systematic way the Amazonian healers' shamanistic knowledge to cure drug addicts. This applied research has now been underway for three and a half years seeking an efficient, low cost and culturally adapted alternative therapy. The initial results are encouraging."

Categories: psychedelic, ayahuasca, Mexico, drug policy, addiction

Cary Grant talks about LSD therapy

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:48:00 +0000

Cary Grant speaks, in his autobiography, about his years of LSD therapy beginning in 1956:

In 1932 the practice of psychiatry was little known or respected. The public seemed to regard it, just as I probably did, with skepticism. For years I absurdly treated subjects with which I was unfamiliar, or sports in which I was not proficient, or books which I should have read but didn’t, with disdain. But by 1956, lacking the foundation of early spiritual training and suspecting that there was more happiness available than I seemed able to grasp, I had grown much more tolerant of, and receptive to, the knowledge of others. Other searchers, other sharers. Humanitarians in all fields of endeavor. At the age of 53, after three unsuccessful marriages, either something was wrong with me or, obviously, with the whole sociological and moralistic concepts of our civilization.

Now, I believe in caring for my health; and I trust you do too. Physical health is a product of, and dependent upon, mental health — one nurtures and nourishes the other. And so, together with a group of other interested Californians — doctors, writers, scientists and artists — and the encouragement of Betsy, who was interested herself, I underwent a series of controlled experiments with Lysergic Acid, a hallucinogenic chemical or drug known as LSD 25. . . .

Categories: psychedelic, celebrity, LSD

Experiment is perhaps a misleading word; to most people it signifies patronization and objectivity. For my part I anxiously awaited their personal benefits that could be derived from the experiences, and was quite willing to be less than objective. Any man who experiments with something that cannot benefit himself, or add to his happiness, and that of his fellow man in turn, is a fool and a menace to society. I’ve heard that a man here and there died during LSD25 sessions; but then I’ve heard that men died during poker games and while watching horse racing; but that didn’t seem to stop such occupations. Those men might have died anywhere while doing anything. Men have also died testing airplanes and parachutes, vaccines and common cold cures. In attempting to traverse the next step into progress and knowledge, men have always died. But there is a difference between the man who knows what he’s about with a high-powered airplane, and an idiot who puts wings on a bicycle and takes off from the edge of Niagra Falls.

LSD 25 is a psychic energizer and the exact opposite in reaction to the addictive drugs and opiates. Indeed, Seconal, or similar sedative, is usually given as an antidote, to quell and offset the effects of LSD 25, if necessary. The action of the chemical releases the subconscious so that it becomes apparent to yourself. So that you can see what transpires in the depth of you mind — and what goes on there you wouldn’t believe, ladies and gentlemen — and learn which misconceptions, guilts and fears, with their resultant repressions, inhibitions and insecurities, have formed the pattern for your past behavior. A successively recurring pattern since childhood.

The feeling is that of an unmarshaling of the thoughts as you’ve customarily associated them. The lessening of conscious control, similar to the mental process which takes place when we dream. For example, when you’re asleep and your mind no longer concerned with matters and activities of the day, your subconscious often brings itself to your attention by dreaming. With conscious controls relaxed, those thoughts buried deep inside begin to come to the surface in the form of dreams. These dreams, since they appear to us in symbolic guise, are fantasies and, if you will accept the reasoning, could be classified as hallucinations. Such fantasies, or hallucinations, are inside every one of us, waiting to be released, aired and understood. Dreams are really the emotions that we find ourselves reluctant to examine, think about, or meditate upon, while conscious.

Under the effect of LSD 25, these dreams or hallucinations, if you wish, are speeded up, and interpreted, when properly conducted ba a psychiatrically orientated doctor who sits quietly by, awaiting whatever communication one cares to make — the revealing of a hidden memory seen again from an older, more mature viewpoint, or the dawning of new enlightenment. Then, if the doctor is as skilled as mine was, he carefully proffers a word or key, that can lead to the next release, the next step toward fuller understanding.

The shock of each revelation brings with it an anguish of sadness for what was not known before in the wasted years of ignorance and, at the same time, an ecstasy of joy at being freed from the shackles of such ignorance.

One becomes a battleground of old and new beliefs. Of nightmares beyond description. I passed through changing seas of horrifying and happy sights, through a montage of intense hate and love, a mosaic of past impressions assembling and reassembling; through terrifying depths of dark despair replaced by glorious heavenlike religious symbolisms. Session after session. Week after week.

I learned may things in the quiet of that small room. I learned to accept the responsibility for my own actions, and to blame myself and no one else for circumstances of my own creating. I learned that no one else was keeping me unhappy but me; that I could whip myself better than any other guy in the joint.

I learned that all clichés prove true; which is, of course, the reason for their repetition, even when the meaning has been forgotten by the constant usage.

I learned that everything is, or becomes, its own opposite. A theory I can sometimes apply, but would find difficult to convey.

I learned that my dear parents, products of their parents, could know no better than they knew, and began to remember them only ofr the most useful, the best, the wisest of their teachings. They gave me my life and body, the promising combination of the two, and my initial strength; they endowed me with an inquisitive mind. They taught me to feed myself, to walk, to bathe myself and to clothe myself; and I shall think of them always with love now, not only for what the did know but, even, for what the didn’t know.

For a slow learner, I learned a great deal — and the result of it all was rebirth. A new assessment of life and myself in it. An immeasurably beneficial cleansing of so many needless fears and guilts, and a release of the tensions that had been the result of them. Not a cleansing and release of them all, certainly, for that would be the absolute — the innocence of the newly born baby with an unformed ego still close to God — and I cannot experience the absolute until I have unreservedly returned to the comfort of God.

