210 Brad Burge: Healing & Human Optimization Through Psychedelics

Jun 26, 2018

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MAPS isn't just developing treatments for mental illnesses. We're not just working within the system; we're also challenging the system. There's this idea that there's something broken in our brains such that we need to medicate it with these laboratory designed pharmaceuticals and that we as human beings are essentially damaged; that we're not perfect and we need to reach outside of ourselves to be healthy and happy. That's why we have our culture's fascination with drugs. - Brad Burge

What is possible when a suitable candidate for psychedelics begins using them to heal from anxiety and mental illness? How can plant medicines help us in human optimization through unlocking the release of suppressed thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations?

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In Wellness Force Radio episode 210, editor of Manifesting Minds, Director of Strategic Communications for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Brad Burge, explains how psychedelics can help people get back in touch with ancient ways of being, connect with the world, and help aid them in their journeys towards extreme habit change including ending addiction.

Discover how the assisted therapeutic use of psychedelics and plant drugs is helping people liberate their consciousness, heal from PTSD, and integrate new lifestyle changes.

"Using psychedelics for therapy doesn't look like what we've been taught to think psychedelics look like. It's not a party in a room. People are not just getting off their heads and having a great time; that doesn't happen." - @BradBurge_ http://bit.ly/wfpodcast

Click here to buy your copy of Manifesting Minds edited by Dr. Rick Doblin and Brad Burge

Featuring essays and interviews with Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Ram Dass, Albert Hofmann, Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin, Daniel Pinchbeck, Tim Robbins, Arne Naess, and electronic musician Simon Posford, as well as groundbreaking research and personal accounts, this one-of-a-kind anthology is a "best of" collection of articles and essays published by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Topics include the healing use of marijuana and psychedelics--including MDMA, ibogaine, LSD, and ayahuasca--for PTSD, anxiety, depression, and drug addiction, as well as positive effects of these substances in the realm of the arts, family, spirituality, ecology, and technology.

Listen To Episode 210 As Brad Burge Uncovers:

The vast amount of research that's going on today with the use of psychedelics and therapy.
What people misunderstand the most about plant medicine and psychedelics
The results from the studies that have been done on war veterans, police officers, and fireman with an MDMA assisted cycle of therapy for PTSD.
The contrast and differences between LSD, DMT, MDMA, ibogaine, cannabis, psilocybin, and Ayahuasca.
His own personal story and the various obstacles he faced when it came to his mental health and using lithium.
The turning point in his life when he tried LSD and what the outcome was like for him.
His integration process to not taking lithium by adding in activities such as art and exercise while avoiding alcohol and tobacco.
Who benefits the most from psychedelics and who shouldn't be taking them at all.
What LSD and other psychedelics can bring out in people as far as mental illnesses and psychosis.
How he would define psychosis and how its hard to understand what it exactly is with all of the continuous research.
The process of assisting people to get off drugs and liberate their consciousness by using psychedelic substances such as LSD.
What he's noticed between people using plant medicine and psychedelics for recreation vs. therapy.
Why guided help and community is so important for the preparation, use, and integration of psychedelics.
How psychedelics can help us really connect with our ancient ways of being and with the rest of the world.
Why psychedelics are mind manifesting in the sense that they can help us release our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations.
What the future use of psychedelics such as MDMA could look like as far as limiting usage to be under supervised therapy in a clinic.
The opioid epidemic and the correlation between Trump supporters and the number of overdosed deaths.
How MAPS is helping society change their stigmatized views on plant medicine and psychedelics.
What the future of MDMA, psilocybin, Ayahuasca, DMT, and ibogaine will look like.

Power Quotes From The Show

"Lithium wasn't allowing me to accomplish my potential, recognize how efficient my brain was and how useful my emotions were to me. Psychedelics showed me that my thinking of, 'What's wrong with me,' was keeping me from achieving more." - @BradBurge_ http://bit.ly/wfpodcast

"It took me a couple of days to process this but after using psychedelics and spending time in nature, I realized that there isn't anything broken with me; there's nothing wrong with the way that my brain is processing information, feeling emotion, or experiencing things. It's just that things are so intense for me. Life wasn't perfect for me after that experience, but it showed me that lithium wasn't getting me anywhere." - Brad Burge

"When you see these drugs in action; whether it's in a therapeutic or a recreational setting, there's something very embodied about them. The experience isn't just about out-of-body consciousness exploration, but there's a real embodiment that happens. In addition to getting us off prescription pharmaceuticals, showing us that we're not fundamentally damaged and that we have the capacity as individuals, I think psychedelics also help get us down deeper into our bodies. When I took LSD for the first time, I spent the entire day in my body doing this 8-mile walk around a lake and I think being physically exhausted was part of it as well. It was part of this feeling of, "There's nothing wrong with me," because my body was fine; my body was happy when it was moving around." - Brad Burge

"What MAPS is doing is actually using psychedelic drugs to help people get off drugs. Just two or three sessions with these substances are producing lasting changes and people don't need to stay on their existing medications. We're helping people liberate their consciousness from these straightjackets of conventional pharmacotherapy." - Brad Burge

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About Brad Burge

Brad Burge is Director of Strategic Communications at the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Brad earned his B.A. in Communication andPsychology from Stanford University in 2005 and his M.A. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego in 2009.

He began working with MAPS in 2009, where he engages daily with journalists and media producers around the world to enhance public knowledge about psychedelic research, while also helping develop and evolve MAPS' brand and outreach strategy.

Brad is passionate about finding healthier, more effective, and more compassionate ways for humans to work with the pharmaceutical and digital communications technologies of the 21st century. When he’s not plugged in, you’ll find him in the mountains, carrying a backpack, somewhere down a long trail.

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