Psychedelics Then and Now with Zach Leary

“The opiates were stealing my life bit by bit,” she confided. For years, she had been eating very little and her nutrition was abysmal, and in more recent years the opiates hadn’t even provided relief from pain. But then, as she put it, “ibogaine gave my life back to me.” She went on to tell me about the importance of the ongoing support and care she received at Clare’s clinic and at another clinic in Mexico, and how she’d realized that what had happened after the ibogaine treatment was nearly as important as the treatment itself. This presentation is an overview of the MAPS-funded study of long-term outcomes for ibogaine-assisted treatment of opiate dependence for patients at two clinics in Baja California, Mexico. Beginning in September of 2010, the study enrolled thirty US residents seeking ibogaine treatment for opiate dependence at the clinics. Tom Kingsley Brown, PhD started his research on ibogaine treatment in November of 2009 when he conducted interviews with ibogaine patients at ibogaine clinics in northern Baja California, Mexico and collected data for the purpose of studying changes in Quality of Life for those patients.  The Ibogaine first person experience blog that was read can be found here: http://www.paijealexandra.com/prose/2016/5/2/the-world And to visit host Zach Leary's site please visit - www.zachleary.com  

Live from Psychedelic Science '17 in Oakland, this panel explores the future of psychiatry in the psychedelic context. In this conversational panel format, the conversation discucces with great candor and honesty all the pros, cons, triumphs and setbacks that have occurred within the last 10 years. Dr. Summergrad and Dr. Insel both share their experiences from the mental health and patient-doctor perspective.  Moderated by George Goldsmith and featuring Paul Summergrad, MD, and Thomas Insel, MD. George Goldsmith is a co-founder and director of COMPASS – a non-profit medical research organisation dedicated to accelerating access to evidence-led innovation in mental health and wellbeing. George’s early training and experience was a blend of cognitive psychology, clinical psychology and computer science. Paul Summergrad, M.D., is the Dr. Frances S. Arkin professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and psychiatrist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center. Thomas Roland Insel is an American neuroscientist and psychiatrist who led the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 2002 until November 2015. Prior to becoming Director of NIMH, he was the founding Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Live from Psychedelic Science '17 this talk from the legendary and iconic Stanislav Grof explores the implications of altered states of consciousness and their implications within the fields of psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy. Based on his 50 years of exploring methods in the fields of psychedelics and their various applications Dr. Grof presents a compelling talk on why there is still lots of room for the traditional psychological modalities to expand in order to make room for the various data sets being presented as a result of expanded consciousness research.  Stanislav Grof  is a Czech psychiatrist, one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a researcher into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of exploring, healing, and obtaining growth and insights into the human psyche. Grof received the VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Václav Havel in Prague on October 5, 2007.

Taken from the Psychedelic Science '13 conference this epic talk from Heffter Research Institute Founder, David E. Nichols, explores the depths of the brains relationship with LSD.  This talk will provide a foundation for understanding the importance of 5-HT2A receptors in the brain, now widely believed to be the key brain target for psychedelics. The study of this G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) has required research efforts across several disciplines. Although it was initially thought to couple only to Gq, leading to activation of phospholipase C, it is now known to couple to multiple intracellular signaling pathways. The unique psychopharmacological properties of psychedelics clearly demonstrate that this receptor has special importance as a critical component of sensory perception in humans, and by extension, may be a key player in mediating consciousness.  David E. Nichols is the founding president of the Heffter Research Institute, named after German chemist and pharmacologist Arthur Heffter, who first discovered that mescaline was the active component in the peyote cactus. In 2004 he was named the Irwin H. Page Lecturer by the International Serotonin Club, and delivered an address in Portugal titled, "35 years studying psychedelics: what a long strange trip it's been." Among pharmacologists, he is considered to be one of the world's top experts on psychedelics. Nichols's other professional activities include teaching medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, and teaching medical students at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

This episode was recorded live at the Psychedelic Science '17 conference in Oakland, CA! It took place on the last day of the conference on the wildly fun and irreverent Psymposia Stage. Hosted by Zach Leary this round table discussion features the immense wisdom of Shane Mauss, Lex Pelger and Berra Yazar-Klosinkski.  We took many twists and turns with topics ranging from a recap of the PS17 conference itself to the future of psychedelic research and some amazing insight into the cultural footprint around America concerning psychedelics. Both Shane and Lex spend lots of time taking their show on the road to everyday towns in America which affords them amazing insight into other points of view we might not otherwise consider. Berra from MAPS is the voice of reason here providing the audience with data and actual first hand accounts into the impact this research is having in actual patients. Enjoy the show! Shane Mauss is a comedian and host of the Here We Are podcast Lex Pelger is a writer, scientist & Shulginist and host of Psymposia Berra Yazar-Klosinski is the Chief Research Scientist at MAPS

Ralph and myself (Zach Leary) sat down at the MAPS Psychedelic Science '17 conference in Oakland, CA on April 23rd to embark on a wide reaching conversation that focussed on the early days of his research at Harvard, the culture of the 60's and how much has changed in the last 50 years. Of course, we also talked about the time he spent with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, the nature of consciousness itself and a new way of thinking about "ecology" as a concept. His new book "Ecology of Consciousness: The Alchemy of Personal, Collective, and Planetary Transformation" is out now wherever books are sold. Ralph is truly one of the great inspirational elder statements of the modern psychedelic movement and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Ralph Metzner PhD (born May 18, 1936, in Germany) is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, born in Germany, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later named Ram Dass). Metzner is a psychotherapist and Professor Emeritus of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he was formerly the Academic Dean and Academic Vice-president. Metzner has been involved in consciousness research, including psychedelics, yoga, meditation and shamanism for over 45 years. He is a co-founder and President of the Green Earth Foundation, a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth, and a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement. Metzner was featured in the 2006 film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.