In life there is no end to getting well. Perhaps death itself is the end to getting well. Or, if you prefer to think as I do, the beginning of being well.

I have heard and now believe it to be so, that drowning men in the last seconds of life relive the whole of it again; probably in order to cleanse themselves before meeting the great Maker, just as our religions instruct; and everyone is accustomed to the phenomenon of elderly people remembering their childhood with extraordinary clarity, yet forgetting what went on only yesterday. We call it second childhood, but it is undoubtedly the same process, undergone at a slower pace, as that experienced by the drowning man.

LSD 25 is no longer obtainable in America. Orthodox psychiatrists using the slower customary methods resisted its usage, and it’s unlikely that it will be reintroduced unless some brave, venturesome and respected psychiatrist publicly speaks out in its favor. Meanwhile, the authorities have banned its use; at least for therapeutic purpose. Although how men can be authorities on something they’ve never tried mystifies me. However, in the hands o f thrill-seekers it could, like whiskey and the automobile, be exceedingly dangerous. I suppose all new methods, new theories, new inventions go through the filter of trial and error, acceptance and rejection. Past the inevitable parade of scoffers and stone-throwers.

Yes, it takes a long time for happiness to break through either to the individual or nations. It will take just as long as people themselves continue to confound it. You’ll find that nowadays they put you away for singing and dancing in the street. “Here now, let’s have none of that happiness, my boy. You cut that out; waking up the neighbors!” “Those darn neighbors need waking up, I can tell you, constable!”

I suppose if a healthy youngster walked along a street in a bathing suit to allow his or her youthful pores a little more oxygen from the meager amount obtainable in our smog-infested cities, he or she would be arrested. “Here now, none of that trying to keep a healthy body in this city. Go to the beach!” “In which direction , officer? This is Kansas City.” Even bare feet and a rare acquaintance with the earth beneath them would be sufficient to disassociate you from the association of your embarrassed associates. Civilization! Oh, brother! And you, too, sister!

I have made over 60 pictures and lived in Hollywood for more than 30 years. Thirty years spent in the stimulating company of hard-working, excitable, dedicated, loving, serious, honest, good people. Casts and crews. I recognize and respect them. I know their faults and their insecurities. I hope they know and forgive mine. Thirty years ago my hair was black and wavy. Today it’s gray and bristly. But today people in cars, stopped alongside me at a traffic light, smile at me!

I feel fine. Alone. But fine. My mother is quite elderly. My wives have divorced me, and I await a woman with the best qualities of each. I will endow her with those qualities because they will be in my own point of view.

As a philosopher once said, “You cannot judge the day until the night.” Since it is for me evening, or at least teatime, I can now look back and assess the day. It’s been a glorious adventure up to here — even the saddest parts — and I look forward to seeing the rest of the film. Just as I did in 1932 when I sat in that Paramount Studio office. I took up the pen and wrote for the first time “Cary Grant.” And that’s who, it seems, I am. Well, as some profound fellow said, “I’d be a nut to go through all that again, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.” And that goes for this autobiography.

Dr. Ketchum, Psychedelics and Chemical Warfare

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:30:00 +0000

R.U. Sirius last week interviewed Dr. James E. Ketchum, author of the book Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten. As Sirius details it, ". . . at Army Chemical Center at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, psychiatrist James S. Ketchum was testing LSD, BZ and other psychedelic and deliriant compounds on fully informed volunteers for the U.S. military . . . his fascinating self-published memoir, Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten, . . . boasts charts, graphs and experimental reports — a veritable goldmine of information for those who are interested in psychedelics, deliriants, or chemical warfare."

Read the R.U. Sirius interview with Dr. Ketchum and listen to his interview.

Categories: psychedelic, Ketchum, military, chemical warfare

Brad Pitt on Drugs

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:57:00 +0000

Actor Brad Pitt writes in Esquire,

The Drug War
I'll agree that drugs are harmful, but we spend $40 billion a year on the drug war and $8 billion a year incarcerating people, 25 percent of whom are in there for drugs. If someone wants to do drugs, as long as it doesn't affect anyone else in a violent manner, as long as he or she isn't corrupting minors or driving under the influence or endangering others, shouldn't a person have that right? I know the drug war is a can't-miss political issue that no one wants to touch. It's the big pink elephant no one wants to talk about. Think of all the other things we could do with the money.

For an interesting perspective on the whole issue, I recommend the book Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, by Peter McWilliams.

Categories: psychedelic, drug, drug policy, prohibition, Brad Pitt

More Pinchbeck

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:31:00 +0000

Daniel Pinchbeck appears today in a Washington Post list of "IN's" and OUT's":

OUT: "Going to Burning Man"
IN: "Reading Daniel Pinchbeck"

The following debate between Daniel Pinchbeck and media pundit Doug Rushkoff took place in a New York city bookstore around October 2006:
Pinchbeck's debate with Doug Rushkoff Part 1
Pinchbeck's debate with Doug Rushkoff Part 2
Pinchbeck's debate with Doug Rushkoff Part 3
Pinchbeck's debate with Doug Rushkoff Part 4

Doug Rushkoff comments on the debate.

Categories: psychedelic, Pinchbeck, Rushkoff

Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics

noreply@blogger.com (ustaath) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:56:00 +0000

This excellent book, published 2005, features wonderful interviews with Ram Dass, Betty Eisner, James Fadiman, Peter Furst, Stanislav Grof, Albert Hofmann, Laura Huxley, Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Huston Smith and Myron Stolaroff.

Categories: psychedelic, entheogens, book,, Ram Dass, Grof, Shulgin, Sasha, Albert Hofmann, Huston Smith, Stolaroff, Fadiman