Psychedelic Salon

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

Guest speaker: Dr. George Greer PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by George Greer.] “Meaning: the final addiction!” “Meaning is suffering.” “How do you feel your experience would be different if you 'understood' the universe? How would your experience be different from right now?” “My thought about MDMA is that it blocks the fear response to a perceived emotional threat.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option GEORGE R. GREER, MD Co-Founder, Medical Director, Secretary of the Heffter Research Institute Spheres & Constellations by Farthest South

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “Psychedelics, by metling assumptions, by destroying the expectations of rigid educations creates a fluidity of possibility that may allow answers to emerge. And it's the only thing that I've seen that operates on a time scale sufficiently short to have an impact.” “Language is a strategy for binding time.” “The other thing is that biology works. It's very successful. It's been around more than a billion years. Civilization doesn't work. It's been around 10,000 years, and it's on the brink of meltdown.” “We fabricate ideas out of matter. No other creature does that.” “One of the unique things that is happening on the planet is that the fate of all life is becoming hinged to the decisions made by a single species.” “If there's not free will, then thinking is meaningless.” “But all we have to do is hit one speed bump, and democratic values are down the drain.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “That's the key thing that the archaic world knew that we don't know: How do you live in equilibrium so that your children may live in equilibrium, because otherwise you get a cycle started that's going to shove somebody over the cliff. And that somebody in the present case is either ourselves, our children, or their children. It's no further away in time than that.” “We love to congratulate ourselves on the forward-leaning liberal society that we live in, and the truth is it's a bunch of rattle snake-handling fundamentalists that are much closer to Stalin than they are to FDR or anybody else like that.” “If you look at the fossil record, 95% of all the species that have ever lived on the Earth are extinct. From that point of view it looks as though biology is a process for producing extinction.” “You talk about a well-kept secret that's only two tokes away? How do they keep the lid on this? That's the miracle to me. How do they keep the lid on this?” [smoked NN-DMT] “These chemicals, these plant hallucinogens, are pheromones laden with messages for humanity, but you have to pick up the telephone.” “I think the world is growing more psychedelic every day. I'm completely hopeful. . . . This is how it should be. This is what it's like when a species prepares to depart for hyperspace.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Hallucinogens and Shamanism by Michael J. Harner The Terence McKenna Experience by Ken Adams Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web

Guest speaker: Roland Griffiths PROGRAM NOTES: Today's podcast features a talk given by Roland Griffiths, who is a professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In addition to describing the current psychedelic studies being undertaken there, he also goes into detail about exactly what characteristics researchers consider when evaluating whether a person has actually had a spiritual experience. Among the research participant's comments that he read, one of the most common themes was the interconnectedness of all things and beings. Also, he spoke about their research into the character of one's personality in regards to how a psychedelic experience affected their openness to the experiences of life. Another interesting thing that his research group is investigating is the intersection of psilocybin and meditation, a discussion of which takes up a significant part of this talk. “Psilocybin is a pharmacological tool that helps people recognize how it feels to embody the present moment. And that's exactly the same of meditation. It's about bringing yourself into the present moment.” -Roland Griffiths Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Johns Hopkins University Psilocybin & Spirituality Current Psilocybin Research Projects Q&A with Roland Griffiths

Guest speaker: Annie Oak PROGRAM NOTES: Today we feature a Palenque Norte Lecture given by Annie Oak at the 2013 Burning Man Festival. This ground breaking founder of the Woman's Visionary Congress continues to push the envelope of psychedelic discussion into two of the most important issues of all to humans, sexuality and aging. Additionally, Annie issues several challenges to us all as we continue to expand our own consciousnesses. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Woman's Visionary Congress Consciousness, Healing, and Social Justice The Psychological Dark Side of Gmail Google is using its popular Gmail service to build profiles on the hundreds of millions of people who use it. Occupy Madison builds first house in planned eco-village for the homeless Daily Psychedelic Video

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna & Edward Snowden PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “Everything flows. Nothing lasts.” “Language is like an informational creature of some sort.” “This problem of language is central, I think, to understanding the psychedelic experience.” “Language is something unfinished in us. It is something that was catalyzed out of animal organization by hallucinogenic activation of brain states, and it is something that is in the act of perfecting itself.” “When you go into a culture, you're going to make a choice. And all cultures represent narrowing of choices.” “We're about to have a chance to create a global culture, to essentially clean our basement and decide what we're going to save and what we're going to keep.” “It's the monotheistic religions that have to take a real knock for the present situation.” “Monotheism, as a philosophical reflex, is understandable but simple minded. It's what an eight year old would get to.” “Taking a psychedelic is an experiment. It's not an act of religious devotion.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option