Tod: Don't accept anything on faith. Think for yourself. I grew up catholic, so i was bludgeoned by the need to have faith from earliest dages. Faith is often an impediment to clear thinking. Have faith in your own god given ability to think for yourself. In fact, be as sceptical as you want. What you have to have is courage. You have to have the courage to sit down and drink the cup or smoke the pipe, or do whatever it is, and let yourself go. That ultimately comes back to trust in yourself.
Dennis McKenna is the founder of the McKenna Academy and has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca. Important Links:
Show Notes:
- ESPD 55 conference
- Goals of the McKenna Academy
- How psychedelics affect our relationship with nature
- Bridging the gap between ancestral and moderns scientific knowledge
- Psychedelics on the safety scale
- Nixon’s war against drugs
- Fear of persecution in the medical community
- LSD being really responsible for the birth of modern neuroscience
- DMT reopening the door to clinical research
- Using psilocybin for end of life applications
- Psychedelics are not just “band-aids”
- Dissipation of knowledge among indigenous tribes
- Reality hallucination
- Therapeutic utility of psychedelics
- Future of psychedelic research
- Making psychedelics more accessible
- Protecting endangered plants
- Forming alliances with indigenous communities
Books Mentioned:
- The Immortality Key; by Brian Muraresku
- How to Change Your Mind; by Michael Pollan
- Psychology and Alchemy; by Carl Jung