Psychedelic Salon

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “Occam's Razor is fine in the formation of physical theory, but it doesn't take us far in understanding human motivation.” “What the psychedelics seem to me to argue for is that reality is not reality. There may be no reality, but certainly this is not it. This is some kind of highly provisional, culturally sanctioned, hallucination that we are all participating in.” “Reality, whatever it is, is temporary and yields to non-existence.” “Thought can't go where the roads of language have not been built.” “Culture is a kind of environment that we have learned how to interpose between ourselves and whatever is really out there.” “I just don't think that a monkey species had the wherewithal to evade the mechanisms of control and constraint that guide and direct everything on the planet. There is a purpose to history.” “What is to be done? You can't begin to answer that question until you have some notion of what reality is.” “But all it takes [when two people are sitting together in silence] is somebody breaking that silence and stating the contents of their mind for the assumption of our shared reality to completely collapse upon us.” “I think great relationships are built in silence, because then nobody ever finds out what's really going on.” “Reality is a naive concept and should probably be abandoned as quickly as possible.” “What we call reality is, in fact, nothing more than a culturally-sanctioned and linguistically reinforced hallucination of some sort.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speakers: Joh Isaac Mitchell & Michael Goldstein PROGRAM NOTES: Today we feature two interesting talks: Art as Technology and Crypto-anarchy. The first talk is from the 2013 Palenque Norte Lectures that were held at the Burning Man Festival. And that story is followed by a concise explanation of how bitcoin technology evolved and that cryptocurrency is only the tip of its iceberg. And should you harbor fears that bitcoin is a government operation, there is this quote by Michael Goldsetin: “Satoshi could have been an NSA backed totalitarian, but his protocol is strictly anarchist. He could have easily been paid by the government to create it, but he created something that the government itself cannot shut down. And the protocol itself is strictly anti-government in the sense that it does not allow for government.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Follow Michael Goldstein on Twitter Satoshi Nakamoto Institute Cypherpunk in Wikipedia A Cypherpunk's Manifesto Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities John Gilmore on the Psychedelic Salon Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “It is not that culture is evolving. The evolution of culture is an epiphenomena attendant upon the evolution of language. Language is the part of man that is evolving. Culture carries along.” "I think people have a greater sensitivity to the mysteries of human interaction simply because so much LSD was taken in the Sixties." “The world is not nearly as chaotic and random as we suppose. We are actually trapped inside a giant organism. And it is not Gaia. That's a much larger organism. We are trapped inside a large organism which is the human collectivity, and that's why we are such different monkeys.” “But really the psychedelic experience is like an intimation of immortality. And at varying distances in time from the point you occupy it shows you ever more vague intimations of the future, but they are there nevertheless.” “What the psychedelics really do, I think, is release us from cultural machinery.” “There is a potential for immortality, but it isn't assured. It is something which comes to the courageous.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speakers: Various PROGRAM NOTES: The Worldwide #WaveOfAction begins April 4, 2014 and runs through July 4, 2014. During this three-month cycle, people throughout the world will be protesting corruption, rallying around solutions and taking part in alternative systems. The new paradigm will be on full display. As our part in this WAVE, the salon will feature periodic reports from this global ripple in our species-consciousness. This is the first of those podcasts. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Actify ~ Wave of Action ~ 4.4.14 Video sources of audio segments Dwayne Hoover's Podcast Song Download "Mushroom Man" (download)

Guest speaker: Paul Daley PROGRAM NOTES: Today's podcast features the 2013 Palenque Norte Lecture by Dr. Paul Daley in which he talks about Sasha Shulgin, his life and his work. Paul is one of the key people who has stepped in to consolidate and continue the experimental research begun by Dr. Shulgin. In addition to telling about Sasha's chemical research, Dr. Daley also talks about some of the reasons Sasha has given for why he does what he does. And we also hear about some of the ongoing research taking place in Sasha's laboratory, including research into a possible remedy for cluster headaches. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Daniel Pinchbeck PROGRAM NOTES: “If you step back from it and really think about what the mass media does on a global scale, the most significant thing it does is coordinate behaviour.” -Daniel Pinchbeck Today we feature Daniel Pinchbeck's 2013 Palenque Norte Lecture. This talk/conversation took place late one night during the Burning Man Festival in the big tent at Camp Soft Landing, which hosted the annual lecture series. Prompted by questions from the audience, Daniel touches on a wide range of topics that included Rudolph Stiener, reincarnation, ecology, shamanism, mysticism, planetary crisis, morphagenic fields, and he even touches on Bitcoin. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speakers: Alicia Danforth & Charlie Grob PROGRAM NOTES: Today's podcast features a 2013 Palenque Norte lecture given by Alicia Danforth in which she tells about her work with the autistic community and their use of MDMA. Following that is a recording of a conversation with Alicia and Dr. Charlie Grob, who have just begun a new study to investigate the potential of using MDMA to help ease the social anxiety that is sometimes experienced by our friends and fellow saloners in the autistic community. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option LINKS mentioned in this podcast: Study Information: MDMA-assisted Therapy for Social Anxiety in Autistic Adults “What Is Autism?” by Nick Walker Exploring therapeutic effects of MDMA on post-traumatic stress Podcast 380 – “Confessions of an Ecstasy Advocate” Podcast Archive for Gary Fisher MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “I have been underwhelmed by the accomplishments of Indian spirituality, personally; overwhelmed by the accomplishments of Amazonian spirituality.” “I'm also very suspicious of secrets. I mean, if you tell me one it's finished. I took a pledge long ago to tell all secrets as quickly as possible. . . . Secrets are a way of controlling other people.” “Post-historical existence would be non-linear. People would live in time the way now live in space.” “That's how I think of psychedelics. When I say boundary dissolution, the real boundaries I'm talking about are the boundaries of dimensionality. The way a shaman is able to do what shamans do is by transcending Newtonian space and time.” “Here's my model: The mind is like a crystal growing under pressure, and the pressure is the pressure of Newtonian space/time. And so the crystal grows and takes the shape of its confinement. But when you liquefy the crystal matrix with a psychedelic, it has another preferred geometry. And it unfolds into this second geometry. And the second and alternative geometry is more hyper-spacial. Culturally, our minds are confined by cultural pressure and cultural phase-space to reflect cultural concerns. . . . When you take a psychedelic and you dissolve the confinement . . . then it's like taking [the mind] out of its box, and it can configure itself in a more comfortable geometry, and it's free.” “In a sense, chess is like good practice for shamanism, because good chess players see deeply into the future. That's how you win chess games.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Interview with Shonagh Home on Shamanic Freedom Radio Podcast 360 with Shonagh Home – “Medicine Oracle & Spellbreaker”

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “This nuclear family thing is, I think, part of the root of our problem, that it is an engine for the production of neurotic, dysfunctional people.” “If guys really got as much sex as they think they want they would probably hand over the machinery of civilization without a fight.” “I'm interested in the moral consequences of taking psychedelics.” “Everything that is, is an anticipation of what will be.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Podcast 380 – “Confessions of an Ecstasy Advocate”

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “The 20th century is a great gathering for a leap, and the 19th century was the century of the gentleman.” “Whether we can actually make a new world is not clear because the momentum of the past is very great.” “The bigger you build the bonfire of understanding the more darkness you reveal.” “Belief is a curious reaction to the present at hand. It isn't to be believed. It's to be dealt with.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option