Most of those who have engaged in the psychedelic experience can attest to some sort of mystical experience taking place. Even with that happening it doesn't always bring one close to religion. Why is that?  Walter Houston Clark has defined "religion" as an individual's inner experience of a Beyond, especially as evidenced by active attempts to harmonize his or her life with that Beyond. The Johns Hopkins experiments suggest that a large fraction of mentally healthy people with spiritual interests can have a profound experience of a Beyond—a mystical-type experience—with the aid of several hours' preparation and a supervised psilocybin session. Furthermore, most of the study volunteers report that encounter as among the most spiritually significant of their lives and as bringing sustained benefits. How do we get from such experiences (however occasioned) to "religion" in Clark's sense, and in the sense of a group pursuing spiritual ends? Perhaps that transition is, as Brother David Steindl-Rast claims, inevitable. The talk will address that process, and will argue that some social organizations have strong but unacknowledged religious aspects.  Robert Jesse is Convenor of the Council on Spiritual Practices (CSP; csp.org). CSP's interest in non-ordinary states focuses on the betterment of well people, in contrast to the medical-model treatment of patients with psychiatric diagnoses. Through CSP, Bob was instrumental in forming the psilocybin research team at Johns Hopkins University, and he has co-authored three of its scientific papers. He also lead the writing of an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the União do Vegetal's use of a sacramental tea containing DMT, a controlled substance. A unanimous Court upheld the UDV's right to its practice. Bob has long participated in the development of the Bay Area spiritual community that draws liberally from the non-creedal, non-hierarchical ways of the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends). His formal training is in electrical engineering and computer science.

Many variables factor into the diseases that afflict our lives that go beyond the obvious medical symptoms. Complex unconscious psychological stresses underlie and contribute to all chronic medical conditions, from cancer and addiction to depression and multiple sclerosis. Therapy that is assisted by psychedelics, in the right context and with the right support, can bring these dynamics to the surface and thus help a person liberate themselves from their influence. Gabor Maté, MD is a Canadian physician, speaker, and the author of four bestselling books published in nearly 20 languages on five continents. His interests include the mind/body unity as manifested in health and illness, the effects of early childhood experiences in shaping brain and personality, the traumatic basis of addictions, and the attachment requirements for healthy child development. He has worked in family practice and palliative care, and for twelve years he worked in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, notorious as North America's most concentrated area of drug use. He currently teaches and leads seminars internationally Please visit drgabormate.com for more information

Mac McClelland joins the MAPS Podcast for the first original episode of content for the show. Mac is an award winning journalist who wrote the article “The Psychedelic Miracle” for Rolling Stone magazine. The sub headline reads: "How some doctors are risking everything to unleash the healing power of MDMA, ayahuasca and other hallucinogens.”  Mac’s fantastically in depth journalistic prose combined with her own personal experience with psychedelically assisted psycho-therapy creates an epic discovery into the world of psychedelic research and the doctors that engage in it.   Mac was interviewed by Zach Leary and the podcast is reflective of not only the Rolling Stone piece but also of her own personal journey, the current landscape of psychedelic research and an examination into corners of the country engaged in this work that you might know even exist.    Mac McClelland is an award-winning journalist and author of Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story and For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story From Burma’s Never-Ending War. She's written for Wired, Reuters, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, New York, the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Matter, and Sunset, among other publications, and corresponded for PBS and Vice News Tonight on HBO. She's additionally appeared on major national and international media outlets C-Span, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, the BBC, CBC, and Deutsche Welle.

Since 2008, the NYU Psychedelic Research Group (established in 2006) has administered a moderate dose of psilocybin to 16 participants in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in individuals with advanced cancer and psychosocial distress. Dr. Ross will present preliminary clinical observations and data from our study, in which a majority of patients have experienced acute and sustained reductions in death anxiety, existential distress, and depression; as well as increases in spiritual states and practices, and improved family system functioning. Stephen Ross, M.D., is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine at the NYU College of Dentistry. He directs the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and the Opioid Overdose Prevention Program at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. He is Director of Addiction Psychiatry at NYU Tisch Hospital and Director of the NYU Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship. He is certified in General and Addiction Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and in Addiction Medicine by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Dr. Ross has received a dozen local and national teaching awards related to education of medical students, psychiatry residents, and post-graduate fellows. Dr. Ross is an expert on the therapeutic application of serotonergic hallucinogens to treat psychiatric and addictive spectrum illnesses. He directs the NYU Psychedelic Research Group and is Principal Investigator of the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Project. Dr. Ross receives his research funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Heffter Research Institute.